Opportunity abounds for marketers and content providers that get this: Amazon is leveraging the Kindle Fire and its treasure trove of media offerings as a means to a much greater end than competing with Apple's iPad.

The meteoric advance of Facebook and the precipitous fall of Netflix this past week were a consequence of the same three tenets of success in a volatile business market: use social connections as a means to a greater end, make change to create value, and respect consumer behavior.