REVIEW: "Social Media - this is nonsense!" Brandon Mendelson

The author of this review is Anton Markin (New business manager Accord Digital). We are very pleased to present at the pages of his interesting post about the book with a very unusual name and no less unusual content. Even the author Brandon Mendelson calls his creation "a tour of the factory nonsense"! Well, you intrigued? Then let's go!

I sell online advertising. And I'm very sad man. When a potential customer asks about social networks, I'm a long time have to explain what it is, and even longer - why it did not lead to an explosion of sales, which is expected.

Brandon Mendelson's book "Social Media - this is nonsense!" - a find for the internet marketer. It is very simple, though quite biased, explains why social networking is not worth the high expectations that they are subject to in recent times.

Brandon Mendelson

Destroyer of myths about marketing in social media, a journalist and social critic. He collaborated with many publications, such as Huffington Post, CNN, Mashable, Forbes, ComicsAlliance, NBC News, Wall Street Journal.

instagram viewer

Once Brandon Mendelson even debated about the impact of social media on society and political processes with the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN Abdullah Hussain Harun.

He currently writes a weekly column in the Journal of Social Times.

There is nothing new under the sun

The boom that is assigned to social media, did not start five years ago, as many may imagine. With the advent of MySpace and Facebook all have forgotten that before instead of these sites, they sat on the forums and wrote their thoughts on blogs.

The generation that grew up on the Internet late nineties - the beginning of zero, remember those stifling nights on Livejournal.com or on your favorite forum. All enjoyed the "ICQ", looked at your photos in Photo Stream Free type Flikr. The appearance of such sites, like Facebook, is a logical evolution of the heap of service that has acquired the average citizen of the Internet, and their union into a single platform.

Brandon Mendelson did not miss the opportunity to prick Facebook, referring to the "brazen copying chronicles in Timeline.com» and other "borrowing."

Quote:

Do you need a Twitter? Nobody knows for sure. It is impossible to give advice and be sure that it will be for you as useful for someone else. Ultimately, it all depends on you, coincidences, your audience, and the moment of incredible luck. And Twitter - only platform. He was not bad and not good, is not effective and not useless.

However, we are allowed to "self-satisfied, greedy, fatted white man" to create a myth around him, argue otherwise. According to him, it is sufficient to adopt the "big six" platforms for social media (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr *), and all our problems will be solved. A company's marketing and pushes this myth, meanwhile fill their pockets. Marketers - forcing companies and you personally all the small stuff, and the company - selling your data to others.

Author soberly looks at the social network, gives them a tool to illuminate the place of success of something, not the generator.

Case Bieber

In particular very illustrative example Justin Bieber, which, according to legend, became famous after I put your videos on YouTube, where it has collected in the first day insane figure Visits.

In fact, every miracle of social networking is worth a long and painstaking work offline. In the end, you have to be talented. (Along with the author I'm sad to admit it, but yes, Bieber is talented.) In order to "wake up the famous" Justin had to record a demo. Then get to know a guy who knows a major producer of Hollywood. Only then put the video on large sites such as Huffington Post. And, having collected a few hundreds of thousands of views, podorgat strings relationships offline. Producers were able to assess the potential of the singer and signed him. As you can see, the story more than the prosaic.

What came first: the success or social media?

When we see the success of the brand in social networks, we forget that this success primarily occurred offline. Social media - is a platform for bringing people together, making communication more affordable. And if the story is successful offline, mirroring what is happening in social networks, allowing information to travel faster.

The author insists on the controversial claim that history can not be reversed. The world is not aware of any success stories, originally created in social networks and which gained popularity in the offline. And he consistently examines such cases, showing the true situation.

One of the main causes of poor conductivity information in social networks, in the opinion of Mendelssohn, is that people in social networks is not enough close contact with each other. To seriously use the recommendations of other strangers and "spending" more information, more people need close ties with each other than the exchange of huskies once a week.

Why read?

True or not the author's opinion - everyone can decide for himself, assessing the objectivity he gives examples. The book is written in clear, incredibly ironic language that makes it real fun to read. At the same time it allows you to take a sober look at new media and without fanaticism to use social media in everyday life and in solving business problems. The first book will be useful to anyone who works in the field of social media, and marketers who use it as an advertising platform.

"Social media - this is nonsense!" Brandon Mendelson
Buy at amazon