What Did I Lean From Erik Qualman?

“Fail? Why not?” One of the things that stuck with me throughout reading Socialnomics (perhaps because it was referenced often, but I suppose that was the point) was the idea of "Fail forward, fail fast, fail better.” For perfectly understandable reasons, companies tend to be risk averse and, at least the successful ones, don’t spend money frivolously. Marketing has a history of being one of the more inexact sciences that businesses wrangle with and it’s difficult to tear an organization away from more traditional marketing strategies, so trumpeting a motto that has the word fail in it not once, not twice, but thrice is likely abhorrent to most organizations. However, WOM is turning much of marketing on its head and this is no different. The idea that failure is ok and can, in fact, be beneficial (by providing opportunities for improvement) is a radical departure from traditional thinking. Failure is alright, so long as the organization is nimble enough and responsive enough to adjust and improve the product or service. Failure, in the world of Socialnomics, is not something to be feared, but an opportunity to get better.

“Small Things Matter” This is an idea that is also present in Andy Sernovitz’s book “Word of Mouth Marketing.” The very nature of networking effects can rapidly transform a single 140 character thought, picture or video into something that millions of people are talking about. This has enormous ramifications for businesses and individuals alike. Simply tweeting the word “arrested” led to phone calls and consulates being contacted. A few pictures being sent to a student in Seattle led to the downfall of a prominent politician. And more than one company has felt the repercussions of a video like “United Breaks Guitars” (or an angry tweet or Facebook post that goes viral). These are just a few examples of how a small ripple can make a big splash. For organizations, it relates to the previous topic. Start small. Consider what work has already been done by others, including other organizations and your own customers, and build on that. As individuals, people are realizing that “real” personas and “online” personas are converging and that doing anything online (positive or negative) is likely to have very real repercussions in the rest of life. Businesses and individuals alike must be more aware of how the small things are managed. This fact, however, is likely to encourage better behavior from everybody and that has to be a good thing!

“Outside Looking In” I really liked this idea as one of the biggest ways that the traditional marketing model has flipped the script. Rather than execs sitting around a table deciding what consumers need, companies are now much better served listening and addressing what customers say they want. When looked at objectively, marketers should be fairly relieved! Until recently, there was an awful lot of guesswork involved in marketing. If half of a firms ad dollars are wasted and they don’t know which half, Socialnomics provides an excellent opportunity to start getting some reliable numbers on where those dollars go. As I’ve mentioned before, firms have to let go and allow customers to voice opinions that drive innovation within the organization. In a similar vein, marketers need to start looking at their marketing plans as though they were consumers, outside looking in, rather than the traditional inside looking out. No longer is the marketing department (or any other department for that matter) separated from the customer. For a company to be successful, marketing and everyone else must begin to realize that customers know what they want and are happy to say so. They also know what they don’t want.