THE SHOPPER NEXT DOOR
Everything I know, I Learned While Shopping...

As i pointed out in my previous post, i went on a journey to learn all about social media so i could figure out what it might mean to us. My first reality was all the TOOLS! Widgets, Bligets, Lijits, apps, social networks, jott, twitter, del.icio.us, and the list goes on. And i will be doing a project focused on the tools to share it all with you.

This lead to my first take-away and that is our desire/need to COMMUNICATE! We want to find people who can help us and in turn, we will help them back. So i decided to begin with the people...but how do you find the people you need when you don't have any idea what you are after??? (whew..did you follow that?) What did i do, you ask? I went to the fastest growing social network, FaceBook, and started to query all kinds of key words then i followed the trail. As my networks began to grow and expand from one platform to the other, i settled on about 90 people that i follow with regularity but only about 5 have anything to do with Retail. Folks, i have to say that to be the industry in front of the consumer when the consumer wants to talk and communicate, it was hard to accept that we were not the leaders in this space. We've got some splaining to do!!! But i digress...i am here to begin identifyig the problem so we can address it. Right!

Like i said, i have met so many interesting people along the way and a few of them are worth a mention here. First i will have to give the most credit to two folks, Chris Brogan and Jeremiah Owyang. Their blogs, tweets, newsletters and podcasts have been the spring board from which i have sprung. I continue to follow them around like a puppy in order to pick up their crumbs and learn how to keep up with the game. and friends you would not beleive what a game is going on. I learn something new every day!

When was the last time you could say that you learned something new and, might i add, fun, EVERY SINGLE DAY? I discover and test new products/services, launch into new conversations with people i have never met before, add new apps to my site, all in an effort to somehow bring this back to better shopping for ME, oops i mean the customer. After all, you have my vested interest in mind. The least i can do is lay the ground work for you.

So off i went in search of the 'CONVERSATION' that related to Retail and, in particular, the better shopping experience, and what do you suppose i found? SILENCE!!!! yes, absolute and complete SILENCE!!! Sure i saw advertising, online store fronts, flat web sites that asked customers to tell their stories (this IS good brand building awareness though) but no 'conversation'. The folks that are out there conversing right now are sharing what they think of tools. They are writing about what they see work or not work. They are voicing their opinions. But most importantly, they are collaborating! As Jeremiah has alluded in several of his posts, the conversation is preempting the relevancy of the corporate web site. That was my para-phrase so hopefully Jeremiah will forgive me if i got it a little wrong.

The bottom line is that we in Retail need to jump in the game and thus in the 'conversation'. Not to sell our products and services or tell the masses what is on special today but rather to tap others of similar interests outside the company. To expand our collective intelligence. To learn what is possible. And most of all to learn something new EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Sincerely;

The Shopper Next Door

Your homework:

The way to find the conversation is to start the conversation and see where it goes. We have added a topic in the Lounge of TheRetailTradeCenter.com called 'What Has Your Interest'. Stop by there and post your comment then invite 2 friends to come join you at the Center and share their interests as relates to Retail. See if you can provide some thoughts to someone else's interest.