Future
3 Things 2011 Will Bring
Now that the Christmas & New Years Break are behind us, we all have to get back to work at some point this week, except for the financially free folks who can do what they want. I thought I would give you a snapshot of three things that will come to fruition this year. They are very easy to predict but I can tell you this, many people don’t understand why or how it will impact their future in business. It’s not what happens, it’s how you see the future of business before it happens.
Let me get into it. Firstly, you need to understand 60% of commerce is and has been shifting to the Internet, online commerce is already huge, but it’s morphing. This will happen over the next couple years.
1.) Affiliate Programs – This year we will see a shift to where everyone will be part of affiliate marketing, it will be based on your following, how much influence you have, and of course credibility. These are just a few of the indicators that will be looked at for you to be a part of company “A’s” Affiliate program, they want to know that you have influence, a big following of consumers that will buy. Look for these programs to grow up away from the typical Internet Marketer, but do your research if a company approaches you.
This shift to the Affiliate Model, it may get a better name, will be part of the 60% of commerce I mentioned above. Consider how much and what you purchase online, you are now being looked at as a business partner rather than a consumer in 2011.
If you are a business, you may want to start your own Affiliate Program, you will also want to take advantage of Apps for the mobile market, why, read item #2.
2.) Everything goes Mobile & Social – the landscape I talked about in #1 means most of this commerce will be done through smart phones. The big three as of this writing are Apples iPhone, Microsoft’s Windows 7 Phone, and of course Google’s Android Phone. Each of these three have App Stores, not too mention the hardware makers have their own App Stores, like Samsung, Nokia and so on. This is a huge untapped marketplace, why, not everyone has a smart-phone, but they will.
Even if you are just a Blogger, get your content into one of the App Store Channels, give your content away for FREE, or charge a dollar for it, this is a new place of business for the majority. This is the year Mobile changes how we communicate and how we purchase many products and services, start making your move now, if you don’t….you will become a statistic.
Almost all of this commerce I speak of will come through Social & Mobile means, it’s the way of the new world. We are connected now, which means we are social & on the fly.
3.) Strategic Alliances – This description of doing business is not new, but it will be paramount to survival in business. Most of us will partner with someone or a some business, it’s a resource and reach thing. The have nots will not be able to fly on their own, they will need help more than the haves. The truth is, we will ALL partner up at some point to succeed in business, going it alone will be an exception rather than the rule. Prepare to have others on your team, prepare to share your wealth as well, having smart people on your team is worth the investment.
What do strategic alliances look like, Wal-Mart & McDonald’s is a good example of the term. They share revenues to leverage the number of consumers each has to offer, refer to #1, your following, your FaceBook Credit Points, your Twitter Influence will matter, these numbers will be attractive to companies. You don’t have to be as big as Wal-Mart or McDonalds. It might be just two people with large followings that get together to do business as strategic alliances, why, because it makes good sense and good business. Get ready to partner in 2011.
The Merry Christmas Economy!
Here we are yet once again, Christmas time. Why is it that we are all shocked by the fact it’s upon us and we just aren’t ready for it? If you’re one of those people, and you are a business owner, I ask you, how do you stay in business? I’m mean really, you are the one who is supposed to have the house in order, making sure all is on schedule, and then you say you’re not ready for Christmas?
Ya I know I’m ranting a bit, it sounds silly doesn’t it, but yet many of us do just that, some credibility is lost when you admit you aren’t ready for Christmas. It’s the same date every year, it happens only once per year, you know what it means, and you know what you are supposed to do, so what’s the problem.
Now I’m generalizing here but, we tend to spend our time & money on what we believe is important to us, not being ready for Christmas speaks volumes about how you value the world, how you value the people around you, and especially your immediate family.
Those in Social Media circles claim they love their followers and so on, we are all very nice to each other here, we lift one another up, we help for free alot, and we say things we don’t really believe. That’s the truth really, but we want to move forward and move ahead, and in the Future of Business you won’t be able to do that without people helping one another. We are moving into a Merry Christmas Economy!
In a Merry Christmas Economy we help one another, we don’t expect anything back, we just want to be a part of something larger than ourselves. We will share openly, we will click on Like buttons and Re-Tweet icons to show how much we value others and their businesses. We value relationships, we value the world differently, and we all have the same basic needs (in general), this new economy is open to anyone, it’s to good to be true, it’s awesome! You will need to make your brand / product or service like-able if it isn’t already, that’s how your business will be judged.
Gary Vaynerchuk has written about the Thank You Economy, is he talking about the same thing, he wants you to care, to care about those around you, and mean it. He not only wants you to say it, he wants you to actually do something about it. But will you, why all of a sudden now, why in this Social Media ERA is that so important?
It’s gut check time now, look deep into who you are, why you’re in business, why you in Social Networks, are you practicing, are you participating in business for others or yourself? If you are honest, others are secondary, but they shouldn’t be, they pay your bills, they provide the roof over your head. They will determine if your business is liked! But yet, we make it difficult for customers to deal with us, we make them jump through hoops to get our help, we make them work to hard to do business with us, why is that?
The Future of Business will be very different, being social is the osmosis of being connected, being connected means the world will decide what is good and what is bad, not slick marketing. This connectedness means we are on the move at all times, we are mobile in such a way your business will have trouble tracking and understanding the consumer, unless your values match with there’s.
The Merry Christmas Economy has an underlying problem, it has to solve the problem of an entitlement mentality. In The Future of Business, we must provide access over pay-walls, and find seamless ways of qualifying the consumer. When we get past the entitlement thinking, we will get to the heart of the matter, where people matter, make doing business with our brand, product or service virtually painless, only then will we have insight into the future of business. Dealing with your business has to be like breathing, no thinking, no obstructions, no walls, wide open hospitality, an experience they won’t forget, something they do through osmosis. Just like in the movie A Field Of Dreams, they will come and they won’t even know why. Is that your kind of business, one that participates in the Field of dreams, if you build it, they will come. It could be like that, but it will boil down to how you value others in a Merry Christmas Economy?
One Of My Goals For 2011
One of my goals for 2011 is to give you the opportunity to tell me what you want to learn here, specifically on The Future of Business / The Open & Free Business Model. So, for the purposes of my work, I want to provide content that you actually want to read and learn from, I will do my very best to research and post what I find. Keep in mind I am also a business, so if some research has a cost attached, I will end up charging for that research in some fashion. It could be a white paper, a webinar or workshop, but know I will recover the cost at some point.
My primary focus is The Future of Business / The Open & Free Business Model, although they appear separate, they are also one and the same. What questions do you have, what is it that confuses you about it, what are you struggling with in your business, maybe this model can provide a solution? Maybe you don’t know, that’s OK, I am also available for hire to work with your business.
You will find I try to practice what I preach, I’m open and transparent as much as I can be, I also give you the opportunity to embarrass me, but I know you won’t. One of the practices in The Future of Business, is being open and available, transparent and above all, care about your constituency, your followers, your readers and customers. I have great trust in you the reader / consumer, I believe in helping those who ask, and even those who don’t.
For the purposes of disclosure, I spend a great deal of time studying the work of many people, I read 200 – 300 articles a day and I still can’t keep up. Here is a short list, just to name a few, and I want you study them to:
1.) Gerd Leonhard – http://www.mediafuturist.com
2.) Glen Hiemstra – http://www.futurist.com
3.) Chris Brogan – http://www.chrisbrogan.com
4.) Olivier Blanchard – http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com
5.) Trey Pennington – http://www.treypennington.com
6.) Scott Stratten – http://www.un-marketing.com
7.) Louis Gray – http://www.louisgray.com
8.) Jeff Jarvis – http://www.buzzmachine.com
9.) Chris Anderson – http://www.thelongtail.com (Of Wired Magazine)
10.) Ross Dawson – http://rossdawson.com
So, Owengreaves.com has opened it’s doors for your input on what content or information you would like to aquire here, on the topic of: The Future of Business – The Open & Free Business Model
Feel free to send me an email with your request if you do not wish to leave a comment – E-Mail Me!
How Do I Get Your Attention?
Attention is a funny thing, kids are masters of getting as much as they need, but how do businesses master that same art without becoming annoying? Sometimes annoying works well for advertising campaigns, but do they win friends and influence people? Do they get your attention, or just your anger?
Some people, like me, can’t walk into a room quietly, we naturally draw attention to ourselves, probably because we are insecure or some other mental issue. I don’t know why it is, but it is. I love people, and I love helping them when I can, but that doesn’t get attention the way I would like it to. It might have something to do with my opening : )
I’m going to use me as the scape goat in this post, as an example of what some of us are dealing with. I hope it stirs some emothions in you and makes you think.
People and business are not the same, they have two different personalities and yet some of the same needs. When a person fills the role of business owner, they look at the world completely differently than when they are at home. OK maybe, but usually. The business owner, if they are doing well, tend to have healthy happy relationships with staff, and the staff reflect that out to those who are dealing with them. In a perfect world that’s probably very true, but not always the norm.
Every business has the same need, they want your attention, and those who figure out what gets your attention tend to survive longer. I’m generalizing, but you get the idea. So how does a business of one get your attention the same way a business / Brand or many people do? It still comes down to need doesn’t it. There has to be a need for me to look your way, and more importantly, a compelling need for me to find out more about what you are offering. Not all businesses need my services, they do, but don’t realize they do, why? Urgency. I may show you a tidal wave, but it’s not going to get here till 2014, I’ll wait and see mentality sets in, and well, you know what happens. So how do I get your attention?
I’m not a kid any longer, so I can’t get your attention the way kids do, and I can only cry wolf so many times before you take my work seriously, so what will it take? Why do most small business have a tougher time over bigger businesses? Probably because big businesses have more resources and can buy attention at a level small businesses or individuals can’t. It’s not a level playing field by those terms is it?
If it’s that hard now, what will it be like when another 3 – 4 billion people come online? If you haven’t noticed, we are moving away from the Bricks & Mortar style of consuming, we are buying more and more through our smart phones than ever before. That is going to increase, and it’s not going away as if it was a fad like Bell Bottom Blue Jeans.
My tag line should be, I SEE DEAD BUSINESSES! Why? Because most small businesses know the tidal wave is coming, if they don’t, they aren’t listening. It’s as if they are looking the other way, hoping it won’t actually happen. Fear is an immobilizing thing most of the time, but that doesn’t mean what I’m sharing isn’t real or going to happen.
You should be doing three things in your business right now, no matter what size it is, become social, become very mobile, and be prepared to serve a portion of the 4 billion people yet to come. So I ask you, how do I get your attention? The better question might be, forget about me, how do you get the the attention of 4 billion yet to come? Attention is the currency of our future, learn how to get it.
The Future of Business – Visa & Mastercard Will Not Be Cards
Somethings just seem more and more obvious, I ask this question all the time, can you imagine a day when we will no longer use money? I mean coins & paper money. It’s coming and much sooner than you think, it’s all because of Chip Technology or whatever name you decide to give it. We….all of us, are being traced by our cell phones, by our Debt Cards, or Credit Cards, whether we like it or not, so why do we even need them?
The truth is, the smart phone is all we will ever need until technology and humans merge. Visa & MasterCard have already started changing they’re model to be accessed by smart phones for all purchases or payment methods. Smart phones will be the wireless Visa & MasterCard debit machine, it already is in some parts of the world. Imagine not carrying 15 plastic cards around in your wallet, no debt cards, no credit cards, no nothing cards! But also imagine if it became law that you had to have a smart phone in order to live, buy food, buy clothes, then what?
Some day we will merge with technology, but until then, we will still have to deal with these clunky systems to pay for our purchases, not too mention making deposits to our bank accounts. This shift is expected to begin in 2011, yep, it’s coming and coming fast….what’s interesting though, my bank hasn’t even released their debt card with a chip in it yet….that’s how fast this is happening, they may not have too!
Just think, Visa & MasterCard will no longer be plastic cards, they will be an application in your smart phone. That to me is progress I would like to see.
What do you think?