Top Business Trends of 2010-#kaizenblog recap
It’s really a simple question. What were the top business trends of 2010? I offered a list of 7 trends in this post (many thanks to Chanelle Schneider for responding to my tweet with suggestions) to get the conversation started. For this week’s chat on Twitter of #kaizenblog, we had a very cozy group. (A lot of our usual crowd was busy organizing, preparing and enjoying the Christmas holiday.) Nonetheless, we tackled the job of looking at 2010 and seeing what trends stood out for us. To see the chat in its entirety, here is the transcript Transcript for #kaizenblog – BizTrends2010
What were the top trends for 2010? Judy Gombita led the way with her response, “A1 I think (or at least hope) that marketers are beginning to realize that social media is not meant for broadcasting messages.” This tweet led the way to an interesting conversation about how the use of social media morphed over the year. There seems to be some tension between talking to our customers and talking at our customers. Chanelle reminded us that broadcasting can miss certain target markets (Gen Y, for one) as they get turned off by the practice. Another trend that was noted was geolocation. This is when someone can post their actual location while sharing information on social medias sites.
The conversation about broadcasting spilled into our second discussion question, How did these trends shape business practices during the year? Judy Gombita noted that may of the Gen Y cohort send out broadcasting. Chanelle Schneider described how FourSquare “has us thinking that pushing LB updates is cool.” However, M Zayfert explained, “#Geolocation very hot at start of 2010 then cooled. This led to a discussion that may foreshadow what might be coming in 2011. A number of people are noting that location-based posts may be intrusive to our privacy.
Another point that sparked discussion was Judy G’s point, “A2. To original answer, believe lots of CEO”s expected direct ( & fast) returns on social media investments regarding sales.” While it can’t be a blanket expectation that returns will be large or immediate, Tanja Ziegel put it into perspective, “Those biz already doing great customer service MAY see a fast returnfrom social media, not every biz will.” Perhaps one big trend in 2010 was the realization that social media is an effective tool for customer service as it give you a direct route to your customer.
Since trends often continue from one year to the next, the last discussion question asked, Which ones do you believe will continue in 2011? Parissa Behnia offered, “a3 virtual business partnerships…no need to “hire” someone if you work nicely together esp if you are diff states.” This seems to be very true as people use VoIP services, cloud computing and other resources that eliminate geographical obstacles.
Before we knew it, the hour had passed and it was time to end the chat. There were many trends we didn’t get to take a look at but this could be your chance right now to continue the conversation.
What trends did you notice during 2010?
What kind of impact do you believe they had on business practices?
Which ones will last into 2011?
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Trends I noticed? More of the same. Businesses considering every trick in the book they can come up with to convince people to consume, rather than actually trying to provide genuine value.
Impact on business practices? More of the same, though I suspect we’ll begin to see people growing ever more tired of being consider “consumers,” decide to consume less, and drive the lumbering, thin value-flipping corporate shills into a panic as they find no trick in the book will magically make their archaic ways suddenly sustainable.
(Wishful thinking? I hope not.)
Moving into 2011, I hope to see more stories of organizations focused first on people – as people – and sincerely looking to empower their customers. These organizations will put people – not profit, not SEO, not branding – first. The masses are beginning to see business generally views them as consumer cattle, easily manipulated and of no consequence beyond a source of revenue. We’ve seen business mismanaged, only to be spared by the government at the last minute, enabling a return to profitability and business as usual. And we’re very pissed off.
While the lumbering juggernauts continue to stumble on, hemorrhaging customers, I am looking forward to smaller, leaner businesses scurrying between their feet, catching those dropped customers. Working together, building better lives, raising the bar until it’s high enough to either trip or block the oligarchy.
The tables are turning…
Brian,
Your point about customer behavior has been echoed a few times in the #kaizenblog conversation as we acknowledge that people are getting more savvy. There are whole groups of people who are just not buying the same-old, same-old marketing strategies. Maybe it’s because the economic recovery hasn’t been as quick as many had hoped. Maybe it’s due to consumers catching on to the way messages were crafted previously. Or maybe it’s because there is less distance between the customers and the organizations due to social media. This leads to changes in spending behaviors.
It may be a great chance for small businesses to be the ones who catch the dropped customers. The tables are indeed turning. Thanks for commenting!
~Elli
Cynical old me. I think consumers haven’t been spending because they haven’t had the money or they’ve been afraid that the economy will worsen and they won’t have the money or they’re so far upside down from their previous spending sprees that they can’t get the money (in the form of easy credit).
I think it’s also awfully easy to paint all of ‘corporate’ America with the same scum-sucking capitalist brush when most business that I ‘consume’ from do a reasonable and sometimes extraordinary job of providing value for the money I spend.
Redbox makes it easy and convenient to rent movies at a very reasonable $1 a night while for a few bucks a month I can stream an unlimited amount of movies directly to my PC or web enabled TV through Netflix. What happened to Blockbuster? They’re desperately trying to stay relevant and afloat. All 3 provide an alternative to the $10 movie ticket and $7 popcorn in my local multiplex.
Can we say that the former are providing comeuppance to the latter? No, because the more savvy latter are making the theater experience more enjoyable with cushier seats, better quality sound and images and, in some cases, seat side service.
While there are any number of bad apples in the corporate world, and we’re more than aware of the malfeasance of many who were responsible for much of the recent financial crisis, that doesn’t mean they’re solely to blame. We’ve got a government who is too often lackadaisical in providing corporate oversight or worse, complicit by providing or limiting same. We’ve got corporate boards whose concern is limited to the amount of liability insurance they’re provided and we’ve got shareholders whose focus is the short term gain or quarterly dividend payment rather than long term growth.
Finally, there’s us. We ultimately have to bear an equal responsibility for ‘eating’ the bad apples that the corporate ‘bad’ actors want to feed us. After all, Eve certainly had been warned of the consequences of her fruit brunch. How many of us opted in to a bigger house than we needed because we could get the financing, have a 57 inch flat screen TV and pay $390 month to lease a car that we’d never consider buying outright? Are we all the victims of evil corporate manipulation? Is it all the subliminal messages fed us in our morning bowl of Alpha-Bits or could it be that we can be as greedy and grasping as our corporate cohorts?
In this age of Angie’s List and Yelp and Google reviews and Twitter #tags there is very little excuse for any of us not to be educated consumers and there’s little room for corporates to plead ignorance and ignore their consumers complaints. I consume, I am a consumer. There’s nothing wrong with the label. I also produce, I want consumers, I want them to be happy with my production because they’ll buy more and tell their friends.
The Great Depression ushered out an era of anything goes and profligate spending and ushered in an era of austerity, frugality and belt tightening which, unfortunately, contributed to WW II as we tightened the belts of our former enemies a little more than prudent.
Maybe the Great Recession will do the same sans WW III. Maybe we’ll all become a little more responsible realizing that having it all means having enough to fund our kids education as well as our own retirements (“…Would you like a cart? Would you like a cart?”) with maybe a little extra thrown in to help Jr. set up his own small business – after all, he’ll be picking out your retirment home one day!
Tom Gray recently posted..Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-15
Tom,
You make some great points! Your point about our role in the “greed culture” is not discussed very much. It’s a point I make a lot ( as you know) about making choices. As you pointed out, we choose the house, the television and the car. And you have to ask why? How did we decide that luxury items are necessary to our lives?
As business owners, we also have a choice over what ethos we subscribe to and how that frames our relationship with our customers. How do we want to affect the world?
~Elli