Feb 7, 2012 Posted in Fun and Inspiration, Marketing Ideas

Socialnomics by Erik Qualman

I know I’m behind the times in my reading material but I’ve just started reading “Socialnomics” by Erik Qualman.  So far it is a fascinating read and I suspect it will only get better.

Right out of the gate Qualman talks about the demise of traditional newspapers and media channels as we know them.  I recently posted very similar thoughts on my post after the Vancouver riots a few days ago.

I haven’t read enough of the book yet to intelligently comment on it but I did want to mention one thing.  Qualman cites Dancing Matt early on as an example of the potential power of social media and more importantly, the potential of social media to allow people to make a living doing what they love to do.

If you’re not familiar with Matt, he is a dude that was famous among his friends for a goofy dance that he did.  He got sick of the rat race and started travelling for fun. One of his buddies asked him to do his dance “over there”, filmed it and eventually put it on YouTube.

Long story short, Matt’s videos became wildly successful and Stride gum approached him and now sponsors his travels.  Matt is doing what he loves to do and Stride gum is getting MASSIVE exposure for very little costs.  Last I checked the video below had nearly 38 million views.  That is just one of Matt’s many videos.  Amazing!!