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.

Social media marketing is not right for everyone....

I read a great article this week in BusinessWeek entitled "Beware Social Media Myths".

The piece was essentially exploring the use of social media for small businesses and busting open some of the key myths surrounding the hype and current media obsession with social networking sites and their uses.

I have edited some of the main myths below which i think are key for everyone to remember...

MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook are all the rage, but for most business owners there are better ways to stay close to customers

Myth 1. Social media sites are free:

Using social media sites isn't as easy or cheap as many people think.
Sure, most let you set up an account for free and you can integrate other services, such as your blog or Google's YouTube videos, at no charge.

But there's a significant cost: your time.

Because there's nothing worse than a site that's not current and to keep it current, someone's going to need to spend time.

This includes responding to visitors' questions, posting brilliant thoughts, adding graphics, and monitoring activity—basically trying to generate buzz.
Old information—a stagnant site, comments left without response—are death in the social networking community.

Myth 2. You need to be on all the big sites:

Besides spending a lot of time and effort, businesses who have succeeded with social networking sites generally focus on just a few of them.
Just because the media says it's cool to tweet doesn't mean it has anything to do with your business.
If you're going to to frequent social community sites, don't spread yourself too thin.

Most of the guys I know who use these things successfully pick their weapon and give it their all.

Myth 3. Social networking sites are for marketing:

Baloney. I've learned from other smart business owners that social communities are not for marketing. They're for service.

They are places to use to get closer to customers and respond to their needs. "Wherever they are, that's where I'll go,"

By providing quick and helpful customer service through these sites, you can foster loyalty and satisfaction, resulting in more sales.

Myth 4. Social networking sites are the future:

Really? Some of these cool and trendy sites aren't going to be so cool and trendy in the near future.

The percentage of Twitter users in a given month who return the following month has languished below 30% for most of the past year, according to Nielsen Wire. And MySpace recently suffered a decline in monthly traffic volumes and remember GeoCities? Yahoo! is shutting it down.

Social networking is a permanent phenomenon but that doesn't mean its main players today will be the main players tomorrow.

The above myths are not groundbreaking or particularly difficult to understand, in fact they are basic things that we all know.....but regularly forget.

You can read the full article here: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2009/tc20090522_078978.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech