The Death of the Consumer & The Rise of the Citizen

Are “consumers” dead? Is our consumptive society changing. No and not quite, but it’s interesting to see what is being said as we hear more and more the term “citizen” as a replacement for the consumer. In the strict sense of the word “consumer” it is a post-industrialist term for people who buy products and services made by businesses. A business does not see a “person” it sees “consumers” who are simply sliced and diced into various buying categories – demographics and in the late 90′s “psychographics” became a marketing meme.

I started hearing the word “citizen” as a replacement vernacular for “consumer” a year or so ago and decided to put our research engine on it. Researching over 300 prime blog entries where this has been discussed, the “volume” of discussion over the past 12 months has increased by 78% over August of 2008. A significant uptick happened just after the primary market crashes last year.

Based on reading 46 of the 300 blogs I tagged here’s what it seems “citizen” has come to mean. Essentially, the “consumer” is now able to self-define who they are and what they want. Social Media tools like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Ning etc., have given the Post-Industrial defined consumer a voice. This “voice” has caused significant upheaval in the traditional marketing and communications aspect of corporations in the developed world. The Motrin Moms issue, the most recent Honda/Facebook mess and more. CEO’s have lost their jobs, stocks have plummeted or shot skyward.

As the population increasingly engages on the Web, they are drawn to Social Media tools. About 3 years ago some research by PEW Internet showed people went online to browse, buy products (consume) or do research. There’s was little to actively “do” there. Now, with Social Media tools and services, people are finding there voices.

As a result of this, consumers are re-defining the way they have been seen by the Corporation. Yes, we are still in the true sense “consumers” for we buy. This is changing, but it is far too early to truly define “how” and to what degree – we simply lack any historical or empirical evidence. Yet.

The other word that “citizen” is replacing is the old early computing days term “user”; people don’t see themselves as “users” they are (as we’ve called them for years now) participants. Should we perhaps use the term “neo-citizen”? To describe the rise of the New Citizen? Or are we just ignoring reality and we’re still just the same old consumer with a fancy name?

So the concept of “citizen” has become a societal meme; we say citizen because in this wonderful democratic world of developed nations, the concept of “citizen” implies having a voice and rights.

From my anecdotal research and not being a social anthropologist, what the evidence points to is a significant shift in consumer perceptions – the “people” do not want to be voiceless consumers anymore. The general population that is connected and has shared, created, collaborated, has begun to define themselves.

This is perhaps a “tipping point” for corporations and any large organization to be cognizant of. I don’t presume to have any suggestions on exactly how things will turn out…but I’m sure that together, as citizens, we’ll figure it out.

(Author: G. Crouch, Managing Director)

Social Media is Grayer Than You Might Think

Social Media too, has many gray areas. Just not the gray you might think. We’re talking about gray hair here. In the research we’ve done for clients, we’ve found an increasing amount of social media usage by the 50+ demographic, and we expect this to increase.

With txt messaging being so common today, even the 35+ demographic has begun to broadly engage with txt messaging. Our research in Atlantic Canada and New England states has shown us that the average age of a Facebook participant (remember, we hate the term “user”) is 47 years old. We see that increasing as well.

So what does this mean? Why does business need to care? Because it means more of a wealthier market it increasingly engaging with social media. Added to this is then the challenge of how one engages with social media and the tools used. We’ve found that the older the demographic, the differences in the tools and how those tools are used, become quite significant.

Some traits of the 40+ demographic using social media are behaviours such as less personal information revealed, a tendency to write longer and read longer blog posts. More “intelligent” or deeper and longer discussions on topics of interest in Twitter or on blog posts. Older demographics tend to stay more loyal to platforms (i.e. Facebook, Netlog or Twitter) and only move to new platforms/services that have become a mainstay in the social mediasphere.

Understanding the age group you are targeting will significantly influence the communications strategy you engage in, the advertising you conduct and the services/tools that you can leverage. Sounds much like the real world doesn’t it? The difference is that in the real world, your communications and marketing are “broadcast” format, whereas in social media it becomes more of a conversation. And the 45+ demographic is very eloquent and persuasive in their discussions.

(Author: Giles Crouch, Principal)

Atlantic Conversations: Social Media in Atlantic Canada

We’re finally pleased to be releasing the public version of our report on Social Media use in Atlantic Canada, or a we’ve named it Atlantic Conversations 2008. The report is available at this link for download (atlantic-conversations-08-report) in pdf format. We note that this is the public version. A premium version with more specific provincial and user data is available, for a price of course. After all, we are a business.

Essentially, we uncover that Social Media use is growing in Atlantic Canada, as quickly as anywhere else. Similar to most markets, while many engage, few engage on more regular basis. While 73% of Atlantic Canadians are online, we estimate about 85% of the online population are using some form of social media bi-weekly at least while 15% use social media services regularly. Atlantic Canada has an approximate population of 2.6 Million according to Statistics Canada.

All provinces are delivering broadband service to rural areas and as much of that will begin to take effect in 2009, we anticipate even more social media usage taking place. Media consumption habits are changing in Atlantic Canada and people are increasingly getting their news online and local, community news as well. This represents both a threat and opportunity to newspapers and magazines in the print industries.

We hope you enjoy the report and find useful and helpful information. Feel free to email or call us with any questions.

(Author: Giles Crouch, Managing Partner)

Blended Search Results & Social Media Strategy

Blended search is changing the way people use search engines and impacting the good old days of SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) Just when your marketing team got their head around SEO, the rules change. Ah, the world of the Web. Ever evolving, ever changing. Blended search tactics will also have an impact on your Social Media Optimization – and what people learn about your company.

Okay, so what is “blended search“? Quite simply search engines are “blending” more than just text links on the results page. They’re including video, images, pdf links and maps in the results. This means any, and I mean any content from any part of your website, blog(s), microsites etc., can be included in search results.

The advantage is if your using SMO tactics, you can improve your chances of dominating more search results around more keywords and terms. The downside is that competitors and negative content and content you’d rather your prospects not see, is also more likely than before to show up in search results.

In developing a Social Media strategy, we think it’s now important to consider search engines that deliver blended search results. The search engines  do this in part because “tagging” has enabled them to index and deliver rich content (i.e. videos and images) and they want to keep eyeballs on the page longer to improve the chances of ad clicking.

Blended search is becoming more popular. Understanding it will help in your Social Media Optimization strategy as well.

(Author: Giles Crouch, Managing Partner)

Listen Up! And Listen Good Before You Engage

How often in sales training do the experts tell sales people “listen to what your prospect is saying. Repeat back what you heard to confirm you understood the question.” It is a fundamental principle in good selling – understand the prospect to be able to provide the solution. This practice applies well to Social Media engagement for business.

An excellent blog post from Washington DC communications firm Livingston talks about this. We have the step of “listening” as our very first element in working with clients. The difference in Social Media is that you don’t begin by vocally asking your “prospect”, in this case your market, what they want/need. You listen to them talking in various Social Media channels.

We work with clients to frame the questions for which they need answers. Then we do a lot of listening using our own set of proprietary tools. There are many On-Demand services that can do this listening from radian6 through to Buzzmetrics. Regardless of what tool is used (they all have good and bad elements) the act of listening is a critical first step towards engagement with Social Media on a business level.

While a company blog may be useful, it’s not where to start, for that is “telling” as opposed to “listening”. Through listening first, a business can understand the shape, tone, style and nature of the conversations taking place, or not taking place, in the Social Mediasphere. The insights from this “listening” will help form a better strategy for how a business deals with Social Media. You will be able to better determine budgets, resource requirements, technologies to use and more.

If you want to close the sale, you need to listen and understand the prospect, provide the right solution…and then ask for the sale.

(Author: Giles Crouch, Managing Partner)