Erik Qualman, in his book, Socialnomics how social media transforms the way we live and do business claims (as Robert Scoble and Shel Israel) that social media is a revolution; it is not a question of whether a business wants to participate, but how well it does. The currency used in social media is "meaningful engagement, participation, and value creation...if individuals or businesses want a say in how they are categorized, they need to participate with the appropriate currency" (xiv).
Before we begin looking at the business side of social media, let's hear Qualman's positive perspective on individual/personal social media. This post will address 3 complaints people have voiced about personal media and Qualman's responses. First, "investing time on social media actually makes you more productive" (6). Second, social media "can bring families together-it connects parents to their kids like never before" (39). Finally, the navel gazing or "braggadocian" behavior makes people more productive as they compete to do the next interesting thing.
Let's begin with the idea that social media makes a person more productive. One of Qualman's overarching beliefs is the overwhelming excess of information people have available to them. He believes social media helps people make sense of it all. Previously, if you wanted to find out about fashion you would read "Vogue." "Business week" would tell you all you needed to know about business and so on. People rely on information from their social circle to help them make decisions and sort through information. If you want to buy a car seat for your baby, and ten of your friends recommend Britax, 3/4 of your research is done. We rely on word of mouth and put faith in it. Qualman believes intra-personal relationships are improved through social media. Keeping up with people on twitter and facebook allows conversation to be more productive when you talk face to face. The preliminary questions are already answered so you can cut the small talk. Besides sorting through information in the word of mouth way, we rely on search engine capacity. Roughly 5 % of people do not go to the second page of a result page on Google. Search engines have become more personalized to get us what we want more efficiently. Ultimately, people trust other people rather than corporations.
Qualman comments that we save time with social media. We are more directed in how we spend our time and what we are looking for. For example, we only watch 5 minutes of a Saturday Night Live on You Tube rather than watching the whole 90 minutes with commercials.
From the word of mouth information I get, I cannot agree that social media saves time. It is very easy to "waste" an hour on the computer and not have gained much. Updates on Twitter and FB can become monotonous. It is nice to have the world at your fingertips, however, it takes a lot of personal self-control to manage it all effectively. I feel we work more as a society, but we are not particularly a much more productive or happy people because of it.
Qualman's second point is social media keeps you in touch with your children. Parents can monitor their kids lives through their FB or MySpace. This seems like a poor excuse for face to face time as families. Teenagers have not changed. They will make sure their parents do not see the juicy secrets of their lives through social media. I think this is a false sense of security. There is also the problem of writing skills eroding from the digital world as well as not understanding boundaries. They do not live in a 9-5 world, but a "24/7 world" (59).
Finally, Qualman admires how social media creates competition among people to live an interesting life. Reality TV is out and reality social media is in. People would rather say they are skiing in CO than sitting on the couch eating Cornflakes. Qualman says, "Social media allows individuals to take real-time inventories of their lives and helps answer the age-old question, 'What an I doing with my life?'" People are more encouraged to live their own lives, rather than watching others.
Qualman uses some of the common arguments against social media and turns them into a positive light. He makes a good point that social media done well establishes relationships and helps us to be more productive in our lives. Individuals must make choices about social media in our lives. Just as businesses don't get to choose whether or not to participate in the conversation, so it is in our personal lives; the choice is how well you participate.
Before we begin looking at the business side of social media, let's hear Qualman's positive perspective on individual/personal social media. This post will address 3 complaints people have voiced about personal media and Qualman's responses. First, "investing time on social media actually makes you more productive" (6). Second, social media "can bring families together-it connects parents to their kids like never before" (39). Finally, the navel gazing or "braggadocian" behavior makes people more productive as they compete to do the next interesting thing.
Let's begin with the idea that social media makes a person more productive. One of Qualman's overarching beliefs is the overwhelming excess of information people have available to them. He believes social media helps people make sense of it all. Previously, if you wanted to find out about fashion you would read "Vogue." "Business week" would tell you all you needed to know about business and so on. People rely on information from their social circle to help them make decisions and sort through information. If you want to buy a car seat for your baby, and ten of your friends recommend Britax, 3/4 of your research is done. We rely on word of mouth and put faith in it. Qualman believes intra-personal relationships are improved through social media. Keeping up with people on twitter and facebook allows conversation to be more productive when you talk face to face. The preliminary questions are already answered so you can cut the small talk. Besides sorting through information in the word of mouth way, we rely on search engine capacity. Roughly 5 % of people do not go to the second page of a result page on Google. Search engines have become more personalized to get us what we want more efficiently. Ultimately, people trust other people rather than corporations.
Qualman comments that we save time with social media. We are more directed in how we spend our time and what we are looking for. For example, we only watch 5 minutes of a Saturday Night Live on You Tube rather than watching the whole 90 minutes with commercials.
From the word of mouth information I get, I cannot agree that social media saves time. It is very easy to "waste" an hour on the computer and not have gained much. Updates on Twitter and FB can become monotonous. It is nice to have the world at your fingertips, however, it takes a lot of personal self-control to manage it all effectively. I feel we work more as a society, but we are not particularly a much more productive or happy people because of it.
Qualman's second point is social media keeps you in touch with your children. Parents can monitor their kids lives through their FB or MySpace. This seems like a poor excuse for face to face time as families. Teenagers have not changed. They will make sure their parents do not see the juicy secrets of their lives through social media. I think this is a false sense of security. There is also the problem of writing skills eroding from the digital world as well as not understanding boundaries. They do not live in a 9-5 world, but a "24/7 world" (59).
Finally, Qualman admires how social media creates competition among people to live an interesting life. Reality TV is out and reality social media is in. People would rather say they are skiing in CO than sitting on the couch eating Cornflakes. Qualman says, "Social media allows individuals to take real-time inventories of their lives and helps answer the age-old question, 'What an I doing with my life?'" People are more encouraged to live their own lives, rather than watching others.
Qualman uses some of the common arguments against social media and turns them into a positive light. He makes a good point that social media done well establishes relationships and helps us to be more productive in our lives. Individuals must make choices about social media in our lives. Just as businesses don't get to choose whether or not to participate in the conversation, so it is in our personal lives; the choice is how well you participate.
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