Awareness

In today's consumer driven online social media landscape we seek permission to engage customers online.

Question is - how to you know if you can't interrupt the flow?

Permission

Most people aren't mind readers so it's important to communicate your desires and goals.

Negotiation

A transactions need not be adversarial - in fact parties may seek collaborative benefits - with effort you can always find common ground solutions.

For example -

"GIVE ME THE CHOP and I'll

1. Look after the house;
2. Won't raid the garbage bin at 1AM tonight and
3. You can keep your left arm :-)

Love Bella the Great Dane"

Conclusion

The days of the everything free on the web are disappearing.  Internet users are going to have to get increasingly use to more interruptive forms of advertising or subscription models if they want high quality content.

Advertisers will need to not only create relevant and entertaining content but also incorporate social media tools and online customer engagement policies.

Awareness - Permission - Negotiation - Conclusion.

Connection Addiction - pull out the plug

Don't you hate it if you're talking to someone and they take a call or worse receive and reply to a text.  You're better to concentrate on the task at hand and let the message go through to the keeper.

Anyway, I'm due for a new phone and have been thinking about a Crackberry (Blackberry) so that I can check emails all the time. On the other hand all this technology is increasingly intrusive to our lives. 

My question is how much value does instant messaging really add to corporate communications? 

I read yesterday that there is an increasing number of people who, when they first wake up of a morning check their computers or phones for messages - even before a pee and a cup of coffee - "I'm not alone!" I cry but then I realise I've got "Connection Addiction!" - YOU KNOW that one message that has to be replied to in an instant.

When you think about it - what a load of crapola!

How do we deal with this constant flow of information?  Are new skill sets required?

"Shallow rivers run fast, think strategic" I hear my dad say.

I look around my office - I currently have four screens on my desk - two for each computer - my laptop and my desktop - geez I'm in deeper than I thought! 

1. One has my Skype account,
2. TweetDeck (Twitter client) and Woopra live web tracking,
3. my emails (multiple accounts)
4. my web browser

Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr and all that other social connection stuff are accessed through the day - they run from early morning till late.

It's madness but I suppose that's the business I'm in - it's no wonder it's a challenge for most businesses to comprehend and implement.  It's not like a 9-5 shop.

I wonder what would happen if I just suddenly turned them all off or took back control  

• limiting emails to 2 or 3 x 1 hour sessions a day - setting up auto reply to let senders know you'll get back within 24 hours or to call if urgent. 
• Twitter at periodic coffee breaks.  (the water cooler metaphor)
• Facebook to social times (the pub metaphor)

What would the prospects and clients think?  How would it impact sales?  Would more important work get done?

I know from my pub and call centre management days that response time is very important but what about web businesses?

So anyway we'll see - brb - the phones ringing!

Interested in your thoughts?

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Quality Rises to the Top

Last month we mentioned a great video from a Sony/BMG conference in Rome 2008 about the exponential develop of technology - the articles also showed a 1957 RAND computer promotional video, the key point the core messages about technology growth are the same.  

Anyway, the old link was broken but happily the video reappeared today via a viral email - such is the fundamental principle that quality content and production tends to rise to the top - by that I mean it engages with the audience (builds brand), informs (WIIFM for the viewer/ consumer) and motivates action (ie Seth's megaphone/ Forresters Technographics - to consume to create).

If it was Sony that put the video out into cyberspace then well done - this is clever thought leader branding.  

I should point out that the raw content is based on a slide show called Shift Happens

Some points

• China will soon be the #1 English speaking nation in the world
• Todays learner will have 10-14 jobs....but the age of 38!
• The top 10 in demand jobs did not exist in 2004
• There are over 2.7B searches on Google each month
• There are more then 3,000 new books published every day
• The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years
• By 2010 it is expected to double every 72 hours
• By 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computation capabilities of the entire human species  (note: see creative economy) 

The facts are we adapt, the Y gens of today will be considered the dinosours of their grand children and so on.  One thing that stays constant in the world of change is the human connection - friendship, wisdom, trust and creativity.