Our industrial economy was driven by consumer demand not so many decades ago. But with affluence comes increased competition for top-of-mind awareness and consumers were sold “experience” as the new status symbol. Walking into work with a Starbucks cup in hand became a statement of status for many.

Social conversation evolved from talking about what we bought or owned to what we did, experienced, or enjoyed. Previously we sold steak because it sizzled. Now we sell steak because people will talk about their sizzle experience.

A new paradigm has appeared in the Web 2.0 social media rich world today. Relationship marketing is all the rage and defines the new economy. Book a flight on an Airline’s website and suddenly you can post about it on Facebook. Create an account at BusinessWeek.com using your Linkedin login and you can easily invite your friends to share the resources you find.

The relationship economy is driving social media web app development. New mashups appear daily promising some new way to feed businesses the real-time, location-based, social-behavior data they crave  in order to time the delivery of their products to arrive the same time we do.

The old consumer based mechanisms were streamlined to meet demands as soon as they appeared. The experience based economy drove psycho-graphic research to the Nth degree of detail so audiences could be targeted precisely and effectively. But this new model, coupled with the crowd-based cloud of data available en masse, is transforming the marketing model completely.

Instead of following groups and needs, the new data stream can be analyzed and processed to anticipate our movements, our moods, and our mindsets. It may be that the crowd-generated cloud knows better than I do what my next move will be. Or should be. Hmm…

In one sense, the crowd is powerful because its behavior is being measured and we measure what we value. In another, those possessing the ability to scan the crowd-sourced data stream and mash it up for an economically beneficial purpose, are the powerful ones because they maximize the value of the crowd they measure. Is this a win-win? I’m curious.

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