“What happens in Vegas, stays on Facebook”-According to Erik Qualman

I am currently pretty excited about a book called ‘Socialnomics’, written by Erik Qualman in 2009. This book might be interesting for people who are highly impressed by the quick transformation of ‘social media’ and the current impact it has on the economy, society and ‘old media’. Furthermore, it also gives a great and quick insight for people who are stuck with old marketing and media strategies.

The term ‘socialnomics’ is discussed into 260 pages and is filled with case studies to make the current transformation more engaging for the reader on how to approach to its content and of course to develop knowledge with an updated and smart ‘social networking’ marketing strategic background.

Qualman in his piece, mirrors the abnormal and fast growing decade we currently experience from the ‘old media’ into the kind of never-ending transformation of ‘new media revolutionaries’, also known as social media; or talking after Qualman’s vocabulary-'the world of ‘socialnomics’'.

He briefly discusses how the economy and society has changed through the innovation of social media. Moreover, he stresses the fact how the central ‘word of mouth’ channel of communication between social roles, consumerism, marketing strategies and lifestyle has declined ever since. Bearing this in mind, the reaction to that is, that society and the economy is striving ( if not already) to become more reliant on a future of communicating through the new information age, or ‘world of mouth’.

The great part about the book is, that he used various ‘real life examples’ (as I mentioned above) how ‘new media’ revolutionaries, helped companies to approach to its consumers by getting in touch and familiar with diverse forms of feedback, e.g. through blogging or by sharing content in forums and review pages. Taking this into account, the ridiculous advantage is, that most companies can improve their image and product/service by engaging direct with the consumer through the ‘new media medium’.

Personally, I don’t want to get too much into detail, as the topic of ‘social media’ and the transformation between ‘old and new media’ is endless, and probably for the next years the constant quick transformation will remain the same. I believe that sooner or later, we will talk about ‘new media vs. new media’ and the ‘old media’ will disappear from our surface in some way.

Last but not least, I would recommend the book to anyone who is not much familiar with social media at this stage, but don’t think this book will teach you how to improve your business itself. There is always some sort of creativity and interest needed in order to catch a consumer’s attention in the viral world of ‘socialnomics’.