Google has stated that the “market of conversations” are growing to a point that businesses will either jump in or fall out. The way Google positions the need for enterprises to engage is in their statement which says  “Bottom line: More and more business is going to transact via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other applications yet to be developed.  This train is too important to miss.”

Has Google Failed?

Social media is here to stay. More personal communications are being sent via social media than email, which is mindboggling. Technological developments are on the horizon. Google has launched numerous “social trial balloons and many have failed. Failure is part of success. The determining factor is learning from failure and moving to new ground using lessons learned from your failure and others. Google is nothing more than a great big incubator of “trial and error” and they use their failures, and that of others, to predict market behavior. However their predictions are not based on past references rather future indicators of “market shifts”.

Again they say :Bottom line: More and more business is going to transact via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other applications yet to be developed. This train is too important to miss. Do you think Google, with all its data, knows where the train is going? It goes where ever the people take it.

A Game Changer…..

Business strategies are indeed a game. Who can predict where are market is going and how can your business be there before the competition. Technology has arisen as the #1 game changer for all industries. Yet, current leaders seem to be out of touch with how the game is changing. Don’t think so then look around and you’ll see trends of change everywhere disrupting old models and ushering in new models all fueled by technology.  While the market of conversation is indeed changing the game leaders are listening to the wrong conversations, their own.

Corporate leaders demand that management follow them. Managers demand that employees follow them. Organizations think the consumer will follow them and their offerings. The game has changed and people are following people rather than brands and institutions. To lead the game or change it you have to hear what the market is saying. Listening to your own rhetoric is not listening to the market. The ROI from social media is called listening and learning to predict based on the conversations of the market.