Must-watch TED talks on Social Media and Marketing

by Swati on April 29th, 2011

The internet is replete with great social media blogs, where we can find valuable tips and advice on social media marketing. Apart from reading blogs, I love listening to talks about social media on TED, YouTube and other platforms. Here are some of my favorite social media talks on TED. Watch them to gain new insights, gather some great ideas and find the much needed inspiration to succeed in the social media space.

Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media

By stating the example of the phenomenal success of Greenpeace’s “Save Mr. Splashy Pants”campaign, to raise awareness about humpback whales that were being threatened by the Japanese Fisheries, Alexis Ohanian co-founder of Reddit tells us about what works on the online space, how we can capture the interest of others, the importance of being genuine, and the need for adding an element of fun in our marketing and social media campaigns.

Seth Godin: Standing out

In a world that is crowded with marketers, advertisers and with too many options to choose from, the obvious thing to do is ignore the ordinary. When it comes to getting the attention of consumers and to build a successful brand, the bizarre and unique ideas are more successful than the common ones, says marketing guru Seth Godin.

Howard Rheingold: Collaboration

A writer, artist, designer and community builder, Howard Rheingol talks about the emerging trend of collaboration and collective action. The success of Wikipedia, the rise of crowdsourcing platforms and the constant focus on community building, indicate that a community of people can achieve a lot more and cause a bigger change, than an individual alone.

Dan Cobley: What physics taught me about marketing

Physics and Marketing- Dan beautifully connects these two disparate fields providing us with rules of marketing based on the Physics laws that we have studied in school. Based on the law “The force equals mass times acceleration”, he says “The more massive a brand, the more baggage it has and more force is needed to change its positioning”. The Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle provides us with the marketing lesson that “The act of observation changes consumer behavior”. In marketing terms, the law “Entropy will always increase”, says “Your brand is more dispersed and you have to find a way to work with it”.

Jeff Bezos: The Next Web Innovation

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos draws interesting comparisons between the 1849 Gold Rush, where they took over $700 million worth of gold out of California, with the internet boom of today. The discovery of inexhaustible gold mines in California caused people to leave what they were doing and pursue the Gold Rush. Now it’s the internet that is creating a similar buzz all over the world.

John Gerzema: The Post- Crisis Consumer

John Gerzema talks about how the financial crisis has brought in a positive change in the consumer behavior, and shows how businesses are adjusting to the idea of thoughtful spending by the consumers. Now the consumers have become more selective. By restricting their demands, consumers can align their values with their spending, and drive capitalism and business, to not just be about more, but be about better, he says.

David Pogue: Simplicity Sells

New York Times columnist David Pogue tells how simplicity is the key to sell products, in the current technology driven world. When you are creating products, the hard part is not deciding what features to add, but it’s about what features to leave out, and how to make the device more simple.

Hope you enjoyed listening to these talks. Did I miss something? Comment and let me know your favorite social media talks.

Image courtesy of Corbis, Tom Grill