People are Media: Digital Business in the Selfie Era

Communication is among human beings’ primary needs. In addition to eating, sleeping, and having children, man has always looked for a way to pass on to his peers his thoughts, feelings, and fears. Digital technology has been disruptive even in this field. Nowadays, everybody can communicate with whomever they want, wherever they wish, for free and instantly. Thanks to social networks we can reach potentially unlimited audiences. E-commerce, chats, selfies, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Youtube: the contemporary world is made of digital communications and virtual, uninterrupted connections. People surf it from their PCs for 6 hours a day and from their smartphones for 2 hours a day. We are talking about a huge human capital which needs to be regulated, but also a potentially limitless market where to make business by interpreting big data and using the most refined and efficient storytelling techniques. That is because we live in a time when our needs and requirements are stored in the cache memory of our PCs, the only place where we can never lie.