The Concept of 'FOREVERISM'

There is a new distinct trend emerging labelled 'Foreverism' by Trendwatching.com.

Adopted by Consumers & Businesses alike, we are starting to embrace conversations & communications that are 'never done'....

'Foreverism' is described as:

"Encompassing the many ways that consumers and businesses are embracing conversations, relationships, and products that are never done. Driving its popularity is technology that allows them to find, follow, interact and collaborate forever with anyone & anything."

From a consumer point of view, people are constantly establishing, developing, expanding & nuturing their online presences. Whether you have a Facebook page, a Myspace profile, a Linked In account or a Twitter persona....

This is a form of online biography or personal encyclopedia which we are eternally updating with photos, statuses, tweets. blogs, life feeds etc
The information will live on forever, it's our digital footprint and it's been cached in the online world and we will, in most likelihood, never remove it...

The omni-presence of online profiles will only continue to grow as time goes on and generational trends take hold....in the future an online presence will potentially reach 99% of the population.

Therefore, this 'foreverism', with it's connections & conversations, will continue between friends, family, acquaintances, strangers (omegle) and even brands until the end of time....

Brands and businesses entering into the online world are increasingly recognising the importance of dialogue versus monologue, of inclusive versus exclusive and of interactive versus static. However, in doing so, they are beginning a conversation with their customers that should, in theory, never end.

Big brands such as Bank Of America and Starbucks have assigned Chief Bloggers, Directors of Digital Care, Customer Relationships Experts, Social Media Strategists, Heads of Social Media, and even, ‘Corporate Twitterers’ to personally manage their Twitter conversations.

This is a relatively new action taken by these big brands, but for the first time customers will have a direct link to businesses which they can use to vent their anger, complaints and generally have a whinge.

However, once businesses open up (warts and all) and get past the first hurdle and initial pain of angry customers, they will see a huge benefit to their business.

They can use direct customer connections to create advocacy, build repeat purchase based on relationships, get feedback on new products & services, use them as a forum for research & development and ultimately build their business based on their customers - that's the way it should be!

The potential end result of starting and maintaining such open dialogue will be happier customers, less complaints and a more balanced customer/business relationship, but that all hinges on the continuation of these strategies and the longevity of the communication.

To do this, businesses much break the cycle of thinking in product-mode, or campaign periods and change to human-like 'Foreverism' mode.

The current economic climate is a catalyst for change and consumers are desperate to be able to trust, understand and even like brands. Fundamental changes to the old relationships will happen, so make 'Foreverism' part of your thinking today.