I got to know Michael Brito several years ago when he worked on the social media team at Intel. Since then, we’ve worked together in a variety of projects becoming good friends along the way. I was proud when Michael landed his book deal for Smart Business, Social Business and I was honored when Michael asked me to write the Foreword.
As a consumer, you are blasted with the same request over and over, “Follow Us on Twitter, Like Us on Facebook” As a consumer however it is more than natural to ask why should I or what’s in it for me? These are questions of which a significant number of businesses cannot genuinely answer.
The number one least asked question in social media is also the most important…
Asking “why” in all aspects of business and life in general is unexploited. Day in and day out I help businesses understand the opportunity that lies within new media, not because of Twitter or Facebook. I do so because opportunity is pervasive in the hearts and minds of consumers everywhere. We just have yet to really understand for what reason.
I ask with sincerity, is your business antisocial? Take a moment before you respond. I understand you may have Facebook and Twitter presences. Your business may broadcast on YouTube. Perhaps your executives are blogging. If you’re among the more sophisticated organizations, the team is probably subscribing to elaborate monitoring services to listen more effectively. And, with all of the social objects produced inside the organization, it’s come to the point where a content management system or social media management system is necessary to scale.
If you’re reacting, someone else defines what you’re going to do, rather than defining what people need to do.
Your businesses faces great change. This statement is true about customers, competitors, and everyone else affecting market behavior. The question is, what are you going to do about it?
Customer-centricity or getting closer to customers is often the focus of many executive meetings I attend these days. The question always arises, “how can we use new media to get closer to customers?”
The answer is not, develop a social media strategy to start engaging with customers. The answer is, change. Any organization that focuses on operations, margins, and efficiencies over customer experiences will find itself unfavored by tomorrow’s connected customer. It’s difficult to see the customer or empathize with them if you’re focused on a spreadsheet. It’s impossible to change if you can’t see what it is they value.
In the past, I had the good fortune of working with the Get Satisfaction team to help brands embrace new media to improve customer relationships. During those early years, I learned a great deal about the process and corresponding hurdles that face change agents as organizations evaluate new technology to socialize CRM. I also began what would later become years of immersion in understanding and defining the role leadership plays in changing organizational culture and methodologies to help businesses truly get closer to customers. Along the way, I met Jeff Nolan, at the time, a venture capitalist and later an operational executive. Jeff is now VP of Product Marketing at Get Satisfaction and we recently spent some time together talking about, well, everything. It was a great discussion that ended up as two posts…”Brevity and Depth: Part 1 and Part 2.”
Salesforce, a purveyor of cloud-based solutions for customer relationship management (CRM) & collaboration for enterprise organizations and small businesses announced that it is acquiring social media monitoring platform Radian6 for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock. Radian6 is used by more than half of the FORTUNE 100 and companies like AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak, Molson Coors, Pepsico, and UPS to monitor, analyze and engage in social media conversation.
In part one of Rethinking the Future of Business, we examined the state of social media in business. Once again, we take a look at a recent report published by Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang,”Career Path of the Corporate Social Media Strategist.” As part of a study on social media strategists and the divergent career paths that lie ahead, Owyang reviewed the social framework for socially renowned enterprise businesses as well as corresponding strategies and resources for 2011. The results says more than we may realize at first blush. Most importantly, we’re given a looking glass into the genesis of a next generation business that’s more sociably aware and responsible.
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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