Let’s start off with Erik Qualman’s finest quote in Socialnomics, “Blogs are free like puppies, not free like beer.” Qualman continually points out that social media is a way of life, this life, right now. It is no longer an option to stand by and watch the action take place, conversations are happening. The question, rather, is how well you participate, how well you listen, converse, and act with your customers. Socialnomics gave me insight on social media’s ability to do three significant things: to take an inventory of our lives, to leverage preexisting human capital, products, or solutions, and to enhance the user experience.
Lesson 1: Your life and your company’s life have real-time inventory. Brand equity for businesses and personalities alike is incredibly important. Social media gives a real-life inventory of what is being said on an ongoing basis, begging the powerful and ever-present question, “What am I doing with my life?” Prepare to be enlightened by what inventory of words and emotions to see how you or your company is not only spending its time, but also what messages they are implicitly and explicitly saying to the customer because this is either your personal character or your company’s culture…and change may be in order. This is not possible without social media and it harnesses some potentially life-changing actions.
Lesson 2: Leveraging preexisting human capital, products, or solutions is necessary for survival. Contrary to popular belief, a company does not have to make their own platforms, social network sites, or software programs. Social media allows the capability to capitalize on what is already available in social media for marketing and at an incredibly low cost, essentially leveling the proverbial playing field. Qualman discusses the fact that a company can have cheap, quick, and quality not just two of these as the old adage dictates. The user is fairly forgiving when beta sites or applications need attention and they can even help a company along the way in that very development. Leveraging these components saves money among many other benefits like a speedier time to market. This is all now made possible because of social media.
Lesson 3: Enhancing the user experience is paramount to any company’s success. Social media transforms the way we live and do business and there is no other option. As Qualman states, every person today is a competitive media outlet. Things of interest and news find us, not the other way around. Because of that, marketing is changing from merely supporting content to a place where there must be total integration with existing content or creating unique content in order to take advantage of viral opportunities. Along with this, allowing the public to take control and ownership of the brand is helping companies to unexpected levels of success. Social media is about a way of really and truly enhancing the user experience distinctively. There is fairly low-risk if the company has established trust with the consumers, so as Qualman says, “Fail forward, fail fast, fail better.”
I was reassured of Qualman’s counsel in Socialnomics as it aligned quite well with what I read in The Digital Handshake by Paul Chaney. Chaney talks about the ‘musts’ in social media marketing as losing control (consumers demanding parts of brand and product), living in a participatory-based culture (instead of the foregone attention-based culture), and niche market content that ensures a company not only survive, but also thrive. Much like Qualman, Chaney insists that “markets are conversations and participation is marketing.” Qualman makes a powerful point in Socialnomics that collective intelligence spurred and sustained by social media will allow us to work more fruitfully for the greater good.
Lesson 1: Your life and your company’s life have real-time inventory. Brand equity for businesses and personalities alike is incredibly important. Social media gives a real-life inventory of what is being said on an ongoing basis, begging the powerful and ever-present question, “What am I doing with my life?” Prepare to be enlightened by what inventory of words and emotions to see how you or your company is not only spending its time, but also what messages they are implicitly and explicitly saying to the customer because this is either your personal character or your company’s culture…and change may be in order. This is not possible without social media and it harnesses some potentially life-changing actions.
Lesson 2: Leveraging preexisting human capital, products, or solutions is necessary for survival. Contrary to popular belief, a company does not have to make their own platforms, social network sites, or software programs. Social media allows the capability to capitalize on what is already available in social media for marketing and at an incredibly low cost, essentially leveling the proverbial playing field. Qualman discusses the fact that a company can have cheap, quick, and quality not just two of these as the old adage dictates. The user is fairly forgiving when beta sites or applications need attention and they can even help a company along the way in that very development. Leveraging these components saves money among many other benefits like a speedier time to market. This is all now made possible because of social media.
Lesson 3: Enhancing the user experience is paramount to any company’s success. Social media transforms the way we live and do business and there is no other option. As Qualman states, every person today is a competitive media outlet. Things of interest and news find us, not the other way around. Because of that, marketing is changing from merely supporting content to a place where there must be total integration with existing content or creating unique content in order to take advantage of viral opportunities. Along with this, allowing the public to take control and ownership of the brand is helping companies to unexpected levels of success. Social media is about a way of really and truly enhancing the user experience distinctively. There is fairly low-risk if the company has established trust with the consumers, so as Qualman says, “Fail forward, fail fast, fail better.”
I was reassured of Qualman’s counsel in Socialnomics as it aligned quite well with what I read in The Digital Handshake by Paul Chaney. Chaney talks about the ‘musts’ in social media marketing as losing control (consumers demanding parts of brand and product), living in a participatory-based culture (instead of the foregone attention-based culture), and niche market content that ensures a company not only survive, but also thrive. Much like Qualman, Chaney insists that “markets are conversations and participation is marketing.” Qualman makes a powerful point in Socialnomics that collective intelligence spurred and sustained by social media will allow us to work more fruitfully for the greater good.
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