Mitch Joel on Social Media

I really agree with Mitch's example of how his 14 year old niece is more engaged with reading and communicating than teens were twenty years ago when television was the most popular medium.

*Loved* the timing of the Cuckoo clock!

The most interesting thing that hit me from this topic, was when Mitch was talking about the negative and positive reviews of products and how the negative reviews reinforce effective marketing of products. He says that consumers are looking for "real people," and the fact that companies will allow negative comments to be made about their products shows that they still believe in their own products and are not trying to hide anything...so consumers trust them more because they see the faults and it makes them feel like they are dealing with "real people." This is completely true, because I know when I am looking at a product online and I see many great reviews, I wonder, well there has got to be something wrong with it...and then when I see that one negative review that tells how they don't like just one feature, I feel the product is more real and if I don't really care about that one feature then I am more inclined to buy because I feel as if I had heard both sides of the story: the good and the bad of the product.

Mitch is extremely intelligent and easy to listen to, he made some great points in this interview.

Rather than citing social media such as Facebook and Twitter as distractions to real life interactions, I'd say the emphasis and value of continued use of social networking has made them actual real life interactions. It's no face-to-face conversation, but you can't devalue the pivotal role of online communication plays in our lives today.

I like how he brings up the issue of what newspapers are going to sell, either advertising or content. Since newspapers have always made profit from advertising means, they will need to really change their methods for online usage, especially if they are going to charge for content.

I thought it was interesting when he was talking about how being fast paced does not necessarily work all the time. It makes sense that you would have to build trust and make a voice in a community to make things happen.

He kind of lost me for a while. Then he said "one trick pony."

This was a very interesting interview. I like some of the things that he talked about with multi-tasking, and how much information we absorb at one time in today's society. I mean, even with something like this interview -- I was checking Facebook and my email while I listened. You really do have to do so much more at one time just to keep up, but it doesn't seem to eat away at your time.

Interesting ideas, like his comment that this technology is changing us as people. Ironically, I don't have a Facebook or a blog and I've never used Twitter or Skype. I wonder if he thinks that I should become involved with these things for the sake of my own success in this new communication revolution. I feel like much of these social media networks are more of a distraction to real live interactions than anything else.

This is interesting stuff. He really lays out everything thats going on with social media and how it's changing the game.