Socialnomics CH5-9

"Consumers are looking to peers for recommendations on products, services, health issues, and more via social media."

Personally I look online (Yelp, for example) before I try out a new restaurant. I must say I trust strangers' comments a lot. When the strangers write a lot of details in their comments, the trustworthiness increase. Yahoo!Answer is another great example. I read that people ask everything on there...even relationship advice, and prom dress choices! Why don't we trust the advertisers? Or the companies? I think it is because we as consumers see that we are one group, working to protect our own rights and getting the most value--the against the other group: the ones who receive our money.

"[Advertising] now needs to be integrated with the content to take advantage of viral opportunities."

This book, Socialnomics, emphasizes the utmost importance of "content" throughout the book. It is important that a company focus on making a good product that is worthy of attention. Audience care about the quality of the content, rather than man-made advertisement. If the product is good, people can't stop talking about it, and certainly the words will go viral without any special effort or huge investment. Here is a great example. Apple Ipad has been very popular...I recently saw this link on facebook. My good friend apparently is so amazed by this video (and the product), that she can't stop sharing it with everyone she knows.




The band, North Point Ministries, is not an advertiser for Apple or the Ipad; but this video receives tremendous attention from the public. When I am watching this video, I am thinking, "I have to download one of those apps on my Ipad!"

"You aren't a social media company, so don't attempt to parade as one."

I must say this key point is eye-opening and certainly agreeable. Many companies, including the one I am working with, attempt to be a social media company itself by including blogs and social media features in its website. What I found is that there isn't a lot of "social" activities going on. The company is the only one that blogs about special offers, while on the other hand, the audience is commenting elsewhere. Why? Because the audience has to make a special effort to visit the company's website, in order to participate in the social media. There are many great social media companies out there, including Facebook, Yelp... people visit those websites without making a special effort to comment on a certain company. More importantly, these existing social media companies have features for companies to reply to the audience. And these services are free! In short, the takeaway of this key point is that a company should utilize the existing social media company to its best advantage.