The Organ Grinder’s Monkey

Hugh McCleod has been elaborating on his theory of “social objects” and why they will be shaping the nature of commerce for the foreseeable future (and have been shaping it all along). His recent posts on this are definitely worth a read.

In Social Objects for Beginners (warning: the cartoon that accompanies this post contains language that is NSFW), Hugh gives a quick entry-level definition of what a social object is, and how and why people interact with them.

The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else. Human beings are social animals. We like to socialize. But if think about it, there needs to be a reason for it to happen in the first place. That reason, that “node” in the social network, is what we call the Social Object.

He goes on to offer several examples of different types of social objects, which goes a long way toward making this somewhat abstract idea very understandable and concrete.

He follows up with Why The “Social Object” Is The Future of Marketing, where he delves deeper into the topic of how social objects work (people want to talk about things they share an interest in), why businesses must understand and act on the concept of social objects (if your product isn’t a social object, it’s probably irrelevant), why things were different before (or maybe not), and how the concept of social objects is going to be changing the way business is done.

Now, when you buy something, you don’t phone up the company and order a brochure. You go onto Google and check out what other people- people like yourself- are saying about the product. In terms of communication, the company no longer has first-mover advantage. They don’t ask your company for the brochure until your product has already jumped through a series of hoops that SIMPLY WERE NOT there twenty years ago. (emphasis his)

Go on over and read these two posts. You’ll either find them terrifying or enlightening. Or both.

But ready or not, he makes a good case for why the creation, discovery and sharing of social objects are going to be the heart and soul of commerce and business for the foreseeable future.

The world is changing. What are your customers talking about?

conversation, conversation marketing, hugh macleod, social object, word of mouth

Tags: Conversation Economy //