The “Social Graph” will make marketing as we know it as impotent as the yellow pages have become to product search. This is not a long term proposition, but is happening right now at an incredible rate of speed, and very few businesses even know its happening, much less have developed or are developing strategies to make the huge cultural shift required to survive this tidal wave of change.
The face is a few companies will survive, but many more will fail. This change is not a top down, but a bottom up change, rooted in cultural shift.

The web as we know it has changed, and that change will affect all business in a dramatic way very soon.  Read about types of four social graphs here.

(Image credit: http://blog.plaxo.com)

Rex Richard has long resisted posting about this on Facebook and here are his thoughts with a few additions:
Every day I hear people speaking of “social campaigns” like they are something to manage like you would a radio or TV broadcast… and for the moment, to a degree, they are, but that moment has already passed and the effectiveness is diminishing at an exponential rate.

We are in “transition” at the moment, a state of “flux”. The instability has many rapidly shifting strategies, and floundering to find the “floor” and get their feet planted once more, and many more people who are not even aware the shift has begun.

I noticed early stages of the shift back in 2006, but it has just been the past 4 months since the speed of change went from incremental to exponential.

I write this to my friends… I think this is the last chance to really engage this movement and make the changes and learn the lessons required for operation in the market place beginning as soon as 2013 and that will certainly be in full swing by 2015.

The changes required cannot be delayed as some of they will take considerable time to implement, and there is no shortcut.

If you are a small business that has maybe hired some “young people” as part timers to help with a little “social marketing”, the time of that method’s effectiveness is at its end. It is now time, essential time, to become educated in what is happening and take leadership in how your business functions. You can no longer leave your future in the hands of well meaning high school or college kids, however brilliant they may be. Indeed, it will be these “kids” who in a few years will be the new leaders and will have no problem with the change, because they were raised within it.

So… what to do next?

Begin by getting an overview. Learn about the “Social Graph” starting with Wikipedia: The social graph is a term coined by scientists working in the social areas of graph theory. It has been described as “the global mapping of everybody and how they’re related”. The term was popularized at the Facebook f8 conference on May 24, 2007, when it was used to explain that the Facebook Platform, which was introduced at the same time, would benefit from the social graph by taking advantage of the relationships between individuals that Facebook provides, to offer a richer online experience. The definition has been expanded to refer to a social graph of all Internet users.

A graph is an abstract concept used in discrete mathematics; the social graph describes the relationships between individuals online, as opposed to the concept of a social network, which describes relationships in the real world. The two concepts are very similar, but some minor differences do exist. For example, the social graph is digital, and more importantly, it is defined explicitly by all connections involved. Since explaining the concept of the social graph, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has often touted Facebook’s goal of offering the website’s social graph to other websites so that a user’s relationships can be made aware and put to use on websites outside of Facebook’s control.

A social graph is a sociogram which depicts all personal relations – typically not more than 100 per person.

Issues with Social Graph: Several issues have come forward regarding the existing implementation of the social graph, particularly the one owned by Facebook. For example, currently, a social networking service is unaware of the relationships forged between individuals on a different service. This creates an online experience that is not seamless, and instead provides for a fragmented experience due to the lack of an openly available graph between services. In addition, existing services define relationships differently.

Check out and read the book, “Macrowickinomics” by Don Tapscott. http://www.macrowikinomics.com Wikinomics, defined as the art and science of mass collaboration in business, becomes macrowikinomics: The application of wikinomics and its core principles to society and all of it institutions. Tapscott talks about the new age of networked economy, and how collaborative innovation is deeply transforming our society as well as our institutions.

Begin to develop deep reaching customer fulfillment programs and seriously engaging customer outreach programs. Understand that from now on, you will not be able to win much of your audience’s attention through “push” marketing, but it will be your outstanding reputation, honesty and trust building actions and support that will create the “slow” moving message, (with the potential for viral distribution), that builds your brand into the remainder of this decade.

Remember the words of “Mark Antony” in Act 3, scene 2 of Julius Caesar, “the evil men do lives after them but the good is oft interred with the bones…“

Indeed your good reputation, as recognized by your identifiable actions, will be your banner, while any bad may be magnified.

Rex Richard, like his initials, RR,  has identified the RR factor or “Relationship Riches” which is the real currency.  Invest in the people you serve, collaborate with, and those whom you like in your business and personal affairs. 

The answer is actually easy, be authentic, be honest, be true, deliver value, provide support, care, and make your “word” your guarantee. If you do these things, you will have the foundation to build upon in this new era… now to only master the technology which will broadcast the news!

#LikesUP for Relationship Riches