Can you benefit from Chattering Clusters?

You would like to know if YOU can benefit from your Chattering Clusters - right?

Well you already benefit as a consumer. You are informed by the Chattering Clusters on the world wide web. You have joined a global Clan with your participation on Facebook. You have become part of a local Tribe with your Twitter, Texting, or SMS messaging. All these are digital warrior tools. All these tools give you access to information that you trust about a whole array of goods and services. All these tools have linked you into social networks that replace your need for marketing, advertising, or brand loyalty. You are being informed by your Chattering Clusters.

In business you can also benefit from Chattering Clusters. All you need do is to translate your consumer behaviour into your business models. First you need to stop marketing and selling your brand because you know that no one out there cares a hoot about it. You need to be both 'relevant and remarkable' to your future 'nanosecond consumers' who are being informed by their Chattering Clusters.

So here is my free gift to you - you may need to read the highlighted sentence below several times: then go away and, come back to it again and again. Why? Because your business brain is NOT wired to receive this message. You have to push it right through your brain and way back into your cortex. You have to beat up on your ego and in the process jettison a lot of what you think you know about doing business. Why? Because you can see that your business needs to change the way it goes about engaging with C21st consumers or else there will be no growth over the next decade.

You need to connect with Chattering Clusters not with consumers!

Linux is not windows....

The 'Chattering Clusters' on Linux get it oh so right...

Sometimes you have to tell people who want to belong to your Clan or Tribe what you are all about by telling them about what you are NOT...

Users of windows come to Linux to escape the C20th mindset and revenue models of Microsoft... But then they often complain that Linux is not the dumbed down product they are use to receiving from the guys and gals at Richmond... They have become accustomed to the Microsoft way of dominating your needs and wants by making it so 'easy to do precisely what they want you to do'... That is why windows exists as a Microsoft product....

So if you want to be told what to think and how to think about what you think then do yourself a favour and stay with windows....

Linux is not windows - says it all really!

Switch to new age marketing....

Times are tough yet companies continue to waste millions on marketing...

Consumers are not watching, listening, or paying attention to YOU. They simply do not care what YOU say or do they are out of your loop. So do yourself a favour and go into work on Monday and slash, better still obliterate, your current marketing budget. Put everyone in marketing who does not deal directly with your customers on a redundancy package.

Why? Because if you don't you should start looking for a new job yourself. The simple truth is your job now depends on revenue generated from nanosecond consumers who are digital warriors not mass marketing junkies. The mass market is dead. Brands are dead. Value adding is dead.

Welcome to the exciting new age living in the flat world of the internet! A world where everything can be sourced from everywhere. A world where time is more important than choice. A world where value is more important than price. A world where trust is the key ingredient in a purchase - this trust comes from word of mouth or viral marketing not what you currently do to support your Brand or current Revenue Models.

Go into work on Monday to either clear out your desk or to clear out your C20th marketing regime!

Built to last or built to flip?

This world is all about YOU right now! This is a period of history - despite current economic cycles - when the world is YOUR oyster. YOU will get to choose so much about precisely what happens in your life if YOU understand whether YOU are built to last or built to flip.

Those of us who are built to last are seeking to belong to a TRIBE. If you are this way inclined you are looking to build off your current experiences. You are looking to hang with people you really, no really really, trust. You are looking to work with people who share your values. You are looking for purpose and meaning in your life right now. You are relying heavily upon your 'gut feelings' - your intuition - when you think about your situation and prospects in a crazy world of complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty. You are looking at the big issues like Climate Change, peak oil, immigration, terrorism, security, etc as long-term issues that need a measured approach from a unified community. You are happiest when you feel you belong and that is when the tribe is gathered around you.

Those of us who are built to flip are seeking to associate with a CLAN. If you are this way inclined then you are looking to be creative and use your imagination to showcase your ideas on any medium you can including, YouTube, Facebook, etc. You are seeking to prototype your creativity. You are looking to find people who are highly imaginative and inclusive in their work and play. You are relying heavily upon your "creativity" - your intellectual frameworks - to fashion a place for you in a crazy world of war, price rises, economic instability, etc. You are looking at the big issues like Climate Change, peak oil, immigration, terrorism, security, etc through the eyes of the artist as you conger up personal and communal models for change. You are happiest when you feel a sense of belonging to a clan that has formed quickly to replace the clan you belonged to last week but has now imploded.

Tribes, trust, and networks....

My work is simple - I design and build consumer architecture.

The new given is business has shifted from being all about supply to being all about demand. Why? Web based information and services has networked the economy - this means business is forced to be inclusive not exclusive. Inclusive of whom? There is the rub - the new inclusion is through tribes, trust, and networks.

People want to join tribes - this is why twitter, facebook, and myspace work so well. These technologies connect people with similar tastes, loves, ailments, afflictions, needs, wants, etc. They twitter each other because they want to belong to the tribe. I call these twittering tribes - Chattering Clusters. These tribes are nomadic, 24/7, based on individuals not groups, and live.

They cultivate them on facebook - there they dissect them into Demand Clusters. These Demand Clusters have a shared purpose. So you can be a member of my facebook tribe but not necessarily share the purpose of all 150+ gathered in my tribe. Your own tribe is also 150+ but it simply overlaps mine - it is not a replica of mine. The key to maintaining your own focus, purpose, and tribal ways is trust. Your trust is based on your love of the same things as me rather than on a sense of being faithful or keeping secrets. Trust is a bond - the bond could be as simple as being a consummate fan of The Blackeyed Peas. Trust is given freely but it is nonetheless essential.

People maintain their tribal traits by networking their Facilitated Clusters. Facilitated Clusters are networks inspired by a thought leader - it could be you. You challenge the tribe to extend deeper and deeper into their demand for The Blackeyed Peas. You do this in various ways - eventually you become the maven (respected know all) within the tribe. You may also become the pulsetaker - the one who keeps tabs on the mood within the tribe. Facilitated Clusters have their thought leaders who keep the network active.

Tribes, trust, and networks - its a wonderful new world of business out there......

Selling to nanosecond consumers....

Business today is all about selling the nanosecond consumer who lives within the Chattering Clusters on the web. It is simple really - all you have to do is get these Chattering Clusters to obsesses about you, to make up stories about you, to chatter about you in a positive light, and to enthuse their Clans and Tribes about your products and services. If they do that then you are being networked by the best in the business - you are being recommended by, and to, 'nanosecond consumers'.

Some things have changed for sellers today and you should be aware of those changes. Brands, and especially Brand You, are being trashed within the Chattering Clusters. Self promotion is inculcated into 'negative story lines' amongst the Chattering Clusters. Brands are trashed because it is no longer cool to differentiate yourself from others - today's top stories are all about inclusion and belonging. Trust is based on the sense of being connected to a Chattering Cluster not buying a brand name product. Brands are still used to identify products and services BUT nanosecond consumers no longer identify with these brands. Nanosecond consumers identify with a Clan or a Tribe which they connect with on Twitter, Facebook, and Ning. Clans and Tribes are social networks that exist in virtual and real space and time. These groupings are essentially digital communities wherein social mores and consumption patterns are formed.

The nanosecond consumer is the product of social networks that extend around the globe - networks that can have thousands of people connected to them. Village Square conversations have gone global - the Chattering Clusters talk about everyone and everything, everywhere. The Clans talk about everyone and everything around the globe. The Tribes talk about everyone and everything connected with their purpose so they are more focussed on their own community they are more local. But everyone is promoting or demoting someone, something, or somewhere.

If you want nanosecond consumers to buy your products, services, or you - belong to their clusters, clans, and tribes. How can you belong? You need a story that they can tell and retell - a changing story about new experiences and happenings that relate to you and your products or services. If you are talked about in a favourable light then you belong. If you belong then you are selling directly to the 'nanosecond consumer' and your business deals are done in the blink of an eye.

Online conversations....

Technology has moved the online conversation - a long way.

The new conversation is being convened in what I refer to as "Chattering Clusters" not online communities. It turns out that online communities are very hard to form and farm as a social entities.

This is why sustained innovation is so difficult in the flat world of the internet. For example, Google innovates the search engine and matches it with a revenue model supported by targeted online advertising. We all expected Google to continue to grow and grow over the next 10 years. But hold the new Google phone! Suddenly in 2008 the online market has moved to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. This is not the natural stomping grounds for iGoogle, Googlers, and the Googleplex.

The Chattering Clusters are formed by people who struggled to hold conversations on the net in the old online formats of blogs, chat room, web seminars, etc. So as soon as they could they moved to a new platform. Chattering Clusters may prove to be perfect pointers to what makes Web 3.0 so very different to Web 2.0. These are fledgling developments in commercial terms but not in social terms.

Feedback on Fast Company....

C21st business thrives on feedback.... Procter and Gamble have their website set-up for innovative feedback from consumers. Tupperware way back in the 1950s designed a business with consumer feedback loops built-in. Linux is a software development business that only exists because of feedback - it is being developed as we speak by users and developers who constantly use feedback loops to improve their core product/service. So it is with magazines and publishing too - feedback is a key asset today on Fast Company to help keep its articles relevant and remarkable.

So I was delighted that Fast Company printed my "feedback" in their May 2008 edition. I was pleased too, as you might expect, because this feedback is based on the core ideas in my forthcoming book 'chattering clusters'. BUT I was especially pleased because I was able to combine the ideas of two influential American thinkers whose ideas are often seen as presenting opposing views on our digital world. In fact Thomas Friedman and Richard Florida are talking about the same phenomena - Friedman is talking about it as he sees it working at the global level and Florida is talking about it as he sees it at the local level.

Creative clusters will form at both levels if and only if their members (in these clans and tribes) are able to hold two seemingly contradictory ideas in their mind at the same time. Here is a comment about holding two seemingly opposite ideas as a continuum of ideas. It might make more sense if you read the Fast Company item 'In Praise of Spikes' March 2008....

Creative Clusters

Thomas Friedman is correct: The broadband Internet world is flat ( In Praise of Spikes, March). If you have an idea, then implement it for yourself before someone implements it against you. Richard Florida also is correct: The flat world is a network that links clusters of people who find solutions to local issues. Some of those solutions can scale but others cannot.

If we put Friedman and Florida together, we get a perfect description of what is happening in the world today. At the global level, it is becoming flat (networked), digital (machine to machine), and virtual (ideas based). This flat world is a networked economy that does not obey nation-state governments or regulations -- subprime networked debt was based on a set of financial ideas, not on a set of home mortgages. Clusters are local. They are people based, and they are increasingly wireless (24-7 connectivity), personal (providing a customized experience), and reliant on new revenue models (passive income streams). Our world is changing in remarkable ways, and there are no right or wrong descriptors for what is evolving.

Chattering Clusters can work for YOU...

Its simply great if and when the 'chattering clusters' are talking about YOU and ME!

Thanks to Tom Altman's Wedia Conversations for this gem....

Change Architect

March 11, 2008

We were blabbing in a meeting the other day and we blurted out the title “Change Architect”. I really liked the concept - so I tossed it into google.

I found a post over at boxes and arrows called “Change Architecture: Bringing IA to the Business Domain“

When seen from a change architecture perspective, the IA’s existing toolkit—normally used to discover and capture information, re-categorize content for easier consumption, and visualize ideas for shared understanding and action—naturally supports this expanded business domain. IAs can help companies reap the benefits of positive change by reducing fear of change, creating hope for the future, enhancing adaptivity to change, and architecting applications and processes that enable business success.

This is another result from a dude’s (Richard Lipscombe) Live Spaces page:

A Change Architect is someone who works in commonsense ways to resolve the complexity of change and thus ensure a set of positive outcomes into the future.

I like the “commonsense” part - it’s like saying we will try to do good things in the best ways we can think of. That’s pretty cool.

Chattering Clusters - Clans and Tribes....

'Chattering Clusters' is my term for people who incessantly chatter to each other on the web. They form clusters of hundreds or even thousands of people who are vaguely known to each other. These clusters become a network. Which really means the stronger the chatter the stronger the network. Equally the more chatter the greater the sense each person has of 'belonging' to a cluster. As people realise they enjoy this sense of 'belonging' they form Clans and then Tribes within their clusters.

Chattering Clusters are a new form of an old behaviour. In the past we have seen Church Services, Community Meetings, Telephone Trees, Tupperware Parties, etc all serve as the vehicle for chattering clusters. History has taught me that people like to feel they belong to such clusters. It is no less true today. Indeed as clusters form some members become closely knit and form their own Clan within a cluster. With these closer ties often comes a clear and common purpose and so they tighten their membership further and become a Tribe.

This blog is about Chattering Clusters - their Clans and Tribes.

Chattering Clusters - C21st marketing...

Chattering Clusters will do your marketing for you if you:

* listen to their stories....

* participate in their conversations.....

* translate their stories into your themes....

* treat global clans as early adopters - prototype with them....

* anchor your reputation within local tribes.....

Chattering Clusters - The Blog...

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Did you notice the world changing right before your eyes - I must admit it took me a while to really see it and then some time to really get it!
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This is a blog about Web 3.0 social networks and how they are changing the nature of social cohesion and consumer decision making. Chattering Clusters is my term for what is happening on the world wide web as people chatter incessantly to each other about products, services, politics, beliefs, values, etc.

I identified what I thought was an annoying trend of people simply chattering rather than engaging each other in meaningful discourse. But then I realised these were meaningful conversations - they just were nothing like what I was accustomed to seeing or hearing. I spent about 12 months reviewing what I had seen and heard over the past few years. It was a revelation!

I began to realise that 'Chattering Clusters' were a new form of networked community. These networks were facilitated by internet connections rather than face-to-face contacts. These networks were full of chattering noise unless and until you joined a cluster. These clusters were quick to form and just as quick to implode. However those clusters that did not implode usually formed into Clans and later into Tribes.