Premium Speakers meets … Philipp Riederle, one of the digital heads in Germany“!
Maik Weiss, Generation X, was able to experience Philipp live.
“The virtual world is no parallel world. It is a natural enlargement of what we call the usual world.”
Philipp Riederle believes that the word “virtual” would in fact be misused and should be substituted by digital or digitalization. In recent years, three serious changes could be noticed:
- We can be in contact anytime.
- We can access information anytime.
- We can publish content anytime.
Philipp Riederle talks about his career briefly and explains how he became a popular speaker and consultant. When he was 13, he got one of the first iPhones from the USA. They hadn’t even existed in Germany yet. He cracked the device, so he could also talk on it in Germany. And then he reported on it in his podcast. One day, one of the largest German companies asked him for support as he obviously knew more about certain topics than the internal experts did.
Today, Philipp Riederle runs his own company successfully and travels the world to give advice about the use of Social Media and the way of life of his generation.
“How does today’s communication change our life?”
Philipp speaks from experience when he describes the still existing prejudice that Social Media users had few or less social contacts. He states that the contrary would be true. Studies would prove that “offliner” meet with friends even less often than active online users. The digital world would actually improve the quality of life as we have access to all kind of information today at anytime.
“Is the way how classic businesses work still contemporary?”
To be honest, says Philipp, the answer is no. Crowdfunding for example shows that there are other ways today how to get a business running. The generation Y would be a generation of people who do not want to be persuaded. They want to decide for themselves when and how and what they shop where. They want it to be easy, best case would be to “shop out of bed” and to avoid going into town on a Saturday when everyone else is shopping in any case. Online shopping combined with possibly reasonable prices is key.
Talking about loyalty, Philipp sums up the generation Y’s attitude as such: “If the channel which we choose to shop on is not working we just shop somewhere else.” Loyalty seems to be a forgotten term. Not at all, says Philipp. For his generation, it would just be another definition of it meaning that a seller of bikes is maybe no longer the bike store around the corner but someone on the other side of the world in Hawaii. Because they simply sell the best bikes.
“The big question is: does it make sense?”
It would be a myth that the generation Y would like to be in a dialogue in the Social networks. They do klick “I LIKE” – but this is it. Next, businesses have to engage them with clever communication and content.
“Multichannel can be very easy – but needs discipline.”
Those businesses who stick to their one-way-communication or their rigid structures, those who fire off plain product advertisements and job offers will certainly not attract the generation Y.
Philipps message to the business world is this: Be engaged! Get close! Turn your customers into fans!
Philipp Riederle is bookable at: philipp.riederle@premium-speakers.com