Chapter 8 brings us to the end of Socialnomics and some predictions for the future. Here are your questions:
1. What is the shelf life of social conversations today? What is the implication for companies as a result?
2. What do you think of Tony Blair's description of what it takes to be an effective communicator and leader? How do you think these factors will influence this year's presidential election?
3. How will collaboration affect companies and its employees in the future? What role will social media play?
Final thoughts about the book?
The shelf life of social conversations today are measured in minutes. This shelf life forces companies to keep their messages brief, simple, and immediate. People are constantly connected with social media and have massive amounts of information available at their fingertips.
ReplyDeleteTony Blair's description is on target. Condensing complex problems and the ability to do it quickly can make for a great effective communicator and leader. I think it demonstrates the ability to think and act quickly on your feet. Which is what most people look for in a leader. During the presidential debates, the people will watch and see if the candidates have these strengths and were able to effectively communicate them. If the candidate does not perform the tasks well, he will probably not be elected.
Collaboration will greatly reduce the turn over rate and increase employee productivity for a company. This will also allow for a better work environment for the employees as their next job will depend on their ability to work with their current co-workers. Social media allows employees and companies to become transparent. There will be a need for companies and employees a like to perform well and to communicate effectively. If the company does not, they will be less likely to attract the right people to do the right job. Employees may lose their jobs and will be less likely to land a better job.
The decreasing shelf life of messages of a trends that cannot be reversed and companies need to make sure they are not left behind. The amount of information available to consumers is constantly increasing, but unfortunately the amount of time consumers have to digest and truly understand the data is still the same, if not decreasing. This forces companies to develop messages that are truly unique and valuable. It is not enough to simply copy competitors because then brands are simply adding to the noise. Companies need to make sure that for the few minutes (or seconds) consumers might spend with their brand they get the most bang for the buck.
ReplyDeleteAlthough not part of the above question, I believe this does have negative affects for society. Messages are kept short and simple, which has many benefits, but it also decreases analytical thinking and the time consumers are willing to spend digesting and understanding what is being said. Like I said earlier, it is impossible to reverse this trend, but I think it is important to slow it down. It is up for debate as to whose responsibility it is to slow this trend. I believe marketing has its own chicken and the egg story. What comes first: Do marketers dictate how consumers want to be communicated to, or do consumers state their preference and then marketers simply do what pleases the consumers? It would be interesting to hear arguments from each side.
I also agree with Tony Blair's quote in that it accurately describes the importance of being able to condense complex items down to the core issue. The most successful politicians are the ones that know how to communicate very well and back up their statements in a very succinct manner. After all, that is how they get elected.
ReplyDeleteMore than ever, this presidential election is very much centered around social media. I have seen countless things about either Mitt Romney or President Obama come up on my Twitter Feed. I personally follow President Obama just to see what his people tweet for him...and he tweets several times a day. Many times about the core issues in the election as well as the way he believes Romney falls short. He is very successful with doing this in less than 160 characters, which I think would be very difficult. I'm very interested to see how the Presidential Election unfolds especially through social media.
The decreasing shelf life of social conversation are due to the information overload that we as human beings have to deal with on a daily basis. We are constantly being bombarded with ad on the radio, television, magazines, and most importantly the internet. Social media sites, especially Facebook, have only contributed to this more. Most companies today are advertising to "like us on Facebook" in hopes to be a part of their target markets everyday activity on the internet to keep their brand top of mind. But, in my opinion, companies ads and updates on Facebook only ad to the information overload and most times I dont event stop to read what a company has posted (which kind of defeats the purpose of following them on Facebook). I envy the creativity of the folks that put out the ads for companies (IMC is probably my weakness)and they are constantly challenged by changing media to keep their ads current, relavent, and interesting in order to avoid becoming expired.
ReplyDeleteThe shelf life of conversations has been dramatically shortened, but the these conversations are permenant. Because the time a company’s message is only discussed for a brief period of time, it is important for the message to be memorable. The message must truly resonate with the reader. As seen in the UC-Berkely case the simplicity and value of the message is crucial. One simple word like “arrested” caused such an uproar. This just goes to show that the message has to be something the consumer cares about and short enough for them to get that message qucikly.
ReplyDeleteThis means businesses have to know their customer better than ever before. Firms can’t just speculate on the dmeogrpahics of their cusomters, but instead have to fully understand the things that make their customers tick. They need to understand not only how their customer thinks, but why they are thinking that way. Understnading the motives will help them be able to send better messages. This shows a bright future for marketing research and new innovative ways of collecting data. I believe there will be many new revolutionary changes effecting the industry in the new future.
The shelf life today when it comes to social conversations has shortened from what it use to be twelve years ago. This is due to the fact that there is so many social media sites and now many more people are on this different sites. An example of this is Twitter, if you put in a popular hashtag you can be reading the comments when not even 20 seconds later their are 20 more tweets waiting. As a company they need to know their customers and find ways to get their attention. Because social conversations come and go so fast these days what businesses say can easily get lost.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the shelf life of social conversations today? What is the implication for companies as a result?
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this question, I immediately thought of the KONY 2012 campaign. That topic was on fire for about a week, and then seemed to completely fizzle. I'll be interested to see if it is revived with tomorrow's "Cover the Night" campaign event. I think it's important for companies to start social conversations, but I also think that it's necessary now to really pay attention to what people are talking about and insert themselves into those conversations. Shelf lives of social conversations are short, so companies have to be willing to effectively participate in the "social ADHD" that audiences seem to have on social media.
As far as general thoughts on the book go, it made some good points and certainly complimented the class material. It also didn't get too terribly dated considering how fast social media changes. I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on the overall value it added to the class.
Of course the self life of social conversations continues to diminish faster and faster due to the immediacy of new or even just other existing information that's ready to be broadcasted and viewed. That's not saying that those social conversations will be trashed- they just easily get lost in all of the cyber-clutter.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Tony Blair's point about the importance of relaying condense yet complex messages in a quickly manner-- It's pretty cool how convenient hyperlinks can be at the end of brief and concise social media messages/posts. You can make a few quick points in a post to get the main idea across, and then maybe a clincher to leave the reader wanting more. There's where the link fits in.
The point made in this chapter that stuck with me the most combines the shelf life of social conversations and Tony Blair's statement. To paraphrase, it was something about the shift of a company's focus from a deliberate, unified message across mediums to the value of simply "being there" in social media. I think this shift to a more casual, relaxed corporate image definitely makes companies seem more accessible and easy to relate to than the polished corporate faces of previous generations.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to my general feelings about the book, I'd definitely say they are mixed. While I do think the recency and style of the book is way more appropriate than a text book for this class, I often found myself physically making faces at the book as I was reading it because the author would make blanket claims about certain points without really "fleshing them out" as much as I'd expect. The whole thing seemed to be a very sunny view of how social media is making everyone's lives so much better, but it was missing any mention of conflicting opinions that would've made the author's points more credible. Just my personal, cynical opinion, though.
1. What is the shelf life of social conversations today? What is the implication for companies as a result?
ReplyDeleteThe shelf life of social conversation today is decreasing from what used to be days now to minutes do to the massive popularity of Facebook and Twitter. Blogs used to allow the shelf life of social conversations last a few days, but unfortunately this has decreased. This forces companies to create simple tweets or posts that are creative and unique to attract their customer’s attention. Companies need to know their customers very well and post about relevant topics that will make viewers respond as well as build brand awareness. This also forces companies to spend a lot of money on labor hours posting onto the sites and responding to customers, which is very costly because you really cannot estimate that the viewer will actually purchase your product.
Today, social conversations have a shelf life of only minutes because of the variety of so many blogs and tools like Twitter and Foursquare. Because of this, companies must fight to stay relevant and must post often on social networking sites. And not only must their frequency of posts increase, they also need to be extremely conscious of “cluttering” news feeds and making sure that their followers are not tired of their posts. However, as stated in “Socialnomics,” these new social media outlets and shorter shelf life of conversations also mean that they can reach more people much more instantly. The example the book gives of AT&T using Twitter to reach its followers when the cellular cables were vandalized is the perfect showing of shorter shelf lives being a good tool for companies to utilize.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I forgot to comment on my final thoughts of the book in my first posting. I think it was a great book because it offered real cases in the social media field. I liked the thought of learning from companies that did do well in their campaigns and where others failed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Morgan, social conversation is fading faster due to readily available outlets who have the resources to project new information immediately. Its easy to get lost in the social clutter of things and over look some info unintentially.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when we read a post and we read just the highlights it leaves us thirsty for more. So the creation of adding hyperlinks at the ends of posts is a great one because it allows us to read further without all the clutter. Tony Blair explains that point, condesing complex messages by creating an alternative outlet to review them, hyperlink attachement.
The shelf life today, as stated in the book, has changed from days to minutes. The act of having information instantly also affects peoples attention span and changes the way they search for things. I mean how many times have you clicked "older posts" on facebook fead? barley ever. yet from the last time you looked at it there were probably many many posts made - but that's old news now and doesn't matter
ReplyDeleteI think Tony Blairs statement brings up an interesting point. He says that people want information instantly but sometimes it takes a while for things to be taken care of. This could propose an issue with the new generation of leaders because they will be used to just tweet'n away when things come up, but really if something big comes up ( like announcing a war or something) there has to be protocol for that otherwise the information could come across wrong.
The book over all i think was great. they had some great issues that they addressed and scenarios to look at
Tony Blair's quote made me reflect on how I view public speaking and how quick and percise I expect it to be, and he is right - I do want it straight to the point the "banner headline" or point that people are trying to make - i see myself doing this with not only my teachers or public speaking but maybe also with my parents too. I think it will come into a big role in the upcoming presidental election. For example when Mitt Romney was adressing the Bradley Community - I felt as if he was at times speaking in circles and I began to tune him out after a minute of him trying to respond to a question that the audience had presented him with.
ReplyDeleteOverall i really enjoyed this book! I am happy that I bought it and not rented it or something. It was a easy read and kept me "entertained"
1. What is the shelf life of social conversations today? What is the implication for companies as a result?
ReplyDeleteThe shelf life of social conversations today have decreased so dramatically. It's unbelievable the fast communication we expect because we can retrieve and respond so quickly. As for the implication for companies as the result of this decrease shelf life they need to be expected to respond quickly. To email, tweets, facebook posts, and such. It was not as frowned upon in the past to just respond through e-mail fairly quickly, but we are getting responses fast from some companies so we think every single one should be responding at the same rate.
The book was helpful and was such an easy read. It's definitely useful pretty up to date considering how fast Social Media moves. I will not be selling this book. I believe that I will be able to reference this book so much more than my other marketing books.
Qualman relays the point that the shelf life of social conversations today lasts merely minutes. One can even argue that the use of mobile applications and the popularity of Twitter has diminished this phenomenon to seconds. As a result, companies are forced to market more effectively and with a greater degree of speed. The decrease in shelf life prompts businesses to display messages that are simplistic in nature but at the same time provide their consumers with some sort of relevance for their everyday lives. Social media sites have also spawned reader's desire for constant information. People want the most up to date information in this tech savvy world, and social media provides them the most current news with people/firms that interest them. This consistent change in shelf life also calls for corporations to invest more money in social media and even create jobs for people to handle their campaigns.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I felt the book was a great tool to use. It gives the reader an opportunity to examine recent issues that have impacted the way companies use social media today. Qualman provides a bevy of examples to help demonstrate his valid points. The book also brings the class/content together for us to realize. It was a very good read and should last for a while even though the first question suggests it will not.
1. What is the shelf life of social conversations today? What is the implication for companies as a result?
ReplyDeleteIt is truly amazing how short the shelf life of a social conversation is today. You can feel the effects of a short shelf life through something as simple as a text messaging conversation. When you text someone, you can sometimes begin to feel anxious or inpatient for a response, its almost like you expect one right away. Due to the diminishing shelf life of social conversations, companies now have to be more direct and to the point with whatever message they are trying to convey. If the company is not quick enough in getting to the point of their message, their audience will grow inpatient and loose interest at an increasing rate. I feel that this can be observed in this commercial by Subway that really annoys me, but they get their point across like 10 times.
http://commercialsociety.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/subways-bogo-causes-accidents/
Look back at Myspace and how long we (or a company) had to keep a communication up on a site before it was forgotten. We didn't have to update our pages all the time to stay relevant back then. A company that had taken the huge leap into the world of social networking would only have to update MySpace once a week and it was no big deal. Fast forward to Facebook and think about what it was five years ago. It was certainly a different animal than Myspace, so much faster, easier, and just so different. It's evolution to what it is today is insane. We have so much information available to us at any minute of any day and so many ways available to us to share that information that we have found, either personal or something like a news story. You only have a moment of visibility at the top of a users page, if you weren't direct enough or had bad timing, you as a company are lost in the buzz of social media and better luck to you next time. I, as a user, do not have time to ready a company's paragraph about what is coming up next week. I want a sentence.... and a picture. And if I comment and don't get a response within seconds I am going to assume that something is wrong. The evolution of our communication has been sped up greatly by the use of social media. Now instead of the Myspace once a week posting, a well-run social media manager will make sure that Facebook is posted on daily, and even better than that--- every few hours. And that every comment is read and handled. Twitter would be even more frequent and the timing of tweets would be considered. If you tweet about your brand during the Super Bowl halftime, you just wasted your time.
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