"Increasingly, consumers don't search for products and services. Rather, services come to their attention via social media"
About this Quote
Qualman is naming the quiet flip in power that made the last decade feel like a slot machine: you dont go looking; the feed finds you. The line is blunt because the shift is blunt. Search implies a problem you chose to solve, a desire you can articulate, a moment of agency. Social discovery works differently: it manufactures the moment when you suddenly feel you need something, then hands you a frictionless way to buy it.
The intent is partly diagnostic, partly promotional. Qualman made a career translating social media into business advantage, and this quote is a compact brief to marketers: stop waiting to be queried; engineer attention upstream. Underneath is a worldview where demand is not merely captured but cultivated. The consumer becomes less of a hunter and more of a target, tracked across interests, moods, and micro-identities.
The subtext is about infrastructure. "Come to their attention" is passive phrasing that politely skips the machinery: recommendation algorithms, influencer economies, paid amplification, and the metrics that reward outrage, aspiration, and envy. Discovery through social isnt just serendipity; its an industrial process that blends entertainment with commerce until the distinction barely matters.
Context matters here: the decline of organic reach in search for many categories, the rise of TikTok and Instagram as de facto product catalogs, and a generation trained to treat taste-making as a communal sport. Qualmans sentence works because it reframes marketing not as persuasion at the point of purchase, but as narrative placement in the stream of identity. In that world, the best product isnt the one you find; its the one that finds you at the exact second you are most persuadable.
The intent is partly diagnostic, partly promotional. Qualman made a career translating social media into business advantage, and this quote is a compact brief to marketers: stop waiting to be queried; engineer attention upstream. Underneath is a worldview where demand is not merely captured but cultivated. The consumer becomes less of a hunter and more of a target, tracked across interests, moods, and micro-identities.
The subtext is about infrastructure. "Come to their attention" is passive phrasing that politely skips the machinery: recommendation algorithms, influencer economies, paid amplification, and the metrics that reward outrage, aspiration, and envy. Discovery through social isnt just serendipity; its an industrial process that blends entertainment with commerce until the distinction barely matters.
Context matters here: the decline of organic reach in search for many categories, the rise of TikTok and Instagram as de facto product catalogs, and a generation trained to treat taste-making as a communal sport. Qualmans sentence works because it reframes marketing not as persuasion at the point of purchase, but as narrative placement in the stream of identity. In that world, the best product isnt the one you find; its the one that finds you at the exact second you are most persuadable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marketing |
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