We are experiencing what some would call a "Revolution."  Actually, what we are experiencing is an "Evolution" of extraordinary magnitude.  In order to understand were we are going, let's begin by taking a quick look at where we've been.

The first half of the 20th century was an absolute disaster in human affairs.  A cataclysm.  We had the first world war, the great depression, the second world war and the rise of the communist nation.  Each one of these forces tore the world apart at the seams.  We also threw up barriers to human affairs which include:

• Political Barriers
• Trade Barriers
• Transportation Barriers
• Communication Barriers

These barriers divided people and nations.

The second half of the 20th century, we began to shift.  Shift away from the first 50 years.  It started with trade barriers.  We began to globalize the planet.  Cooperation and coordination of effort was extended across national boundaries.  Next came transportation barriers.  Technology and a more open playing field created access to logistics that were previously not possible.  With the fall of the Berlin wall, political barriers have fallen thru the floor.

This leads us to now -- the 21st century.  For the first time in human history, growth has been extended to almost all regions of the world.  Take China for instance.  Since 1978, shortly after the death of Mao Zedong (1976), the growth rate of China has increased 10% year over year -- every year.  No where in history have so many people been lifted out of poverty.  India is another example with 6% growth per year since 1990.  The reason is that the barriers that kept these countries in poverty (access to markets & logistics) no longer exist.  This has created a localized economy on a global scale.

Communication Barriers Overcome

The web did not cause this epic shift in global human affairs.  But the importance of it cannot be overlooked.  What was once only possible for governments and large corporations (communicate, collaborate and coordinate globally) is now easily done at the individual level -- virtually free.  This has created an environment of what I like to call "global localization."  There are no barriers to sharing data, publishing data, building relationships and creating a global network to coordinate effort.  It is an environment that has, and will continue to, turn the balance of commerce on its head.

Is Business 3.o too cliche?

Whatever you want to call it, we are coming full circle.  In the beginning, we participated in commerce at the local level.  You did business with the people you knew.  Business was done on a relationship level.  Then along came the automobile and communication devices.  By the time the television came along, we were all exposed to mass advertising and mass manufacturing.  The whole notion of "brand" was to develop a relationship with a product where we once relied on relationships with individuals.  Well here we are in the "relationship age."  Where your ability to succeed has more to do with orchestrating effort thru your network or connections.  TV advertising, or advertising in general, is in a fluid state of disarray.  People want to do business with other people again -- not brands.  The big will get smaller and the small get bigger.  Say goodbye to institutional friction.  We will witness the rise of the individual.  We've come full circle folks!

A World Without Barriers

So why do we call it a "Flat World?"  The world is being referred as a flat world, thanks to Tom Friedman’s book The World Is Flat. The world is now so well connected with the ubiquity of technology in all areas which gives you, me, all of us the power to collaborate, coordinate, produce and distribute seamlessly across borders, and cultural and language divides. In a flat world, everything of value is now connected -- no more barriers.

Welcome To Our Flat World -- The Good News

For connected individuals and forward-thinking corporations who are able to embrace change, there has never been a time where we've had more opportunity.  There is little need for the organizational system as we once knew it.  The power to create a global network to collaborate and coordinate effort is seamless and typical organizational structure just gets in the way of productivity.  If organizations are able to recognize this and embrace this, there can be little doubt that operational efficiencies can be extended exponentially.

Welcome To Our Flat World -- The Bad News

In a flat world, there are connected individuals and disconnected individuals.  Unfortunately, this gap can only widen.  To date, there are about 1.2 billion connected individuals.  We are the conceptual and technical class.  Our opportunity holds no bounds.  However, for the disconnected individuals, there is a barrier being constructed.  Technology changes is changing so fast that it has the possibility to create another sad state of human affairs.  I am hopeful though.  With the ubiquity of technology, the speed at which it has spread in the last decade and the low cost of connectivity, I cannot image that we will not have a connected world -- one where knowledge is freely shared, data is relational and accessible and where the human spirit and innovation can come together to solve many of the world's problems (and, of course, create new ones).

So What's Next?

Who knows.  But, we are all on this ride together -- so let's make it happen together.  This is my blog.  It's about the new world of commerce, marketing and media.  It's about the drastic shift we are all experiencing.  It's about creativity, digital media, personal branding and social media.  It is about how to harness our power to create networks of individuals, engage and influence each other.  It's about embracing this flat world we all live in -- together.  I hope you'll be here with me for the ride.

Next time you hear people talking about history repeating itself, I'm hoping you will think about this.  None of us remember the era when all commerce was localized -- meaning, anyone you did business with lived in your immediate community.  There was no such thing as advertising, marketing channels and brands.  You did business with people you knew.  It was not an "information economy" and nothing was mass produced.  It was a Trust Economy.  So what am I talking about when I say that history repeats itself?   ...welcome back to the Trust Economy.

When it comes to using social platforms to create awareness for your service, product or brand - you have to remember that this is not your typical marketing channel.  As consumers, we are weary of "marketing speak," suspicious of "buzz" (it can be bought) and we don't trust strangers.  We are back to square one.  In a Trust Economy, your market is your community or network, trust is mandatory and influence is king.

Return On Influence - The Basics

If you want to understand how to create trust and affect individuals authentically, imagine yourself moving into a new neighborhood.  You've just entered a new community.  So how do you meet people?  This is the exact construct social media platforms emulate.  Would you immediately start going door-to-door peddling your product or service to your neighbors?  I would hope the answer to that question is NO.  But over time, as your community gets to know you, the trust and reputation you have built will no doubt lead to talk about what you do.  So keep these things in mind:

• You can't fake a relationship
• Relationships come before sales
• Business is not the first order of business
• Your personal brand comes first

Leveraging your relationships is a great way to increase awareness of your product, service or brand -- but you actually have to become a respected and trusted member of your community and nurture your own network before you can tap into it's potential.

Work Life Integration

So I just mentioned that your personal brand comes first.  For organizations, this logic will seem counter-intuitive and will require understanding of the social construct.  However, no matter how you look at it, the lines between our work and our social life are blurring.  For example - childhood friends are now being reconnected thru facebook and becoming business associates.  Business are invading facebook like a pack of 4 yr. olds will invade a Chuck-E-Cheese.  Corporate recruiters are sourcing talent from LinkedIn, Twitter and even MySpace.  In the end, interactions are interpersonal - people do business with people (not brands) and the economic environment we once knew is systematically being turned on it's head (Judy Martin got me thinking about this).

Personal Interactions = Network ROI

So here we are back in a Trust Economy except our localized market is now global.  Thru the ubiquity of technology, we are able to have rich, personal interactions and find meaningful connections with others.  As always, when it comes to relationships, you get back more than you give.  First and foremost, we are creatures here to serve one another.  It's a tried and true principle that is undeniable.  We just have more tools to serve each other more effectively and more efficiently.

Attention = Currency

One of the most rare things on earth is a person's attention.  Between email, 30,000 ad messages a day and life in general, our time is our most precious commodity.  We have become masters at filtering out anything that is not meaningful to us NOW.  So go out and join the conversation.  Listen to people.  Answer their questions.  Be of service without regard and be meaningful to people NOW.

Authentic Influence

Let people get to know you, trust you and befriend you.  You will create meaningful relationships that get integrated socially and professionally.  The more you give, the more you get.  Relationships are back.  We are built to affect and influence one another.  Your interests will become social objects and awareness of them will radiate thru your network.  These authentic alliances are what all relationships are built on.  This is not something you can fake.  It's something you must embrace.

Do You Deliver A Superior Customer Experience?

The answer would be NO.  Chances are your company is NOT delivering a superior customer experience.  So is this what's important about social media?  The answer is... Partially. 

Now take a moment to consider just what comes between a traditional institution or organization and its customers.  You have a business with all the internal barriers that exists in all companies.  Now you have traditional media to communicate with your customers.  You rely on interruptions and disruptions to message to your clients and potential customers.

Is it any wonder businesses are disconnected from their customers and their experiences?

So What The Hell Does This Have To Do With Social Media?

Social media, or let's say the platforms created to support it, have created a slight paradigm shift (well maybe a bit more than slight).  In order to understand the enormity of this shift, you have to start looking at this phenomena a little differently -- from a holistic point of view.  This new dynamic has created an environment where communication, collaboration and coordination exist without barriers.  It gives power to individuals to compete with institutions at a level unprecedented.  Institutional containment as we know it does not exist.  Market barriers no longer exist as we know it.  Let's think about social media thru another lens.  Let's look at it around "coordinating effort" or, from the basis any institution is created which is, getting things done:

This Is What's Important About Social Media

Institutions and organizations are wondering what to do about social media.  Policies are being written, consultants are being brought in to figure out how it can be used as a marketing channel.  Companies are missing what's really important about social media and the platforms that support it -- and here it is.

Cooperation cost is the economic burden of coordinating effort.  Traditionally, the solution for coordinating effort was to create an institution.  More recently, since the cost for people to communicate with each other has fallen thru the floor, many are rethinking the system in which people communicate, collaborate and coordinate.  A great example of this is found on social networking platforms -- platforms where coordination and communication are designed into the system.  Systems that allow group output without regard to traditional institutional models.

Looking At Things In New Ways Is Hard To Do

So what does this mean for the traditional institutional model?  It means that business leaders have to get comfortable with reviewing something very core -- their original purpose -- their existence.  In the end, I really think there are only 2 choices:

1. Embrace and leverage communication, collaboration and coordination platforms.  Institutions and individuals alike all have access to a world of new opportunities.  This is difficult because it requires us to forget what we think we know and look at our circumstance dispassionatly and objectively.  It will also require us all to get involved and learn.  You can't fake this
2. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.  You might make the connection to the Kübler-Ross model's 5 discrete stages of how people come to terms with dying.  This is how many institutions and organizations will come to terms with these new, communication, collaboration and coordination platforms.

So here we are.  This is happening.  The ultimate importance of the web is coming to fruition.  It's the ultimate communication platform.  It gives institutions the power to outdistance their competition by breaking down communication barriers between their employees, their customers and their suppliers.  We all have the power to create personal networks to coordinate effort and accomplish anything.  Thomas Friedman said "what can be done, will be done."  There is nothing standing in our way.  Let's get busy getting things done

It is said that a typical American is exposed to 30,000 advertising messages a day.  I found that hard to believe when I first heard this but then I just looked around and thought about this for a moment.  Why don't you think about this for a moment.  Imagine your drive to work - billboards, commercials on the radio, how about logos on cars and trucks.  Now think about your day at work - banner ads, logos on shirts, your computer, your telephone.  Now that you think about it, you can start to imagine this notion of 30,000 ad messages a day.  Now how many did you notice?  How many can you remember?  How many of these ad messages influenced you in any way?  This is called "ad blindness" and we are getting very good at filtering this stuff out as consumers.

Interruption Marketing

Interruption marketing is the process of finding a prospect engaged in something else, like reading a magazine, watching television, watching a game, driving to work and interrupting him/her with a commercial message. To do that "creativity" in its conventional form is a huge asset albeit rare.  In citing the example above, if you are not influenced or affected any one of the 30,000 ad messages a day, how is it that companies keep doing the same thing hoping for a different result.  That's insanity.  It's also a crap-shoot.  It's a matter of broadcasting loud to as many people as possible and hope it trickles down to a potential buyer.

As you can see, it's not very effective.  For many companies, their solution is to fight clutter with even more clutter.  Target audiences, no matter how well segmented, have learned to filter out and ignore the noise.  This is a fact.

Engagement Marketing

The digital space is about engaging in a conversation with peers, customers and staff, innovating with them and constantly improving your value proposition in an authentic way. Customers have the power, the information, the advice and the resources to make their own decisions, in the digital world its about entering the conversation.  It's about transparency and allowing consumers to participate and shape your brand based on authentic interactions between your employees, product or service and your customers.  It also turns the traditional marketing paradigm on its head -- using the interaction with one to spread "affect and influence" thru their personal network.

It's about becoming involved.  It's about allowing your customers to shape your brand and shape the future experiences you deliver to your customers.  It's about human connection and relationships again -- not a manufactured identity of the traditional brand.

Shaping Our Conversation

These are the types of subjects I will continue to explore with you as this blog evolves.  We will look at how our connected society has turned traditional notions of marketing, supply chains, and the economy at large on it's head; and we're just beginning on this quest.  This quest is a gloabal one that will affect us all in both positive and negative ways.

There continues to be mass-adoption of social media as a way to build brands (both personal and corporate), communicate, collaborate and coordinate in a social network architecture.  Today we are going to talk about the big guys:  Midsize to Enterprise.  It is undeniable that this has, and will, continue the way we work and share information.  This paradigm has completely altered the way customers relate to brands and the way that corporate brand managers should operate.

Social Media Is Not Your Typical Marketing Channel

So to begin with, let's separate the notion of buying adspace in social networks from using the space in it's intended function.  Yes, you traditional marketers can buy adspace and talk about all the "eyeballs" that your corporate brand was exposed to.  You can use this KPI to show a good ROI.  You may even get kudos for this due to the lack of understanding of the space.  However, this is not "participating" in social media.  The real ROI a corporate marketer can realize comes from developing communities, creating content, listening and talking directly with their customers.  In short, it's not about "eyeballs" or ad buys.  It's about driving direct interaction between your employees and your customers.  It's about creating an open forum for your subject matter expertise to shine with visibility to all.  This is a hard thing for many companies to embrace.  But the ones that do and do so fearlessly are the ones who win.

Institutional Silos Will Work Against You

One of the difficult hurdles companies have to overcome almost before they even get started in social media is the traditional silo'd structure of the institution.  Social media overlaps vertical silos in a horizontal fashion.  For instance, where do you put it?  It's part marketing, part sales.  It's part content creation, PR and communications.  It's part IT, web development and design.  So what this means is, right from the beginning, nobody knows where to "put" it.  To get past this, some companies will have to completely rethink and reinvent (which is coming sooner or later anyways).  For CEOs and business owners, think about this: You didn't start your company without taking 'bold actions' to carve out your niche or competitive advantage.  It's time to put that early entrepreneur hat back on, get involved and reinvent.  Really, it's an opportunity to get back to your passion if you choose to embrace it that way.

No Matter What Your Market, Your Audience Is Global

If you are a regional or even a national company, you now have a global audience.  This again is generally a hurdle that the successful big brands have fearlessly embraced.  However, in a world where there are plenty of "causes for concern," this is another roadblock that many companies have a hard time getting comfortable with.  Also, most marketing, sales and PR department objectives are structured either locally, regionally or nationally.  So again, concerns will arise as to who gets "credit" and how do you keep "Arizona" reps from stealing your "Texas" reps' territory.  Another mindshift to embrace but the upside could be boundless.

Gotta Get Past The Quarterly Goal And Look Long-Term

Social media is not a "marketing campaign" but a long-term endeavor.  When it comes to getting involved, building a network, and getting your audience engaged, expecting big results the first quarter you initiate your effort is just not realistic.  There's also another mindshift that generally needs to occur at the organizational level.  Most PR, communication, sales and marketing departments operate on short timelines and are looking for quick results.  This is just another example of where the management has to get comfortable embracing something new.

Change Is Hard

I have a theory.  The theory goes like this.  We are all indifferent unless we are inspired or desperate.  When you think about how fundamental shifts happen they are generally surrounded by a period of chaos.  In this current shift (the shift to doing business in a flat world), some people and companies will embrace what's next.  We've all said this; "If I knew what I know now back then...."  So now I'll ask the same question that I asked myself:  "Knowing what I know now, what am I doing to day to be prepared for when..."  Hopefully that makes sense to more people than just me

Stay tuned folks.  I'm working very hard to bring all this full-circle so we have a holistic lens to look at these changes and hopefully (you and I) will have a better perspective to deal with the surrounding chaos of this economic evolution.