Social Gestures, Objects, and Equity

futurelab default header

by: Karl Long

Hugh over at gapingvoid raises the interesting point that even though the market for companies to create and deliver one way “messages” is dissapearing, demand for PR, marketing, and advertising professionals is growing. The question is now that we don’t control the “message” what are we doing?

To quote Hugh:

1. Problem: Post-Cluetrain Reality- There is no market for “Messages”.

2. Opportunity: There is, however, a VAST market for “Social Gestures”. As Mark Earls says in his brilliant new book, “Herd”, we are, after all, social animals. We are, after all, primates.

3. Execution: Social Objects, Anybody?

I’m going to add number 4:

4. Value: Social Equity, the value you build over time from the creation of and participation with social gestures and social objects.

I’m absolutely convinced that one of the biggest differences between traditional marketing, and new conversational, people driven marketing is you actually build value over time. I think blogs are one of the best examples, every time you post to a blog it’s like making a small deposit in a bank account, each one build on the rest, and ends up returning interest that compounds. The value of a blog over time becomes more than the sum of the individual posts, as it and the author becomes interconnected through other blogs and sites.

Traditional marketing and advertising used to try and build brand equity, in the new conversational marketplace companies that are participating are building social equity (i’m sure that means something else somewhere but it seems appropriate).

What else could you call the value you build over time by participating in the O’Sphere?

Original Post: http://experiencecurve.com/archives/social-gestures-objects-and-equity