Sunday, July 5, 2009

Complexity through simplicity

The mobile phone was a huge development, but the first mobile phones where very large and would usually sit in your car while you were mobile. It certainly could not be put in your pocket but at least you could be contacted if you weren’t at your office. It’s fair to say one communication process could last a few days.

Computers changed everything. Funnily enough though, at their onset they were only seriously adopted in the late eighties and early nineties. There was still a cloud of mystery surrounding them well into the mid nineties and companies were not sure if this was the way business was going. They needed more convincing. Well, it was always going this way and this was only the beginning.

When the World Wide Web came around it really shook things up, businesses where either in or out. Some businesses where at the forefront of this movement others just had their head in the sand and thought the storm would pass. (Coincidently some companies are still around others no longer exist)

How could business be opened and closed online? Surely this could not be done via the internet.

We have almost done a complete revolution, the web has been reinvented and conversely the way you do business has changed forever. The way your consumers interact with your brand is like nothing we have ever seen before. With the rise of a new networked economy, social media and a multitude of communication platforms available to touch your consumers. Your consumers know just as much about your brand as you do.

Funnily enough, there is a similar ‘mood’ surrounding this movement as there was when the internet first came around. Businesses are either in or they are out. Adopt or put your head in the sand and wait for the storm to pass- It’s not going to pass, it’s only getting heavier.

Think about the progression of mobile phones to computers, the internet, hotmail, messenger chat, SMS and then MMS, blogs, forums and second life, then the rise of Myspace (bands, too many to mention built their empire on Myspace alone) the development and the cross adoption of Facebook and now the almighty and mysterious Twitter.

It’s all complexity through simplicity. The way we communicate is complex. We are getting more complex because the conversation has changed and is forever changing- This also means we are searching for a simple method, a simple execution.

Your consumers are talking about you right now through these modern channels, if you don’t answer the phone, they are checking you out online, and then will read and write blogs about you, see if you have a Facebook group and if your active on Twitter.

You have two choices; join them or watch them interact with your competitors.

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