Social media, content marketing, mobile and real-time – these have been the mega trends of the past few years.
What we’ve been seen and experiencing as consumers and as professionals in terms of technological development is simply amazing. We can’t live without our smartphones, tablets or other devices such as kindles. We seem to be in a symbiotic relationship with them, where our devices have become extensions to our bodies – without them, we can’t function. Just look around the next time you’re in the city, at the airport or especially in public transport – everyone is gazing at their devices. I promise you, you’ll be shocked at the scene, just put your phone away and look around!
Here are some staggering statistics to convince of the magnitute of technological adoption:
- The global internet usage has already surpassed 3 billion people.
- In 2015, there will be almost 2 billion social network users
- By 2020, the number of devices connected to the internet is expected to exceed 42 billion.
- By the end of 2014 eMarketer expected smartphone usage to grow by 25% with 1.76 billion people owning and using a smartphone
- Table users, on the other hand, are expected to surpass 1 billion this year.
The world moves at the speed of a digital click.
Everything is on-demand – now, at this very moment.
Brian Solis calls this “Digital Darwinism” because technology and society evolve faster than our ability to adapt.
As you know, I follow his work religiously.
One thing I’ve learned is that digital disruption presents a tremendous challenge for businesses not only to keep up with technological development and how to actually use the devices themselves, but mostly in understanding how digital, social and mobile are changing and defining our behaviours at every step of our journeys as consumers.
In a recent post on his blog, Solis says that “Most businesses are merely reacting to the rapid evolution of technology rather than trying to create engaged customer experiences throughout the life-cycle.”
He goes on to explain how “while a majority of organizations are starting to embrace social, mobile, real-time to various extents, if you really stop to think about it, they are simply running to where they think customers are rather than taking the time to understand why they’re in each channel, what they expect and how they (and you) define value. More importantly, there needs to be an integrated experience in these channels that align with the new customer journey that’s taking shape and evolving every day.”
An important point he makes after that is that the customer journey is not linear. It’s dynamic, evolving and cross-device. It’s also defined by shared experiences, because with digital, social and mobile we are now constant creators of our own content, shared online with others to express how we choose to buy, what we buy and how satisfied or dissatisfied we are with those purchases. It’s all out there for others to see and learn from our experiences.
Businesses need to be present at every step of the customer journey, but they need to adopt a seamless P2P approach – connecting people with real people and real experiences.
Mobile payments, wearables, big data, webrooming... Technology and innovation are not slowing down. Transformation is needed. Transformation in business models, strategies, approaches and tactics, in literally any activity.
It seems like 2015 and 2016 will be exciting years for business. As Brian puts it “This isn’t a time to react. It’s a time to lead!”
Will you lead?
