The Customer Service Industry - Revisited

This passage was taken from the conclusion of my dissertation paper which compliments this blog:

The overarching point that connects all these new media components together is that in a few years from now, the primary source of our decisions will come from peers and their information, rather than brands. This does not mean that brands will have no influence over consumers, but they must change their image and marketing approach in order to present themselves as a peer rather than a faceless corporation. New technologies will give us the ability to know our customers at a personal, individual level. With this knowledge, marketers will be able to shape their messages to the individual’s particular likes and dislikes. They will be able to measure at what time and at what location their message will be the most effective, and with data visualization services they will be able to measure the effectiveness of their campaign almost immediately. A marketer’s success will depend on all these factors, and their ability to predict what is important to their customers. Do you have any other thoughts on how markets can more easily address the needs and interests of their consumers through new media?

Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Some of you expressed concerns with Facebook and Twitter use taking time away from other important marketing and promotional activities. This information may strengthen your concerns even more:

In a report sponsored by Social Media Examiner surveying 900 markers on their social media usage this is what was found:

A significant 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week and 39% for 10 or more hours weekly. 9.6% spend more than 20 hours each week with social media.

The key point: there is a direct relationship between the amount of time spent on social media marketing and its effectiveness (that may come as no surprise)

Benefits include: increased exposure, increased traffic (which can then in turn lead to increased sales), new business partnerships, and rise in search engine rankings.

Yes, it would be a problem if everyone in the business was taking 10, 20 hours a week to use social media, but that is why new jobs are being created to fill this demand. What are some other jobs that social media may give birth to?

Official Twitter App

Today Twitter introduced its first official app for smartphones, on the iPhone and BlackBerry devices. Twitter bought the iPhone client Tweetie and will rebrand & relaunch it as a free official app. They also worked with BlackBerry's Research in Motion (RIM) for an official BlackBerry app.

I am interested to see if this will encourage more people to use Twitter. Although Twitter already has a huge amount of users, I feel like most of them are businesses, celebrities, or people interested in following them. Now that it will be even more convenient to use, maybe more people will begin tweeting. Clearly, mobile apps is where it's at, but what does that mean for business and the society we are living in?

A Collective Effort

Thank you for all your comments! I believe discussion is absolutely crucial to the generation of new ideas, which will help us succeed in this emerging "digital society." An important point is that we need creativity more than ever right now, and in the future. But it goes even further than that- we need creativity in a whole new form- an even bigger concept of creativity. Largely, this will include being creative with new technologies. How to be creative with social media? Surpassing traditional creativity is pretty abitious, which is why it is so important to discuss and inspire eachother, for the power of two creatives is greater than one!

The Creative Class

Will we become "cyborgs?" Maybe, maybe not-the future is uncertain. However, Richard Florida presents a compelling argument in The Rise of the Creative Class, as to where our future is headed. His vision isn't as easy as having a robot do our work for us.

The Creative Class is a group of people whose function is to "create meaningful new forms." The super-creative core: scientists, engineers, teachers, artists, designers, entertainers, researchers etc. And the "creative professionals:" knowledge intensive industries, techy businessmen.

The Creative Class will all be attracted to the same creative cities where other creatives reside. Then a survival of the fittest type of reaction will happen-ultimately kicking out the working class. There have always been geographical concentrations of working and professional class...but Florida speaks of a more wide spread and pronounced sorting than we have ever seen. The habitats unable to attract the creative class will ultimately fail.

So, not to be bleak, but we conform to robots or to super creative classes who "create meaningful new forms" at their fingertips. What do you think about Richard Florida's prediction of the rise of the creative class?
Richard Florida's website

Humans, An Endangered Species

History has shown technological growth is exponential.

Meaning it looks like this ----->

That basically means that in as little as a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence. The implications of such a time are quite frightening. It would mean we all would become robots, or fuse with robots, or something along those [non linear] lines.

Then all this talk about the "future of marketing" would be pointless, because humans would no longer be needed for marketing positions! We, as human/machine hybrids, would develop ingenious marketing schemes at the speed of light. We would all be immortal like Edward Cullen, minus the constant thirst for blood. Of course, you think, no way would humans hand over their power to machines. However, what if humans became so dependent on machines that there was no other option but to do exactly that?

Yes, this is total crazy talk. But entertain me. Will humans one day be at the mercy of machines? Can machines develop our marketing approaches for us?

Old Spice YouTube Ad

I heard about this video through word-of-mouth from some colleagues. Naturally, I was inclined to check it out after hearing all the fuss. This advertisement, although not aired on TV, has had over 6 million hits on YouTube. Looks like I'm not the only one vulnerable to viral marketing. What implications does this advertisement have on the nature and distribution of advertisement nowadays?