Integrating social into your business

Abstract

In late 2005, I wrote a paper for this journal entitled Customer communities herald new ground rules for successful marketing. At that time, the terms 'social networking' or 'social media' had yet to enter the mainstream. Instead, the digerati talked about 'Communities', which along with content and commerce were the three Cs identified in the emerging days of the internet. Online content came of age in the late 1990s and commerce in the early nineties. Communities were therefore the laggard in development, only beginning to build mass market momentum in 2005. Four years later the world is a very different place: internet access is a prerequisite for most, and social media vies with mobile for hottest topic among digital marketers. Social activity has exploded online, with time spent on social networks growing at three times the overall internet rate. Most critically, the 'social customer' has emerged in record time, turning the world of marketing upside down and challenging companies to fundamentally adjust their approach. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.