I recently read a book titled “Socialnomics” by Erik Qualman which says in its title that he shows how social media transforms the way we live and do business.
I first want to give you some background on Erik who is a Spartan Alumni, played basketball for coach Izzo and is an all around great guy. I have been fortunate to work with Erik as an alum and also met him at Tedx Lansing event where he spoke on his books. He is currently travelling the country and the world speaking to many businesses and individuals about his books and how social media is affecting our lives.
This book has so many great features in it but I want to point out the things that jumped out at me. In Chapter 4 he wrote about Obama’s Success driven by Social Media. He spoke about the success through social media and campaigning to the youth about change and also using social media in a time when budgets were very tight. He also spoke of a very smart thing that Obama did during his campaign fundraising which was taking $5 to $10 donations but with very large volume through social media. Obama had 92 percent of his donations were in sums of less than $100. This chapter jumped out at me because I remember when Obama’s campaign contacted me and asked about interns. I obviously helped and would have helped any other presidential candidate with their interns but I was never contacted. This showed me that Obama hired some excellent individuals on his campaign who knew where to go and who to speak with.
Another chapter that caught my eye was chapter 7 which was titled Winners and Losers in a 140 Character World. He talks a lot in this chapter about ESPN and how they were in front of the line when it came to Twitter, micro blogging, and podcasts. He even stated a question that said, "Does ESPN have ESP?"
He also wrote about everyone wanting their 15 minutes of fame, which is very true in the social media world. If you spend so much time in this 140 character world like I do, you can see people that are saying things just to say them and most people would respond with “who cares” but more and more people are joining every day and the push with social media goes on. Qualman states that people are wanting to hear on Twitter what celebrities are up to so you will see a huge follow base but it is not just because Twitter, but because they already had this fan base. He talks about the normal people like you and me and if we have 1500 followers, are people really listening? Qualman argues that most are not.
I would have to slightly disagree with Qualman here because most, if not all, of the people following you or the people you follow are following for a reason and if they do not want to hear what you say then they can unfollow. I understand that one person cannot see 1500-2000 posts at a time and that is what I think he is getting to.
Living in this 140 character world has been both exciting and crazy at the same time and I love the changes and additions that I see every day. It seemed like such a fast change and I wonder what the next 5 years will bring us.
I did want to share a video of Erik Qualmans that many have you I am sure have seen:
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