So I have been thinking

What if we could look at where people go online and how they interact in those places like we understand ranges or territories for mammals? For example, my online range includes:

• My cave (my blog) where I am safe and feel the most comfortable
• Places where I hunt for food to nourish both personal and business needs. This includes Twitter and Linked In
• Places where I can be with others of my species; their blogs, focused communities, etc.
• New areas where I can expand my ability to increase any of the above and does not have too many competitors

This range tends to define who I am online as part of my overall brand.

But it is more than that I think.

For others, their ranges could include places to find mates (various dating sites), better food sources (leads and prospecting) and places to improve their natural capabilities (be that cooking, parenting,  education, shopping, etc).

So How Does This Apply to Business?

Well, maybe looking at customers and understanding their range gives us new insight or better understanding of them a broad, shallow view rather than narrow and deep. Certainly as Large Enterprises look to understand a customer or prospect they tend to take a very narrow and deep view of that person; focusing only on what is directly relevant to what we want them to buy.

Consider for a minute looking at designing a customer experience it really is about how that person experiences your brand in the broadest sense of the word every touch point both direct and indirect. Maybe a territorial perspective gives the possibility of new insight into how they experience your brand? Especially in nebulous environments like Social Media.

I will be exploring this theory more as part of my research and writing for my Book On Social Media: How Big Business Can Leverage Natural Selection in Social Media to Become a Dominant Species.