From Competing to Co-Creating

ARTICLE ONE in a SERIES of THREE

• Article One: The Anatomy of the Ages
• Article Two: Conversational Commerce
• Article Three: Content Created For Commerce

The Anatomy of the Ages: The Industrial - Internet - Social Ages

So I ask, how come, as human beings, our culture, conditioning and the circumstances we are living in, why has it become all so difficult?

Well, firstly, I define the ages of Humanity as the:

We humans have existed and traversed through each, yet the 

• cultures we live in, 
• our conditioning in how we are raised, what we hold to be true
• the day-to-day circumstances we've lived, worked and exist in, 

largely remain unchanged and it's causing us to increasingly struggle today. Why?

THE INDUSTRIAL AGE: (competing)

Our culture, conditioning and circumstances, whether at home, work, in our professional and personal relationships, had us COMPETING.

Through our schooling, university, into our work life, the concept of pleasing, beginning with our parents before school, our teachers into our lecturers, and eventually our bosses had us as a society being taught to:

• give the right answer
• compete with our fellow classmate / work colleagues

knowing that if we gave enough “CORRECT ANSWERS” we would be rewarded with promotion, advancement, some form of fiscal recognition.

The Industrial Age was about COMPETING with advancement and recognition through providing WHAT the CORRECT ANSWER was to a most often repeated question.

(DE SEDE MEDIA: SOCIAL STRATEGIES SHOW: Season 1: Episode 1)

THE INTERNET AGE: (collecting)

Initially through desktops, then into mobile devices, the Internet Age provided an overwhelm of near instantly available data and information. 

Fuelled by our culture - conditioning - circumstances through our lives, from school to work, to home, we used the Internet age to COLLECT as much information as we could to, guess what...

GIVE THE RIGHT ANSWER.

We are conditioned, educationally and as a society that by giving the RIGHT answer, we will advance, be rewarded, prosper.

Yet, instant access to being able to not only download but also upload data and information, resulted in the Internet Age rapidly arriving to a place of overwhelm of information.

As a society, because of the internet, we are the most interconnected generations in human history, yet obesity, depression, suicide are rampant. 

THE SOCIAL AGE: (co-creating)

THE SOCIAL AGE TIMELINE:

2004/5 The Internet

The internet had reached a level of society penetration. It had become a day-to-day asset.

2004 The Social Internet

We all know the story of Facebook’s beginnings, the beginnings of social media. Yelp in 2004, Twitter in 2006 and online video via YouTube in 2005.

2007 The Mobile Internet

The iPhones release began the internets evolution from a static desktop device into a mobile facility. Instant access in the palm of our hand to not only humanity's knowledge, but increasingly to humanity through social media.

2007/8 The Global Financial Crisis

The GFC in some countries created generational debt, devastated business and family finances. That was the obvious.

But it also put on notice to the world, jobs for life, financial security throughout investment, abused of power placed everyone at risk.

It catapulted into the social discussion, via social media, the ability for people to be able to be heard all the while as we, as a society were being invited to:

• tweet our views whilst we watched sporting events
• post reviews of our favourite restaurants
• send images of what we were wearing, eating, going, who we were associating with

The mobile social web gave people a voice, whilst overloading us with information.

THE SOCIAL AGE IS ABOUT CO-CREATING

• If we went to dinner we could ask a stranger for recommendations
• If we went to a show we could ask a stranger about the best seats
• Before we booked a show, we could ask a total stranger if it’s worth going

Whether that be through posting a review on Trip Advisor, posting a review on Yelp, requesting a recommendation via your Facebook group until this co-creation became more visibly mainstream through:

Airbnb (2008)

UBER (2009)

THE SOCIAL AGE IS ABOUT YOU.

Personal and Brand Storytelling has now become the elected norm. Who’s behind the brand!

Customers of the past have become CONSUMERS…consuming amongst themselves socially about the feelings, the needs, the experiences of dealing with a brand and their goods and services.

We no longer make EMOTIONAL decisions and LOCK them in with logic.

Today, we make EMOTIONAL decisions, seek social ASSURANCE online before LOCKING into no longer a buying decision, but an engagement decision.

COMPETING to CO-CREATING to CONVERSING

In 2018, the new form of commerce is conversation, the voice of EQ.

Leading with who you are, your story, your brand story, so we can share about the experiences of you, your brand, before making our consumer ENGAGEMENT DECISIONS.

It is why I have built and released the De Sede Media Centre.

and the De Sede BU Academy.

Both provide high volumes of informative content to help individual, business and brands capture and express their story, providing strategies and tactics on performance, motivation and confidence in today's social age marketplace.

Coming next: Article Two in the series: Conversational Commerce (what is and how to)

Coming after: Article Three in the series: Content Created for Commerce (the how to)