Woman: But social media is not just being used as a platform for informing the public of a group's mission and activities, or even merely to get people to sign a petition. Increasingly, activists are deploying social media to motivate like-minded people to get into the fight. To get a sense of what this means, consider the recent efforts of a 17-year-old skateboarder from St. Cloud, Minnesota.

For three years, Austin Lee found himself struggling to get support for a local state park. But when he decided to use Facebook for his cause, things changed nearly overnight. Lee's posting attracted 1,085 members, and even drew some of those members to city council meetings on behalf of his cause. David Unze of USA Today reported that Lee won the approval and $500,000 for his state park, and it all happened within one day of Lee's original posting on Facebook.