In my previous column, I featured University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) professor Christian Vallez’s insights on the transition from an Information Economy to an Attention Economy. Aside from heading UA&P’s information technology department, Mr. Vallez is also the founder and CEO of Overmind, a narrative design consulting firm. Here is the conclusion of his story:
Once upon a time, we thirsted for knowledge. Then we wanted too much too fast. Then we wanted to share, to reach out, and to connect. We wanted to establish real relationships.
Marketers and businesses are now realizing the need to keep their customers engaged. They have realized the need to keep them still, to stop them from switching too quickly, to control their continuously shortening attention spans. In the noisy marketplace, the salesman needs the buyer to stay in his stall before his voice is drowned by the drone of the myriad of voices flooding the market. He needs to strike up a conversation.
We are now entering the next logical step in this economy that is evolving faster than light. In the Information Economy, those who had control of the information ruled the world. In the Attention Economy, those who could grab your attention had the advantage. In this new economy, those who can get you to stay will be the most successful. We are now entering a new age. Welcome to the Conversation Economy.
Technology plays a big part in this next phase of development. With the rise of the online giants, a new platform for meaningful connections and relationships has emerged. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms provide individuals, businesses, and organizations the venue to make their audiences stay through meaningful conversations. Technology has democratized the information one requires to make business decisions, purchases, even up to the type of shoes to wear for a party. Consequently, consumers have grown weary of people who tell them what to do, what to buy, where to go. This change in behavior has antagonized for the consumer those who hard-sell to them, those advertising efforts that only talk to them and not listen.
In a marketplace overwhelmed with a million voices, the only way to make someone stay is to start a conversation. This is true not just for companies in their social media marketing efforts but also for individuals who are starting to see themselves as personal brands that need to create conversations in order to ride the wave of this new era.
Before, one had to be online to exist. Later, one had to have a loud voice to exist. Today one needs to be able to hold a conversation to exist, and not just any casual conversation because the aim is to keep the person still and engaged. Therefore we need to tap into an art we have known since we became aware of our existence -- storytelling -- the fundamental social skill we have created to enable us to share our inner lives to someone else.
This sharing is in fact a form of marketing, of asking for affirmation, of selling or even buying. An exchange of stories is a social transaction ensuring the link first established between two parties will stay. The strength of the bond created between the two is a function of the power of the stories exchanged.
Although there are many types of conversations, an exchange of stories is most powerful in the establishments of bonds. Here we cannot differentiate personal bonds from those made between clients and service providers, businesses and suppliers, corporations and organizations. In the Conversation Economy, organizations and collectives become personal brands requiring personal relationships with their target audiences.
Storytelling has been with us since the beginning of time and the existing technologies have put storytelling on steroids. It is now up to us to harness the power of this “hyper storytelling” to secure our existence in the minds of consumers. The stories we tell must be able to adjust and evolve based on the stories we receive from them, since it cannot be a conversation unless both parties have exchanged stories.
We are now at the doorstep of the Conversation Economy, where no one has the monopoly of stories. But it is in storytelling that meaningful and fruitful relationships are created. Therefore those who can tell the best stories will rule. Those who can transform themselves into “conversation architects” with stories empowering their blueprints will control the economy.
“Let me tell you a story” are the six most powerful words in this Conversation Economy. We should harness these six words so we can take control, build meaningful relationships, and prosper in this challenging and exciting age which requires us to go back to our past, tap into the forgotten magic of storytelling, and go to the future, harnessing the technologies to make the stories we share more meaningful, powerful, and beautiful.
J. ALBERT GAMBOA is the CFO of Asian Center for Legal Excellence and Senior Advisor of KSearch Asia Consulting Inc.
Once upon a time, we thirsted for knowledge. Then we wanted too much too fast. Then we wanted to share, to reach out, and to connect. We wanted to establish real relationships.
Marketers and businesses are now realizing the need to keep their customers engaged. They have realized the need to keep them still, to stop them from switching too quickly, to control their continuously shortening attention spans. In the noisy marketplace, the salesman needs the buyer to stay in his stall before his voice is drowned by the drone of the myriad of voices flooding the market. He needs to strike up a conversation.
We are now entering the next logical step in this economy that is evolving faster than light. In the Information Economy, those who had control of the information ruled the world. In the Attention Economy, those who could grab your attention had the advantage. In this new economy, those who can get you to stay will be the most successful. We are now entering a new age. Welcome to the Conversation Economy.
Technology plays a big part in this next phase of development. With the rise of the online giants, a new platform for meaningful connections and relationships has emerged. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms provide individuals, businesses, and organizations the venue to make their audiences stay through meaningful conversations. Technology has democratized the information one requires to make business decisions, purchases, even up to the type of shoes to wear for a party. Consequently, consumers have grown weary of people who tell them what to do, what to buy, where to go. This change in behavior has antagonized for the consumer those who hard-sell to them, those advertising efforts that only talk to them and not listen.
In a marketplace overwhelmed with a million voices, the only way to make someone stay is to start a conversation. This is true not just for companies in their social media marketing efforts but also for individuals who are starting to see themselves as personal brands that need to create conversations in order to ride the wave of this new era.
Before, one had to be online to exist. Later, one had to have a loud voice to exist. Today one needs to be able to hold a conversation to exist, and not just any casual conversation because the aim is to keep the person still and engaged. Therefore we need to tap into an art we have known since we became aware of our existence -- storytelling -- the fundamental social skill we have created to enable us to share our inner lives to someone else.
This sharing is in fact a form of marketing, of asking for affirmation, of selling or even buying. An exchange of stories is a social transaction ensuring the link first established between two parties will stay. The strength of the bond created between the two is a function of the power of the stories exchanged.
Although there are many types of conversations, an exchange of stories is most powerful in the establishments of bonds. Here we cannot differentiate personal bonds from those made between clients and service providers, businesses and suppliers, corporations and organizations. In the Conversation Economy, organizations and collectives become personal brands requiring personal relationships with their target audiences.
Storytelling has been with us since the beginning of time and the existing technologies have put storytelling on steroids. It is now up to us to harness the power of this “hyper storytelling” to secure our existence in the minds of consumers. The stories we tell must be able to adjust and evolve based on the stories we receive from them, since it cannot be a conversation unless both parties have exchanged stories.
We are now at the doorstep of the Conversation Economy, where no one has the monopoly of stories. But it is in storytelling that meaningful and fruitful relationships are created. Therefore those who can tell the best stories will rule. Those who can transform themselves into “conversation architects” with stories empowering their blueprints will control the economy.
“Let me tell you a story” are the six most powerful words in this Conversation Economy. We should harness these six words so we can take control, build meaningful relationships, and prosper in this challenging and exciting age which requires us to go back to our past, tap into the forgotten magic of storytelling, and go to the future, harnessing the technologies to make the stories we share more meaningful, powerful, and beautiful.
J. ALBERT GAMBOA is the CFO of Asian Center for Legal Excellence and Senior Advisor of KSearch Asia Consulting Inc.
source: Businessworld
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