The Future: How Shared Experiences Are Reshaping Business
Are you wondering where the future of business is heading?
To learn about where the business
world is headed and what you need to know, I interview Brian Solis for this
episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Brian Solis, digital analyst at the Altimeter Group and author of multiple
books, including Engage and The End of Business as
Usual. His latest book is What’s the Future of Business?
Brian shares the ideas behind his new book and how the changing social
landscape is impacting business.You’ll learn about the “four moments of truth” and what steps as a marketer you need to take to prepare for the coming changes.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
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Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:
The Future of Business
What prompted you to write a book called What’s the Future of Business?
The last book Brian wrote was
called The End of Business as
Usual and when he thought about what was next in terms of the future of
business, he realized that the natural progression would be a book that actually
tells us what the future is and what we need to do about it.
Business can no longer operate as it had been because things are different
now.
The subtitle of the book is
“Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences.” Customers have become
increasingly connected and informed, no longer relying as much on traditional
sources such as Google or websites. Now when they begin a
discovery process or look to make an informed decision, they are using networks,
friends and apps for help or direction.
It’s the shared experiences that define what they do next. You’ll find out
why these moments are critical to businesses.The book explores what these four moments of truth are, what they look like and how businesses need to activate them.
Below in chronological order are the four moments of truth.
- Zero moment of truth
- First moment of truth
- Second moment of truth
- Ultimate moment of truth
As a business, you have to look at the people who are sharing their experiences about your business, product or service and why you should intentionally design those experiences.
You’ll hear how Procter
and Gamble created a division around the first moment of truth and why your
business would benefit from having that type of person or group in each division
that handles each moment of truth.
Listen to the show to hear what happens when customer experiences go into
blog posts, tweets, status updates, YouTube videos and become the collective
consciousness. How the social landscape has made an impact on businesses
Brian explains how advertisers and
marketers have known about these moments of truth for a long time. The first and
second moment of truth especially. People are thinking this way because Google
made a tremendous push around the zero moment of truth. There is a lot of journey-mapping going on right
now.
When it comes to writing, Brian normally takes an academic approach, but this
time he didn’t. He made the book an experience in itself, so it could be a proof
point to show the reader what he is talking about.
Brian worked with the guys at Mekanism to reimagine what a book experience
could be. It’s a visually rich book. It simplifies a complex subject to the
point where you know what to do.
What's the Future of Business?
Brian explains how he carried out
research with Charlene Li at
Altimeter Group, where they looked at social
media strategies disconnected from real-world business objectives. You’ll find
out why it’s a problem, although some businesses are maturing over time to
better align social with business objectives.
The idea behind the book was to try to introduce the idea that if you take a
step back and realize that conversations are going to happen with or without
you, then you could ultimately decide what people think, experience and share.
You can start to get in front of these conversations.
Brian shares how these intentions
are behind the success of companies such as Virgin America and Nordstrom.
Virgin America is very intentional when it comes to
each moment of truth.
Some businesses have started to
introduce the Instagram moment. Brian gives examples of two businesses that
are using Instagram very well.
As a business, you need to create these moments and not just rely on the
existing design or what the experience is today. You have to create
something that people want to be a part of. Over time, Brian believes
it’s going to affect everything.
You’ll hear Brian share how Kodak moments have become Instagram or Facebook moments and why Disney is one of the best
examples in terms of creating experiences behind the scenes.
In a social and connected world, what you see and do and what you tell people
becomes the very thing that influences people who are looking for
information.Listen to the show to find out if these experiences are intentional for people to share on social media.
What is Generation C and why are they important?
Brian has studied the different
generations, from Gen X to Matures and Boomers,
to Millennials and Gen Z. The one thing that he
has noticed, especially when you get to Gen Y and Gen Z, is the start of the
digital first mentality. When we are making decisions, we have a lot of
life experiences that bring us from analog to digital.
You’ll hear how these different generations are digital first and how the
older generation is also living the digital lifestyle.
Data shows that behaviors start to
look similar in the decision-making process. Brian believes that we have to
look at the people who live this digital lifestyle. If people
in their 20s, 30s and 40s are exhibiting the same behavior when it comes to
making a decision about what to buy, then you can’t segment your marketing by
generation. You have to segment it by behavior. It becomes the
idea of psychographics, instead of demographics.
People who live this connected
lifestyle become one bigger group than just the age group. They become a group
affiliated by common interests and behavior. That’s Gen C, where the “C” stands
for “connected.”
Generation C is the connected generation. Image source:
iStockphoto
Listen to the show to discover how as a marketer you can target Generation C and why journey-mapping is a proven process.
Actionable steps businesses should start taking now to prepare for the coming changes
Brian talks about how new data and reports show what customers will expect of businesses when it comes to technology.
You’ll discover what your social media team needs to be doing when it comes to experiences that people are sharing about you and your competitors. You might find what they are actually sharing and doing is not at all what’s driving your strategy today.
The greatest gift you get is the idea of insight and empathy. You start to feel what people are feeling.
Listen to the show to find out why the title of Brian’s book, What’s the Future of Business?, is actually the answer, not the question.
This Week’s Social Media Question
Daniel Glickman from PowToon asked, “We have a Facebook account which is active and growing
fast but has a few spam issues. Every now and then somebody posts something on
our Facebook page that is inappropriate. We don’t want to limit our users, but
we want to know if there is a way to deal with this to prevent it from
happening, or do we have to manually delete them as we do now?”
PowToon on Facebook.
You need to go to your Facebook Page, and under the Edit Page
drop-down menu, click on the Activity Log. This shows you
in reverse chronological order all of the comments that have been put on your
wall. You’ll probably find some spam, even in some places you didn’t
realize.
The best thing to do when you find spam—rather than simply delete it—is
to hover your mouse over the pencil icon on the right and you’ll see options to
Hide from Page, Delete and Report/Mark as Spam.
Choose which option to use when dealing with
spam.
When other people do this, it will ultimately result in limiting that person’s ability to post on your and other people’s Pages.
In addition to this, you should ban this person from your Page. When you opt to ban someone, that person with that user ID will never be able to comment on your Page again.
These are the two options available once you have
chosen to mark as spam.
Call
in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include
them in a future show.
Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for
you.Other Show Mentions
Social Media Marketing World is Social Media
Examiner’s latest mega-conference—taking place at the waterfront San Diego
Marriott Marquis & Marina in San Diego, California on April 7-9, 2013.
As you’d expect, Social Media
Examiner recruited the biggest and best names in the world of social media
marketing for this conference. Only the best for you! Be sure to check it out.
We are only 1 week away from this event and I can’t wait to meet many of you
listeners in person.Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:
- Connect with Brian Solis on his website.
- Check out Brian’s books: What’s the Future of Business?, Engage and The End of Business as Usual.
- Learn more about the zero moment of truth.
- Take a look at Procter and Gamble, that created a division around the first moment of truth.
- Read more about journey-mapping in Brian’s article.
- Head over to Mekanism, a creative agency that Brian worked with on his new book.
- Check out Brian Solis’ and Charlene Li’s research report: “The Evolution of Social Business: Six Stages of Social Business Transformation.”
- Take a look at Virgin America and Nordstrom.
- Check out Castello di Amarosa and AT&T Park (home of the San Francisco Giants) that provide customer experiences with Instagram.
- Learn more about Gen C, Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z.
- Read about psychographics and demographics.
- Head over to PowToon.
- Take a look at what Facebook’s Activity Log can offer.
- Learn more about Social Media Marketing World.
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Image from iStockPhoto.
Michael Stelzner is the founder
and CEO of Social Media Examiner, and author of the books Launch and Writing
White Papers. He's also the host of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
Other posts by Michael Stelzner »
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