Staying the Course is Key

MSNBC had a great article last week about Tech Fatigue. I think one of the most astute lines was:

"We have reached a tech bump in the road, augmented by news-at-the-speed-of Internet, which leads to immediate inflation and deflation of new products even before, or just as, they're released."

Here's what I wrote in response to the some of the other comments on that good article:

"Most commenters are really missing the big picture of the story. It's not just about your iPad or iPod or whatever. It's about those and ALL the gadgets, sites, platforms and tools being thrown at us. This is the best takeaway quote from the story: "we have reached a tech bump in the road, augmented by news-at-the-speed-of Internet, which leads to immediate inflation and deflation of new products even before, or just as, they're released."

The author did a great job in summing up the challenge companies are facing if they don't take advantage of 2.0 customer input and build a trusted brand in this era of information overload and consumer fatigue. Personally, I'm exhausted, not just from trying to figure out my new Droid or now Google Buzz or next Mobile TV (MDTV?), but as a social media marketer, I can't shut down or I'll get shut out."

That's why it's essential for companies to get in and stay in the game. Think of the shelf life of a Tweet. If you catch people reading their newsflow at the time you tweet, they might catch your comment...then it's gone from the top of the newsflow pile. Unless you repost it there, and elsewhere, and catch more attention, but it's like collecting water in a coffee filter. And that's why there's a twofold challenge to keeping your brand present and relevant: being present at right time... and grappling with consumers' information overload.

Hence the point of the MSNBC story: We're ALL on overload. We are drilling down as fast as we can, or trying to learn the latest gadget or gizmo when all of a sudden, WHAM!, the next one comes along. So where do we turn, what do we do?
Some may throw up their hands in frustration and catch a boat to the closest desert island. (Sounds good to me.) But lots of us will just pray for a single easy platform (which is what FriendFeed tried to be, and now GoogleBuzz, or GoogleWave or whatever, hopes to deliver) to come along and just make life and info easier to manage.

But who do we trust? Everyone is promising to be THE panacea.

And THAT's what brings me back the importance of staying the course.

Now more than ever companies have to be present and maintain. Be the rock. The redeemer. Suck up the negative and course correct as possible. Show gratitude and leverage the positive. But stay in the newsflow. Show us you're not going away like a flash drive in the pan. Help me find you wherever I am hanging out so I don't have to do a big search to find that solution or tool I read about on some platform that I meant to bookmark that was going to make my life so easy.