I believe our age will be called the Internet age. Before I jump into this, however, I ask you to consider the past decade or so. We have seen revolution after revolution gradually shift the political and economic spheres in which we live. Political power has become more horizontally integrated with the advent of social media, something which has proven effective in toppling long-standing military regimes (i.e., the Arab Spring) as well as defeating unpopular legislature (i.e., the US SOPA & PIPA postponement). In each of these cases, the momentum came and was sustained, not from powerful committees and the elite, but from ordinary citizens like you and me. Take as an example, Greta Thunberg, a 17 years old girl that initiated the rise of Eco Warriors in the Fridays for Future events.
Increasingly, individuals have the power to influence the course of events, and marketing is no exception to this trend. That said, just because influence is readily available to anyone, doesn’t mean it can be mastered by everyone. Just like in the past, to be influential, you must be engaged with your network of people or companies. If you like something, whether it’s a product, service, or just a piece of writing, don’t be afraid to share it and tell other people about it. If you like what someone else has shared, tell your network about it. This is an ever-growing part of communication with significant which shows no signs of disappearing.
Most larger companies have already taken notice of this social trend and are increasingly monitoring and measuring their social interactions. They recognize that it is you who will ultimately make or break them. Search engines like Google take into consideration the behaviour of their users when ranking web sites for search queries. It is you who they are trying to satisfy.
Did you learn something from this post? Have an impact and share the information with your network through the links on the bottom-right. Speak out and people will take notice!
Final Words
Since an individual voice can have such a powerful influence on a product’s success, companies have started to do what they thought inconceivable only a few years ago-they now tailor products and services to the individual client.
Personalized web sites are essential in this technology-driven economy, but Amazon and Dell have gone a step further to change the position, elements, and functionality based on how the site tests with users.
By design, the ads we see are as relevant to us as possible and, with the advent of mobile marketing, we can expect to see even more personalization with location-specific ads.
