the hurricane inside my brain

photo: sydney

Damien Basile guest post

The title of the article is meant to invoke a sense of what is to come, not to just talk about companies but how they will relate to you in a more integrated way. In this article I’ll take a look at what I feel is coming down the pipeline for these areas. The future isn’t set in stone and neither are these predictions. Companies are already starting to track your habits. In the future it will just get more intuitive.

Extreme personalization

Companies will start utilizing your tracking data not only to target you at point of purchase but to craft full experiential life profiles for you. You will also offer up information that is more personal/emotional that can not be tracked, that exists inside you. Think of this as your Personal Purchasing Profile (3P), completely tailored to your every desire.

Imagine if you will a 3P that lists everything and anything you or anyone else would ever want to know about you. With the 3P there will not only be breadth but depth too. All nuances will be delved into as well as all areas you could ever want or know. Your 3P will be segmented into different areas with different permissions for them. Settings will be on a sliding scale of privacy with how much and what you want to share with who.

Hyper specific communications

Companies will be able to tell who, what, where, when and why you are. You heard me- WHY you are.

Geolocation technology is being popularized now, especially in mobile technoligies such as the iPhone. Mobile providers know where you are at all times even without this just by triangulating your position. All of these 5W’s will be cross checked with your 3P to accurately pinpoint what is going on with you at every single exact moment of your life. This integration of brands into your life will happen in a non-intrusive way that enhances your experiences.

Relevantly aggregated information

Information, regardless of sender, will be aggregated into relevant channels. Whatever criteria you preset as a favorite to watch out will be cross checked against infinite amounts of data. Priority will be given to companies who sponsor keywords to target you in the keyplaces and keytimes they’ve chosen.

Amount- speed and velocity

You will choose how much and how fast you receive sponsored results. This will be on a targeted grid that will form more of a web in 3-dimensional space rather than a sliding scale. Linear will be replaced with the multi-spacial for targeting and graphing, as the sheer amount of information will scoff in the face of two directions and two dimensions.

Easter eggs and planned obsolescence

Targeted ads will surprise you at specific locations as you pass them. They will also come seemingly out of nowhere when you must ‘act now’ because there is a limited amount of time to take advantage of the offer.

Multimedia convergence

Advertisements tend to be very linear depending on their channel of delivery. Print is print; video is video. Companies will begin to focus on the immersive experience where many different technologies and multimedia will come together to create a wholly enriched environment. Think all of your senses being as well as inner aspects of you being engaged fully.

Intuitive suggestion and prediction

Building on top of your wants, needs, desires and purchases will be a system for accurately predicting what you will want before you even know you want it. Suggesting of similar products will become more fine tuned to the nuances of categories so instead of someone offering you another type of thing from the category you will now be offered something exactly like the first thing PLUS something that builds on all the characteristics of what you covet. The prediction technology will take into account your patterns, trends occurring and the details of what you like to accurately tell you what you will like.

Choose your own adventure

There are so many companies out there now it can be confusing. You will see detailed lists of companies where you can opt-out of them or their specific service promotions for a set period of time. This will add to your 3P where you effectively choose certain products and companies over others. Companies will take advantage of this to purchase your favor.

Non-traditional synergies

Besides aligning with obvious partners, companies will start to partner with others who don’t normally fit their pattern of business interaction. Ranging from individuals and customer groups to completely out of the ballpark product categories, businesses will start to focus on values and emotions for a mutual engagement plan as opposed to focusing on benefits and features currently.

Automatic feed channels

You can already receive multimedia and news feeds by signing up for them. Multimedia and advertisements will come to a place where they will use your 3P to send things AUTOMATICALLY to you based on a variety of factors- time of day, location, who you are with, state of mind/emotions, weather, breaking news etc. Multimedia and companies will communicate with each other behind the scenes to make your automatic feed channel a smoother experience. Whatever synergies they can find in your life as well as between both of their content they will align them in your feed so you don’t have to.

Life sponsors

Mining information from your 3P, companies will hyper target situations in your life to more accurately serve you. They may even pay you to have the privilege to sponsor that moment of your life. It may range from an extremely important moment where you may want your favorite company involved to something fleeting where you may not care about companies being involved. It comes down to your outlook on certain companies and situations as well as what your 3P says about you. An Evangelist is more likely to have their favorite brand be a major part of a family function. A Casual Consumer is more likely to have a helpful brand around any random time that isn’t of any particular value to them.

These are just some of my thoughts where I see the future of how brands will fit into our lives. Information is coming harder and faster every day. Pretty soon the signal will turn to noise. Out of this noise you will see technologies emerge to turn the noise back to a highly focused clean signal. Things are getting better every day. Pay attention to the signs.

photo: wetwebwork

I used to think that the word “value” was the most overused, least meaningful word in the English language. People kept telling me: “In social media, you need give people something of value.” But what was that? Information? News? A how-to guide? Entertainment? Just something random and bizarrely interesting? A beautiful sentence? Surely there could be value in ANY of those things.

But then I discovered a meaning that makes sense to me.

And in the end, it seemed so obvious, that I felt a little stupid for not getting it before. So with that said, I will share it with you. : )

People come together in a community because they share common values. It may be common interests (knitting, photography, golf). It may be shared ideas, such a political views or religion. It could be  excitement around a product, or even a shared sense of humor. But whatever it is – people come together because they realize they only have a limited amount of time in this world and they want to spend their time doing the things they think are most important. And it’s nice to have others who share those values – people who think the same things are interesting or equally important.

So when I think about what to give a group of people that *has* value, I think about what values they share that brought them together in the first place.

This leads me down the following paths when creating things of value:

> Advice, information, how-tos that help the group as a whole will have value.

> An idea that is relevant to your group but gets them to see things in a new light will have value.

> Things that are funny because only people who are in that group really understand what you’re saying will have value.

> Something random and bizarrely interesting will have value only to those people in your group who happen to find that particular thing also interesting. Another way to look at this is that if your group is large enough, everything will have value to *someone* in it.

> News about what’s going on out there in the world has value when either: a) it relates back to the group or b) you are one of the first to pass it on. (it’s truly NEW, and thus the newness itself connects people).

> Sometimes advertisers try to connect their product to a group of people by associating it with what’s happening in the world. They try to jump on trends as a way of connecting people to their product. It works when there truly is a connection between the product and the trend. It rings false when there isn’t.

> If something has value to my group, I have a public conversation about it. If something has value only to an individual, I have a private conversation.

> If you have created a community, or group, or following or whatever that was created randomly, haphazardly and does not share certain values, it will be *extremely* difficult to figure out what is valuable to them.

There are those of us (and some days, I admit to being one of them) who want to find the one thing that *everyone in the world* will find interesting. And there are some things that are universally appeally: stories of men landing on the moon, or a pilot landing a plane on the Hudson.

But it’s really really hard to send a man to the moon or land a plane on the Hudson river every day.

And if you want to get out there and talk to a group of people every day, in a way that has value to them, I’d try this: first, think about what their shared values are.

photo: visulogik

It’s a Wednesday morning. Or a Monday afternoon. Or Thursday at lunchtime. I’m in a huge conference room with seventeen people or at a tiny table in Starbucks. There are people who I’ve never met. There is the person I’ve known for years. Sometimes I’m in my maroon suit, sometimes in jeans. I am a Social Media consultant, although, quite frankly, I have no idea how I got that title. It seems to have acquired me. As usual, I’m toting a strategic, creative, thoughtful presentation specifically designed for that meeting. All I have to do is get through my introduction.

It’s my turn to talk. I speak my name, and a few bits about my background. How I come from traditional advertising. Have been an art director, copywriter, CEO. And then I launch into what I believe.

“I believe two things. One, I believe that almost every business problem can be solved with social media. And two, I believe that in the very near future, all media will be social media.”

Invariably the clients will put down their pens, cross their arms. If there’s an ad agency person in the room, they lick their lips. Look a little nervous.

“Social media connects things. It connects people who want to buy with people who want to sell. It connects people who share similar values who never before would have known each other. It connects brand evangelists with people who have never heard of a brand. It connects people who have information with people who need information. People who have resources with people who need resources. And social media connects problems with solutions.

Can you imagine doing business without a phone? Without a computer? Social media at its best is the best of those two things combined. You can broadcast to thousands and talk to an individual. Often simultaneously. You can communicate your core values as a business, not through marketing-speak, but through what you think and say and do and how you treat people.

Here’s how it works best. In the old days, if you were a business, you only gave somebody something of value at the time of the purchase transaction. “Give me two dollars, I will give you a hamburger.” Nothing of value was given to the consumer until that two dollars was safely in the cash register.

But in this new world order, you find or create networks of people who share similar values. Because they share values, it is easy to figure out something they actually consider valuable. Go ahead. Give that to them. Before they make a single financial transaction, give them something of value and watch what happens. Give them information. Give them tools. Give them entertainment and thinking and connections and stuff they can use. Give them connections. Give them kindness.

‘But what will I get in return?’, you ask. That’s what everyone asks – if you invest – yes, invest – if you give away something of value before the financial transaction, what can you expect to get in return? In return you get people who are engaged with you and with each other. People who share your passion and the things you believe in. Your product. Your service. Your commitment to the world. In return, you get people who have a commonality of purpose. People who talk to you, who tell you what you could be doing better. People who act. And yes, people who buy.

The ROI for everyone is that you help solve your consumers problem and they help solve your business problems.

So let’s discuss your business problems. And together, let’s strategize a creative solution using social media. Because, as I said earlier, I believe social media can solve almost any business problem you might have. And that’s the reason – the only reason – that I believe in the near future, all media will be social media.

Are you ready to begin?”

A couple of things happened yesterday that got me thinking about life in this brave new world of social media. Each gave me an insight which was cool in its own way, but combined they gave me an “aha” so big I couldn’t wait to run out and tell the world.

1.) I saw some interesting blog comments. Surprising? Not a bit. But in several cases, I wanted to take ONE sentence, one insight, out of context and post it on Twitter. Obviously give credit to the person who said it, but without having to explain where the comment came from. It took me a while, but with help from @jakrose and @CoCreatr others I learned I could permalink to the blog comment itself (look for the link as a number near the comment, then shorten link with bit.ly). Obvious, once shown how. This led me to discuss with people that I wanted to be known as “Chief Bubbler” ~ someone who would bubble up the insights from comments on blog posts that might otherwise get hidden from view.

2.) I figured out the difference between Social Networking and Social Media. Okay, this is another thing that SEEMS like it should be obvious, right? But for the longest time, I couldn’t really articulate it clearly. Then, I got it. Social Networking is the connections between people, and the conversations you have with those people. Social Media is the sharing of content between people in those networks.

There’s some overlap, of course. Conversations become content, for one thing. But it helps me, strategically, to separate them in my own mind. Networking is something I do with individuals, focusing on the relationships I have with people and their interconnections. Social media is finding, creating and exchanging content that has value to like-minded groups of people.

3.). Media We is born. So I’m thinking about all this yesterday. The definition of media, and the creation of content. And the fact that I want to find new and unusual content that people don’t usually see. Content of value. But in order to do that, I have to research, and I have to edit, and I have to attribute properly, and make sure I’m sharing content *responsibly*.

As I’m thinking, I’m messaging people who have blogs, and I’m asking those people if I can set guidelines with them about how I can best use their content. And I think to myself: “I feel like all of a sudden I’m head of  *media relations* somewhere.”

“In fact, I feel like I’ve just been named CEO of my own personal media company. Media We.”

How the heck did that happen?

What do you think? Anyone else feel like they started their own personal media business without even knowing it?

photo: mrbill

I’ve heard it said that you need to try a brand new food five times before you really like it. (Try this, it’s a fun experiment!).

And I’ve also heard it said that it takes five impressions for an individual to actually internalize an advertising message.

So I’m wondering if the idea of “5 times” is applicable to how we engage with people in Social Media. If it takes 5 times connecting with other someone else before we trust them, say. Or 5 encounters before we are truly engaged with them. Or 5 times hearing someone’s name before they are “on our radar”.

What do you think? Would that change anything for you if it were true?