App: Yo. User: Yo App: Yo User: Yo, sup? App: Yo User: Yo, you for real? App: Yo User: Yo, I’m out. A new app that lets you send “yo” to friends is real and its initial $1 million investment is also real. Merriam-Webster defines the word “yo” as an interjection used to grab someone’s attention. Yo certainly has done just that by grabbing everyone’s attention. Yo defines “yo” as “The simplest & most efficient communication tool in the world….
10 Quotes on The Future of Business
10 quotes by Brian Solis on the Future of Business from Prezly Every now and then, I receive a nice surprise that gives me pause. Today is one such moment. I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted to share it with you. The team over at Prezly put together a wonderful Slideshare that features some key quotes from my last three books Engage, The End of Business as Usual and What’s the Future of Business (WTF). I could only…
Connected Customers are Invisible to Those Who Value Demographics
Why Generation-C requires empathy and personalization not marketing… In 2012, I spoke at a conference in Amsterdam focused on big data and intelligence to help businesses keep pace with the new generation of connected customers. I remember watching an informative and entertaining presentation by Dr. Peter Gentsch, founder of the Business Intelligence Group (B.I.G.) in Berlin. While this was two-years ago, a lifetime in today’s new media world, I feel his example is still as relevant today as it was…
Improving Customer Targeting and Personalization Through Social Identity
Guest post by Andrew Jones (@andrewjns), analyst at Altimeter Group covering Social Media and Customer Experience Modern marketing is about more than just informing prospects and customers about products, but building relationships with them. The contextual insight available in social media offers an opportunity to better know and engage audiences with compelling, personalized content and experiences across channels. The following is a condensed excerpt from a forthcoming report. The Fragmented Customer Journey The customer journey has become incredibly fragmented, moving…
Q&A: The 7 Success Factors of Social Business Strategy
Last year, my Altimeter Group colleague Charlene Li and I published a series of research reports on the state and evolution of social business. In our research, we discovered that the most advanced businesses shared seven success factors in developing, launching, and measuring social business strategies. Our friends at Jossey-Bass asked us to turn it into an ebook and that we did! The Seven Success Factors of Social Business Strategy During the launch, we were interviewed by the Amazon team…
Facebook Evolves from Social Network to Social Ecosystem
Every so often, Facebook hosts its f8, a conference in San Francisco aimed at developers, media, and partners. This year, in front of an audience of 2,500+, Facebook introduced its vision for the next year and beyond. With Mark Zuckerberg kicking things off, Facebook introduced a dozen or so new products organized into three including Facebook’s update to Login, which gives people more control over the information they share with apps, Anonymous login, which offers a way for people to…
The Quality Prism: The secret to co-creating brands through social media
Guest post by Greg Narain (@gregarious) co-founder of Chute, a company that helps brands discover or collect relevant photos from social networks and incorporate the visuals into their websites and apps Brands finds themselves at a challenging crossroads in their evolution. For decades, companies have utilized a command and control model as it pertains to their brands. Billions of dollars have been spent to carefully craft specific messages and deliver them via campaigns. However, as consumers continue to create and…
Empowering Employees with Social Media Improves Customer Relationships and Grows Revenue
Employee empowerment is about creating brand advocates to scale customer relationships and effectively compete in new digital markets. Organizations can no longer rely on inbound and outbound sales reps, people willing to jump through hoops and obstacles via call centers, or traditional marketing to boost awareness and demand. Customers demand engagement, in real time, and that takes human beings, training, and support. In January 2014, the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the country’s oldest remaining metropolitan newspapers, opened a technology…
Business Transformation: Why General Motors is Investing in Customer Experience
As editorial director and conference producer of The Pivot Conference, I have the privilege to meet with the people who are bringing about real change inside organizations. During the 2013 conference, I had the chance to interview Dr. Rebecca Harris (@RebeccaHarrisDr), who leads the Social Media Center of Expertise at General Motors in Detroit. Her role is all about transformation and integration as she works across brands and around the world on social strategy, social tools, social processes, points-of-view on…
Audience as the New Currency: YouTube and Its Impact on Hollywood and Social Media
Guest post by Brendan Gahan (@BrendanGahan), a YouTube marketing expert. Gahan was Forbes 30 under 30 for Marketing & Advertising and has helped Fortune 500 brands with their YouTube and social media marketing. Let’s face it: YouTube has become big business. One billion unique monthly users? Yes. Six billion hours of video watched each month? Yes. Over 100 hours worth of video uploaded each minute. Yes. All, yes. The dominant player in the online video space continues to blanket the…
