Phil Lauterjung

Every once in a while another blogger posts something so profound that it gets repeated over and over.  About a month ago David Allison of Braun/Allison posted 5 Social Trends that bear watching and repeating.  I tweeted it once and it became the most re-tweeted article I sent out last month.

Every business owner and manager should keep a copy of this and refer to it often.  It’s that important for the future of your business.

Here are the 5 trends with a little added commentary on my part:

1. People want more information. About everything. Whatever business you are in your customers, and future customers, are searching for information regarding your products and services.  Every day.  Your web site needs to have that information and make it easy to find and digest.
2. Consumers expect dialogue. Not only do they want information, but they want to talk about it.  With your customers.  With their friends.  With you and your employees.  With anyone that might know something about that particular product or service.  But, they don’t want to be sold.  Start pitching too soon in the conversation and they’ll be gone.  However, you do need to be responsive – and quick about it.
3. Consumers are searching for authenticity. Trust is big, no make that huge. They want real, honest answers to their questions.  Even questions that you might think are dumb.  They want to know that you care as much, or more, about them as you do about making money.
4. Traditional advertising is working less effectively. Most of your customers see it as hype.  They know they’re being sold at, not talked with.  There’s an old cliche that is often repeated, but it’s true – people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.  Put that one on your office, or cubicle, wall.
5. Social media networking sites have become mainstream. You may think that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are a waste of time; but, many of your customers don’t.  And they are talking to each other about your product or service.  Are you listening?  Social media sites provide one of the best marketing research tools to come along.  And they are free.  Social media is not a fad.  It is dramatically changing the way many collect and process information.

David finished off his article with a list of statistics that are well worth keeping in mind as we think about the 5 trends listed above.

• By 2010 Generation Y will outnumber Baby boomers.
• 96% of them have joined a social network.
• Social media has eclipsed porn as the number one activity on the web.
• If Facebook were a country it would be the 4th largest in the world.
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55 to 65 year old females.
• Generation Y and Z consider email passé; In 2009 Boston college stopped giving incoming    freshmen email addresses.
• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with 100M videos.
• There are more than 200M blogs, and more than half post content or tweet daily.
• 14% of people trust ads. 78% say they trust social media peers.
• 25% of Americans watched a short video last month. On their phone.
• 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation.
• We no longer search for the news. The news finds us. Soon, products will find us too.
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook, daily.

Are you ready for how to use these changes to grow your business?  What are you currently doing to join in and learn?  What do you find challenging and what have you learned that works for you?  Share your thoughts in the comments area.  Let’s learn from each other.

Photo Credit: © xdominant7 – Fotolia.com

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