- 利用消費者數據來預測未來的消費者需求，不光是解決他們目前想要什么。市場研究公司Gartner將“情境和社交用戶體驗”列為2012年最重要的科技趨勢之一。這也許聽起來太術語化了，但想想Gartner的定義，這很有意義，特別是在“膜拜自我”時代。Gartner 表示，“情境和社交用戶體驗”指的是利用個人數據“預測用戶需求，主動提供最適合和定制的內容、產品或服務”的軟件系統。不光是注意到，比如，消費者正在購買比以往更多的無線鍵盤，或許你的公司可以用這些系統預測他們希望下次采購鍵盤時能增加哪些特色，從新的色彩到更符合人體工程學的外型等等。Gartner預測到2013年底，這樣的預測系統將大行其道。使用這些系統的企業也會蒸蒸日上。

- 鼓勵所有員工進行創造和分享，供內部研究。要知道，你的員工也是變身創作者的消費者。了解他們的業余習慣和個人興趣，能快速獲得洞見，用于產品開發。這可以很簡單，讓來自各個部門和各個層級的員工在內部或外部博客上、甚至公司的Facebook頁面上貢獻自己的原創想法——不限形式，鼓勵員工分享自己原創的想法。在Frog，我們推出了一個“酷愛”計劃，鼓勵員工創造和分享視頻、網絡文章以及他們個人感興趣的各種主題的信息。我們常常會衡量這些個人創意計劃的受歡迎程度和可行度——比如一個員工在業余時間創作了一個精美實時的Twitter統計數據可視化軟件，可以反映人們是通過何種方式、于哪些地點在Twitter上說了些什么。如果我們覺得有價值的話，就會動用公司的營銷等資源支持這樣的原創作品。這樣，我們能找到具有潛力的新產品，而員工也能獲得回報，這種方式非常有吸引力，并深具激勵性。

????總之，要更好地理解“膜拜自我”，關鍵是要關注普通人如何對創造感興趣以及對哪些感興趣。看到和注意到DIY的原創潮流是一方面。明智的管理者還需要在仔細觀察消費者如何創作體現個人“膜拜自我”的基礎上，學會將這一理念灌輸到如何指導公司給市場帶來新產品和服務上。

????譯者：老榆木

- Use consumer data to anticipate consumers' future needs, rather than merely address what they want now. Market researcher Gartner named "contextual and social user experience" as one of 2012's biggest tech trends. If you think that's a jargony term, it is. But consider how Gartner defines it, and it makes sense, especially in the Cult of Me era. "Contextual and social user experiences" refers to software systems that use data on individuals to "anticipate the user's needs and proactively serve up the most appropriate and customized content, product, or service," according to Gartner. Rather than note that consumers are buying, say, more wireless keyboards than ever before, perhaps your company can use these systems to predict they'll want certain types of additional features for their next keyboard purchase. This could range from new colors to more ergonomic shapes. Gartner predicts that through 2013, such predictive systems will thrive. Businesses that use these systems will, too.

- Encourage all employees to create and share for internal research. Remember, your staff is made up of consumers-as-creators. Learning about their extracurricular habits and personal interests can garner proprietary and quick insights that can be used for product development. This can be as simple as having employees from all departments and levels contribute their own, original ideas to internal or external blogs, or even the company's Facebook page—all formats that encourage the sharing of ideas along with an employee's direct ownership of these ideas. At frog, we've launched a "passion" initiative, where employees are welcome to create and share videos, online posts, and other materials about subjects they are interested in personally. We often gauge how popular and feasible some of these personal creative initiatives are—such as a beautiful, real-time data-visualization on how, where, and what people post on Twitter, created in an employee's spare time. Then, if it makes sense to, we help support such original new work with our company's marketing and other resources. It's a fascinating and motivating way for us to seek out potential new products that's also rewarding for employees.

????In conclusion, it's key to pay attention to how and what everyday people are interested in creating to get a better understanding of the Cult of Me. It's one thing to simply observe and note the current trendiness of DIY ingenuity. But the smartest executives will also learn to channel Cult of Me thinking to guide their companies in bringing to market new products and services based on keen observations of what consumers create as they fashion their own, individual Cults of Me.