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Pamela Rutledge: Social Media, Glue for Communications
Dr. Pamela Rutledge's presentation at the 2011 Media Psychology Research Center Congress discusses how social media enhances relationships and shifts power to individuals. She emphasizes that social technology is essential for survival, blurring the lines between online and offline experiences while fostering civic engagement and collaboration. The presentation highlights evolving dynamics in customer relations and the importance of social media in modern communication.
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Pamela Rutledge: Social Media, Glue for Communications
- 1. Social Media: Glue forCommunications Dr. Pamela Rutledge Media Psychology Research Center Annual Congress 2011 30 September, Berlin
- 6. Old Game, NewRules
- 7. The Psychology ofSocial Media Social media enriches relationships Resistance to technology Brands are defined by customer experience Social media is shifting the power to the individual
- 8.
- 9. Is There NoRespect?
- 10. 10,000 BC 4,000BC 1000 AD 1440 1860 1920 1950 1995 2004 2011 (NOT TO SCALE) Brief History of Media Technologies
- 11. Mass Media’s Pieceof the Pie
- 12. Social Technology isthe New Oxygen
- 13.
- 14. Be Careful WhatYou Measure
- 15. What do WeKnow About People?
- 16.
- 17.
- 18. Self- actualizatio n Esteem Maslow’s Hierarchy Belonging and Love of Needs Safety Biological and physiological
- 19. Esteem, Reputa Food, Shelter & tion & Sex Competence Maslow Rewired Community, Bel onging & Love Safety, Order & Certainty
- 20. Collaboration Social Validation Reciprocity Social Identity Trust Competence Social Behaviors Based on Survival
- 21. Brain Rules andBehavior Survival is the primary goal Social connections are necessary for survival Experience determines basic beliefs Beliefs filter new information
- 22.
- 23.
- 26. To Move Money,Press Pound
- 27. No Good forShoveling Snow
- 28. To Shovel Snow,Press Pound
- 29.
- 30. There is noOffline & Online The same neural patterns Mediated experience enriches face-to-face Adoption driven by connection goals Social media provides glue
- 31.
- 32.
- 33. Engagement Agency Mastery Confidence Feedback Interaction Upward Spiral
- 34. The New Normal:Blurring Boundaries
- 35. The New Normal:Civic Engagement
- 36. The New Normal:Collaborative Management
- 37. The New Normal:Customers as Fans
- 38. The New Normal:Creative Participation
- 39. Mash-up of 8artists’ tracks: • Black Eyed Peas • Katy Perry • Snoop Dogg • Jay Sean • Nicki Minaj • Flo Rida • David Guetta • Kings Of Leon The New Normal: Remixing Culture
- 40. The New Normal:Gaming for Good
- 41. The New Normal:DIY Philanthropy
- 42. The New Normal:Micro-Volunteerism
- 43. The New Normal:Citizen Science
- 44. The New Normal:Participatory Social Change
- 45. The New Normal:Old People on Facebook
- 46. Going Forward No Distinction Online and Offline Mobile Emphasizes Local Increasing Social and Corporate Responsibility Hybrid Customer Relations Disappearing Technologies Flattening Hierarchies
- 47. Thank You. Dr. PamelaRutledge Media Psychology Research Center Annual Congress 2011 30 September, Berlin
Editor's Notes
- #3 This has been an extraordinary year for social media. In December of last year, we saw, and I mean literally—all of us around the world saw— a young Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a violent statement of protest against local government abuse. The abuse wasn’t unusual, but the reaction was. The knowledge of the protest triggered a cascade of uprisings and unrest across the Arab world that led to the toppling of governments.
- #4 We also saw the Red Cross raise $5 Million dollars in donations through text messaging and PayPal within only 24 hours of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. There was a similar outpouring of support for Japan.For all the remarkable commercial applications of technology, these kinds of things—spontaneous social actions--underscore the human side of this the paradigm shift we all talk about. The real change, and the real power, comes from the way that social technologies enable the human spirit. Sometimes the results are profound social upheaval like the Arab Spring,
- #5 …other times it’s frivolous and humorous creative expression, like posting and commenting on silly pictures of cats with badly spelled captions. But even the frivolous displays are not pointless. Social media has released an extraordinary amount of human energy. The question we want to ask is: Where does it come from?
- #6 As a media psychologist, I am fascinated by the study of human behavior where it intersects with technology. I spend my time looking for solutions and strategies in that space in-between people and tools, where technology turns into experience. And my message to you today is this: You are not selling technology. You are selling power – you are selling people the power to do something they already want or need to do.
- #7 You are pioneers. Every day you are developing and redefining the industry while trying to figure out the path it will take. Every day you face the challenges of a market place where products and capabilities change at warp speed. You have to make sense out of all this change and uncertainty with enough clarity to translate it into action to lead your companies to success. Your jobs are difficult because technology has changed the rules. Not just in business – in everything.No matter how much we angst over enterprise security and Facebook privacy settings, it’s quite clear that technology is not going away. We can’t wish it away and we can’t suppress it.A 2010 security report from Cisco said that 60% of their employees ignore corporate social media policies anyway. We can worry and complainall we want, but it’s time to focus on social media’s potential and how people can use it well. You are in a unique position. You are where ideas turn into action, consequently you have an enormous influence on the direction the path of technology use can take.
- #8 I am going to talk about the psychology of social technologies and why what we’re seeing is not really about the technology, but about how well it supports fundamental human goals. I’ll touch on: How fundamental human goals fit in the technology pictureHow social media connects us and enriches relationships, Why people resist technology adoption, and Why power is shifting towards the individual. Some of this will require a change in perspective, a new view. But that’s a good thing. When Leonardo da Vinci was asked for the secret of his creative genius, he replied “sapervedere” which means, “to know how to see.” His gift wasn’t his ability to draw or paint, it was his ability to see what was important.
- #9 I understand that it’s complicated now. It used to be so much simpler. Televisions were for watching television. Phones were for making phone calls. I asked a girl the other day why she didn’t wear a wristwatch. She looked at me like I was from another planet, held up her cell phone and said “duh, that’s what this is for!”People are using technologies for all kinds of things in ways we didn’t expect. We ourselves are producers and distributors as well as media consumers. We watch television on our computers, we stream our music from the cloud, and we defy physics, collaborating on projects without any regard for the time-space continuum. Is there no respect for tradition or the way things have always been done?
- #10 This question of respect is on the minds of pretty much everyone born before about 1985. The question is really: is there no respect for me?Because massive change like we’ve had with social media, is a threat to our individual identity—to how we think about ourselves and how the world we life in is supposed to work. Psychologically, it is not surprising that there is a discomfort and fear when it comes to adjusting to new technology. No one wants to feel useless, no one likes to feel like a beginner again.It’s like showing up to play rugby with tennis gear. Some of you are part of the Net-Generation. Some of us just wish we were part of the Net-Generation. The fact is that the Net-Generation is wired differently; their brains just aren’t the same.This isn’t surprising and it isn’t bad, it’s just different. Those born in the Net-Generation have a social media brain, but the rest of have mass media brains.We also have a short memory! It wasn’t all that long ago that media was personal and collaborative like it’s becoming again. In the history of media technologies, mass media was not the dominant form for all that long.
- #11 Humans have always used media to communicate and bring people closer together. Some people do worry about social media being isolating, but the truth is that...Mass media was isolating. It was non-participatory and uni-directional, controlled by a few and distributed to the many. Before we had mass media and Lady Gaga, we had sheet music and people gathered around the piano to learn the songs. We told each other stories and we gathered at the local square. It was participatory media but on a very local scale. The astounding thing is how quickly we adapted to mass media as ‘normal.’ Here’s a brief history of media technologies from the first recorded human communications about 10,000 BC to the Egyptians and paper, Medieval balladeers, smoke signals, and then the beginning of mass media, the printing press. But the more “mass” mass media got, the more one-way it got. By the late 1950’s, televisions were in living rooms around the world, and for next 40 years or so, media technologies were dominated by the most passive and least participatory of media we have had: radio, television and films. That period with the yellow arrow is the time that created our mass media mentality.
- #12 Here is a pie chart (really a tart chart) that shoes the amount of mass media time relative to all media communication. Mass media made a huge psychological mark, but relative to the history of human communications, it just this very, very small bit of the pie. That tiny piece set our beliefs about what was ‘normal’ – and what was normal was passive, controllable audience. On a side note, as you start to examine your assumptions, keep in mind the science of “management” and “marketing” were also invented during a this vision of normal.
- #13 From the Net Generation’s point of view, things look quite different than they do to the rest of us. We share some fundamental assumptions, of course, that drive our everyday behavior, things like gravity.But the Net Generation’s fundamental assumptions include full time connectivity to people and information. Social technologies and real time information are their oxygen.
- #14 The digital revolution is a social revolution. But it is the structural changes that have rewired society and unleashed the social revolution. In this case, stay focused on the fact that social equals human. And while humans are different in lots of ways, fundamentally, we haven’t changed very much in thousands of years. Social media hasn’t created new behaviors. The behaviors and trends we are seeing are a manifestation of goals and motivations that were already there, but unrealized because of technological constraints. Technology didn’t create a social revolution; it opened the doors and amplified a human one.
- #15 It’s not always easy to see the goals and motivations in behaviors. It is easy to misinterpret other people’s behaviors because we have our own perspective or bias.When I was a teenager we didn’t have mass transit so if we wanted to go out with our friends, somebody had to borrow the car from their parents. It was very difficult to convince your parents to let you have the car on weeknights. But if you were a market researcher unfamiliar with the US parent-teenager dynamics, you might interpret the burst of teenage socializing on weekends as a behavior pattern that indicates preference— “ah,” you might say, “I can tell that teenagers these days prefer to go out with friends on weekends,” when in fact, the teen behavior was an adaptation to a technological constraint—lack of wheels.
- #16 There is only one way to recognize where you run into technological constraints rather than preference, and that’s to understand human motivation. So let’s start with people at a very basic level. What do we know about them? Well, one thing people have in common is that most of them have a brain.
- #17 The human brain has three main parts: the neocortex, the limbic system and the reptilian brain. Each has distinct jobsThe reptilian brain is the and oldest part, evolutionarily speaking. It is where information processing begins.When we are talking about the impact of technology and motivation, it is important to recognize the role the primitive reptilian brain plays at the subconscious level. It controls human instinct. Its primary and sole objective is survival. All information is processed in the context of danger or safety. This is no different now than it was thousand of years ago.
- #18 The biological drive of survival is at the basis of all other human motivations and goals in one way or another.
- #19 Anyone who has studied psychology, marketing or management is likely to have come across Abraham Maslow’s widely applied hierarchy of needs model for human motivation. Maslow’s Hierarchy breaks down needs into five levels and his theory states that needs at the lower level of the pyramid have to be met before people move up to the higher ones.It goes like this:At the very bottom of the pyramid are very basic biological and physiological needs, such as air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, and sleep.After those are satisfied, people move up to safety needs. These are protection, security, order, laws, limits, and stability.Third, at about at the center are belongingness needs. These are family, collaboration, affiliation, community, and groups.The fourth, above belongingness, is esteem needs. These are the needs of achievement, responsibility, social validation, and reputation.And the fifth, at the top is self-actualization or the desire for personal growth and fulfillment. But here’s the problem with Maslow and other traditional models of motivation. It’s not possible to meet any of these needs without social connection.
- #20 Human motivations are inter-related and interactive starting from the hub of human connection. Social connectivity is the driving force of human behavior. From the beginning of time, it was not possible for human beings to survive without collaboration and connection. There was no way a single human could take on a sabre-tooth tiger, hollow out a cave, or care for a children while hunting down food to eat. It’s more true now than then. Our reliance on each other grows as societies became more complex, interconnected, and specialized.
- #21 The system of human needs is dependent on our ability to connect with others. Social behaviors adapt to the environment to support basic human needs. In other words, we do what we have to do, but like teenage drivers, it may not be all that we would do, if we had the chance. Throughout recorded history to the present, people who joined together in groups improved their chances of survival and progress. The most successful social technologies have incorporated social behaviors that link back to survival instincts:Collaboration allows us to control our environment and be safeTrust is essential for collaboration to be effectiveSocial comparison—evaluating ourselves against others -- is necessary to establish organizational structure, leadership and order Social validation—the positive feedback of others -- and social identity allow us maintain emotional engagement and loyalty to our mates and our group
- #22 Here are the important points to know influence the brain has at the unconscious level:Survival is the brain’s primary purpose and is the primary driver of human goals and motivationsSocial connection is necessary for human survival and is established and maintained through social behaviors Our brain uses our experience to build our assumptions or mental models about how the world workHow we understand anything new is heavily influenced by our existing mental models
- #23 So, what does this mean about how we think about technology? Let’s look at some tools: the spear, the wheel, or the BlackBerry. They were designed with a purpose in mind. They succeeded because they delivered something very fundamental for the user. How do we assess new ideas and new technologies? Are we asking about attributes and features like: “Does it make a bell sound?” “Is it easy to make a bell sound?”Or are we asking more fundamental questions to see if they satisfy basic human goals and motivations? “Does this help you do a better job at work so you can take care of your family?”The innovations that stick are those that mimic or facilitate social functions and human goals.
- #24 Any technology adoption requires some kind of behavior change. An insightful taxi driver once said that to drive in New York City, “you have to want it.” He’s right. People have to want to change, because, like fighting your way through the streets of Manhattan, it takes effort. The effort to change is only sustainable when you are fulfilling your own goals. That takes internally generated or intrinsic, motivation. In other words, YOU have to want it. For motivation to be intrinsic, it must get past the reptilian brain into your command center. To do this it must satisfy those fundamental goals.If you overlook fundamental goals and motivations, change won’t happen. Intrinsic motivation is at the heart of the behavioral shift we’re seeing around the world because social technologies reinforce the same human goals and motivations that ensure survival: autonomy, mastery, and relatedness.
- #25 Psychological research shows that you can actually destroy intrinsic motivation by reducing autonomy, opportunities for learning, and social connection.Researchers have demonstrated that the fastest way to do this is to shift the motivation to an external one, such as offering people money. In a famous experiment, researchers Deci and Ryan had two groups of participants solve a series of puzzles problems—one group was paid for their participation, the other was not. The group that was paid set their puzzles aside during the breaks, whereas the group that was not paid continued to try and solve the puzzle problems during the breaks between sessions. Paying the participants interferes with autonomy and it changes the social contract surrounding relatedness. There is a big psychological difference between being a volunteer and an employee. Motivation-bias is a problem in all kinds of research where participants are paid.But we’re living in the world of Wikipedia, YouTube, blogs, and Facebook. Social technologies are training millions to take action on their own behalf because technology enables intrinsic motivation and fundamental social behaviors. Even a silly cat picture requires an expenditure of energy that no one is paying them for: they have to use a camera, compose and apply a caption and figure out how to upload it to ihazcheezburgers.com.
- #26 Think about how quickly Google+ has caught on. The “group” features facilitate our ability to manage social connections. It solidifies the feeling of ‘groupness’ because groups can be created at a more intimate size. It also allows us to draw boundaries to keep some information and behaviors safe.By comparison, think about the new Facebook app, Spotify. Spotify is intended to increase social collaboration by sharing any music you listen to immediately with your friends. Will it be a success? No. It violates the autonomy and safety rules—you feel out of control and exposed.
- #27 Another example is the Vodafone/Safari-com joint venture in M-PESA, a mobile banking solution that allows a cheaper, faster way for the “unbanked” like rural farmers, to send cash and manage assets. In three years, M-PESA was adopted by 57% of the adult population in Kenya, a country where only 22% have a basic bank account. But it is not about the technology, the features of the phone or mobile banking service—or even the cool marketing slogan “to move money, press pound,” it is successful because it facilitates core goals: the care and protection of the farm or business that supports their family or tribe.
- #28 In Scandinavia, researchers were trying to understand why a rural elderly population was so resistant to technology adoption. They measured all kinds of things and they demonstrated how easy the computers were to use. When they finally had a conversation, it turned out that in the elderly eyes of these residents, computers were no good for what was important to them. They were no good for shoveling snow or hauling firewood.
- #29 You don’t get the rural elderly to use technology because you designed an ergonomic keypad for old people or because they can access online medical information, you get them to adopt new technology when they see it as a tool with positive impact on something fundamental that matters to their lives. If pressing pound made guys with snow shovels show up, I’m pretty sure technology adoption rate would pick up rapidly.
- #30 Let me give you a more urban example of how social technologies impact individual motivation. Meet Kurt. From his mobile device, Kurt can access all kinds of information without going to the library or opening a file folder, he can keep up with information at the office and connect to others in his social circle without moving his feet, he can seek out professional colleagues and job opportunities beyond his circle without putting on a tie. He can play games with his brother two time zones away and find out who is in the neighborhood to meet for a beer after work.Kurt can have relevant information from every domain in his life delivered to him on demand instantaneously any time of the day; and stay connected to the people and things that matter In other words: Kurt doesn’t have a smartphone. He has a personal empowerment device in his pocket. He has:The ability to control his environmentThe ability to develop mastery by learning to use new tools and by being able to access everything from ‘How To’ videos on YouTube to free university courses at MIT.He can connect in any number of ways to maintain a sense of relatedness.Kurt has this level of connectivity all day, every day. This is one of his core assumptions about how the world is supposed to work, just like when we come home and flip on the light switch. And it isn’t just how the world works; it’s how he works in the world. So, it this guy living a life that’s virtual, that’s not real? Is the poor guy is just an unhappy, isolated, social media addict.”
- #31 But he’s not and here’s why:Neuroscience research shows that the brain does not distinguish between real and mediated experience; both fire the same neural pathwaysMediated experiences don’t replace face-to-face experiences. That is reptilian brain thinking. There is nothing that says you have to throw out your car keys when you get a Facebook page. Research shows, in fact, that social networks enrich relationships rather than diminish them. Social media provides a touch point and continuity that are essential to relationship building. The ability to touch someone to reaffirm connection is a normal and necessary part of all relationships from early childhood throughout the lifespan.Social media offers that continuing touch, providing the continuity and stability that builds trust and support. It provides the fabric of connection that bonds people together.
- #32 When social networking site first launched, all kinds of social media ‘experts’ (of which there are thousands) predicted that older populations wouldn’t adopt these new technologies—They were too complex, too different, and too time-consuming. But was “would the elderly adopt new complex technologies?” the right question to ask?Or was the right question: “would elderly people learn something new if it allowed them to stay in touch with family and friends at a time of their life when connection and legacy are the most important and mobility is most difficult?’ As you know, older people are the fastest growing users of social technologies, the number of users in the US rose 88% from May 2009 to May 2010. And it’s not because they want to play Farmville or online poker. Social technologies allow people to stay in touch when they couldn’t or wouldn’t otherwise. It provides a link, the glue in the ‘between’ places that holds people together. My 86-year-old father has a Facebook page so he can keep up with his grandkids that are spread out all over the U.S. At Christmas, instead of “what’ve you been doing this year?” It’s more like “how’d that anthropology class go, or I liked the picture of your choral group!” Intimacy comes from the frequency of contact, from the amount of personal disclosure—the things we know about each other. That’s what creates the emotional bonds and trust. A side benefit to using sites like Facebook and YouTube is that they help keep the older brains active, and stave off memory loss. Senior citizens who frequent social networking sites have more flexible brains. Internet has also been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression because of it allowed seniors to develop greater social support.An increasingly common cross-generational gift is giving parents or grandparents a lesson on Facebook or Skype. One family celebrated their grandmother’s 90th birthday by creating an online album full of pictures, recorded messages, and videos—something she could access and enjoy long after the party was over.
- #33 Like Kurt, we continually interact with our environment. Every connection—mediated or otherwise—provides social validation and engagement. A Twitter or a text message reinforce connectedness, an accomplishment even as small as interacting with a live wallpaper on your phone subtly reinforces the belief that when you act, the world responds. Clay Shirky tells a story about watching a young girl watching a movie on television that jumped up in the middle of the movie and ran around behind the television looking for something. The assumption by the adults was that, like many children before her, she was looking for the characters on the backside of the television screen, not understanding that it was a two-dimensional projection. Wrong. She was looking for the mouse. Her assumption was that media was interactive. She liked the movie and she wanted to participate. That’s a great metaphor for what’s happening out there. When we like something now, we want—and expect—to participate.More and more interactive books, such as iPad-based The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmoreinvite children to take part in the reading experience. In the process, they are turning them into active participants in their own education and changing, like the little girl looking for the mouse, their expectation about how they, as individuals, can interact with information and control experience. Soon, that same little girls will be running her hand across the screen instead of looking for a mouse. But what she won’t be doing, is sitting there, passively watching, waiting for someone else to interact for her.
- #34 The positive psychology “Broaden and Build” theory describes the way that positive experiences, emotions and interactions build upon one other to create an upward spiral. Each time we increase our confidence in our abilities to act, whether we are the little girl with the mouse, Kurt with his smartphone, or a fruit vendor in Tunisia, we have a broader base to continue building upon. Social technologies have given people unprecedented control over their lives. We act and, because we are linked in real time, we see the actions others take and we can interact with them. Individual actions inspire group actions; groups inspire individuals. The most exciting thing is that we are training new generations to believe they can act; to believe that an individual can make a difference. It changes everyone’s expectations about their ability— and their responsibility—to contribute.
- #35 We are creating a new “normal.” The new normal has blurry boundaries among technologies and information channels, and among businesses and customers and consumers as producer and distributors. The ability to contribute and to bring information and connection to ourselves on-demand means we are actively pulling autonomy and power toward ourselves. People are no longer held hostage by lack of information whether it’s comparison-shopping for appliances, current market prices for farmers in Senegal, or faster access to cash resources in Kenya. The Red Cross successfully raises funds using social media. They are successful for the same reason that the citizens of Egypt were successful. People believe they matter, they believe that they can make a difference, and they have proof of the impact. When people believe they matter and can make a difference; they engage. The systems around them have to adjust. So here is the new normal:
- #36 What happens when Senegalese farmers make money? They have to pay taxes. They demand civic services, like roads and build a school.
- #37 What happens in businesses when employees value transparency and collaboration? Management styles change.
- #38 What happens when we have to redefine the relationships between business and customer based on value? Gone are the days of trapping your customers in marketing channels with a price discrimination strategy. Customers talk across channels to each other. The keywords for marketing and management are ‘respect’ and ‘value.’ In this environment, you reach out to customers in ways that create fans and brand advocates. When I pulled this screen shot, Lego customers had contributed 10,884 videos for sharing on the Lego website. That’s 10,884 acts of love.
- #39 What happens when we have unlimited ability for creative expression? We get LOLcats, for sure, but we also get new voices and the intellectual benefits and innovative solutions of creative play.
- #40 What happens when people have access to inexpensive digital media tools? They redefine media content as culture. This is a video mash-up of eight artists tracks posted to share with friends and get feedback. Artists and record companies are forced to consider new business models and intellectual property issues.
- #41 What happens when people figure out that gamification is compelling communication? We use it to increase awareness and engagement in advocacy issues like hunger. For every word you define correction on FreeRice.com, a few grains of rice appear in the bowl. When you bowl is full, it empties and FreeRice.com donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme.
- #42 What happens when people what to have more control and hands-on experience and are no longer content to contribute to traditional big charities? They seek out ways engage with Do-It-Yourself philanthropy through organizations like Kiva.org, that allows donors to select people whose projects interest them to provide all or a portion of a micro-loans.
- #43 What happens when you connect have networked connectivity? You unleash ‘free time’ resources and allow people to use their time and skills to help others. Sparks.org sends out requests for help from nonprofit organizations. These are specific calls for help on things such as copy-writing or marketing plans. Volunteers can select a project to help when they have time available.
- #44 What happens when you crowdsource science? You get good answers, much faster. Scientists in Seattle invited gamers to find a solution to unfolding DNA strands in AIDS research. The gamers succeeded solving a problem in two weeks that scientists had not been able to do over the previous two years.
- #45 What happens when you inspire people to believe that individuals can make a difference? You get participatory social change.
- #46 What happens when the technology serves fundamental human goals? You get old people on Facebook.
- #47 Here’s where I see the social media environment heading:The distinction between online and offline is no longer relevant. Technologies and applications will continue to close the gap and blur the boundaries.Vodafone Buffer Buster campaign is a good example of this blending, using Augmented Reality to create an Alternate Reality Game turning the real world into a collaborative game play platform. The massive trend to mobile emphasizes the importance of personal environments. We may be global, but mobile let’s us celebrate and develop local again. This will impact everything from work to civic engagement, such as tele-commuting and Micro-volunteerism.Global visibility creates empathy, like we saw in the outpouring toward the Haitian and Japanese crises. The combination of individual agency and global awareness will be reflected in a trend toward social responsibility at all levels of business. Marketing is starting to move in the direction campaigns centered on social causes, such as Nike’s “About a Girl” campaign.Think about this: what would happen if Vodafone took the Buffer Buster campaign idea and instead of capturing ‘buffers,’ players collaborated to capture shoes, food, or mosquito nets that they could turn in to generate donations to a charity. Another example is the TOMS shoes one-for-one businesses model set up to donate one pair of shoes for every pair a customer buysCustomer relations will continue to be about relationships. Customers are no longer brand loyal, they are experience loyal.They will benefit from hybrid contact. The question will increasingly be how to build relationships using all the channels at your disposal — creating transmedia customer relations’ managers. Company communications and public relations crisis management will move away from ‘spin’ and toward a collaborative, strengths-based, appreciative inquiry approach. Because human connection is a primary driver of human behavior, technologies that recede, that put the focus on connection will be most successful. Peer-to-Peer culture flattens hierarchies and increases the demand for transparency and authenticity. That put pressure on governments, institutions, organizations and individuals.As you can tell, I am very positive about the potential for technology. I have no doubt about its success commercially, but I am especially excited about the social implications of increasing peoples’ sense of agency, power, and responsibility and I hope you are too. You make technology and applications, but that’s not what you’re selling. You’re selling the power for people to do things that they already want or need to do. With that as your goal, you have the ability to empower an entire generation of global digital citizens.