In a breakthrough new report Forrester Research is declaring institutional power on its way out thanks to the adoption of social media technologies. The report surmises: “Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies. To thrive in an era of Social Computing, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists.”
This is one of Forrester's most forward thinking pieces of research to date. I highly recommend purchasing it. It covers more than just the implications on marketing, but also for IT and enterprise technology vendors.
The report reinforces the results of the Edelman trust barometer. For marketers, the analyst group recommends we should: let customers be the brand; become aggregators of content that's not our own; and become more transparent, but not too open that we endanger consumer privacy. This is consistent with the find, listen, engage, empower model.
The following chart provides a snapshot of all of the different social technologies that are contributing to this change. Clip and save it. It's a roadmap to the new centers of gravity with some handy stats to boot.
(Disclaimer - Forrester provided me with a free copy of the research and asked that I not distribute it in full but that I could quote from it.)
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