A micro universe of one – The long tail of a singular me
I am a micro universe of one.
It means many things all at once. It means that I have a distinct personal mark that sets me apart from everyone else and makes categorizing, segmenting, profiling me…. Impossible.
It means that I am painted in very unique colors and what suits you does not necessarily suit me, even if others classify us in the same segment.
Once, belonging to a certain group, segment, category… meant having an identifiable categorization mark. To want to be there meant presenting an image compatible to what is trendy as defined top down by opinion leaders, celebs or current fashions of sorts. It was dictated as style, bon ton or other time and place dependent cohesive set of politically, socially or any other statements or criteria. Marketers knew how to handle it, influence it and capitalize on it to get to me.
In an Icentered world, my personal signature stems from what reflects me most and not by how I best adapt to what some authority marked. My culture is transparent, dynamic, open, and shareable.
Since I, and you, and you, are different individuals, our individual signatures are much less cohesive and more fragmented, meshed, eclectic… a diversified colorful picture painted from individual resolutions that frames each one of us as a micro universe of one.
Once generalizations and segmentations are replaced by individualism, the traditional marketing and segmentation techniques become less relevant. In an Icentered world of personal attitudes, almost all items and personal choices express personal interpretations in all lifestyle segments – content and entertainment consumption, styling ( fashion, cosmetics, accessories), work, travelling …. In a true long tail manner.
This is MY tail. The tail of individualism. The long tail of a micro universe of one. It is a statement of a savvy set of choices, made from full awareness to what is out there, an independent self definition that mashes up all that works best for me. My personal hits don’t have to conform to any hype. They are mine to embrace and their only value lies in their relevance and compatibility to me.
The backbone and frame of reference is me and therefore individually different. My sources of influence are bottom up – my counterparts, friends and peers.
I converse with my friends, we are all connected through many channels, exchange information and recommend what we like through our own social channels – our conversations are dynamic both in content and a variety of channels: tweets, posts, IM, e-mail, blogs, forums… all the places marketers want to target our behavior in, tap in and become part of the links we share, so they can show their value through our opinions.
It is a soft circle where we all influence each other just by who we are and what we do. It is reciprocal, complementing. They influence me but who they are, what they like, what they do, on an individual level. In the same way I may influence or inspire people in my social sphere – but I would not really know the impact. It’s casual, through our digital conversations, observations and exchanges of infos, phots, sites….. Pareto is not in this party. The only thing that matters is the meshed result that translates into my individual traits and distinct colors that set in motion the whole long tail around me as the center.
That is what makes me an Icentered micro universe of one.
