“Can’t fly off to a Bavarian beer garden for Oktoberfest? Raise a glass over Skype.” – That’s how Skype introduces its social platform to users. This makes sense since Skype has become so versatile that it’s even used for therapeutic appointments. Pretty incredible right?

This article by AkWeek nicely covers some of the reasons why Skype has become so successful and the stats are mind blowing too. The article mentions that “Skype accounted for 40 percent of the entire conventional international telecom market”.  You’re probably thinking why is my Canadian phone bill still so high?

But with competitors entering the market such as Google Hangouts – Skype needs to watch its back. But partially what still makes me like Skype over other communication platform (besides Google Hangouts -as I love this one) is that back in 2010 they turned down a $200 million ad opportunity, making it one of the only forms of Social Networking left, without advertising. In class we talk about the power of advertising, but we never bring up the power of not advertising. From a consumers perspective, this is actually nice and refreshing.

But all this brings me back to the Article “How Automating Your Social Media Content Can Hurt Your Brand“. This article covers the sad and ugly truth of automated messages, which has become troublesome for many brands. Its annoying, frustrating and not worth you time. I know that with Skype that will never happen, because the beauty about this Social network simply is, that it relies on the power of human connections. And only that to survive. Sorry automated messages, you’ve lost this one anyways.