A Caring Opinion.

In chapter-5, “I care more about what my neighbor thinks than what Google does”,  Socialnomics author Erik Qaulman discusses the growing popularity of social media and its links to consumer decision making. 

The exponential expansion of social media outlets as a tool to influence customer buying is profound.  Purchasing advice once taken from highly trained sales people acting in their own self-interest or that of their company is no very limited to real estate and car buying.  Even these two areas are highly influenced by the opinions of social media and they must adjust their tactics to remain relevant as they grasp their final breaths.

 

Qualman points out that today, especially among “Gen Y’rs” and younger, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are the go-to source for information on making not only decisions on products purchases, but also service purchases to include health care.  Peer input is now nearly instantaneous and allows for the immediate feedback of many versus a few. 

With immediate feedback being served as the Soup de Jour, advertisers, software / application developers and service providers struggle to remain relevant.  Companies once considered on the forefront of product movement and advertising can easily find themselves the next pets.com sock puppet.   Personally, I think back in my time and reflect on the dog-eat-dog world of retail sales.  I remember a child every small town having a Sears and Roebuck Store and Montgomery Wards.  Both were historically set in their ways; catalog sales drove business, and hit-or-miss sales staff closed on the big money sales.  It worked well for both for over a hundred years, now one is extinct and the other on the verge.   MySpace fell to Facebook because they refused to change.  Businesses that are not willing to leverage the moment will inevitably become the Sock-puppet laughing stock of a future generation.