<\/p>\n
The Five Eras of the Social Web:<\/strong><\/p>\n
1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share
\n2) Era of Social Functionality: Social networks become like operating system
\n3) Era of Social Colonization: Every experience can now be social
\n4) Era of Social Context: Personalized and accurate content
\n5) Era of Social Commerce: Communities define future products and services<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhy not skip to step 5 now and jump ahead of the competition?\u00a0 We have the technology already, even if you have to get a bit scrappy.\u00a0 Yes social commerce is going to be a cleaner experience in the future, but it is fully possible today.<\/p>\n
Polling audiences and focus grouping ideas\/new products behind closed doors, in controlled settings is fast becoming a thing of the past.\u00a0 What is possible (and cheap) right now is testing ideas, content, products and marketing creative in the wild.\u00a0 Then, let your community decide what you bring to market.<\/p>\n
Entities like traditional ad agencies and large brands spend tremendous sums focus grouping ideas and concepts in a vacuum to share data with stakeholders and get buy-in to move forward in the real world.\u00a0 It\u2019s the way things have been done for ages.\u00a0 Now you can do better.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of ways for getting more accurate data than that which can be acquired in controlled settings.\u00a0 This used to be cost-prohibitive and testing in a laboratory was easier.\u00a0 Now the two have flipped.<\/p>\n
In a world where you are able to easily connect with end users, you can directly communicate with them and learn just what they want instead of working in artificial settings to deliver what you think they might want.\u00a0 The advantages to this are numerous:<\/p>\n
Positions you as a favored option<\/strong><\/p>\n
Direct to consumer is a huge trend, and connecting directly with fans for new product ideas shows that your company deeply embraces this philosophy.\u00a0 It also shows you actually care about their input and positions you as the lesser evil, making you a better choice than your competitors.<\/p>\n
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PR value, links, attention
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nAt the end of my post on\u00a0objective vs. subjective,\u00a0I touched on the idea of sharing data gathered from your audience.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve built a niche-specific audience carefully over time, the data provided may prove interesting enough to be re-blogged, get links, shares in the social web and perhaps even find its way into mainstream media.\u00a0 Good ideas and\u00a0experiments\u00a0attract attention.<\/p>\n
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Cheaper than laboratory settings<\/strong><\/p>\n
It used to be cost-prohibitive, perhaps impossible to connect with end users at scale.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s simple, and paying expensive research firms to test ideas in a vacuum is both more expensive and less authentic.<\/p>\n
Strong community-building strategy
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nIf you connect users not just to your products and ideas in a two way street, but in a multi-directional format you will forge real connections, which inevitably inspires more growth.<\/p>\n
Feedback provides a stream of creative ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n
When you\u2019ve build a platform to test ideas and products with users and provide the ability to share feedback instantly you\u2019ll open the faucet of creative ideas.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n
Certainly don\u2019t ignore bringing good internal ideas to market, but it is starting to make little sense to spend arduous hours and large sums to test ideas in lab settings when you can effectively do it yourself in the wild.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t an entirely new idea, and some savvy companies have been embracing this philosophy for years.<\/p>\n
What few have embraced is a total yielding of product, marketing and brand to the web and the community.\u00a0 Inevitably new companies will spring up designed for this, and they will slowly leech market share from the bigger players, forcing them to also listen to their communities.\u00a0 Large consumer brands of today weren\u2019t designed to take advantage of this.<\/p>\n
Designing a company specifically to cater to passionate audiences and letting them dictate the future is an exciting prospect.\u00a0 If you were 100% dedicated to pleasing them and continually delivered what they wanted, you would in time rally a huge group of passionate users behind you.\u00a0\u00a0 Being a part of shaping the future of products people are truly interested in would prove an irresistible option for consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Five Eras of the Social Web: 1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share 2) … <\/p>\n