To reach and react: why mobile and social are so disruptive

Although I would argue that the pace of change is maybe not as fast as some would have us believe, there is no doubt that there are significant disruptive forces at work in the shape of mobile and social. They are disruptive because they are game changers in your ability to reach, and react to, your customers. If you don’t respond to these forces, you will certainly suffer compared to those that do.

The message from Soulseeds Media this morning sums up the challenges quite nicely: “There is little growth in the comfort zone and there is little comfort in the growth zone“. The comfort zone is to keep using traditional methods of reaching and reacting to your customers, with little emphasis on mobile and social. Before you know it, that little shoot of ivy you chose to ignore will have spread everywhere, sapping your strength and constraining your ability to grow. Your competitors will have realised that mobile reaches consumers at all times of the day, wherever they are located, with an immediacy that other channels cannot provide. And they will also be using social to extend reach, by feeding a communication channel that can have explosive growth.

Extending your reach by itself, though, is not enough, as you need to be listening to, and reacting to, your customers. Knowing that your growth has slowed is not sufficient, you need to know why that parasite competitor is being successful, and you need to respond. If you combine the reach of mobile and social with the right analytics, you can gather the market and customer intelligence you need to determine your reaction.

Turning good intentions into great execution is not easy, as there is little comfort in the growth zone. But master mobile and social, and you will be empowered to reach and react to your customers in ways that underpin more profitable growth.