At the dawn of a new age of marketing, the rules governing communication between businesses and their customers are changing underneath everyone’s feet. Companies can no longer rely on ‘buying eyeballs’ through traditional media channels, and must now compete in the realm of content creation. Where once it was consumers’ collective responsibility to absorb the same tired pitches emerging from the TV or radio, it’s now the responsibility of companies to engage, entertain, and most importantly inform their potential customers. This obviously benefits consumers, but how does it affect businesses and their marketing strategies? More importantly if you’re a business owner, how can you adapt to this new ecosystem?

Old-media marketing is reminiscent of a parade route lined with millions of shackle-laden chairs. Radio built the first chairs, and with the advent of TV the number of seats along the parade route grew dramatically. For the better part of a century, if one could afford to pay the parade organizers, one could march nearly anything they wanted down that street. It was the content provider’s responsibility to persuade viewers into sitting down, hoping that the desire to see what came next would act as an effective set of shackles. Once chained down effectively, advertisers were free to release a barrage of highly-calculated messages designed to convert engaged viewers into active consumers.

This was the ecosystem created by radio and TV. Both one-way technologies that were perfect for broadcasting messages, but provided few if any participatory channels. The message was clear: Sit down, shut up, eat your Doritos, drink your Coca-Cola, and then we may consider entertaining you. Despite what cynics may think, this lackadaisical state does not come naturally to humans. And as all advertisers that participated in this ecosystem know, unnatural equals expensive. Humans are highly evolved hunter-gatherers, and no matter how aggressively one channel-surfs, it’s impossible to satisfy those deep-seated needs in front of a TV.

With the rise of web 2.0 we have witnessed the re-ignition of humanity’s desire to participate. This much is obvious. What is less obvious is that alongside this participation two important trends have evolved.

First, users have developed the ability to detect and effectively filter out messages that are not directly relevant to their immediate goal. This is just as true online as it is offline. Online users are either hunting their information like a predator hunts its prey (search), or gathering it in an organic matter (social news aggregators, RSS). Did T-Rex stop to admire the Jurassic Park signs while on its way to devour some tasty humans? Of course not, because he had a goal — so do most internet users. Alternatively, for the gatherers out there, if you went out into a field to pick some flowers, would you do anything but spit on the giant billboard sitting atop an otherwise beautiful mountainside? Exactly.

Secondly, the social structures that emerge on the web are organic. They emerge from the natural synergy between experience and exploration. Quality content facilitates experience, while a new suite of social-mediaand search tools have enabled a level of information-exploration unparalleled by any other medium of delivery. Lean-forward is too weak a term; it’s more like dive-in. To effectively engage with users, businesses should target their innovative efforts on facilitating users’ natural penchant for exploration. The user is on a mission; what knowledge and tools can you provide to help them achieve success?

This brings us to chairlifts. Try to imagine your next ski trip without chairlifts. You’re at the bottom of the mountain, and there’s tremendous experiential value to be had at the top, but getting there is hard. I’m guessing most people have ski’d down a mountain far more times than they’ve hiked up. That’s exactly why ski resorts build chairlifts; lifts lower the barriers to entry of a valuable experience. The mountain possesses an inherent value, and the resort creates a community of tools, activities, and gathering places that tap into that inherent value in order to facilitate experience. In other words, building upon others exploration, ski resorts create tools that facilitate experience and generate real long-term value.

Much like ski resorts, in the new online ecosystem those in want of customers must invest in the creation of information and tools that benefit the user. Google’s behavior is an obvious example; at I/O, Google’s annual developer conference, they announced multiple projects that will continue to improve end users’ online experience over the next 5 years (Web-M, Google-TV, GWT+Roo Integration, Latitude API). Don’t be intimidated though, because you don’t have to be a multi-billion dollar technology corporation to provide value to users. Smaller scale businesses only need to create value for a specific subset of internet users, namely their current and potential customers! Find out what interests your customers and start thinking of ways to convert those interests into online information, tools, and conversations that can pull users to your site and keep them coming back for more. Begin with a well crafted, socially integrated, and consistently maintained blog, then build from there.

More of your future customers are breaking out of their shackled chairs each and every day. When they do, you can rest assured that they will start looking for information and tools to help them make sense of their newfound ecosystem. As a 21st century business, it’s your job to build chairlifts. The mountain of the internet beckons, and few want to trudge up the slopes alone. These newly liberated digital citizens need hubs of valuable information and conversation; they need resources and supplies to get them to the next checkpoint; and they need weapons for hunting and baskets for gathering.

The winners in this new ecosystem will be those who understand these needs and best facilitate them. So stop buying chains, and start building chairlifts!

The 5 Components of Successful Marketing Memes

Matthew Pirkowski — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:11:00 GMT

We live in a world in which a kid with big obstacles but even bigger dreams can become a worldwide sensation overnight. Zach Anner did not need a PR machine, a contract, or even much in the way of traditional talent to make an impact on the world, he simply needed to create a great meme. And if you integrate these 5 components into your message you can create one too:

1. It Appeals to a Basic Human Need

What do security, relationships, food, and sex have to do with one another? They are all integral components of human society. As such they provide a great way to bootstrap a meme into existence using the psychological machinery already created by Mother Nature. As a simple example of this, just turn on your TV and flip through the channels for a few minutes. It won't be long before you come across a host of shows tapping into one of these basic human needs, and more than likely you'll find programs mixing and matching these needs in order to catch your eye and hopefully keep you tuned in. We've evolved for millions of years to prioritize messages containing these themes, and because of this such themes act as efficient delivery mechanisms for the meme itself. Think GoDaddy Superbowl commercial.

2. It's Spreadable

Recently there's been much discussion around the role of spreadable content in advertising and marketing. For any successful meme to take hold in the collective consciousness of the internet, individual users must actively spread your message. Some messages are more spreadable than others; but what makes this so? More and more people are recognizing the active role of users in spreadable content as opposed to a view in which the information acts as virus, passively infecting the minds of all it touches. Considering people's agency is a powerful way to think about the spreadability of any given piece of information as it encourages content creators to focus on what might motivate individuals within their target audience to spread a message, rather than simply mimicking the methods of "viral" content from a completely unrelated domain. Ultimately you must know who you want to reach and understand what makes them tick. Are they going to share content because it will increase their reputation within their existing social or professional networks? Are they spreading information because they want to grow these networks? Are they likely to target who they share your message with? Answering such questions encourages you to get inside the minds of those you wish to reach, and in doing so forces you to engage with information from the perspective of those you're targeting, ultimately increasing the probability that you will create something spreadable.

3. It's Memorable

Yesterday I came across some information about two web-based startups that aim to increase the financial literacy of children. I can recall the name of one: KidZillions. It wasn't the better of the two sites, but it's the one that I'll tell people about because it's the one whose name I can recall. In a similar manner, memorable (or remarkable) content may often outperform its more accurate or higher quality competition. This is not to say you should depend on creating memorable phrases in lieu of quality content, merely that it is important how you package your information. To be memorable, content must be either significant to your life in such a way that it is not something that you have to try and remember, it is just naturally committed to memory or it should be arranged in your memory in such a way that you are able to recall it. KidZillions is both, bringing together two commonly used words to create a unique company name that aligns perfectly with what they do as a company. For any meme to thrive in the ecology of our minds, we must at the very least be able to recall it from memory

4. It's Sensible

A good meme should align with common sense. Let's call this the urban legend rule. Urban legends spread because they often lie right at the border between reality and disbelief; they are hard to disprove, but contain a large enough kernel of truth to get past the average person's bullshit-meter. Regardless of how crazy an idea is, if it in some way aligns with common sense it stands a fighting chance of spreading. When you're crafting your messages, make sure you don't set off those bullshit meters; better yet, just don't bullshit people. With each passing day it's becoming easier for anyone armed with the internet to spread ill will towards you and your brand, and they most certainly will if they think you're taking advantage of them. Instead, use this tendency to emphasize your message's strengths by drawing parallels with commonly understood ideas and concepts.

5. It's Valuable

Does your message lend value to those who may spread it? Of course, in this context value is a highly subjective term and depends greatly on your audience and message. In 2004 one would have been hard pressed to find a businessperson on the planet who would have called the Numa Numa phenomenon valuable, but millions of people got something out of watching a guy dance around like a maniac while singing a catchy techno song. So what kind of value is this? The video itself may not have had much value within a largely unconnected world, but with the emergence of an online sharing culture, information is currency now more than ever. If your idea can make someone smile, help them with a task at hand, solve a pain point, or make them look good in front of their friends and co-workers, you can be sure it will get shared.