The Trends in a Nutshell
No. 1: Human-Centric Businesses
Business used to be about companies. Now its about people.
No. 2: Collaborative Markets
Markets are no longer about selling to buyers, but collaborating with them to develop better and more sustainable solutions.
No. 3: Sustainable Communities
Organizations of people are evolving from exclusivity to inclusiveness. This creates more sustainable communities where members place their trust in each other.
What do you see for your business?
The Evolution of this Perfect Storm
All of these trends are simultaneously converging to create a perfect storm of opportunity for businesses, especially small or entrepreneurial business that are characterized as having personal relationships with customers.
If you go back to the late '50's and early '60's, there was an emerging technology that changed the world of marketing. That technology was television. In the midst of an expanding post-World War II economy, middle class consumers embraced television. Television had reach. People had discretionary income. And all of this created a new era of consumerism that helped make many brands household names.
Television was a marketing technology that made everything more expansive by bringing it to a larger stage, and that fit perfectly with the growing economy. What followed was a love affair with the automobile, highly stylized fashions, and countless consumer products guaranteed to make your life a dream! Those companies were at the right place at the right time to capitalize on the converging trends of the day. Needless to say, some of those industries and companies are faltering today.
Human-Centric Business is Local
If you are an entrepreneur, YOU are now at the right place at the right time.
The technology that is transforming the business environment in your favor is social media marketing. It is giving everyone a voice at a period when people have gone through some tough experiences. They want to move forward, but it is still uncertain where this economy is going. Until that happens, they are looking for people to trust. This means they are going to be doing business in their local communities.
This is why every Fortune 500 corporation has a presence on social media. They know that business is going local. They are seeing how social media is leveling the playing field to create equal opportunities for every company. In a nutshell, they want to be more like you.
Your challenge is to be who you are, a human-centric business that is willing to reach out even further than you already have. Social media is a tool that is ideally suited for that, and most significantly, it's influence is sustainable.
What's the next step? Collaboration.
This morning I am presenting these trends to a group of green industry CEO's here in AL. I'm sure our collaborative time together will generate rich insights. I look forward to sharing them with you on parts 2 and 3 of this series.
Until then, leave a comment and tell me what you are seeing?
