Socialnomics – Social Media Blog

About

Socialnomics(TM) is a blog designed to cover the latest trends in social media.  It primarily focuses on covering the latest news on social media and what it means Socialnomics-book-cover-3D-L-smallfor users and businesses, often taking irreverent view points of a popular topic.  For example, deciding what is the most dominant social media site by a March Madness style bracket.  It was founded and is still maintained by Erik Qualman.

The blog augments the book of the same title by Wiley Publishing which is on sale now (click here to order)

Erik Qualman

Erik Qualman  is the author of Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. Socialnomics made Amazon’s #1 Best Selling List only after three weeks of publication & has been in the Top 100 Best Selling Business Books List consistently since its launch in August.  Qualman is a frequently requested International speaker of the Fortune 500 and has been highlighted in numerous media outlets including: BusinessWeek, The New York Times, CNET, San Francisco Chronicle, Mashable, USA Today, Forbes, CBS Nightly News, and The Huffington Post. He has been fortunate to share the stage with Alan Mulally (Ford CEO), Lee Scott (CEO/Chairman Walmart), Jose Socrates (Prime Minister of Portugal),Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (Nokia CEO), Julie Andrews (Actress) and Al Gore (former Vice President).

Qualman - Madison Avenue

Qualman - Madison Avenue

For the past 16 years Qualman has helped grow the online marketing and eBusiness capabilities of many companies including Education First, Cadillac, EarthLink, Yahoo, Travelzoo and AT&T.

He is currently a columnist for ClickZ.  Qualman holds a BA from Michigan State University and an MBA from The University of Texas.  He is currently the Global Vice President of Online Marketing EF Education (the world’s largest private education company).  He was Academic All-Big Ten in basketball at Michigan State University and still finds time to follow his beloved Spartans while living in Boston with his wife.

Qualman in the News

Search Engine Strategies New York 2009

Qualman interviewed by John Mulligan of SES-PR
BookExpo America June 2009

Qualman interviewed by Publisher’s Weekly

29 Comments

29 responses so far ↓

  • Liz // February 8, 2010 at 1:52 pm | Reply

    I’d like to subscribe to receive your blog via email, but I don’t see a place to subscribe! Sign me up for more great content.

  • Michael Dickinson // February 4, 2010 at 3:07 am | Reply

    Insightful videos, I wrote up a short piece on my blog: http://www.mwdpr.info

    Looking forward to the book – I’ll be sure to pick it up.

  • Betsy // January 21, 2010 at 8:53 pm | Reply

    Hey Erik,

    Great YouTube Videos!! would you mind telling me what software you used to put those together? Thanks, Betsy

  • Wayne Clingman // November 29, 2009 at 9:03 pm | Reply

    Film makers should be all over the ideas you talk about, low budget indy film makers most of all but most seem so scared of the whole idea.
    Love to have you on my Podcast Indy Film Wisconsin.

  • Jack Everitt // November 25, 2009 at 6:28 pm | Reply

    So I just watched your Social Media Revolution video and, well, two things struck me as wrong and distorted. A quick Fact Checking on Google confirmed this…

    1) “Kindle Books Now A Shocking 35% Of Amazon Sales” but didn’t say, “When Kindle Version Available”, nor what the actual percentage of total sales of a book are compared to Kindle (hint – it’s less than 1%). More importantly, Kindle isn’t Social Media – why is it even in this video?! (You can’t share what’s on your Kindle – it’s very DRM-locked, making it anti-social media.)

    2) “There are over 200,000,000 Blogs. 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily.” NY Times says 5%: “The NY Times reports that according to a 2008 survey only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days.”

    54% daily or 5% in past 4 months – which is it?

    So, after only fact checking two, I have to ask why are parts of this video false, distorted or implying significance when there is none?

    • equalman // November 25, 2009 at 7:58 pm | Reply

      Jack:

      Thanks for watching the video and for taking the time to comment:

      1) In the video we essentially re-purposed a slide that Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos has used when discussing the Kindle and the 35% number. You are correct in stating that not 35% of all book sales are for the Kindle. It’s 35% on Amazon when both versions are available (Kindle/Hardcover). We have listed the sources for the video here – http://socialnomics.net/2009/08/11/statistics-show-social-media-is-bigger-than-you-think/ and because of great feedback from people like you we have called this out a little more here.

      The Kindle is listed in this video because the video is also somewhat forward looking – in the sense that books are inherently social and these eReaders like the Kindle take it to a whole new level. One quick example that we will see more and more of soon is college students are able to electronically highlight and make notes on the book and share these notes with classmates. When I went to college and bought a new book I only hoped the person before me that made notes and highlights was smart. Imagine being able to see all the A+ students notes – how great will this be for learning! The DRM item will hopefully get sorted out soon and you can see that with the B&N Nook you can let a friend “borrow” it for 14 days.

      2) The data for this was pulled from here – Source: ClickZ Stats SES Magazine June 8 page 24-25 Chris Aarons, Andru Edwards, Xavier Lanier Turning Blogs and user-Generated Content Into Search Engine Results.

      The data mentioned in the video was did they post or TWEET the NY Times study was reviewing if just the blog had been updated so maybe that might explain the delta as it’s not apples/apples in the methodology. Just a thought.

      Thanks again for watching and commenting and I hope the above info sheds some light!

      2)

  • Michael Robinson // November 12, 2009 at 8:01 pm | Reply

    Absolutely fantastic! Nice work on the video! Totally blew me away!

  • Jason C Small // November 12, 2009 at 2:45 am | Reply

    Hi Erik,

    I am co-founder of SocialMediaAndTheBigW.com and we would love to have you as a guest blogger, if you are interested.

    I previously owned and operate my own NYC agency, and now am partner at an incredible interactive agency in the New York area. I would love to share more via email.

    Thank you,

  • Alexandra Snesareva // November 6, 2009 at 12:21 am | Reply

    In continuation of the discussion started by Tammy, here are some of the questions I would like to ask you. As I mentioned, I am working on a research project on social media ROI and thought you might be able to answer these:

    1. Is it possible to use methods borrowed from other industries?
    4. Is it true that we can measure ROI in some situations, but not others? $42,000 from tweets is quite measurable, but how do you measure the profit from the number of Facebook likes?
    5. What are the intangible costs of social media? What are the intangible benefits?
    6. How do we assign the dollar value to the intangibles?

    Thank you for your time,

    Alexandra

  • Tammy Luksich // November 5, 2009 at 2:40 pm | Reply

    Erik,

    I’ve e-mailed & tweeted you, but no response. I’m sure you’re very busy and this seems to be the easiest place for you to respond. So here goes:

    Our New Media class requires a “conference” presentation of a technology overload about where the industry is going. Our topic, is socialnomics… We believe essentially there will be one site that will become an “aggregator” for all of the social networks, video, blogs, media multiplatform connections that one must log into and then have access to their media. That’s one of our objectives in our presentation. Since you seem to be the “guru” of this new media revolution, our group has compiled some questions that you may know the answers to, here goes:

    What is one major feature you see that will drastically change social networking?
    What are the top 5 things a social networking site needs to be successful/groundbreaking ?
    What are some innovative ideas for social networking, that hasn’t been tapped into yet?
    -How does one monetize a social networking site? I know Dell is already tapping into that, do you know how they measure their ROI??
    -Is the social media revolution a “life online”…basically eliminating the need for face to face interaction?
    Will people communicate through e-mails and texts, find out how mom is doing through tweets and watch family grow up through pictures on facebook?
    What kind of legal implications does our “aggregator” site face? Do you know of any loopholes to get around this?
    May we contact you with further questions?

    Thanks so much,

    Tammy Luksich
    College Senior from West Texas A&M University

  • Tammy Luksich // October 29, 2009 at 3:02 pm | Reply

    I’m working on a new media presentation and our topic is social networks… We’re using your book as some valuable reasearch, is there any place we can talk to you further about social media and our project??

    • equalman // October 29, 2009 at 3:12 pm | Reply

      Tammy:

      By all means – feel free to send me an e-mail at my google mail account = equalman. I will not make you use the wave this is GMAIL :)

  • Alexandra Snesareva // October 20, 2009 at 1:17 am | Reply

    Hi, Erik,

    I want to do some research on social media for one of my classes and was wondering if you could share your ideas in regards to finding a good topic.
    Also, what sources on the Internet would contain credible information?

    • equalman // October 20, 2009 at 2:54 am | Reply

      Alexandra:

      Thanks for reaching out to me:

      Some possible research ideas:

      1] Does male/female behavior within social media differ?
      2] Is social media starting to change people’s offline behavior (live your life as if your mother is watching)

      Good sources for tech data:

      Podcast: CNET’s Buzz Out Loud
      http://www.techcrunch.com
      http://www.mashable.com
      http://www.siliconalleyinsider.com
      http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/

      Let me know if I can help!

      Best, Erik

    • Alexandra Snesareva // October 22, 2009 at 8:30 pm | Reply

      Thanks, Erik,

      I think I narrowed down to two topics:
      1) calculation of ROI on social media.
      2) brand personalities across the web -what are they and is there one that is the most effective for communicating with customers.

      I know that you have done tons of research. Besides the great sources you listed (i love Mashable!), are there any other sources that get a little more technical, such as actually calculating the ROI?

      Any information will be greatly appreciated!

      Thanks for your time,
      Alexandra

  • stevevirgin // October 9, 2009 at 6:52 pm | Reply

    Erik

    Your video blew me away. I posted it on my site
    http://www.virginonmedia.wordpress.com

    I want a copy of the book badly and am going out hunting to look for it.

    Keep up the great work – if you are ever in the UK let me know (Twitter: scv1)

  • Aaron Wichler // October 6, 2009 at 6:27 pm | Reply

    hey-
    I am trying to do a project on socialnomics. I want to teach people that this is a good source for communication and that it can be improved if you are not up in the noise.
    So if you could, could you please help me out?
    maybe you have some ideas about how someone could strengthen their socialnomics and make them a stronger leader?
    this is for a leadership course and i wanted to do the project on socialnomics. i thought it could be a good fit.

    thanks
    -Aaron

    • equalman // October 6, 2009 at 7:36 pm | Reply

      Aaron:

      This is very flattering. Please send me an e-mail, tweet, etc. on what you need. I’m happy to help.

  • Randy Halleck // September 23, 2009 at 2:46 pm | Reply

    Erik,
    Can you send me some contact information? We would like explore the possibility of having you speak at one of our member events.

    Thank you
    Randy

  • lauren useda law // August 25, 2009 at 3:18 pm | Reply

    I have just been published in LaTimes.com and Los Angeles Times yesterday about my mother who died of heart disease at age 48 and my own heart attack scare. I received an email from a 75 year old woman who said what I wrote rang true for her and now I hope she’ll go see a doctor. I have also written an article about Facebook and the impact it has had on my life over the past few months. I was a holdout but finally decided to post a personal page and the connections I have made are incredible. Do you all take submissions?

    • equalman // August 29, 2009 at 7:27 pm | Reply

      Sorry to hear your loss and my prayers are with you and your family. I sent you a longer correspondence via e-mail.

  • tellem // August 20, 2009 at 4:10 am | Reply

    your video knocks my socks off

  • Jed Diamond // August 19, 2009 at 9:56 pm | Reply

    What do you think of Scribd?

    It seems that people want to connect and share their stories and their lives. Social Media seems to facilitate this. Scribd allows writers and readers to share, connect, and merge.

  • Mike McCready // August 13, 2009 at 11:09 pm | Reply

    Hi Erik,

    Do you have time for a brief chat on the phone this evening? I’m writing a piece about you to be posted on The Huffington Post.

    Thanks,

    Mike

  • Rebecca Chandler // August 13, 2009 at 7:53 pm | Reply

    I find it interesting that you’ve chosen to publish in print what you seem to believe will overtake traditional media.

    • equalman // August 13, 2009 at 8:08 pm | Reply

      Rebecca – thanks for taking the time to post. Obviously I’m a huge proponent of social media, but I also realize it’s not a zero sum game. Just like millions still have landline telephones, dial-up service, CD players, etc. Millions will still like to curl up to the fire with a paperback or throw it in their beach bag! While others will read on their Kindle, iPhone, etc.

Leave a Comment