Earlier today I mentioned on Twitter that I was going to sell my Samsung NC10 as I’ve bought a MacBook Air. I wasn’t really expecting a response, but within minutes I had an email from somebody interested in it; a few emails later the funds are in my PayPal account and my Samsung is ready to ship.
This feels like quite a significant moment; selling via social media rather than “traditional” channels. Who’d have thought that we might regard eBay as old hat so quickly. In the time it would have taken me to list my notebook on eBay I’d sold it via Twitter with no hassle and no fees.
It’s doubly interesting to me as over the last year eBay seem to have been systematically dismantling the community aspect of their site with changes to process and most importantly feedback which now favour the buyer rather than the seller. It was this community rating of both buyers and sellers that was eBay’s USP I felt, and the thing that gave people the confidence to trade with unknown buyers and sellers. eBay is becoming an online shopping mall rather than a community powered site.
Social Media is all about connecting people and it shows in how many different ways those connections can work for us.
I’m the NC10 buyer!. I’m not a member of twitter myself but a colleague told me she found the laptop for sale in a search. Clicking through to your blog link and then from there to your linked in account (with plenty of recommendations!) gave me enough confidence to go for the purchase.
I’m an avid eBay customer and agree with your comments regarding the disintegration of the community feedback aspect, this time I relied on evidence of an online reputation.
Thanks for your comment. I did find it interesting that you emailed me rather than sending a message via Twitter and this would explain why.
It’s interesting that you used another, unconnected network to gain an insight into my reputation; without the formal structure of eBay it was a very clever replacement.
What we have here is an example of whuffie in action pretty much as applied to social networks by the lovely Tara Hunt. I’m pleased my whuffie was sufficient.
Right, now to box up your NC10…