Every sector is now embedded in an ecosystem. A dynamic, interconnected, knowledgeable community in which all the members are dependent on each other to survive and grow. Whether or not you choose to engage with this ecosystem of activity and pulse is up to you. We live in a world where there is over capacity. Too many restaurants, too many design agencies, too many banks, too many charities, too many consultants, too many engineers, too many graduates. Surely you don’t want me to go on? Businesses too are like newspapers. Today’s news, tomorrrows trash!

Digital Darwinism, as some call it has taken hold. The premise that evolution in business is happening far quicker than at any other time in history and only the fittest brands will survive. Its a stark fact that means we can’t control something that is moving quicker than us.

To put this in perspective look at these figures:

Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million listeners

TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users

Internet took 4 years to reach 50 million users

The future is about building several communities full of connections and monetising that rather than creating products and trying to sell them to a bunch of people we are disconnected to. We have forgotten how much social capital really matters as we were busy breeding a couple of generations where human capital was expressed as the sole attribute to have.

I’ve talked a lot about how we have to get up close, intimate and personal with customers. They cost too much to attract and are too valuable to lose. The problem is how we scale that. We are seeing brands and individuals building significant followings and not being able to engage and initiate a cherished relationship, myself included. Its a real head scratcher!

We know and accept that its the density of the network/community not the numbers that matter. We are frustrated with the lack of ability to govern it. We can use IT to listen, identify and deliver customised experiences but we still need to ensure that the algorithmic activity flocks to a common rendezvous with social. The semantic web will create some succor but it won’t provide all the answers. Computers still can’t interpret human emotion, intent and sentiment the same way us humans can.

Well the way in which you have been used to! I will leave the debate and discussion around return on investment to people far more qualified to talk about this than me like Olivier Blanchard who has written a book on the whole subject “Social Media ROI.”

The USA seems interested in the ROI, the Europeans, far more fascinated by the cultural impact of social. What we do know is that measuring social media in an exclusive, traditional way is both credulous and suspiciously naïve. That is not to say that we must not look at the cash, profit and sales generated by social media, not at all. However, there is ROI data that needs to be considered, indeed delivered first before you can measure the traditional substance of social media.

Perhaps we realise now that we are not that interested in what people are having for breakfast and more interested in what they are intellectually thinking and sharing?

The honeymoon period is over! It had to happen. We are exiting a revolutionary age and entering an epoch of evolution in social media. As it becomes mainstream and brands use Facebook and Twitter to sell, it will become less novel, more familiar and, even transactional as we revert to trying to establish traditional return on investment in everything we do.

The number of brands now following me is unnerving; I thought social was about people? The amount of systemisation scares me; the more you contrive something the more you suck the life out of it. Brands would do well to remember, technology is meant to take over the mundane processes we don’t want to do, that allows us to spend more time interacting with each other. The fear factor is social medias inevitable slide towards becoming a commodity for a great number of us.

Seth Godin talks incessantly about being remarkable using his ‘purple cow’ as an example of how different we now need to be to stand out in the crowd. Talking to a friend the other day stimulated me into thinking how this is working at the moment!

His remark about being remarkable was that he, well wasn’t, remarkable. What tosh! We are all remarkable in a unique, special and unusual way. It’s true a lot of us spend a lifetime trying to discover what it is and some of us are especially luck and find it early in our lives. Whatever, the fact remains we are each and every one of us remarkable.

The trouble is that if you’re remarkable at something that isn’t work orientated, or you don’t think you are remarkable! What happens if what you do, lots of others are doing too? The abundance/scarcity issue again! There are plenty of examples. What do you do then? Well latch onto, work with, co create, piggy back someone who can make a career out of being remarkable and by being beside them it will rub off, motivate, inspire and above all bring happiness, not to mention the income that you deserve!

Been listening to Sting’s “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” on repeat recently, coupled with reading Douglas Rushkoff’s latest offering “Life Inc.” Faith is ‘reliance, trust, belief in, loyalty, sincerity.’ A definition according to The Oxford Dictionary.

Beginning to believe we have lost faith in each other so we have been buying from brands instead. In fact, perhaps we have allowed brands to define us rather than the feelings and values we hold true to each other. This is why business became transaction and to some extent de humanised, especially in corporate organisations. That’s why small business will have a future advantage. Its still comfortable with having a trusting relationship!

Lose faith in governments, the media, professions, brands, products, religion, all replaceable. When we lose faith in each other, our connections and our intentions are questioned and we decide not to trust, then we are in trouble. These are not replaceable. When we lose faith in relationships, whatever their dynamic, what have we got left?