C. Value Added Selling and the Social Media Dragonfly



I. Value Added Selling

use slim blue dragonfly as well

IV. Dragonfly Dynamics - Social Media

    Dragonflies' larvae (nymphs) are aquatic, so they live near bodies of water. They are predators and, with their two pairs of transparent wings, some of the fastest insects in the world. (A species in Australia has been clocked at almost 60 miles (97 km.) an hour.) They eat ants, flies, mosquitoes, sometimes bees and, rarely, butterflies.  

 Tau Emerald Dragonfly*



    In many European countries -- examples include England, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Rumania -- they have sinister vernacular names. In contrast, in Japan dragonflies are associated with courage and happiness. The Japanese view is at least in part reflected in one of the best books written so far about the workings of social media, The Dragonfly Effect.1 In it the four author team uses the wings of the dragonfly as a leitmotiv, as explained in the footnote. Their analogy is adapted here.

    If E-Mail and pdf files are the butterflys of the modern communications world, then social media are its dragonflies. The four wings of the dragonfly must have a synchronous rhythm for it to fly at speed, indeed, for it to fly at all. The wings may be taken as representing the four essential elements of on-line videos: (1) seizing an individual's attention, (2) a broad reach, i.e. number of viewers (SEO), (3) engaging viewers' interest (content) and (4) eliciting a reponse - by a call to a specific action (opt-in, completing a survey, making a purchase).



1 Jennifer Aaker, Andy Smith, Don Arily and Chip Heath, The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change, 2010. The well written book describes the behavorial variables that drive the impact of social media. It includes a moving case study about trying to locate bone marrow for two leukemia victims. In the book a dragonfly's four wings represent Focus, Grab Attention, Engage and Take Action.


* Tau Emerald dragonfly (Hemicordula tau) Fir0002, flagstaffotos.au.com, Swifts Creek, Victoria, Sept. 2007, GFDL GNU 1.2 Note - can E-Mail to request less restrictive commercial license for these image (E-mail is highlighted in blue in the Wikipedia article on dragonflies, 2011).