Isn’t it crazy how, in the past 2 to 5 years, communication has gone, well, crazy? Changes used to move so much slower, and lately, it seems like they’re only picking up speed. Five years ago I was happy with my grayscale Motorola LCD flip phone—okay, it was kinda old-school even then, but it did the job. Everyone was trying to get a website, because you should, and if it did much more than serve as an online brochure, then you were innovating.
Since then smart phones, at-home fiber connections, microblogging, user-centric ad strategies, social networks, and broadband TV, phone and internet have snowballed, leaving a lot of people grasping at straws to figure out what they should upgrade next.
In the midst of this revolution— an information revolution, an economic revolution, and more than anything else, a cultural revolution—it’s evident that if we want to stay on top, the changes happening in the world today will force us to change how we communicate, how we live, how we grow…and soon.
I was emailed a video in which author Thomas Friedman argues that 10 major forces over the past 20 years (including the launch of Netscape, the advent of uploading projects like Wikipedia to the web for collaborative purposes, and the availability of information thanks to search engines) have “flattened” the world, eliminating the rules that previously governed the positions of nations, companies and individuals in the world economy. The speech was delivered in 2005—before social networks like Facebook took off, before Twitter, before blogging was mainstream, before customer support communities like Get Satisfaction existed. To see a summary of his argument, check out “The World is Flat” entry in Wikipedia.
While I’m not so sure the world is truly flat yet, I see where Friedman is going. For many of us, information is now immediate, and we can access it from our iPhones and caller-ID-reading TV/web browsers while simultaneously monitoring tweets on the new release of our latest product. As businesses, we can no longer rely on being the keepers and shapers of the public perception of our brands.
In addition to the traditional forms of advertising, we have to learn to develop relationships, engage our customer base, learn from their feedback or insights, and be open to the idea that the next “best idea” can come from anywhere, including our Facebook fans or blog comments. The culture of customer relations is changing. The way we as consumers relate to the companies we buy from has changed.
When Delta’s website lets me see how crowded my plane is, seek out an empty row, and plant myself in it, why do I need to call a representative? Or how about when I can see how soon my dad’s flight will touch ground from an iPhone app and avoid circling the pickup area 50 times trying to avoid the stern eyes of the parking patrol? And this is just the tip of the iceberg…
While all the new technology developments seem difficult to keep up with, and launches of new social media outlets outpace us daily, the potential of this shift is limitless. How will new communication tools change the way you connect? I can’t wait to see what happens next.
