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

Praise for Socialnomics

"It's obvious that Erik Qualman's passion is social media."
—Dan Heath, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Made to Stick and Switch

"People are hot for social media . . . Erik Qualman says it's about listening first, then selling."
—Forbes

"Erik Qualman has been doing his homework on the social media phenomenon."
—The Huffington Post

"This is a must-read for anyone trying to leverage the social graph rather than be squashed by it."
—Steve Kaufer, CEO, TripAdvisor

"You learn a lot about someone from how they treat their moms. Erik is a trustworthy guy."
—Chris Brogan, New York Times bestselling author of Trust Agents and Social Media 101

"Qualman is to social media what Demming is to quality and Drucker to management."
—Scott Galloway, Professor, Stern School of Business, NYU

The newly revised and updated guide to the social media revolution!

Welcome to the world of Socialnomics—where consumers and the societies they create online have profound effects on our economy and the businesses that operate within it. Online word of mouth, social search, social commerce, and the influence of peer groups are making traditional marketing strategies obsolete. As a result, we no longer have a choice on whether we do social media; the question is how well we do it.

Join Erik Qualman in Socialnomics for a fascinating look at the business implications of social media, and tap its considerable power to increase sales, cut marketing costs, and communicate directly with consumers.

Customer Reviews:

'Socialnomics' Sounds Explosive, But Is a Dud

By David M. Freedman - January 3, 2010

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... read more

Severely Overrated

By Sheldon Chang "freelance web developer" - June 19, 2010

First, let me make it clear that I'm not an old grumpy throwback still trying to score deals in the classifieds section of my newspaper. I have an Internet history that dates back to the 80's and I design and engineer websites and I've done plenty of work on sites that either are social media sites or take advantage of social media sites. I have a very long view of social media and how far its come and how it has disappointed.

In the first paragraph of the introduction, Qualman writes "Just like social media itself, this book is written in sporadically digestible sound bites." This is all you need to know about this book. If you want a brainstorm of half-proven assertions that you can mine for ideas for your next marketing campaign, you'll probably find this book valuable. If you're looking to establish understanding and a long term outlook on social media, keep looking because another way that this book is like most social media is that it will have a short shelf... read more

On second thought, I'm changing from 4 to 3 stars...

By The Marketing Guy Who Drives Sales -r - January 2, 2010

Qualman does a very good job telling the reader why social media and social media marketing are not flash-in-the-pan fads that will be gone within a few years. Savvy marketers and brand builders must understand the new media environment in which they are operating and embrace it as the future. It is how things will be for a long time to come. Qualman helps you understand the environment and offers some insights on how others have leveraged social media to their perceived advantage.

The problems I have with this book stem from my perception that the author offers what seem like well pondered conclusions but reveals no data, no research and very little support evidence or hard quantitation so I was left to wonder if these "facts" are based on hard data or on the author's own biases and cheery assumptions.

He seems to talk about the 2008 U.S. presidential election a little too much throughout the book which is a bit annoying for business professionals looking for... read more