Thoughts on Qualman’s Socialnomics

Well media folk, everyone might as well shut up shop and give up now. According to Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics – how social media transforms the way we live and do business – traditional media, traditional advertising agencies and all middlemen will be the losers in the new world order of Socialnomics. Corporates businesses are not only able but unbdoubedtly will create internal departments to monitor and engage in conversations in the socialsphere. While the mentioned losers will not completely disappear, they will be become less significant. The fact that large organisastions have marketing departments with double figure personnel yet still retain the services of PR, advertising and creative agency to assist with the creation and execution of marketing strategy seems to have been missed. I believe the opposite will happen, the number of external services to cope with rapid evolution of online will increase. This is further supported by the number of social media specific agencies springing up. Specialist knowledge and skill is still required not only to find and aggregrate all the information/conversations occuring online but to analyse the information then understand how it should be used effectively as part of a marcomms strategy.

Orson Well’s 1984 has truly been born in social media. Apparently, social media = preventative behaviour (Chapter 2). So you can all forget about Friday afternoon piss ups, shocking dance moves at award ceremonies or “client entertainment” visits to Browns ;0). All bad behaviour will inevitable be captured on video or camera in boisterous jubilance, and be posted on Facebook or Tweeted the following day. These seemingly funny actions, at the time, will become something to regret. No matter how polished or professional an interview, the true nature of your character will be laid bare for all to see including the human resources department of a potential employer.

Ok, so doom and gloom scenario aside, Qualman makes valid points about how communications has changed in modern society. Corporate brands that choose to ignore the norms of generation Z do so at their own peril. With the flurry of social media events, synopsis and blogs out there at present, this book is very apt. It’s filled with great examples of successful exercises in damage control, brands using social media as an advertising, PR and customer services tool. Plus, there’s an entire section dedicated to Obama’s succesful use of social media. This is juxtapositioned with classic examples of how not to do it – corporates attempting to manipulate or control conversations, suing others or doing nothing. Other areas covered include developing successful ideas for social media, breaking down the commericial and content team walls and consumers influencing product development. Qualman even touches on the monetisation of content assuming that by the time the book was printed, media owners will have abandoned their attempt to charge for content. He obviously had not considered Rupert Murdoch in this equation.

There is no doubt that social media has changed the way we manage our relationships with family and frends, and Qualman argued these will become even more influencial in buying decisions. Be it buying a car or a car seat, we’ll be able to see who within our network has bought a specific product including brand, written reviews or commented on negative and positive aspects. This rather than expert views will determine what we buy – basically word of month online will become king.

While the book smacks of typical Amercian optimism citing how social media will change social behaviour and society for the good (something reminiscent of scenes from Stepford Wives), it is riddles with great insight from state side. Qualman’s book is a quick and easy read that provokes further thought on the inescapable facts of social media – we’re living through a paradigm shift and we’re only at the tip of the iceburg.

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~ by britano on November 6, 2009.