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Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business (Hardcover)

~ Erik Qualman (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
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Product Description

A fascinating, research-based look at the impact of social media on businesses and consumers around the world, and what's in store for the future

Social Media. You've heard the term, even if you don't use the tools. But just how big has social media become? Social media has officially surpassed pornography as the top activity on the Internet. People would rather give up their e-mail than their social network. It is so powerful that it is causing a macro shift in the way we live and conduct business.

Brands can now be strengthened or destroyed by the use of social media. Online networking sites are being used as giant, free focus groups. Advertising is less effective at influencing consumers than the opinions of their peers. If you aren't using social media in your business strategy, you are already behind your competition.

  • Explores how the concept of "Socialnomics" is changing the way businesses produce, market, and sell, eliminating inefficient marketing and middlemen, and making products easier and cheaper for consumers to obtain
  • Learn how successful businesses are connecting with consumers like never before via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media sites
  • A must-read for anyone wanting to learn about, and harness the power of social media, rather than be squashed by it
  • Author Erik Qualman is a former online marketer for several Top 100 brands and the current Global Vice President of Online Marketing for the world's largest private education firm

Socialnomics is essential book for anyone who wants to understand the implications of social media, and how businesses can tap the power of social media to increase their sales, cut their marketing costs, and reach consumers directly.

From the Inside Flap

Social Media.

Social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are fundamentally changing the way businesses and consumers behave, connecting hundreds of millions of people to each other via instant communication. This is a massive socio-economic shift that is fundamentally changing the way consumers and companies communicate and interact with each other.

Welcome to the world of Socialnomics—where consumers and the societies they create online have a profound influence on our economy and the businesses that operate within it. Online word of mouth and the powerful influence of peer groups have already made many traditional marketing strategies obsolete. Today's best businesses and marketers are learning to profitably navigate this new landscape.

Brands can now be strengthened or destroyed by the use of social media. Advertising is less effective at influencing consumers than are the opinions of their peers, making direct-to-consumer marketing messages less valuable each day. But savvy companies are using online networking sites as massive focus groups and as an efficient means of communication with consumers. If social media isn't a part of your business strategy, you've already fallen behind the curve—and your competition.

In Socialnomics, Erik Qualman offers a fascinating look at the impact of social media on business to reveal what the future holds and how businesses can best take advantage of it. He explores how social media is changing the way businesses produce, market, and sell products; how it eliminates inefficient marketing tactics and middlemen; and how businesses are connecting directly with their customers through popular social media platforms.

Social media will continue to change the way businesses market products and how consumers and businesses interact with each other. If you're a marketer or business owner, the big question is whether you'll keep up with those changes. Socialnomics is an essential resource for anyone who wants to understand the implications of social media, and how to tap its power to increase sales, cut marketing costs, and communicate directly with consumers.

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 24, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0470477237
  • ISBN-13: 978-0470477236
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,702 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #4 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Culture
    #8 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Networking > Networks, Protocols & APIs
    #12 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Web Marketing

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Erik Qualman
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Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars 'Socialnomics' Sounds Explosive, But Is a Dud, January 3, 2010
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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.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An effective wake-up call for corporations and marketers, September 11, 2009
By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis (Palo Alto & Boston) - See all my reviews
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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!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and insightful, even with the "crazy talk" parts, October 26, 2009
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting for the 2.0 world
Great time reading this book, if you are interested in the influence of Networks and web 2.0 efect around the world. I recommend it! for sure!
Published 5 days ago by C. P. Baso

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read
Whether you are new or a professed expert in social media this book is a must read. Qualman uses data and case studies to showcase how to effectively "win" today in social media... Read more
Published 25 days ago by Maritza De Quesada

5.0 out of 5 stars Social media changed everything
The gist of this book is that, thanks to social media and the new ways in which we use the internet, even the basic web2.0 theory goes out the window. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Nick Klaus

5.0 out of 5 stars Socialnomics Exoses The DNA of Social Marketing
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Published 1 month ago by Troy Dooly

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch Book on Social Media!
Socialnomics was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to understand the basics and intricate aspects of Social Media. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Garrett Pierson

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Business Owners and Marketers
Facebook and Twitter are both big right now and it appears they're only going to get bigger. With their growth, the overall reach of social media could cause a shift in how... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Brian Borawski

4.0 out of 5 stars Case Studies in Social Media Marketing

Erik Qualman is a well regarded social media marketer. Understanding that this is a book written about marketing by a marketer is helpful to keep in mind while reading it... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kenneth W. Jones

1.0 out of 5 stars For people that were living in a cave until 2009
I can't believe the high ratings this book is getting from reviewers. Perhaps one of the reviews titled "Wasn't in to Facebook until I read this book... Read more
Published 1 month ago by selfrocks

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read If You Are A Newbie to Social Media
If you are a newbie to social media, then I think this is a well written book with great examples of the ways in which the social web is already transforming our lives along with... Read more
Published 1 month ago by zenthink

1.0 out of 5 stars Simply not worth reading
If you know absolutely nothing about social media you might learn something. However, if you are even remotely tuned in, you'll not get any real substance.
Published 1 month ago by Howard L. Keziah

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