The Organ Grinder’s Monkey

Over at Gaping Void, Hugh is going on again about social objects:

4. My overall marketing thesis invariably asks the question, “If your product is not a Social Object, why are you in business?”

Social objects are one of my new, favorite marketing concepts. The problem is, it’s one of those concepts that is so important to get, at a very deep and implementable level, and yet at the same time so difficult to nail down in concrete terms for someone who doesn’t know what they are or who doesn’t get their importance.

So just what is a “social object?” It’s something that draws people together, something they can share, talk about, play with and so on. It can be a movie, a religion, a piece of gadgetry, a food item or even just a sound (remember the Teen Buzz, aka “mosquito ringtone,” phenomenon?). Social objects create a “memespace” that is shared by all those folks who flock around it and play with it, allowing them to interact, connect and interconnect at a deeper level than they ever could otherwise. Social networks (known to some business folks as “markets”) may spring up around social objects but, as Hugh points out in this piece, the object always comes first. Photos were around long before Flickr.

Here’s what I think is one of the most important take-aways:

11. The interesting thing about the Social Object is the not the object itself, but the conversations that happen around them. The Blue Monster is a good example of this. It’s not the cartoon that’s interesting, it’s the conversatuons (sic) that happen around it that’s interesting.

What conversations are you customers having about your products or services? Who are they sharing it with? Why? If you don’t know, or if the answer is “none, no one and no reason” that should scare you.

Tags: Blogs and Blogging, Business, Conversation Economy, Social Media, Society and Culture //