Brands and the human network
Brands create value networks within the vast and rich human networks that make up everyday life. Over the last decade, the Internet and its applications have totally transformed the nature of human networks, making them greater, and more intimate, at the same time. That’s one reason why brands are fast followers of Net innovations.
Internet-enabled human networks
The Human Network site has a useful series of definitions on just what an Internet-enabled “human network” involves: it’s dimensions, collaborative contours, content and connections. It’s worth a read, especially for brand builders.
A sample from Mike Arrington:
The human network has evolved from the clan to the Internet. We are all part of a flat, mega-connected hierarchy, allowing social interaction in its purest form, from the simplest emotional gasps to the most complicated intellectual debates. The human network is humanity in its purest and most beautiful form.
Brands animate networks from within
Whatever your brand, you will need a similar perspective on the network value that your brand delivers. For your brand to succeed, it will have to animate human networks from within, connecting people to new forms of value—and to other people—through the brand. Brands that can’t make this transition risk being left behind.