Social Success

Socialnomics, by Erik Qualman, teaches on how social media transforms the way we live and do business. This book has been an insightful read and it has sparked many valuable conversations regarding the success and shortcomings surrounded around social media. Though this book has some dated content, overall it provides good insight on how to discover what social media can do for an individual, and what you can do well on social media. Qualman discusses many relevant topics in each chapter that can help us become successful. One chapter that stood out to me was Chapter 11, where Qualman discusses ways to achieve success within digital, social, and mobile media.

Socialnomics in its entirety is aimed around the impact social media is having on our lives and companies today. In the chapter “Social Success Secrets (Give Them to Me Now!)”, Qualman breaks down behaviors that have shown a business to be successful and those that haven’t. Let’s break down the tips that we are presented with:

1. Retention of Existing Customers

“Companies pay too much attention to the vocal negative minority and often miss serving their best customers”

-Erik Qualman

The importance of this tip is for companies to not forget lifelong or devoted customers. Qualman says companies tend to spend more time/effort appeasing customers who have had a bad experience or state negative comments, instead of engaging in positive comments that may compliment the company and what they’ve done well. Qualman believes great companies are those that enable employees to delight customers. Overall, he is stating that your social media strategy and success can’t be centered around responding to negative posts, it has to go beyond that. While I agree with Qualman, there has to be a balance between the two. Companies will benefit best when they learn to reach the demands of unsatisfied and satisfied customers, not one or the other.

1. Listening Reports

“Businesses fail to produce a summarized listening report”

-Erik Qualman

This tip points out how crucial it is to listen to your customers in order to produce a successful product and a successful company as a whole. By collecting this data, Qualman says this can help you better assess the atmosphere of your organization. It is valuable to listen and pay attention to the reactions and feedback provided by customers. This helps companies understand their buyers and be fully engaged in their thoughts and opinion. This also will help customers feel heard, valued, and trusted. Though this is a very vital aspect that companies should invest in, companies cannot try to appease every customer. They have to look at responses as a whole because as we’ve said many times, everyone has an opinion on what they like/dislike.

1. “What Is the Social Play?”

“Social media touches every facet of the business. Yet so many companies fail to ask, “What is the social play?””

-Erik Qualman

Qualman advises us to ensure that social media is the glue that connects every facet of the business. He gives examples of how companies have missed opportunities when companies haven’t asked the question he has proposed. What I gathered from this section is the importance to get your message across in a successful way that advertises and promotes your company. Qualman believes if you align all aspects of your business and use social media as the glue, success is likely. The examples Qualman used were beneficial in understanding his point, but I was slightly confused on his overall argument and what exactly “social play” is. It would have been beneficial for him to explain his thoughts further.

Socialnomics provides very useful information regarding our digital world. I think it has inspired many intuitive conversations that lead to new discoveries and knowledge. Most all of the chapters contain relevant content that is beneficial to know, but sometimes I felt certain chapters were scattered and not significant. I think this is still a useful book and contains great information, but it may be helpful to pick certain chapters to focus on. Overall, the book allowed me to learn and think through the various topics discussed.

Here is a video of some of the statistics mentioned throughout the book that may catch your attention! Also, view the Socialnomics Blog that was produced from this book and stay in the know of all the technological advances here.