Social media allows companies to do more with less. A lot of small companies these days can now market effectively to millions of people through social media for nearly no $$; when in the past, marketing budgets greatly limited these companies' potential. Even large companies are benefiting from the free nature of social media, if they choose to take advantage of it. A lot of companies are still stuck in the old way of thinking that the more money you spend, the more money you should make. These companies are losing their edge because they're still trying to do push advertising through expensive commercials, etc. I am one of those people that will hear about something on TV (example: SNL Sarah Palin skit featuring Tina Fey) and will go look for it on YouTube rather than trying to watch the whole show just to see the 5 minute part I was looking for.
By providing 'free' services, companies may generate more sales than commercials normally would. This type of sponsoring comes across as more of a community service than an advertisement. It feels like the sponsoring company is sponsoring the TV show so viewers can get free television; rather than sales being the sole reason. If a company sponsors a free TV show on Hulu, the viewers will be more grateful to that company and more likely to make a purchase. I am an example of that. I feel like if I want free television online to continue, I need to make a purchase to these companies so they have incentive to keep sponsoring the free TV online. Also, the seconds countdown in the corner that shows the viewer exactly when they'll be able to continue their show is very useful. It's very frustrating to watch a TV show and come away thinking it was more commercials than TV show. It puts a negative taste in your mouth to the advertisers and the TV show itself as the viewer feels duped or manipulated. No one wants to watch 15 minutes of commercials for every 15 minutes of the actual TV show.
Simple is better. If you ask for too much from your customer through social media, you will lose the customer. The example that fits this the best is the ACME Travel example where they required the user fill out information to gain access to the Facebook app and probably lost a lot of potential users (and eventual customers) because of this requirement. I don't even like clicking the "Allow" button on FB apps (which all require). Having an app require personal data would be a deal breaker. Non-invasive, simple tools will attract more customers. No one wants to "Like" a company's page then have to "unlike" them because they post 100 feeds a day and fill up the person's newsfeed. Marketers seem to think that people are super complex, which they are complex, but not as complex as marketers think.
What I thought was interesting was that Qualman just brushed over the Facebook change from "Become a Fan" to "Like." I think that change in itself changed social media. For some reason, "liking" something seems less commitment than "becoming a fan." Not long after that small change, it seemed that more and more companies started having pages to "Like." I don't know if they're coincidental or not, but it seemed interesting.
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