NPR did a segment today about how social/user-created content is changing our economics. The segment featured Don Tapscott, co-author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. You can listen to the segment here.
Basically the main thing to take from this is that the new way of solving problems, gathering information and reducing costs involves tapping into the world's human capital, instead of just relying on the ideas of people from the company itself. In order to take advantage of the millions of ideas out there, a company must open itself up to the public and share its private data.
The power of user-created content speaks for itself and according to Tapscott, major brands are taking advantage of this concept in creating new, innovative products and services. P & G will soon have 50% of all its new ideas coming from outside the company, Tapscott says.
It will be interesting to see how brands will attempt to control the marketplace of ideas. One area that many brands have yet to realize that they can't/shouldn't control is the world of blogs.
Blogs are by nature irreverent, spontaneous, and fun, though some companies have insisted on trying to censor comments, create fake blogs and misuse them to their advantage. Ultimately, however, the truth will come out and the remarkable brands will be the ones that listen to customers, acknowledge their mistakes and improve. They will create products and services that will enrich their customers' lives, not just market things that help their margins. As the spread of ideas increases and more companies become transparent and ask for customer input, the brands that aren't remarkable will slowly die and be forgotten.