Erik Qualman Quotes

We don't have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we do it.

Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

The power of social media is it forces necessary change.

With the growing reliance on social media, we no longer search for news, or the products and services we wish to buy. Instead they are being pushed to us by friends, acquaintances and business colleagues.

The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.

You're talking about a younger generation, Generation Y, whose interpersonal communication skills are different from Generation X. The younger generation is more comfortable saying something through a digital mechanism than even face to face.

The beauty of social media is that it will point out your company's flaws; the key questions is how quickly you address these flaws.

Successful companies in social media function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners than as traditional advertisers.

Increasingly, consumers don't search for products and services. Rather, services come to their attention via social media.

History repeats itself because nobody listens the first time.

Consumers are taking ownership of brands, and their referral power is priceless.

Pushing a company agenda on social media is like throwing water balloons at a porcupine.

With the advent of radical and accessible technology, each one of us, for the first time in history, is creating an influential mark forever - we are all mini-digital celebrities and heroes to someone.

25 percent of search results for the world's top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. 34 percent of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.

Best results are often achieved well before you need a job, by consistently networking so that when you find yourself job-hunting you have a large network to work with.

Language is always evolving. It's difficult to read Shakespeare now because language has shifted. Similarly, kids these days can get to the point really quick in about 140 characters or less because of these new tools.

Assume whatever you do, both offline and online, will be seen by your mother, dad, boss, coach, boyfriend, teacher… the world.

It's about listening first, then selling.

At a minimum the majority of search dollars will flow to a social media model because people care most about what their peers think and the technology is there for that information to be quickly shared on products and services.

Why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional channel anyway? Social media touches every facet of business and is more an extension of good business ethics.

You can spend your time daydreaming or make use of it in other ways.

The easier things are to buy, the more we consume.

Privacy is dead. Reputations are dying.

Social media has made the web all about me, me, me.

One thing we seem to be missing is that just as we no longer search for the news, the news finds us today (e.g. this article found me) we will no longer search for products and services, rather we will look to our social graph to what products and services they like and don't like.