Madison Gray of Time reached out to Brian Solis to understand how social media added to the network effect that ultimately led to the “Justice for Trayvon Martin” movement.

Here are some of Solis’ thoughts from the article, “Social Media: The Muscle Behind the Trayvon Martin Movement“…

Knowledge of the Trayvon Martin case spread slowly at first. But online petitions, plus millions of tweets and Facebook “likes,” made the country take notice.

“What we’re talking about here is what social scientists refer to as network density and ultimately the network effect,” says Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group, a San Mateo-based firm that monitors social media. “Change.org became the repository for focus and for trying to bring about change much the same as Facebook did in uprising in Egypt.”

He says the fact that this movement has become so powerful comes as no surprise, because it has already been demonstrated in other parts of the world like Egypt and in London last year. “[Social media] is the most profound platform that we’ve ever had to do this so quickly and efficiently with such great reach.”