When Shift Hits The Fan

The “fan of commerce” turns daily and  old methods of “sucking” consumers and business into a transaction are hitting the fan.  There has been a shift happening and yet industry after industry has failed to recognize the shift. Now the shift is hitting the fan.

When something hits a fan it either bounces off damaged or if the object hitting a fan has substance it can stop or break the fan.

Social media, however you define it, has indeed created such a significant shift that it now is “hitting the fan of commerce hard“. Subsequently we can expect a lot of “fans” breaking up in 2010.  Why can I say this with certainty?  Follow the data and here is the reasons for the conclusion. Because…..

1. 3 OUT OF 4 AMERICANS USE SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY. Forrester, The Growth Of Social Technology Adoption, 2008
2. 2/3 OF THE GLOBAL INTERNET POPULATION VISIT SOCIAL NETWORKS. Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009
3. VISITING SOCIAL SITES IS NOW THE 4TH MOST POPULAR ONLINE ACTIVITY—AHEAD OF PERSONAL EMAIL. Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009
4. TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL NETWORKS IS GROWING AT 3X THE OVERALL INTERNET RATE, ACCOUNTING FOR ~10% OF ALL INTERNET TIME. Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009
5. SOCIAL MEDIA IS DEMOCRATIZING COMMUNICATIONS. BIG TIME. Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers,the establishment, the media elite.Now it’s the people who are in control.” Rupert Murdoch, Global Media Entrepreneur
6. SOCIAL MEDIA IS LIKE WORD OF MOUTH ON STEROIDS.
7. SOCIAL MEDIA IS A  FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH.
8. 93% OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS BELIEVE A COMPANY SHOULD HAVE A PRESENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA. Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008
9. 85% OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS  BELIEVE that a company should go further than just having a presence on social sites and should also interact with its customers. Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008

These conclusions are not some hype rather these conclusions are based on data that shows a clear shift.  Consider more data….:

• 13 HOURS The amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• 412.3 YEARS The length of time it would take to view every YouTube video.
• 100,000,000 The number of YouTube videos viewed per day.
• 3,600,000,000 The number of photos archived on Flickr.com as of June 2009.
• 1382% The monthly growth rate of Twitter users from January to February 2009.
• 3,000,000 The average number of Tweets per day on Twitter.com
• 5,000,000,000 The number of minutes spent on Facebook each day.
• 1,000,000,000 The amount of content(web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.
• 5,000,000 The number of active Barack Obama supporters across 15 social networks.
• 14,200,000The number of views Obama’s famous “Yes We Can” video got on YouTube.

Business Week says: “For companies, resistance to social media is futile. Millions of people are creating content for the social Web. Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to be.”

The Power Of A “Fan”

Fans of commerce historically have “pushed” goods and services onto consumers using old marketing and advertising methods to suck consumers in. Now the “fans of commerce” have shifted to methods controlled by the consumer.  The method is now a pull rather than a push and it is fueled by “conversational currency“. Conversational currency is the new economic paradigm fueled by a new force that is disrupting old “fans of commerce“.  The force is people conversing with people and the currency exchange is stronger than any previous method used by “old fans of commerce“. We the people are the new more powerful “fan” and to ignore us or our methods means you’ll loose the “fan” that fuels your commerce. Get it?

Still don’t believe it? Watch the video below. What say you?

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Tagged as: blog marketing, brand marketing, business change, business disruption, business relations, business transformation, Conversational Currency, conversational marketing, creative capital, innovation economy, jay deragon, social capital, social commerce, Social Media, social media roi, Socialutions, twitter