This post expands on how 3 of these trends relate to social. Read all ten at Trendwatching.

1. Business as Unusual

‘To truly prosper, businesses will have to move with the culture. This may mean displaying greater transparency, or having conversations as opposed to one-way advertising, or championing collaboration instead of an us-them mentality.’

Many businesses feel they’re satisfying this shift through involvement in social media. However, social isn’t a location - its a behavior integrated into our daily lives. It always has been. Technology just enhances this.

Where the culture is going shouldn’t be a numbers game. Moving with the culture means understanding the reasons behind changing consumer behavior and then adapting to it. This adoption is more important than ever before because businesses must become more like consumers in the way they converse and respond.  A businesses ability to sustain will increasingly depend on its ability to mimic consumers. Social is P2P.

Businesses can begin by integrating social thinking into every facet of its business from its sales floor to its Twitter feed - solutions that bridges the divide between online and off. Another dimension to consider is the level of participation your target will assume. Some people are active but more are passive participants who observe contributions made by the actives.

2. Urbanity

“Less than 5 percent of the world’s population lived in cities a century ago. In 2008, for the first time in humanity, that figure exceeded 50 percent. In the last two decades alone, the urban population of the developing world has grown by an average of 3 million people per week.”

There is power in numbers. More people necessitate more jobs. Higher population densities afford us more things to do, more people to meet and more stories to share.

The idea of a physical urbanity is mirrored by the adoption of communication technology. While technology has allowed relationships to more easily be sustained independent of geography, communication technology is beginning to reinforce the idea of community and geo-relevance. Take the applications FourSquare, Grindr and LooptMix as examples. These applications require technology to operate, but they promote real-life interactions among both acquaintances and strangers.

Higher population densities also increase the need for, and relevance of, hyper local news. Everyblock is a website that delivers information like police reports, new-building permits and restaurant inspections. Urbanity and the increase in use of communication technology prove humans desire to be social.

3. Limited Locations

Evolved from the idea of limited edition products in order to “extend the scarcity theme to the distribution channel.” This is an interesting example of how value is often measured by scarcity.

eCommerce has dramatically increased access to products. Greater access yields less scarcity which decreases value. This increase in available vendors is gradually diminishing urgency to purchase. “I’ll get it later.” “Maybe its cheaper online.” Nothing can close a sale quite like “Get it now or never.”

MediaPost made a prediction that Brick and Mortar retail outlets will be dead within five years. I disagree that all types of retailers will disappear. Consumers will continue to prefer interacting with high-ticket items before they commit to purchasing. Limited locations is an opportunity to bring relevance and urgency to purchase back to physical stores.

Related article:

• Understanding the Five Eras of the Social Web (web2.sys-con.com)

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