Yep little old me, because of the web, social media and technology has a voice. I perhaps have a lot to thank Tim Berners-Lee for! I have a voice that can not only be heard around the world but its one a few people are interested in listening too. How cool is that? Not only that, but it allows me to converse with the likes of Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Patrick Dixon, Colin Shaw and Trey Pennington.

Ten years ago this would have been impossible. I’d have had to go the traditional route, through a publisher, or, turned up to the ‘guru gigs’ and been that annoying person who hands out business cards to everyone and anyone.

I look around me a lot, it’s the fascinating part of my job, being able to observe. I spot a lot of people who have lost their own voice and thereby, to some degree, their individuality. They’ve adopted their corporate BS speak hook line and sinker which is as attractive as a fish wife in a small tin room.

This ‘groundswell’ of change in how we communicate can be seen as a threat or an opportunity. Small businesses have the distinct of advantage of seeing it only as an opportunity. They tend to be set up for this change far better than corporate businesses. They tend to have more intimate relationships with their customers and staff, so making the jump is more like a hop and a skip really.

Some time ago John McMahon from www.forum21.co.uk professed that there were nine competitive advantages ranging from production cost to marketing to R & D. I still think he is right but those nine can be honed down into two differentiating factors; the price you charge and doing something definably different/innovative.

Realistically, if you’re in the price sensitive market, price in some ways is all you’ve got and we know where that leads. More price reductions, more price promotions, more sales deals, less margins. People want quality but have low expectations of customer service. Let’s be honest, if I go into Primark, I’m not that bothered about having a meaningful, long term relationship with the people in there. I want my t-shirt for £1 and then I want to leave.

If you’re delivering something different and innovative, now that’s a different ball game all together. Expectations from the start are critically higher. We demand undivided attention if we are buying a premium product. We desire a mutually respectful relationship that’s full of trust. Our motivations to purchase are just as much about the product as the service and its emotional too. The focus has got to be the unrelenting exceptional customer experience.

Or, you can just be in that very vulnerable, very competitive place, the middle like Next, River Island, Debenhams and Marks and Spencer where you have to look good, be good and deliver a good price too. In fact, you have to hit both competitive advantages simultaneously, continuously, everyday! Now that’s difficult.

Well not quite literally! In the past we have imposed ourselves on our customers through advertising, selling and ‘interruption’ marketing tactics. Are we now entering an era of invitation only? I’m not talking about ‘if your names not down, you’re not getting in’ but is the web not enabling us to communicate the true us, targeted effectively to those that are listening?

Should our marketing now be about communicating distinguishing information that exposes our grace, humility and expertise? Our customers can find us easier than we can find them nowadays. We don’t need vast amounts of info in our head when we can get the answer via a few clicks. If we have a clearly definable presence on the web, that’s highly focused, is that all we need? If we have that high profile and what we talk about is intriguing enough, interesting and based on an honest relationship, perhaps it will be inviting enough!

Businesses all over the world are reinventing their strategic models and considering new ways to deliver success. Some of the most innovative are doing it from the start. Take www.threadless.com A company started in 2000 by two young entrepreneurs. Setting up a t-shirt business could have been one of the most ‘me too’ projects ever undertaken but Jake Nicholl and Jacob DeHart have delivered a return on investment most of us would break a leg for.

The business is simple. The site sells t-shirts. People submit t-shirt designs, others vote on which one is best and the winner gets free t-shirts for the winning design. The successful t-shirts are sold for between £10 and $25. In 2006 Threadless turned over $17 million. They don’t have or need a marketing budget as their business works via word of mouth. And, all growth is driven by an online strategy.

Right from the start in 2000, they recognised that one t-shirt is very much like another t-shirt. So instead of focusing their creativity and imagination on the product, they focused their action on the relationship with the customer, fan or, what is rapidly becoming known as the ‘crowd.’ They literally built a system that could deliver that.

Not one of their products has been a flop. By using followers/customers to vote on the best designs and rate new designs, Threadless have effectively exploited technology to build an unrivalled relationship with people and turn market research on it’s head. The cost in cash terms, very little and they get a higher validity rating on their research.

Threadless has allowed its customers to create the product, to contribute to the designs, to be involved in the product selection process and to have a voice. In some ways, many of us are busting a gut trying to grow our businesses using old school models when the answer to doing something differently is right there under our nose.

This eBook written by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing is a great introduction to social media in business. Concise yet full of practical help it’s a good place to start and it’s free. Download it here:

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/socialmediaforbusiness.pdf

I’m getting fed up with this ROI agenda, I really am! Its all a bit deja vue for me. If we had been sitting in that room at #likeminds on Friday 15 years ago, we’d have been discussing ROI on a web presence. Its about time we grew up, matured and got a sense of what is really happening, rather than trying to fit it into a old school business model box that doesn’t fit anymore.

Traditional marketing and I include public relations in that is, at best, (and I hope so) dead and, at worst, completely broken. We moved on some years ago, its just taking some others time to catch up. Social media is different and so is word of mouth too. If you want a good read and the impact of all of this look up ‘The Cathedral and the Bazaar” in your web browser. The industrial revolution is over and so is the way in which we behaved in that era.

The way in which we make profits and measure business success is changing radically. We no longer want spin, bloomin’ eck’ have we had enough of that? We despise any kind of interruption. Close our eyes and ears if we think we are being spun a yarn and recoil at people shouting at us how good they are. Like websites all those eons ago, its far too early to be able to look at return on investment in a scientific way. Life is not objective and it does depend.

I have stats coming out of my ears about how my ROI is stacking up in terms of my social media activity. And, surely ROI is not just about money and profitability? Hell, it’s so much more meaningful than that!  Here’s one stat, 50% of new visitors each month to my blog come from Twitter. When I invested my time in social media, I wanted an ROI, in financial terms, in five years, its only been 18 months. The non financial results we have strived for are starting to happen; followers, blog comments, connections and conversations with people I’ve not met before who are influencers etc etc. I could good go on, but I’m bored. Bored we are having this discussion too soon in the lifecycle of social media.

My experience, and I’ve talked to lots of people on this subject. Those that protest too much about its validity in the future, are the very ones really struggling to get to grips with the slippery pole that is social media. Get a grip, its here to stay. Tom Peters said way back in 1981 “we need to humanize the relationship we have with our customers.” Bang on and maybe, just maybe, social media will help us do that. Surely that will lead, at some point, to ROI for the traditionalist way of thinking. So come on relax and enjoy the ride. You’re involved in something new, fresh and inspiring, and of course, we’ve been here before.

I’ve never queued to get into a business event before, but last Friday at http://alikeminds.org/ I did, fueled by coffee and good conversation beforehand. Whoa…what an event! What a crowd! What fantastic content! And what fabulous debate! If you missed this landmark event, truly self scold by slapping yourself with a wet fish. You really missed a treat.

The line up was to die for and a special thanks to all the presenters and contributors. The key messages and constant chatter, buzz and conversation can be read here #likeminds There is video, discussion and peoples view all there to capture the key messages both, those who attended, and those you didn’t. It was all the more fascinating by the constant and immediate discussions enabled by Twitterfall. Yes distracting, but a welcome attribute all the same.

We still don’t fully understand the impact of social media on our economy and culture which renders ROI very hard to measure and the event opened up more questions than answers, which was its intention. This is all very new, very new indeed, I’m just glad I’m on the train albeit in standard class.

Seth Godin has said that by 2011, 90% of our marketing budgets will be spent on social media and word of mouth. I urge you to book your February diaries out in anticipation of the next one when we have been promised more. You’d be absolutely crazy to miss it!

Who would have thought it 20 years ago? There were inclinations of what was about to happen 10 years ago, The Cluetrain Manifesto more than hinted at it. Now that it’s upon us why do some people still not get it? The world is a changing and we better get to grips with it as soon as possible. If you are not already, you need to be understanding social media and crowdsourcing like there is no tomorrow.

People from around the world are gathering in places to converse on subjects they are commonly interested in. They share information, collaborate on projects and trade knowledge for little or no money. They will probably never meet face to face but trust, respect and a genuine relationship is formed sincerely.

Everyone now has a vehicle to explore their latent talent. That same vehicle can provide an audience for that skill whether it be creative, specialised knowledge innovative new products or a craft. The barriers to entry are almost non existent.

And, what that brings is the ability for people to find their own voices again, often for the first time in a work environment. Without the constraint of corporate speak and culture, people are conversing with all sorts of people. Barriers are breaking down. Language is losing its spin.

The web, social media and the crowd doesn’t care what qualifications you have, whether you went to Harvard or Cambridge or Exeter. It couldn’t give a damn the colour of your skin, where you were brought up or what gender you are. The traditional pre conditions of working with certain people is evapourating except, of course, quality.

People in old school company structures are bored. Sick of being suffocated in a contradictory world of systems and procedures where the work is about money and position. People are banging on the door of their prison, sorry office and asking to be let out. To be free to contribute and do something meaningful and different.

These tools, some newer than others do not, in fact isolate us, far from it. It does the opposite by allowing us to share and colloborate on levels and in numbers never seen before and, hell, this is just the beginning. It means huge changes for every business, and I mean every business. Old, traditional models don’t need scrapping overnight but they will need to be very soon.

It has huge implications. There is a new meaning to outsourcing, competition, teams, the way you use talent, intellectual property, business models, innovation, marketing, customer service, leadership, motivation, inspiration the list goes on. We are not talking about little changes in practice here but significant, huge shoves. Burying your head in the sand won’t make it go away.

I know I’m not the only one surprised that TV advertising is still around, albeit in rapid decline. It just doesn’t ‘do it’ for us consumers anymore. We no more want to be shouted at than swim through nuclear waste! If it is to survive, and for a change I’m skeptical, it’s going to have to work a hell of a lot harder. If they don’t give us discounts, then they are going to have to develop our knowledge.

Lets look at some examples (please watch before you read on):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux9TDMDQ88Y

Well, what can you say? I’m not offended by this, but I am when it’s supposed to educate me. In fact, unusual as it is, I just am a little stuck for words, except their advertising agency needs sacking with immediate effect.

Next one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSlyK5w8AQg

This is attempting customer experience. For those of us that understand ‘customer experience’ we know that this is not what is meant. It’s traditional marketing disguised and its all about impressing yourselves BMW, but you don’t impress me, the potential customer. In fact, it sucks, they’ve just jumped on the bandwagon.

Now lets reaffirm some sanity. Go and watch the news packages on the BBC ‘Hungry to Learn’ about children in countries around the world who overcome tremendous problems to go to school. Enlightening, humbling and educational. Fabulous, it’s increased my knowledge and expanded my mind. It may have cost more than an advert, or perhaps not? But it’s impact is far greater.

It wouldn’t take much for a small IT company to shoot a video on the future impact of IT. It would cost little for a food company to do a video on the implications of globalisation in their industry. How much would it cost for a pizza takeaway business to create a video about social media? Just some thoughts….

Marketing, and advertising for that matter, now need to be excellent, compelling and mind shifting in a way that people go and tell their friends. The BBC is building and reinforcing its reputation, the others are just struggling to understand what’s happened in the field of marketing. We have the tools and technology to do this cost effectively, so there is no excuse!!

Are you keeping people out or inviting them in? It costs very little to pick a great customer who has fabulous ideas and creates value for your business and then mix him/her up with a few of your other customers and let them come up with the next developments you need to make. Imagine how that may impact your reputation too!