How many of us have an iPhone, Blackberry or other smartphone?
How many of us Tweet, Facebook, YouTube?
The answer is pretty much all of us do. And if you don’t already, you will soon.
This is amazing. Why? It has allowed a huge shift in the way we interact with the people around us, and in the way they interact with us. It’s not only a shift in the way we think, but in the way we behave. Here’s how:
1) We brand ourselves and build tribes.
It can be as simple as updating your Facebook status and then having people “Like” it. Or it can be as sophisticated as building an online empire, complete with blogs, streaming video and a book deal. But either way, this type of activity is the norm now.
What are you passionate about? What do you stand for? What’s your story, your personal narrative? The answer to these questions are important and meaningful. The great thing is there are more ways than ever to answer them. And the even greater thing is that people can respond to what you’re saying and build on it. You can have followers, friends, connections, readers, viewers, and subscribers.
2) We seek out the content that’s meaningful to us, and block out anything that is force-fed.
Photo taken by The Bubble Project www.thebubbleproject.com
Some say traditional marketing is dead. Too harsh? Maybe. But when it comes to traditional methods of reaching an audience, there is more and more clutter and people are getting better at blocking it out. (Read more about the perils of outbound marketing here.)
Want to know where to find something? You Google it. What is the best way to do xyz? Google it. Who is the best at [fill-in-the-blank]? That’s right, Google it! Besides using Google, you watch ad-free TV online, read ad-free content using RSS readers, and listen to ad-free music and news via pod-cast and mp3.
Why does this matter? Well, whether you’re a business or an individual person, you’re going to be marketing yourself in some way. If you’re a person, you might want a job, an opportunity, or some recognition. If you’re a business, you want people to find you, to know about you, and to eventually buy from you. So how do you do this with out sending them junk mail (resumes), or spending money on ads no one cares about anyway?
The key is to create value by creating valuable content — a good blog post, an interesting video, pertinent and timely information. We are out there looking. Give us a reason to find you. Make us come to you. Make it easy. And make it worth while.
3) We use Word-of-Mouth. Times a million.
Think back to a time before mass media. How did people know where to shop, what to buy, and where to go? Word of mouth, that’s how. No doubt, word of mouth has the most clout when it comes to getting people to act. Who are you going to hire, a random resume or someone who has been recommeded to you by a person whose opinion you value?
The same is still true today, but social media has brought word of mouth to the next level. Think retweets, Facebook fan pages, viral video, diggs, and on and on… More and more, this is what drives our decisions and influences our actions.
4) We create and expect information in real-time.
Twitter has brought with it a constant stream of real-time data. What are people doing? What are the hot topics? The breaking news? It all comes at us in up-to-the-second, 140-character blurbs. This is a perspective we’ve never had before. What’s great is that it’s not a one-way street: Not only can you listen to the collective consciousness, you can have a conversation with it.
Clearly, this is game changing.
5) We love “Anytime and Anywhere.”
I think anyone who has a smartphone will tell you that they love it. And by it, I mean the Internet — in their pocket. It’s amazing, really. Life-changing in a way that having a cell phone might have been back in the day. But even more so.
GPS + camera + a constant connection lets us do so much. How we find things, how we pay for things, how we communicate — how we think and behave — are all changing because of it.
Right now “Mobile Internet” is a classification, distinct from the “regular” Internet. Soon there will be no distinction.
And who would I be if I didn’t mention the iPad right about now? There, I mentioned it.
So that’s it. And as always, I’d love to hear what you have to say on the matter.
I leave you with this video essay. It’s the latest and greatest in the “Did you know?” series. I am amazed and inspired every time I watch.