Confessions of a Social Boomer

The following is a true story and an example that will be used to illustrate the power of web ubiquity in an upcoming book/treatise on social media as it relates to business (sorry, hopefully the promotional plug wasn't shameless - got to alert folks of stuff in the works ;)

The point of this piece is also to show how technographics supercede age or economics (unlike the traditional demographics), as well as geographics to a large extent.

I met "Dan" at my mother's Christmas party this last December at her boyfriend's home in Newport Beach, CA. Dan and his wife are relatively new friends of theirs from the neighborhood. Dan was fiddling with his iPhone, which caught my eye, so I decided to introduce myself. He was an affable guy, asked me what I did for a living, and after hearing a little bit about me, told me about his short but colorful love affair with the iPhone...and subsequently, all things social.

Dan is 63 years old and was a car dealership owner for over 35 years. He owned 6 dealerships across Southern California, until he transitioned the business entirely to his son, "Ricky", who is now 36. Dan's initial reason for retiring was, as he stated, "a result of consumer loyalty that was on the steady decline". In a nutshell, Dan felt that he was losing the relationships he had built for so long with his customer base and had internalized this. That is, until he got his new mobile phone.

Dan spends very little time, if any, in front of a computer. But he loves his iPhone; he has a Facebook app installed on it, which he uses constantly, along with his Google search app, eBay app and his Amazon app. He loves the fact that he has everything he needs on his phone. He also has discovered something remarkable about his little piece of technology: it keeps him in constant contact with his friends and family. More so than ever before, and in more ways than he ever imagined.

Here's where the story gets really interesting.

Dan started building up his classic car collection using his eBay app. He connected with "Bill", a 38-year-old guy and father of three in Salem, Massachusetts who was looking to sell a couple of old cars he had, but needed tips on restoration. Dan not only gave Bill the tips he needed, he showed Bill how to upload photos of the cars onto the eBay platform, as well as how to initiate strong opening and closing bids. Wanting to see their true value realized through auction, Dan watched the cars mix into the marketplace, and then, satisfied with the consensus, eventually bought the restored cars from Bill. Bill was so grateful that he started a common interest group on Facebook of restoration aficionados, and told all his friends and family out on California about Dan - billing him as a "real car guy" you should consider buying any car from.

Dan, out on California, started to see a groundswell of activity in a relatively short period of time. People were reaching out to him on Facebook and asking him to join new car consumer groups through eBay. He was building advocacy, simply through participation and sharing his experiences in the industry, as well as his core passion for classic cars. Further, he was fast becoming a subject matter expert, a fairly ironic designation considering his years in the auto industry. 

Dan shared his new discoveries with his son, Ricky, who was elated because he had been talking to all his friends about forming advocacy and common interest groups on Facebook, Ning and MySpace. Ricky went on and on about how a bunch of his friends had younger brothers (Millenials) who were in bands and were looking to stage local events to support certain environmental, social and political causes. A light bulb turned on.

Was it mentioned that Dan is retired? He is. It's just that it's relatively easy to get people to buy cars if they're interested in who you are and they can relate to you. So, Dan is now "semi-retired", and has a new-found love for cars, as well as a reinvigorated desire to advocate the brand that he has lived by for over three decades.

Dan and Ricky hold bi-monthly events at their dealerships, "mini festivals" if you will, that bring local communities together, mostly through philanthropy and in celebration of unique art and music culture. Their attendance has regularly averaged in the several hundreds to a few thousand. And they have a social media business model that is constantly evolving.

Ricky has a MySpace music page that acts as a promotional vehicle (pun intended), sponsored by the dealerships and co-sponsored by everyone from local after-market suppliers to grocers. Through Facebook, they have several group pages catering to different types of car and music aficionados, even those who like certain types of "driving music".  They've even identified an active group of classic "brand X" (their parent company brand) enthusiasts who are into swing and be-bop. 

Through Dan's status updates on his Facebook app, and Ricky's use of MySpace and Twitter, they are able to keep people in the loop on these events, as well as new promotions and related consumer product information. More importantly, they've enlisted the community to help them stage the very events that they sponsor.

As a result, the family dealership sales have been stronger than they ever have been in their 35-year history. And all of this has happened in spite of the parent company's sales being down overall by over 43%.

Fathom that.

Here are a few fun facts to consider:

Nearly 61% of US consumers who recently bought a mobile or wireless phone were influenced by online product reviews and user commentary, while 30% of purchasers were similarly influenced by blogs, according to the Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey by Ad-ology.

41% of Baby Boomer internet users have visited online social networks. A majority (61%) of these users in the US have visited sites that offer streaming or downloadable video (NPD group, September 2008).

The Activation Proclamation

Susan Kuchinskas' article this week in iMedia Connection on location-based advertising spurred a few thoughts on the possibilities of media activation. It seems, in a really odd yet dynamic way, that we are headed for a reality in which real estate effectively plays a central role in building conversation and commerce like never before. Tony the Tiger's "Follow your nose, it always knows" will become something like "Follow your phone, the brand is throwing a stone". Sound a bit out there? Here are a few scenarios to ponder.

We can start by looking at how online utilities are creating new, portable "micro media" in airports, doctors' offices, restrooms, elevators, pizza shops, cars, service uniforms, people's arses...you name it. This is certainly not to say that just about anything and everything should be used for media placement. If I start seeing ads on status bars and embeddable banners, I think I am going to hurl. However, in organic consumer environments - places we frequent every day but don't necessarily spend "quality time" in - we have opportunities to engage in 1-1 conversations that are collaborative and unique.

Picture this: you and a friend are hanging out at the park and see a non-toxic "brand cloud" float by (yes, an actual cloud composed of vapor) that represents the image, and has the product info for, a new bike accessory kit. Okay, so you swipe at the thing, finding it intrusive and ridiculous, but your friend's brow raises because it just so happens that that he has his nephew's birthday coming up and has no clue what to get him. You can pretty much guess what happens next. Your friend enters the "x branded" community on his phone, gets immediate ratings and reviews on the product, finds another "friend" just a skip away in the park to talk to about it, then follows a microblog update to the nearest retail location. He even suggests a mashup for the product's utility and uploads a version of it. And the best part? You, the annoyed one, get to watch the cloud evaporate harmlessly into the atmosphere.

The ubiquitous web - in which reading, writing, publishing and now manufacturing are becoming the core drivers - is leading us into a state of transformational consumer experiences. In fact, we can look at ubiquity through the lens of retail distribution. Wal-Mart and Apple's partnership in selling discounted iPhones is a clear indication that inventory and price-point no longer decrease the equity value of a brand, but on the contrary, make it more accessible. Then there's the new iPhone app that Amazon is offering in which people can take photos of items they want to buy, store them in a shopping cart, and then reference Amazon's entire catalog of items to complete purchases with a single click, usually at a discount. What this tells us is that the same brand advocate can co-exist in different consumer environments without cannibalizing a product's scale or reach, and more importantly, there are a multitude of options with which to activate that advocate's purchase intent.

If we can rightfully assume that this advocate's information and experience sharing is seamlessly transferred and made contextually relevant to other experiences in the real world, what's to stop "offline" media from making a serious resurgence, and playing a vital new role, in activation? Think of things like digital billboards, magazine layouts, kiosks, OOH displays, mobile stations and interactive keypads feeding into a single focal point: you. Perhaps your "carrier" source is your phone or your PDA, but the point is that you provide sensory input that transforms a simple experience like walking through a retail store, or better yet an airport bathroom, into an incredible data exchange. And all this, without having to be bothered or intruded upon.

Brands can look at this as a means to constantly reinvent their positioning in a world that craves individualistic ideals within environments that, by default, look for the approval of crowds. Not only can they tap directly into relatable elements that can spawn real-time community involvement from a single person, but they can be influential at all times and in all places (well, just about). These spheres of influence are what build real advocacy and loyalty in a society that seems to be changing by the second.

Keep your eyes peeled for what's careening around the corner...