The story of your (customer's) life

This is going to start-out sounding like a rant, but it isn’t one, I promise. Today, I was informed by more than a dozen people that they are unbelievably busy. Swamped. Under-helped and overloaded. Moving at light speed. Overwhelmed. Overbooked. Not two seconds to themselves. How did I learn about the high velocity these people are living in?

Each of them said so… on Facebook.

Implications: The first thing I’d like to ask is, “If you’re so busy, what in the heck are you doing on Facebook?” (Or for that matter, let’s include MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, or any other two-syllable time-sucking social networking website.) But that's just me.

Most of the world can’t seem to get—or give—enough information. So how do you take advantage of this tendency of some people to want to share every aspect of their life?

• If you sell cars, why not ask each shopper/customer if they’re carrying a cell phone equipped with a digital camera. If they are, offer to snap a picture of them, standing in front of the vehicle they’re considering (or just bought), so they can SMS or email it to their friends or post it on their Facebook page.
  
• If you’re a realtor, snap a shot of the happy family standing in front of the top two or three houses they’re considering. They can send it to friends and invite comments about “which one looks best.”
  
• If you’re a carpenter, contractor or interior decorator, grab some “before and after” pictures that your clients can share with their friends.

Why watch consumer trends… if you can’t harvest some revenue ideas along the way? People are inclined to archive and share every aspect of their lives. Help them… and add your product, service or company to the storyline.

As for me, I gotta run. I am really busy.

Mike Anderson