Pivot Conference Talks Social Business and Generation C
The annual Pivot Conference designed for large brand social marketers is an event that allows us to see into the future of small business social opportunities. With Brian Solis, arguably the top thought leader in social media marketing, hosting the event we knew we were in for some thought provoking insights.
Right out of the gate Brian validated what we knew to be true – reading a top 10 list on how to do social marketing is not going to cut it. Social is transforming faster than the speed of the Internet and a new consumer segment is emerging – the Social Consumer.
Brian even introduced a new demographic to the audience. We’ve all heard of Generation X, Y and now Z. Solis suggested the generation that marketers should really be thinking about is Generation “C”.
Brian Solis gave me an autographed copy of his best selling book “The End of Business as Usual” @ Pivot
The connected generation.
Spanning every age group the connected consumer is looking for more via social graphs than ever before. In fact research was released stating that the average consumer will access over 10 points of research before making a major purchase decision. That is over double what it was in 2010. And what is driving much of these research points – you likely guessed it – Social.
Be it their Facebook network or a search on Twitter or Pinterest, people are seeking advice constantly across the social graph. And when they want to say something – the audience has it’s own audience as social sharing virality spreads messages, recommendations and yes – complaints.
One of the key take-aways from the 2 days in New York was the concept of nurturing social advocates. The big brands are dedicating more resources to their best social advocates with special attention, access and offers. This is a practice that a small business could also institute to help keep current customers happy and engage with new prospects via these social advocates. There are new technologies being developed to address this opportunity and as they become established with the multi-million dollar brands we expect to see small business versions evolved over the course of the year. Something for us to all look forward to in the near future.
