Customer Reviews

by Erik Qualman Socialnomics, How social media transforms the way we live and do business 1 edition

5 star:		(103)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Qualman insightfully advises companies to patiently build relationships with customers through social media, rather than instantly getting a customer's name and e-mail address into its database. "Good businesses realize that it's not all about the instant win of getting someone into a database," he says. "Rather it is cultivating that relationship via social media. If it's done correctly, you will have a relationship that lasts a lifetime." Throughout the book he tries, but doesn't quite succeed, to show how to "correctly" cultivate such relationships.

Another insight: He says on page 111 that marketers will need to create content (news, entertainment, and how-to information, for example) for their websites, not just advertising messages.

Unfortunately, insights like those are few and far between.

Qualman's platitudinous premise is stated in the introduction, and again in the conclusion:

"It's all about the economy, stupid. No, it's all about a people-driven economy, stupid. If anything, I hope that you have learned this from reading this book."

(In the introduction, Qualman explained that the phrase "It's the economy, stupid" was coined in 1992 by James Carville, Bill Clinton's campaign manager. Qualman merely "adjusted" that phrase to create the book's alleged premise.)

After reading the book, I still don't have the slightest idea how the "people-driven economy" differs from "the economy." Or what the adjusted phrase means.

This book is full of superficial anecdotes and miniscule case studies, platitudes and generalizations, unsupported opinions, idle speculation, specious claims, inconsistent style, imprecise language, typos, and bad punctuation.

In some of Qualman's examples, I couldn't tell whether the facts were real or hypothetical. In many of the micro-case studies, he shows how a company accomplished a certain objective through social media, but does not establish that the objectives could not have been accomplished more cost-effectively through other marketing channels.

He describes the case of Dancing Matt--about Matt Harding, who filmed himself dancing around the world and put his videos on YouTube. The videos were hugely popular, so Stride Gum sponsored his further travels and video production. Stride exercised restraint and placed its logo discreetly at the end of the video (in the post roll). Qualman claims Stride earned "millions of dollars in brand equity," but does not support that claim with any data or sources. Is it his own guesstimate, or did the company tell him it earned "millions"? No clue.

He claims that social media activities "connect parents to their kids like never before." He offers no source, data, or study to support that statement, and he is clearly not qualified to offer that opinion.

Regarding microblogging, he says, "What once took place only periodically around the watercooler [sic] is now happening in real time." Huh? What can be more real-time than water cooler conversations?

He says (on page 52) that micro-blogging functions as a kind of log that you can look back on--at the end of a day or week or month--and review your posts and updates. "It's extremely enlightening because it shows you how you are spending what precious time you have." Ah, yes, it's not only improving the way parents relate to their kids, it's therapeutic as well.

As a downside of social media, he says, Generation Y and Z [are having] difficulty with face-to-face conversations." No support for that claim. Is that his personal observation? He's a marketer, not a sociologist.

He says that staying connected, through social media, to the people who elected Obama president will be the "key to his success as president." The key!

He says social media "allows for a government to be more in tune with the country and to truly run as a democracy by stripping away the politics and getting to the core of what matters." Uh huh.

He recites marketing platitudes that have been true for decades or centuries, but treats them as though social media makes them especially true. An example: "Companies that produce great products and services...will be winners in the socialnomic world."

Here is an example of idle speculation. Qualman uses an example involving NBC's failure to put its 2008 Olympics coverage online in certain circumstances. "Most likely, NBC and their advertisers...were judging themselves using old metrics..." Sorry, you can't prove a point with a "most likely." Qualman could have contacted NBC's marketing department and asked them why they didn't. But that would have required real journalism.

Regarding the concept of network neutrality (although he doesn't use that phrase), Qualman says that if Internet service providers start charging for usage ("per stream") rather than a fixed monthly fee, that would be "malicious."

Qualman devotes almost five pages (perhaps the longest case study in the book) to the Scrabulous case, where the Agarwalla brothers created an online game similar to Scrabble, which they called Scrabulous and which attracted 500,000 daily users at its peak. Hasbro, owner of the Scrabble brand, issued a cease-and-desist letter and pushed Scrabulous off the web. Qualman excoriates Hasbro for being heavy-handed in the case, and he quotes several other marketing professionals who likewise criticize Hasbro for being short-sighted. Yet Qualman presents not a single quote or statement from Hasbro, nor does he speculate as to why Hasbro's believed its legal action was necessary.

I could go on, but you get the point.

First, let me make it clear that I'm not an old grumpy throwback still trying to score deals in the classifieds section of my newspaper. I have an Internet history that dates back to the 80's and I design and engineer websites and I've done plenty of work on sites that either are social media sites or take advantage of social media sites. I have a very long view of social media and how far its come and how it has disappointed.

In the first paragraph of the introduction, Qualman writes "Just like social media itself, this book is written in sporadically digestible sound bites." This is all you need to know about this book. If you want a brainstorm of half-proven assertions that you can mine for ideas for your next marketing campaign, you'll probably find this book valuable. If you're looking to establish understanding and a long term outlook on social media, keep looking because another way that this book is like most social media is that it will have a short shelf life.

Socialnomics promises to reveal how social media transforms the way we live and do business, but it doesn't reveal or inform so much as it presents a lot of loose anecdotes about the power of social media and how it appears to be affecting the world. While he occasionally makes a passing mention of the downside of social media, his tone is too often an infomercial-like positivity about the sheer awesomeness of social media. A particularly cringe-worthy example is how he closes his introduction by claiming that social media will reduce redundancy and recapture billions of hours that can be redistributed toward the betterment of society.

This is a bridge too far and if you're going to make paradigm changing predictions like this, you'd better devote some serious grey matter into backing it up. Socialnomics doesn't. It's as if every argument in the book is allocated 140 characters of reasoning before we move on to the next topic.

Writing about disruptive technologies is a dangerous sport. Chances are that you'll be wrong about a lot of things, but the ones that have done it well like Howard Rheingold and Douglas Rushkoff were able to do it in a more profound way that caused you to evaluate how we interact with media and each other and their works continue to have value long after the judgement has come on whether they were right or wrong.

I get the feeling that Qualman can do better and in his next book he should write a book that can't be tweeted. It might have a longer shelf life.

Qualman does a very good job telling the reader why social media and social media marketing are not flash-in-the-pan fads that will be gone within a few years. Savvy marketers and brand builders must understand the new media environment in which they are operating and embrace it as the future. It is how things will be for a long time to come. Qualman helps you understand the environment and offers some insights on how others have leveraged social media to their perceived advantage.

The problems I have with this book stem from my perception that the author offers what seem like well pondered conclusions but reveals no data, no research and very little support evidence or hard quantitation so I was left to wonder if these "facts" are based on hard data or on the author's own biases and cheery assumptions.

He seems to talk about the 2008 U.S. presidential election a little too much throughout the book which is a bit annoying for business professionals looking for application and then late in the book Qualman delves into human resource management as related to social media and it just seems to go a bit overboard. Advice like, "[hire young talent and] simply get out of the way because the young talent may be vastly more talented in certain areas" may be accurate but it is so vague and general that it is worthless advice. One assumes he means that because young talent is much more in tune with social media that they will be able to perform better at job functions that have ties to social media, but again, no specifics, no details and no supporting evidence for this claim. It is at these moments in the book that it seems the author is a bit too much of a kool-aid drinking cheerleader simply repeating, "this changes everything." We've heard all the hype already. Now let's get down to specifics. His passion is clear but hard data is lacking.

That being said, the overriding message of this book is important for all business managers who need to understand how social media changes the game and why they cannot wait to embrace the future with social media touching just about every aspect of business and consumer behavior. Qualman makes the case as to why it isn't all going away anytime soon.

I recommend this book for those new to social media or those managers who still need to be convinced that it is the future direction of marketing. If you are already familiar with the space and are looking for advanced "how to" methods and detailed case studies then this is probably not the book for you.

--Review by the author of the e-book, "How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health)."

There are rarely times in history where a content rich book is published in the midst of the very revolution that it is addressing. Typically, those books are written after the fact, looking back in time. Socialnomics looks forward. As the leader of a company that is in the midst of this very transition--from "creating and pushing" to "engaging and listening," I found Socialnomics to be timely, informative and full of very useful, practical information and case studies. If you want to harness the power of social media for your business, read Socialnomics.

At first thought I would give this a 3 out of 5 stars. However it is so comprehensive with regards to social media and the impact it is and will have on commerce and marketing I am giving it a 4 out of 5 stars.

At times I found the author to be right on the mark and quite insightful and at other times I found myself thinking that the incredibly insightful person who wrote the book had been kidnapped, forced to drink the "social media Kool-Aid" and live with Care Bears for 45 days, thus morphing his sense of society.

Having said that, this is absolutely well worth the read. But if you find yourself from time to time thinking "where is this guy coming from?" ignore your apprehension and just read on to the next section, he will come back to reality and it will get good again.

It took about ten years for Brick-and-Mortars to figure out how they could best exist within the Web 1.0. They will have far less time to understand that marketing is turning into a completely new social and linguistic genre. Erik Qualman's book, Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business is an effective wake-up call for corporations and marketers, and is written by a sincere and authentic practitioner.

Amazon, Qualman reminds us, did a stellar job when it introduced the concept of affinity marketing, but as efficient as it was, it had its shortcomings, especially if buying My Little Pony for your niece was a one-time thing. Going a step further, Amazon started to showcase other books that people who bought the same book as the one you are looking at, also bought. The social media approach is a next era and shows that in the "people-driven economy," effective affinity marketing is a contagious recommendation process operating within affinity groups. Instead of being told what people in general are interested in, we want to know what people in our network, people we appreciate, would advise based on their experience - an experience to which we tend to pay attention because we generally trust our friends. "People referring products and services via social media are the new king. It is the world's largest referral program in history." This is a new world that Qualman calls "the world of socialnomics."

A few years ago, the very notion of "socialnomics" would have sounded like an odd linguistic construct, and, in the end, simply meant "management/rules of what is social," just as economics originally designates the management/rules of a household. In many respects, the term "socionomics," coined by Prechter in 1999, could have also been used, as it is the "study of social mood and its results in social actions." However, through the word "socialnomics," Qualman wants to emphasize the idea of an economy governed - I should say "mediated" -- by social media as it leads to the creation of innumerable communities and tribes. This "social-media mediation" is perceived by individuals as a form of disintermediation and deliverance, shielding them from the marketing litanies imposed upon them by impersonal marketing machines. What we hear in our social media world comes from people we have chosen to listen to. The intermediaries are not mercenary message-carriers (or so we hope), they are peers of sorts and therefore, are not perceived as middlemen (even when there can be a bit of a sandwich man about them). This is why the world of "socialnomics" is not felt as yet another form of social pressure. We have the freedom to select the circles to which we belong, ensure that they mirror our needs and tastes, exchange points of views and ask questions with the hope of getting a candid response.

The eight chapters of the books analyze the new challenges and opportunities that the social media re-segmentation and restructuring of the market will present to businesses. Are customers going to reduce their reliance on the results they get from search engines? It is most likely. "I care more about what my neighbor thinks than what Google thinks," if I want to buy a baby seat. It is also obvious that customers expect companies to converse with them in "open, two-way conversations" and that customer "services" are poised to become the customers' voice and, consequently, a central part of marketing departments. Therefore, "businesses need to fully transform to properly address the impact and demands of social media." And companies that fear to venture into the open, display their customers in the social media fora, will atrophy much faster than they think. Installed bases are joining the "Glass House Generation" at a fast pace, and follow its lifestyle -- hang out anywhere and at all times in public view. Qualman indicates that "by 2012, eMarketer projects that more than 800 million users worldwide will participate in social networks via their mobile device, up from 82 million in 2007." Meeting these new challenges as well as leveraging these new opportunities will definitely require new skills and new tools!

I am a 38 year old business owner and consider myself to be fairly tech savvy. We generate leads and sales via our website and use web based contact management systems like [...]. Prior to reading this book I dismissed social media as a waste of time. I didn't set up Facebook or Twitter accounts because as I liked to say "I didn't need an update that Dave was getting a haircut".

This book gave me a 180 degree change in my point of view. In the first part of the book Qualman clearly and quantifiably articulates how social media his impacting or society at large. He then proceeds to demonstrate how businesses need to adopt and work within the social media platforms in order to build or maintain successful brands and reputations, as well as actually make sales and move products. He shows how in the social media age (of which we are at the beginning) that customer information and feedback is instantaneous, and businesses need to react and adapt accordingly in order to build relationships with their customers. He gives plenty of examples of good and bad ways businesses can handle social media interactions, and offers good perspective on how it may continue to develop. This is a MUST READ NOW for anyone in business who wants to better understand the economics of social media.

Socialnomics makes a good and easy read into the new realm of social media & communities. Several examples illustrate @equalman 's key messaging quite well. The emphasis lies on B2C & C2C (consumer2consumer) communications and engagement. Personally I would welcome more examples from B2B as well. As a last point of feedback, reading this book it's easy to get carried away by Qualman's viral enthusiasm. Keep your business objectives and the tangible benefits & ROI in mind when digesting this book and taking action afterwards. @phasselsmonning

Socialnomics is an excellent read. In fact I should say that again, Socialnomics is an excellent read. While I've been a social media fanatic for some time this book opened up my eyes to the way business and people are utilizing this wonderful new media in their everyday lives.

His writing style is second to none and while Eric tackles a huge topic he has made it very easy to follow. The book Socialnomics will get you thinking, I highly recommend every business owner to read and study every chapter of this book. It will change the way you market to your customers as well as the way you interact with your target market.

I finished this book today and tweeted about it asking if anybody else had read it. I got nothing but positive comments and a response from the Author himself! I don't know about you but I am always impressed with people who actually practice what they preach, more often than not that's not the case.

Do yourself a favor and buy this book... by NOT reading it you are only holding yourself back!

As a Marketing and Advertising, (specifically in Social Media) professional, I believe that Qualman's book is dynamic and refreshing. In a field of books that are often more fluff than substance, I found Qualman's book informative and substantive.
I have recommended it to my clients, who are still wondering if Social Media is a fad.

I believe that Qualman's purpose was to show how Social Media is changing the world, not to show exactly HOW to use it. I believe he does a FANTASTIC job at presenting the "why".

It is rare that a book so adequately addresses a revolution that is currently taking place. But in this case, Qualman does an outstanding job!

I sincerely believe that sharing Qualman's stories with my clients has helped them do a 180 degree in their thinking regarding Social Media.

I believe that anyone with a vested interest in succeeding in today's economy should read this book!