• “Business models need to shift. Simply digitizing old business models doesn’t work; businesses need to fully transform to properly address the impact and demands of social media.”This mirrored my take on Sports Illustrated’s iPad app. While it’s definitely cool, does it really capture how people are going to want their online information?

• Authenticity often means lower production values. “Even if you had the money, you wouldn’t necessarily want top-level editing because that destroys the authenticity of the organic ambiance you are attempting to create and, more important, increases the lag time to get the content in the hands of the socialmediorati.” For a perfect example, check out Momgenerations.com fashion expert Audrey McLelland’s fashion hauling video, with two of her kids sneaking into the action.Now that’s authentic . . . especially to a busy mom of little boys.
  

• You can learn a lot from search data.Qualman uses this example from the last presidential election.

McCain and Obama each tried to build up their respective brands in the eyes of voters. They used search data to answer questions such as: Is it better to print “Obama” or “Barack” on promotional posters. There were 3.5 [times] more searches done on “Obama” than “Barack.”Pretty helpful information.

• Old Metrics Are Deceiving. Qualman looked at the 2008 Summer Olympics as a clash between new- and old-style marketing. The main point: relying on the archaic Neilson Television Rating system is bogus. None of us watches TV the way we used to. I personally have no idea how I lived without my DVR. I no longer know what day or when shows run. And if I do miss something? I search for it on Hulu. (Qualman also has a great section about how Hulu is mastering the ad game with a whole new approach).

Here are some of his salient points on why incorporating online viewers into broadcasts is a good thing:

• It’s more measurable.
• It has a younger audience.
• Users are willing to give you valuable demographic information like name, age, gender and so on in return for video.
• It increases–not decreases–your total viewership, which means more eyes on advertisements.
  

• In addition to the above, here are a few predictions Qualman makes that are right on track:

• The demise of reality TV. We now have reality social media that allows us to watch the personal train wrecks of people we know in real time. And even people we don’t know (cough cough, Lindsay Lohan). Who needs TV?
  

• The demise of e-mail. While it won’t go away forever, I find my e-mail is mostly rendered useless due to spamming of press releases and e-newsletters I never signed up for (don’t get me started on this pet peeve). So, I’m relying more and more on social networks to engage with others (and I’m not even Gen Y or Z).

• Companies need to learn that they can’t drag customers into their own online communities. They need to learn to play in other people’s databases. Qualman has a pretty funny dating analogy here. If you meet a gal at a bar and ask to buy her a drink, if she agrees, you don’t immediately grab her and run out of the bar to share a nightcap back at your place. You generally need to buy her a drink in your current location. That is unless you’re part of the cast of Jersey Shore!
  

• The role of a marketer today and in the future will . . . [involve] having ongoing external conversations with customer/prospects while at the same time having ongoing internal conversations with operations, customer care and product development.

• Search engine results will need to stop being prehistoric. I noted that Qualman’s question, “Why can’t an advertiser easily alert users of a winter sale?” has since been answered by Twitter’s new business plan.

• Due to the amplified power of word-of-mouth recommendations online, “[o]nly companies that produce great products and services will be part of these conversations; mediocrity will quickly be eliminated.”

• “In a Socialnomic world, companies need to relinquish the total control they have had over the last few centuries and allow users, consumers, viewers and so on to take their rightful ownership.”