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<\/a><\/center>They have new powers. They are backed by powerful companies. And they are starting to organize.<\/p>\nNo, I’m not talking about the latest episode of Heroes. I’m talking about the people formerly known as your customers. You may be asking, “What powers do they have? Who gave those powers to them? What are they going to do together?”<\/p>\n
I’ll be glad answer that.<\/p>\n
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They are powerful.<\/strong> What it means: Your customers are now starting to be your competitors.<\/em><\/p>\n Technology is giving them strength.<\/strong> What it means: \u00a0They can get much of what they need from each other –rather than from corporations.<\/em><\/p>\n They are\u00a0organizing\u00a0as a collective.<\/strong> The resistance is coming from municipalities and corporations that do not espouse change and its potential impact on their traditional controls. Dozens of other hardships rise to face them as they come into their own.\u00a0 But the crowd is pressing on relentlessly. \u00a0Cities are scratching their heads on how to regulate these new P2P business models, and the startups are assembling lobbyists<\/a>, and getting their users to vote, protest, and be heard.\u00a0Using communication tools, they will connect to each other, and collectively build their own voice.<\/p>\n What it means: They are connecting to each other, and are self-organizing like a organic company.<\/em><\/p>\n The term “customer” or “consumer” is becoming antiquated. What it means: They’re empowered to turn\u00a0their homes are hotels, their cars, taxis, they’re makers, funders, lenders…they’re micro-entrepreneurs<\/em><\/p>\n Savvy corporations will\u00a0collaborate<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>with<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>the empowered people.<\/strong> What it means: Corporations who want to be resilient know the crowd becomes part of their company.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n (image used with creative commons licensing, by Lalit<\/a>, a prior version of this was posted, two years ago, this one, is updated<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They have new powers. They are backed by powerful companies. And they are starting to organize. No, I’m not talking about the latest episode of Heroes. I’m talking about the people formerly known as your customers. You may be asking, “What powers do they have? … Continue readingMeet the Empowered People<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collaborative-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThey have new powers, and you can\u00a0see a collection of stats<\/a>, that enable them the ability to get all the information they need about you in real time using social networks, mobile devices, and the internet. \u00a0They can find ratings and reviews about your products as well as your competitors, compare prices and, now, have it delivered to them in under an hour from “the crowd” by using services like\u00a0Postmates<\/a>, Instacart<\/a>, Deliv.co<\/a>, Google Shopping Express<\/a>\u00a0and many others. \u00a0They can also choose to buy a product one time, and then share it many times with their peers, rather than the whole group buying the same product over and over again. WARNING: This will cause extreme disruption to companies that sell ‘stuff.’ \u00a0 This powerful crowd is also able to act like traditional companies in their own right. \u00a0They can become like hotels and host people at their own homes using Airbnb. \u00a0They can transform into restaurants<\/a> by having strangers over for dinner. They can even morph into a rental car company<\/a> by chauffeuring<\/a> or letting friend or even complete strangers borrow their cars. \u00a0In their most advanced state, these empowered people can build their own products and goods, using\u00a0Quirky<\/a>, Etsy<\/a>, Shapeways<\/a>, TechShop<\/a>, MakersRow<\/a>, CustomMade<\/a>\u00a0and other sources, many of which are invisible to the corporate eye.<\/p>\n
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\nWho’s giving them these powers? \u00a0Small tech companies and big tech companies are. \u00a0There are\u00a0hundreds of new startups<\/a>\u00a0that have emerged to enable ordinary people to share goods, services, time and space with each other at distinct local levels. \u00a0Links on Craigslist (from used cars in Chicago to baby goods in Paris) are becoming like distinct companies. These startups are being funded by venture capitalists<\/a>\u00a0who see how “two-sided marketplaces” at scale. Also, these are startups have incredibly low upfront costs. \u00a0A handful of people can build a successful company in a few short months. Big companies are giving ordinary people super powers too. \u00a0Facebook, Google and Apple immediately\u00a0come to mind. \u00a0Most of these sharing startups are\u00a0using Facebook connect,<\/a>\u00a0an instant plug-and-play trust network. \u00a0Apple’s instant app availability means global distribution at a local level to anyone carrying a smart phone. The average guy on the street can obtain a high-powered, locally-focused app on demand.<\/p>\n
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\nWhile not everyone adopts the empowered state, we\u00a0often see higher adoption within high density, progressive markets and is common among younger-aged people who were born sharing using the internet. \u00a0In our last post, we explored how the Millennials will become the dominant workforce generation in less than 15 years<\/a>. Like all great movements, they have opposition, and these empowered already have\u00a0many challenges that combat their efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n<\/strong>People who used to have the custom of buying from corporate entities will no longer be customers if they are enabled to get what they need from each other. \u00a0The term “consumer” is unpopular word in sustainability circles, especially as they seek to share products amongst each other, rather than constantly buy anew. This is a new breed of people. They have power. They have strength in numbers. \u00a0They are organizing. \u00a0And big technology companies are backing them. \u00a0This blog, and my ongoing career mission as a whole, is focused on helping corporations connect to their customers. \u00a0In order to do this, corporations must take the time to listen and to understand how customers are changing.<\/p>\n
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\nSavvy corporations that want to benefit from this massive economic revolution will collaborate with these empowered people, and, in return, create resiliency within their corporation. \u00a0Make no doubt about it,\u00a0this is a business opportunity<\/a>. \u00a0But if ignored, this is a threat that could unravel corporations.<\/p>\n
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