There is so much noise, is anyone listening? Welcome to the 2.0 generation.
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by John Sostak
It's crowded and noisy out here.
It is really noise in here. In my little box, that is connected to 2 billion other people.
Communication has never had so many different forms. Web 2.0 is social media and social networking. Everyone has a voice, and an audience. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and hundreds of other social networks have taken the Internet, and mobile web to another level, and it has happened quickly.
I am constantly responding to emails, text messages, blog comments, an occasional phone call. Forget about mail, I will not answer it, email me the wedding invitation. With all this communication, why do I feel like I’m disconnected from my friends, family and clients?
The 2.0 Generation.
Time has always been a non renewable commodity, and therefore, of the highest value. Now when we get someone’s time, we do not necessarily get there attention. I believe the 2.0 Generation is only going to become harder to reach, because we have to many ways to communicate. As an Internet marketer, I need to get a hold this. Now.
I won’t pretend to have an answer to an obvious question. How can we communicate effectively? To me, effectively means we get our message across, and we receive feedback or something that we can act on or think about. How are you communicating?
Is your communication and channels effective? Put some thought into that. Effective today may have a lower bar then 20 years ago. 20 years ago we were using fax machines, beepers, we always had change in our pocket for the payphone at the airport or gas station. We did talk more, and I feel like we had a longer attention span. I’m not pining for the old days before the world wide web, just trying to get my arms around what is next.
There is so much noise, it is getting harder to actually reach the person. That is the true marketers challenge. Aggregating a million page views a day is only impressive if the viewer actually responds to the page. So, favorite way to communicate leads to the second, and maybe more important question. What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate?
How do you slice through the noise, like a samurai, and reach Generation 2.0? I see people on Facebook, and I can tell they are on it for hours, that respond to a Farmville coin, but do not answer their phone. The smart Internet marketing companies and businesses are creating an incentive in exchange for the members time.
Engagement and incentives may get them in, and make your site and product sticky. This leads to many more questions. It isn’t uncommon to go into production on a movie without knowing how it ends. If you write, you also realize that every answer isn’t needed before the 1st chapter is completed, so we can save the questions related to how we use the people we collect.
The question that matters is what channels can we use to effectively reach Generation 2.0?
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Comment By: Duncan
March 11th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Is "local" an important part of the solution? Engaging with people in your local area might enable real world interaction because it is possible to get there. I feel the way to go is to capture the imagination, get people to want to be engaged, involved and contributing in real world ways.
As a video producer, I would like to use social media to engage an audience in a practical activity like making a video for a competition where they actual turn up to watch and vote. Maybe at a cinema for example. But the build up, promotion and development of the idea lends it self to social media. All the post event information can also be shared via social media too.
The key here for me would be about inspiring people to do something for real and to make it local so that it is practical for them to engage in person.
Comment By: John Sostak
March 11th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Duncan, Local would be more effective for most businesses. The web is global, but we see with geo targetting, companies are going in that direction. It is only a short matter of time before you enable Twitter to send you geo targeted messages, which will allow you to walk past a retailer, and receive an invitation and discount to stop in and buy something. I also think niche, which could be considered local, in that it is a smaller market will cut through clutter.
I think you are going in the right direction with local, as well with video. My advice would be to make sure you tag your video so your local audience finds you. Social networks seem to help, but when I analyze my websites statistics, 40% of my traffic is still coming from search, and long tail keyword content is easier to rank on in search. Thanks my friend, and keep in touch!
Comment By: uberVU - social comments
March 20th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
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