From my new book…The End of Business as Usual
Several years ago, Mollie Sterling shared a picture of a classroom at her alma mater, The Missouri School of Journalism. The picture eventually went viral and in 2008, Apple used it in a press conference announcing a next generation Macbook event.
Over the years, I’ve written extensively about the need to extend opportunities in social media beyond marketing and customer service to set the stage for the social business. I believe that the impact lies beyond the socialization of business; it introduces us to a genre of an adaptive business, an entity that can earn relevance now and over time by listening, engaging, and learning.
Happy New Year!
Twitter officially launched to the public in July 2006. By 2008, the universe of applications developed to enhance the Twitter experience was boundless. While the ecosystem was burgeoning with apps, the ability to track and manage the apps designed for specific purposes was elusive.
Jeremiah Owyang, industry analyst at Altimeter Group, published a report that sent shock waves throughout the global creative industry. For large agencies, it represented a harbinger of change. For specialized groups, the report was a declaration of validation.
In his report, “How Social Media Boutiques are Winning Deals Over Traditional Digital Agencies,” Owyang documents the disruption facing traditional agencies. For those businesses already advanced in social media strategies and needs, budgets are turning to boutique shops as much as 8x over traditional agencies.
Among the many hats I wear, I’m a design and business adviser to several technology startups. However, in certain circumstances, I take a more prominent role to help develop the products and services that I need in my work. Over the years, I’ve developed a working relationship with PeopleBrowsr and serve as the company’s Chief Data Analyst. Together, we’ve issued several reports and will continue to do that and more.
Have some time to spare? More specifically, do you have 12 hours and 50 minutes available?
If so, I’m happy to share some great news…Engage is finally available on Audible.com. Engage was written to help you find the answers…that only you can answer. It places the you at the center of social media’s impact on your business and hopefully inspires you to become the expert you once relied upon for direction and insight. Whether you’re a champion, a leader, or a student, this is your time…
Yes, while it’s a bit dramatic, its design is intentional.
This is a rare moment in history where, if we take “social” media out of the discussion and we stop looking at Twitter and Facebook for just a moment, we can focus on what’s truly important.
Right here, right now, what makes this time so special, is you…
This is about empowerment. This is about not just having a voice or the ability to express it, but to connect people and also their ideas around it.
Listening is only the beginning. Engagement is the beginning of the end of business as usual. Once we hear, truly hear our customers and the people who influence our decisions, effective engagement is inspired by the empathy that develops simply by being human.
We start to see things through the eyes of our consumers.
We feel their pains, frustrations, and also happiness.
We sense what it takes to encourage positive sentiment.
Influence is bliss…
The socialization of media is as transformative as it is empowering. As individuals, we’re tweeting, updating, blogging, commenting, curating, liking and friending our way toward varying levels of stature within our social graphs. With every response and action that results from our engagement, we are slowly introduced to the laws of social physics: for every action there is a reaction – even if that reaction is silence. And, the extent of this resulting activity is measured by levels of influence and other factors such as the size and shape of nicheworks as well as attention aperture and time.
Of all the social networks competing for our online persona and social graph, Twitter is special. The culture and self-governing rules of engagement shaped by the “me” in social media, create a personalized experience that looks and feels less like a “social” network and instead, creates an empowering information exchange.
Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research firm focused on disruptive technology. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has studied and influenced the effects of emerging technology on business, marketing, and culture. Solis is also globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. His new book, What's the Future of Business (WTF), explores the landscape of connected consumerism and how business and customer relationships unfold and flourish in four distinct moments of truth. His previous book, The End of Business as Usual, explores the emergence of Generation-C, a new generation of customers and employees and how businesses must adapt to reach them. Prior to End of Business, Solis released Engage, which is regarded as the industry reference guide for businesses to market, sell and service in the social web.
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