Friending the Corporation

A post on Intermediary Factors had a couple of interesting quotes from a recent Jupiter Research report, “Networked Media: Thriving In An Intermediated World”

David Schatsky, president of Jupiter Research one comment speaks volumes if we put it into context of the emerging market. He says “By paying closer attention to the tendencies of the end user, these sites will be able to evolve and meet the needs of a wider online audience.”

and

Individual allegiance moves away from portals, firms and toward networks and network platforms where individuals create collective affinities.

Explains the motivation behind new businesses like Satisfaction and their “people-powered customer service” idea. Aggregate the bottom-up efforts of an audience, harnessing their contributions (the Q&A, the social good vibes, the conversation, etc) and add a framework for pulling out ratings, reviews & answers for a company of interest. What you end up with, theoretically, is a better customer service experience than the company itself could provide. (As I understand it!)

My little epiphany: I think a firm’s success will come from it being able to act human enough to engage in those collective affinities.