Social objects as marketing

Shel Israel's new show on FastCompany.tv is now up and running. In one of his first interviews, Shel sits down with Gaping Void's Hugh MacLeod. In their discussion, Hugh talks about social objects, and their subset of social markers,  as the future of marketing in a social environment.

I tend to agree with Hugh and I love how this concept makes social media more attainable. You create something cool that benefits others and then let them know about it through social connections. If they accept your cool thing they will spread it around. If they don't like it the idea will die.

Per Hugh, a social object 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.

Similarly, the social marker is an object (person, place, thing) that allows two people to put a social object into context. If, for example, you are at a charity dinner and you start talking with somebody about venture capital, you both may drop some names to let the other person know you are in the same social sphere.

Here is Shel's video with Hugh.

This idea happens all of the time and is a great bit of ethnography by Hugh to bring it to light and give it such an approachable and simple name.

What social objects do you have in your life/business? Are you doing something cool enough to get people to talk about you? What social markers do you use to identify people with similar interests and ideals?