Brian Solis's Blog, page 114

Time to Grow Up! Social businesses mature, yet many still lack a strategic foundation [infographic]

This year has been particularly busy yet productive for Charlene Li and me having published two reports that detail the six stages of social business evolution and the true state of social business in 2013, an ebook on how successful social businesses are evolving, and an image-rich slide deck complete with all the graphs and charts you need to benchmark where you are compared to other social businesses.

Now Charlene and I are proud to introduce our latest infographic that summarizes high level findings across all of our work in 2013.

The number one thing we learned this year is that no matter how much we celebrate the case studies and best practices of the most social brands, they are far from perfect. You can replicate campaigns but you can’t replicate how the efforts of others cultivate ideal experiences and relationships with your customers…in a meaningful way.

This infographic is designed to tell a story. But it is how you interpret or use the data in this infographic that helps you tell your story your way. You’re either paving the way for the future of your business, you’re struggling to make the case to do what you know is right, or you’re not sure where to begin or how to get buy-in. As much as we talk about social business and social media, the truth is that change is an individual story. While there are patterns for change, transformation always comes down to a change agent and the team she or he assembles to pave the way. The question is, what role do you want to play in all of this?

The future is unwritten…and, it’s yours to write.

Highlights from the State of Social Business Infographic

Companies are organizing and formalizing social media strategies into social business strategies…

78% of companies of a dedicated social media team. This is up from 67% two years ago.

Social media teams have grown from 11 people in 2010 to almost 16 in 2013.

Social business strategies are spreading across the enterprise…

According to our research, there are 13 different departments across the enterprise with at least one person dedicated to social media.

The majority of resources are allocated to marketing at 73%, but as you can see, social media covers almost every major function. Now, whether or not social media is organized and integrated, well, we know that it’s not really.

Corporate communications = 66%

Customer support = 40%

Digital = 37%

Social media = 35%

HR = 29%

Product/R&D = 16%

Advertising = 16%

Customer/User experience = 15%

IT = 14%

Legal = 9%

Social media headcount across the enterprise has more than doubled at the largest companies from 20 in 2010 to 49 in 2012.

Companies are trying social business to positive business outcomes…

About 50% of companies say social business has improved marketing optimization, customer experience and brand health.

Nearly one in four have actually seen an increase in revenue.

Companies though have a long way to go…

Many social business programs lack a strong foundation.

Only 17% of companies identify their social strategy as mature.

Only 52% of companies say that executives are aligned with the overall social strategy.

Only 26% of companies approach social media holistically (operating against a cross-enterprise level strategy.)

To succeed, build a foundation for social business…

1) Benchmark you program with Altimeter’s Social Business reports (see below…underneath the infographic).

2) Document existing challenges and opportunities to address in 2014 and 2015 (we don’t move as fast as we’d like).

3) Align all social business efforts with business objectives and priorities.

[Infographic] The State of Social Business: Social Media Matures, Yet Many Companies Still Lack a Strategic Foundation
Additional Altimeter Group Resources
The Evolution of Social Business: Six Stages of Social Media Transformation

In Depth Report

The State of Social Business 2013

Report

The Maturing of Social Media into Social Business

Slides with charts and graph

The Seven Success Factors of Social Business Strategy

ebook

Connect with me: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Google+ |Youtube | Instagram

Demand Horizon: A Revolutionary Approach to Creating Great Products

Gerry Campbell is a serial entrepreneur, investor and adviser (bio). He’s also a good friend. Gerry has just published a new book, Demand Horizon: A Revolutionary Approach to Creating Great Products. The book introduces a new mental model for understanding and adapting to the demand-driven economy. It’s a framework for making sense of the new rules in product creation, offering both strategic understanding and practical actions for adapting to the new rules of business. Demand Horizon shines a light on the techniques and approaches that have enabled him to create patented products that are used by every person on earth who uses a search engine, social networking site or smartphone.

As he was finalizing the book, Gerry asked me to write the foreword. As a friend, the answer was a given. However, after reading it, I couldn’t wait to be part of the Demand Horizon! Gerry was gracious enough to allow me to share the foreword with you here…unabridged.

Enjoy…

Innovate or Die!

Demand Horizon gets at the heart of the changes that are transforming business today. Customers are in control, now and forever into the future. The model presented in this book provides a roadmap for building products and creating businesses that are aligned with the new rules of marketing.

In 1999, Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger published the The Cluetrain Manifesto. The book represented a set of 95 theses that translated into a call to action for businesses of all shapes and sizes to change with the rise of the Internet. The authors’ hypothesized that the Internet ushered in a social economy that would bring about the end of business as usual.

Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. Today’s markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny, and often shocking. Companies that aren’t listening to these exchanges are missing a dire warning. Companies that aren’t engaging in them are missing an unprecedented opportunity.

Now at over a decade old, their message rings louder and truer today. With the pervasiveness of today’s social and mobile media, customers are not only more connected, they’re more informed. As a result, your customers are empowered and they’re increasingly discerning, demanding, and impatient. These connected customers expect companies to listen. They want to be engaged. And, experiences prevail above products and services.

This isn’t just the end of business as usual; this is an era when consumers insist on taking business personally.

Capturing the Attention of Generation-C (Connected)

See, connected customers share one thing in common…they live a digital lifestyle. They’re always on, navigating through life and work with their heads pointed downward and their faces illuminated by the glow of their mobile screens. This generation is narcissistic. We live in what I call an egosystem. People literally have friends, family, businesses, organizations revolving around them in social networks. Don’t fight…accept it. To them, things are simply more efficient this way. News no longer breaks, it Tweets. Now, relevant information finds you faster than ever before. Products and services must too adapt.

The future of customer engagement requires a more thoughtful and localized approach. Connected customers aren’t complacent, fickle or unfaithful, they’re focused on what’s important to them. As they’re always connected to their streams, and you are too for that matter, then become part of their stream. Become part of their network.  What’s important to understand is that connected customers rely on the experiences and input of their peers to make decisions. And, those businesses that deliver great experiences, those that share similar values, earn loyalty that is unrivaled by customers of the past. This isn’t about networking. This is about building a community where association is the meeting of aspiration, orientation, and validation. A true community though is much more than belonging to something, it’s about doing something together that makes belonging matter.

Invent, Adapt, or Get Out of the Way

Forcing customers through outdated sales funnels isn’t going to improve relationships or experiences. Unleashing the wrath of aging service models and leaving customers to fend for themselves through diabolical call center jungles is in hindsight ridiculous.

Instead, we will explore new horizons to build the foundations of tomorrow…today.

To compete today, right now, in both real-time and at the right time, takes competing for the future. The way people make decisions, how we support them, how we meet expectations, how we design product and services that meet unmet needs, how we reduce friction, is solved for by embracing innovation, objectivity and always considering possibilities and opportunities.

As always, actions speak louder than words. New frameworks are needed. New processes are needed. But more importantly, a new vision and overarching philosophy is essential to lead us away from a culture of management and mediocrity to a culture of leadership and innovation. For if we’re not competing for the future, we are only competing for the moment, and thus irrelevance.

This is the new “usual” and it continues to change everyday. What of that comfort zone you’re sitting in right now? Prepare to move and keep moving until you seek comfort in a zone that is constantly evolving.

The bottom line is that things aren’t going back to the way they were and that’s a good thing.

How will you earn relevance today and tomorrow to compete for the future today and every day?

Innovation begins with the desire to do something that means something. And all effort starts with a drive to understand the needs of the customer. A business that is rooted in the customer and enlivened by vision, passion and resilience can participate in this time of unprecedented opportunity. Let’s get to work.

#innovateordie

The Rise and Fall of Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp and How to Survive Digital Darwinism

When I learned that my last book The End of Business as Usual was selected for distribution in Japan, I felt that something more than mere translation was needed to help its message resonate with those who read it. In fact, I paused development of my latest book What’s the Future of Business to revisit the original manuscript.

After six months of work, much of the U.S. book was revised to more closely address the current climate of the Japanese economy. Several new sections were also written to make the story personal and timely.

Because the book is no longer business as usual, at least not in its original incarnation, we redesigned the cover and christened it with a new title…エフェクト = EFFECT.

I wanted to share the first chapter with you here as they story is not unlike what every business, or each one of us for that matter, will face now and over time. There are lessons here for everyone. Why? It’s Digital Darwinism out there and if we don’t adapt to the evolution of technology and society, we will find ourselves in a fight for survival rather than prosperity. Make this personal…

#AdaptorDie

Heritage, Tradition, Honor: Business as Usual is a Competitive Disadvantage

When writing this book, I studied the demise of many U.S. businesses that were once the giants of their industry. Brands such as Kodak, Hostess, Pontiac, Mervyns, among many many others that were at the top of their game but no longer around to celebrate past success. Each of these once prestigious brands not only share an unfortunate fate, they also fell victim to a malignant form of irrelevance. Whether due to dated or cannibalistic management practices or philosophies, the failure to innovate, management lethargy, or the inability to anticipate the needs and expectations of consumers, an increasing number of the world’s biggest brands are inevitably vanishing from the faith of the earth.

As I was updating this book for the Japanese market, I also studied the rise and fall of many of Japan’s most beloved electronics brands. The more I researched the more humbled I became. Sony, Panasonic, Sharp appeared to be suffering the same slow plummet of US electronics brands such as Zenith and RCA along with the long list of global dinosaur brands that are now extinct.

What happened? Or, better asked, why is this happening over and over again?

The answer is simple but complex in nature.

This is the end of business as usual and everything is changing as a result.

To understand what happened to some of Japan’s most illustrious brands is helpful. After all, the gift of perspective is precious especially when hindsight is keen and omniscient. While writing this, I found myself immersed in articles, essays, reports, and lectures all of which offered evidence and opinions into the state of the Japanese economy. I grew increasingly vexed as the amount of anecdotes and reasons far outnumbered viable answers or advice for current and emerging businesses.

In the time it takes you to read this book, you will learn that it takes more than textbook management to be successful. It takes leadership and an acute understanding of how today’s consumer is evolving. Doing so provides an informed and sound foundation of which to build a new business infrastructure and the vision and philosophy to support it.

Nippon: A sun that sets also rises

Japan is a recognized epicenter of innovation, fashion, and popular trends. But one of the most fascinating aspects of Japanese culture to me is the harmony it maintains between colorful, centuries-old traditions and an ever-evolving modern society. All along, the one thing that Japan, and any other country for that matter, faces, is that change is as inevitable as it is constant. This is where the story begins. The end of business as usual is upon us and we’re presented with a considerable choice. Either adapt or die. The rewards for doing so and equally the consequences for not adapting are great. It’s a lesson that many storied brands, including those in Japan are learning the hard way.

There was a time when velocity and technology was on the side of many Japanese businesses.

Automotive reliability and value.

Personal audio.

Consumer electronics.

Computing.

Photography.

Anime.

Japan’s influence around the world was profound. It still is in many ways. The title of this book is not intended to be overly dramatic. It is an honest sign of the times. This is indeed the end of business as usual.

What it took to be successful before is now different. The momentum that Japan produced over the last half century across many industries is struggling to find relevance in an ever-shifting economy. Certainly financial crises and natural disasters do not help. The truth is though that traditional business models and business philosophies may also represent fiscal and cultural obstructions to market evolution. This has to change.

To better understand the end of business as usual, one does not need to look much further than the Japanese consumer electronics industry.

Sony’s Walkman gave birth to a personal audio revolution that many would arguably set the stage for Apple’s success today.

The Sony PlayStation and Nintendo platforms transformed gaming into a popular personal past time.

Sony’s Vaio computers introduced style and elegance into the beige world of PCs

Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi and Sharp reshaped how and where the world watched television.

These Japanese companies changed how the world behaves. Most, if not all of these once invincible brands, are now paddling to stay afloat in turbulent waters. While paddling is a survival technique, fatigue eventually sets in if survival fails to shift into momentum. Otherwise you fight to stay afloat rather than concentrate precious energy on treading water.

In each of the above examples, one company has been at the forefront of countless trends for several decades. And to this day, Sony still makes some of the most beautiful, high quality products that are designed to help you “make.believe.” But after all of these years leading the consumer electronics industry, Sony now finds itself in the unenviable position of competing for a sliver of market share against juggernauts Apple and Samsung. The once prestigious brand is also struggling to save face within a country that once cherished it as a prized possession.

Sony’s not alone. Sharp, Panasonic and the like are learning the cost of shortsightedness and complacency. These household brands once owned the consumer’s heart, mind, and disposable income. They were top of mind and therefore controlled the consumer share of wallet. Now they find the ability to develop or sell products that people feel they need to have elusive. Instead they compete for table stakes while Apple and Samsung compete for the adoration of a fervent market and the windfall of profits that come along with it.

Siyonara Good Times: What went wrong?

Analysts believe that these businesses grew too big with little focus on agility, instead trading vision and creativity for process and hierarchy. That’s part of it sure. The other part is the crux in the future of business…the ability to introduce constant and rapid innovation into the product roadmap or shift from a product strategy to create completely new ecosystems a la Apple.

Compare a Sony store to that of an Apple store. Why would you walk in to either one and which of the stores do you think you will leave with new products in hand? Apple and companies like it opened the door to disruption because they realized that the era of products was dying and the future would unfold through integrated customer experiences across a complete product ecosystem.

In an Apple ecosystem, a MacBook can sync with an iPad, which can sync with iTunes, which can also sync with iPhones, iPods and Apple TVs. Everything is designed to be an integrated experience. And even though Apple is not in the traditional TV business, at least not yet, Apple is experimenting with plugging TVs into the Apple cloud via AppleTV to create a seamless and connected digital lifestyle where technology is transparent and empowering. Consumers are then the conduits to a complete experience, regardless of application or context, as enabled by the brand and the expert design and fusion of experience, hardware and software.

How important are experiences?

In December 2012 a reporter for American Public Media’s Marketplace asked a New York based consumer why he had just purchased a Panasonic television. His answer was as telling as it was honest, “Because Apple didn’t make one.”

Designing stand-alone devices such as TVs, phones, computers, and even cameras represent a marginalized strategy. This narrow view already seems as antiquated and irrelevant as Sony’s Beta-max, MiniDiscs, and Memory Sticks in today’s world.

The end of business as usual takes more than vision and innovation to survive digital Darwinism however. It requires a tectonic shift from product or industry focus to that of long-term consumer experiences. Businesses that don’t are forever caught in a perpetual cycle of competing for price and performance. It is in fact one of the reasons that Apple can command a handsome premium. The company delivers experiences that contribute to an overall lifestyle and ultimately style and self-expression. Think about the business model it takes to do so however. You can’t invent or invest in new experiences if your business is fixated on roadmaps and defending aging business models.

An era of business usual is needed

Conjecture is healthy. It’s a natural form of discovery. This entire book however is not based on theory. “Times they are a changin’” as American folk singer Bob Dylan once sang. Nothing is truer in terms of evidence than numbers.

In the company’s financial year that ended in March 2012, Sony projected a record net loss of Y455 billion—the equivalent of $5.7 billion. According to The New York Times, it was Sony’s worst loss ever. This news was just the latest in what had become ritual. The Washington Post also reported that Sony hasn’t made a profit in four years .

Sony isn’t the only company that’s bleeding however. Panasonic’s cuts were also deep. The company bled red in three of the past four years. Bloomberg estimated that along with Sharp, the companies’ combined market value was down to $32 billion. The significance of that number is perhaps its insignificance in the greater array of brand worth. The duo adds up to only one-fifth the value of Samsung and one-twentieth the value of Apple.

The Washington Post continued its exhumation of the true state of Japanese consumer electronics to bring home the fact that business as usual was no longer enough. Sharp, which celebrated its centennial recently, is believed to have been hit hardest. The company that once dominated the liquid-crystal-display TV market promised “to make products that others want to imitate.” In the last five years though, its LCD sales have plunged 39 percent. As a result, Standard & Poor axed Sharp’s credit rating to junk status.

In 2012 Panasonic expected to lose $10 billion. It will only get worse until things get better.

Sony: A Sun that Rises Also Sets

Perhaps part of the challenge lies in the DNA of the organization. Hierarchies, efficiencies, silos, each contribute to a culture of management and process over that of innovation. Management is indeed important. But there is an opportunity cost however and its price is measured by ability or inefficacy to compete for the future.

In Sony’s case, Howard Stringer, a Western executive, was appointed to run the company in 2005. This appointment was in of itself a shock to Tokyo’s conventional corporate convictions. In an interview with Kotaku, Yozo Hasegawa, author of Rediscovering Japanese Business Leadership revealed that one of Stringer’s priorities was to “destroy the silo.” What was once a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem was transformed into a vertical hierarchy, a style referred to as tatewari. Stringer found that various divisions and regional offices were not cooperating or communicating with each other, which is never good. Corporate fiefdoms create mini hierarchies that are difficult to dismantle or topple.

But, as Mr. Hasegawa notes in his interview with Kotaku, Stringer could not save Sony, “…after all, he could not stop the red figures of the electronics. He tried to fix things but he didn’t live up to expectations.”

Sony’s tatewari was a memento of the leadership legacy of Mr. Nobuyuki Idei. His reign as Sony’s CEO between1999 to 2005 is considered by some to be the undoing of Sony’s Golden Age under Mr. Akio Morita. One must believe his intentions were sound.

Idei employed a philosophy that traditionally promotes profitability and introduces the opportunity for “new blood.” By creating a vertical operation, Idei set out to streamline the company and restructure the organization. His goal was to encourage early retirement among veteran employees and open the door to innovation and creativity among newcomers. Instead, Idei’s strategy backfired creating a vacuum of the very ideologies and talents that helped make Sony what it once was.

A company veteran who works as a middle manager recalled the experience with Kotaku, “The middle-aged engineers and technicians that left were the same ones that brought Sony to greatness. They left behind a younger generation that was insecure, afraid of failure, and only willing to work with technology already in place—not build from the ground up.”

Perhaps the greatest impact was on the very fabric that weaved together the company’s culture and ultimately instilled confidence and imagination among employees and executives alike.

Sony’s Golden Age is but a distant memory now. Mr. Kazuo Hirai, the current president of Sony Corporation faces a great summons—to return Sony to profitability and prominence. No small undertaking of course, but the questions that confront Hirai are also a symbol of imperfection in the vision and leadership for Sony moving forward…

• What is Sony?

• What does Sony represent to Japanese consumers and consumers around the world?

• Why would people choose to walk into a Sony store over an Apple store?

• If Sony were to return to glory, what would its new Golden Age resemble?

It takes vision and leadership to in fact lead Sony or any business to success and ultimately eminence. For without direction, employees cannot enlist in any journey nor march in unison toward a collective goal or outcome.

Innovation takes time. And to foster innovation and imagination takes a culture of inspiration and empowerment. During Mr. Morita’s incumbency, Sony engineers were encouraged to experiment, to focus on developing technology and products that markets didn’t realize they yet needed. Sounds familiar yes? It was certainly the gift Apple’s Mr. Steve Jobs possessed.

Under the spell of Morita’s charisma, Sony’s corporate culture was reported as “free and open-minded.”

Perhaps there’s something to the end of business as usual that in Mr. Morita’s experience was not “usual” at all.

The delicate balance between management and leadership

Mr. Yasunori Tateishi is a recognized authority on the history of Sony, which helped to earn him the nickname “Mr. Sony.” His numerous books include such titles as Sony: The Inside Story and his latest book, recognized as a fitting and prophetic eulogy, Sayonara, Our Sony. In the latter book, Tateishi makes the argument that with Idei and Stringer focusing on “net business” and “management streamlining,” Sony’s back-to-back leaders effectively crippled the technology giant.

If Mr. Morita’s Sony was a luminous example of leadership then the eras of Idei and Stringer were representations of managing business as usual. To lead a new era of business requires just that…leadership. It’s the difference between advancing and meandering.

American Public Media’s Marketplace painfully explored the beleaguered assessment through a telling and direct headline, “Japanese electronic brands lose luster.”

Nestled within the commentary of the story was an emblematic quote by Michael Woodford who was at one point CEO at Olympus. Woodford’s sentiment alludes to my point about leadership versus management styles. “Japan is sleepwalking to oblivion,” he told reporter Dan Bobkoff. His point was that the country’s top electronics brands were producing few new ideas. Woodford blames aging management for not promote creativity or imagination. Woodford continued, “You need people to be a bit crazy, a bit wacky. But the nail which sticks up in Japan, they say, will get nailed down.”

In an era of digital Darwinism, it is not the strongest that will survive, it is those who see what others can’t and do what others will not. It is not about survival of the fittest, it is about survival of the fitting. Success is earned. As Richard Katz, editor of the Oriental Economist Report told Bobkoff, “Japan does not have that natural selection process as part of its business culture.”

What’s clear is that Japan’s now two-decade struggle comes down to one thing, change. To do so takes vision of course but also the ability for leadership to introduce a culture and supporting (read profitable) foundation to adapt, downsize and innovate.

In the quest for relevance, we cannot ignore Nintendo. Nintendo maintains a lead of nearly 30 million over its console competitors with the DS family doubling the sales of any other modern platform.

What’s the secret to success?

In Nintendo’s case, it’s a relentless quest for success. In an interview with IGN, Nintendo president and CEO Mr. Satori Iwata shared his insights, “I always and strictly tell Nintendo employees never to use the term ‘success’ to describe our own performance.” Iwata continued, “If we call a result of any of our efforts a ‘success’… we might apply it as the standard for success for future projects as well, and we could wind up not trying to do better than that or not making something which is very different in nature.”

Nintendo employs a “business unusual” philosophy to endlessly compete for the future.

That’s the spark of leadership…it’s in the DNA of the company. And, that’s why it takes leadership. It takes a top down approach to inspire bottom-up transformation.

For every Nintendo, or even Nikon or Canon, there are many storied brands fighting for survival.

Nowadays it’s no longer good enough to develop amazing products. That’s just the beginning. At the same time, it’s also no longer enough to introduce amazing products into a sustainable management culture. Innovation moves too fast. Trends shift at blinding speeds. Business culture, traditions, politics create layer upon layer of complications that in the end contribute to irrelevance and ultimately digital Darwinism.

The very nature of how businesses not only compete for customers and profitability but also how they compete for relevance has radically altered. Customers are evolving and becoming more sophisticated, informed and discerning. How they make decisions has evolved. The way they’re influenced and how they influence is diversified. That’s what this book is about.

There isn’t a recipe for success. This isn’t a race to find the next “business as usual.” This is a journey with no end stitched together by milestones that steer you toward relevance. To compete for the future is perpetual.

It’s time to rewire the way you lead and work to succeed in the new customer revolution.

—

I would very much like to thank Hide Hashizume and Eiko Hashizume for all of their work and support over the last year on the book and this event. Mr. Natsuno, a board member of Nico Video and professor at Keio University contributed a special message at the beginning of the book. Thank you Mr. Natsuno. Also, thank you to Mr. Kanayama for his work in translating the book. It’s more than exciting to finally have completed エフェクト and to have the privilege of bringing it to Japan personally.

ありがとう

Arigatō

#EFFECT (Available on Amazon)

Click here for pictures from the official launch of EFFECT in Tokyo.

Image of Tokyo’s digital billboards credit: Thomas La Mela / Shutterstock

Social Business is not Dead: New charts and data reveal the real evolution of social businesses

In recent times, I’ve noticed a rise in discussions around the “death of social business” and also an increase in alternative “fill in the blank but don’t use the word social” businesses. Some of those discussions have been hosted here recently. There’s strong merit to the discussions of course, especially those I’ve hosted (be sure to read the comments). But as an analyst tracking the evolution of social businesses and equally the cause and effect of digital transformation overall, I’m learning that the most advanced organizations see social not as a technology movement but instead one of culture and philosophy. Openness, collaboration, transparency, communication…these aren’t buzz words. Among those leading change, these words represent a way of business and it all starts with vision and the ability to see how relationships and experiences with customers and employees can improve or accomplish new and greater goals.

Along the way, I’ve also learned that pushing for social adoption because of technology misses the point of change. The true catalyst isn’t whatever the latest trend in social media is this week. That’s reactive and almost impossible to leapfrog. The truth is that change is fueled by the affect that social media, mobile, and other forms of disruptive technologies have on customer behavior. Whether it’s B2B, B2C, B2B2C, or whatever model you prefer, as long as we’re talking about connected human beings, you can bet that social and digital in general are influencing discovery, decision-making, and impressions in every moment of truth.

The evolution of social business as we know it today traces back to The Cluetrain Manifesto in the late 1990s, where its authors predicted that markets would become conversations. Here we are at the cusp of 2014, and businesses, and the strategists who lead social efforts, continue to struggle with sparking executive understanding, adoption, and leadership. The real story is about what’s happening beneath all that we see or think we see.

So what’s obstructing the evolution of social business?

Part of the problem is that social media and how it differs from traditional channels remains largely misconstrued. As a result, new opportunities, and the strategies, systems, and processes that support them, are either nascent or overlooked.

A social business is more than an organization that invests in a positive global footprint to overcome the world’s biggest problems, such as inequality and poverty. The term has developed to now also represent companies that are more open, transparent, and participatory in conversations and activity that defines markets. But the challenge is that social media strategists may actually be hampering its potential by not helping executives see the bigger picture beyond the technology.

Last month, Charlene Li and I published our latest Altimeter Group report, “The State of Social Business 2013.” In our research, we were surprised that businesses were still unsure of the role social media played enterprise-wide, beyond marketing and communications. Many, we found, were limited in scope and not universal in engagement with customers, employees, suppliers, partners, community, et al. Specifically, we learned that…

- Only half (52%) of companies say that their executives are informed, engaged, and aligned with the enterprise social strategy

- A mere 26% of organizations self-describe as being “holistic” in their social media approach, where business functions operate against an enterprise-level vision and strategy

- Just 17% of organizations self-described as being truly “strategic” in the execution of their social strategies

This month, Charlene and I are releasing the data charts from our latest report, plus additional material, to help strategists learn how to amplify or accelerate their social business strategy. The charts are available as stand-alone images on Flickr or as a complete deck via Slideshare. As always, this information is made available freely as part of Altimeter’s open research program. Please feel free to use the images or slides at work, in posts, on stage, or whichever way that helps you make a point or case.

Along with highlighting major issues (and opportunities) through this survey data, the presentation includes perspectives and inspirational quotes from executives and strategists at Sephora, Adobe, ARAMARK, Ford, Fidelity, Royal Dutch Shell, Wells Fargo among others.

We hope that you’ll find the slides in this presentation useful as resource and background material, as you continue to make your business case for social business.

[Slides] The State of Social Business 2013: The Maturing of Social Media into Social Business from Altimeter Group Network on SlideShare
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Today is #GivingTueaday – Please gift our stylish pocket squares and support cancer research

Wolf & Wylan – History of the Pocket Square – PART 5 from Jesse Redniss on Vimeo.

Joint post by Jesse Redniss and Brian Solis

Today is #GivingTuesday and we (Wolf & Wylan) have been officially selected by Crowd Funding platform Indiegogo as a “#GivingTuesday” Partner. This is great news as it means Indiegogo will match 1% of the funds we raise during #GivingTuesday.

As the holiday and giving season begins, we need your help.

We are personally very proud to announce that we established the Wolf & Wylan cause based initiative to raise awareness and support for the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF.org). In just a very short time, Wolf & Wylan has raised over $8,500 and has had a phenomenal response and support from the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, Actor Chris Gorham, Jets kicker Ryan Quigley, Miss New York USA and Fashion Accessories expert Kimmie Smith. We were featured on ABC and have been spotted at the Latin Grammy Awards. But we have a long road to go and we NEED YOUR HELP!

W&W has partnered with world famous 3D Pop Art artist CHARLES FAZZINO (www.fazzino.com) to create a one of a kind pocket square design. 100% of the profit from the sales of the pocket squares will be donated to the designated cause. Yes, 100%

There are a number of ways to help. You can donate a nominal value as small as $1, receive a special Social Thank You card, accessorize your pocket with a gorgeous W&W pocket square or even buy the beautiful design as a piece of Fine Art in multiple mediums.

We are working with several small businesses that want to order our squares in bulk and send them out as corporate gifts to clients, we LOVE this approach and will be making contributions to the PCF.org in that company’s name, for which they will receive a Charitable Donation receipt from PCF.org. If you are interested in this approach, W&W would be happy to provide you with wholesale costing for orders over 25 squares. Email us here… wolfwylan@gmail.com.

Prostate Cancer affects ONE in every SIX men worldwide. With your support, we can help the Prostate Cancer Foundation fund research to find a cure, but we can only help IF YOU TAKE ACTION. There is no better time than now and no better place than RIGHT HERE: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/wolf-wylan

Thank you for supporting this cause for a cure. And, have a wonderful holiday season!

 

Leadership Unplugged: Stripping out the noise to uncover a new direction

Guest post by Roland Deiser and Sylvain Newton

Twenty years ago, on November 18th, 1993, the music band Nirvana agreed to an unplugged performance at the Sony Music Studios in New York City. It was part of a television series called “MTV Unplugged”, which invited popular music groups to perform their songs “naturally”. Unlike in a studio, the sound of instruments would not be electronically amplified and engineered; the artists had rather to rely on the “raw” performance of a piano, a cello, or a guitar. The recording became a milestone of musical history: The album “MTV Unplugged in New York” went on to become number 1 on the Billboard 200, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as one of the “Greatest Albums of all Time”.

Defying all commonly held assumptions about what makes a great album – perfect sound, re-mastered tracks, and multiple takes – the Nirvana release stroke a very different chord with its audience. The technical imperfection of the recording was an asset, not a liability. It created a new, authentic, and emotionally powerful musical experience. The natural flaws inherent in playing unplugged brought the performers and their audience closer, the imperfection created a new kind of bond, a new kind of sharing artistic expression.

We would argue that the world of Leadership is ready for its very own “Unplugged” moment.

For centuries, we have held high the image of the perfect, charismatic, know-it-all leader, who excels in everything and in every situation. In this world, every act of communication gets rehearsed, polished, and re-mastered, so that messages become flawless, immune to criticism. Such a protective approach may work for stable organizations in stable times; in today’s volatile and fast changing world it puts leaders under an unbearable pressure to excel, and it detaches them from the world. And it creates an artificial barrier between those at the top and their teams, disinviting collaboration and engagement.

In the world of social media, the “Unplugged” philosophy has long arrived. The YouTube and Twitter generation couldn’t care less about polished videos or super-refined writing. They care about stuff that sparks their interest, they want the opportunity to chime in through comments and mash-ups, and they love communication in real time. For this demographic, a 140 character Tweet, or a “quick and dirty” video taken by a leader on a Smart Phone about insights gained during a customer visit will go a long way to create engagement, and it demonstrates a hands-on, agile leadership style.

Striving for perfectly crafted messages makes sense in the broadcasting world, where a message is “done” once it gets into a distribution channel. In the realm of social media, getting content “out” is only the beginning. The real relevance of a message unfolds once the audience responds and further develops its meaning, by rating, sharing, commenting, liking, re-tweeting, annotating, and so on. In other words: Messages become powerful through socially mediated “co-creation”. It is the involvement of the audience that upgrades the content from “noise” to “value”. Being able to produce messages that inspire others to engage in a process of co-creation becomes vital to any leader in search of an audience.

Compelling content may still be king in the new world of Social Media, but “context is the kingdom” – and a king without a kingdom won’t matter much. No matter how well we target and shape every piece of our communication – the audience will testify to its relevance through their process of active contextualization. If leaders like it or not – communication has become a multi-way street, it has become in its essence anchored in community. It’s a world in which the notion of perfection that tries to answer all questions has become dysfunctional.

When Nirvana recorded their unplugged performance in New York City, the bands lead singer Kurt Cobain insisted his guitar should be connected to his amplifier. His producer installed a fake box close to Cobain looking like a loudspeaker. It was his safe-guard to be willing to go “Unplugged”. What will it take you to go “Unplugged”?

Roland Deiser is a Senior Fellow at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and author of Designing the Smart Organization. Sylvain Newton is the Senior Leader at GE Crotonville Leadership. Author contacts: rd@rolanddeiser.com (twitter: @rolanddeiser) | sylvain.newton@ge.com (twitter: @sylvainnewton)

Image source: Nirvana Unplugged 20 Years Old

17 Cartoons that Will Change Your Business

When writing my new book, What’s the Future of Business, Changing the way businesses create experiences, I felt that text wasn’t enough. So, I sought the wit and creativity of my good friend from the ole Web 2.0 days Hugh MacLeod aka @gapingvoid to help summarize each chapter in the form of a toon. Then we got to talking, why limit the cartoons to just the book?

Hugh MacLeod is not only a dear friend but also one of my biggest inspirations. His artwork is a magnificent harmony of emotion, wit, logic and satire. When I thought about the future of business, I pictured it beyond words on a page, I hoped to bring together art with the art of storytelling. I couldn’t think of anyone other than Hugh to visualize what the future (WTF) is and should be.

As such, we decided to free them from the confines of bindery and instead stitch them together in this free Slideshare. We’ll be releasing each of the individual graphics and the story behind them over the next few weeks. I hope you are inspired by his work the same way I am.

Number 1: The Internet is very big and it basically wants to kill you.

The internet is a global system of interconnected computer systems blah blah blah where www stands for both World Wide Web and Who Where Why. The way I look at it is a collective of people, data, and things.

Understand that it is what it is.

But its true nature and potential are yours to define. It just takes mastery of the “5I’s”. Squeeze intelligence out of information. Translate insights into ideas. Enliven ideas through Interactions. Influence behavior and inspire new possibilities.

Note: Slideshare will ask you for an email address, which unlocks a free download.

17 Gapingvoid Cartoons That Will Change Your Business from gapingvoid

What’s the Future of Business? My new book…#WTF

Connect with me: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Google+ |Youtube | Instagram

How to Foster a Culture of Contribution: Communities Take Investment and Engagement, Not Just Content

Guest post by Greg Narain (@gregarious), co-founder of Chute, a social media platform that helps brands and publishers obtain rights to UGC content.

Customer-contributed stories are not only powerful, they’re also influential and important. Yesterday, customers conveyed their stories through text and voice. Today, we’ve moved to visually rich tools like photos and videos. While compelling to look at at face value, there’s quite a bit more hidden within.

Ever one of these stories affords us much more than just a means to fill a page or gallery. Media provides us a glimpse into how our customers use our services and products, how they interpret the values we stand for, and inspire future ideas and anecdotes for us to build on. A picture is worth a thousand stories.

Succeeding with user-generated media can be a daunting challenge without the right preparation. Most brands still dive into these efforts with a “hashtag mentality” – throw a hashtag on something and they will come. Unfortunately, that rarely succeeds.

While consumers increasingly create media on a daily basis, they are likely not creating it for a specific brand. Even less likely, though, are the odds that they are creating media for you on demand – regardless of how large the media buy behind the campaign is. To maximize success, brands must breed a “Culture of Contribution.”

Communities develop norms for behavior within the group which instruct them on what kind of behavior is expected and what is discouraged. This impacts not just the way they think but also the way they act. Despite our customers being well-versed on making media on their own, they need to be encouraged and guided towards contributing media back to your brand and their fellow customers.

Developing a Culture of Contribution takes time and energy. Aside from the rare viral hit, success requires a long-term view and dedication to the task at hand. There are several tactics worth considering as part of this journey.

1. Know your audience.

In today’s data-rich world, not knowing your audience is no longer an excuse. As consumers engage with a brand, they leave behind a virtual trail of their interests and intents. It is easy to glean several important items:

What content have they been most drawn to?

What content have they most engaged with?

Who are the most vocal or active contributors?

Each of these provide insight into what motivates your community and ultimately the threads you can use as you stitch together your efforts.

2. Compete for their Attention.

We cannot ignore that our efforts are in competition for everyone’s attention. An activated customer is one of the most valuable assets you have in the social landscape. They will evangelize broadly and be first-adopters for new initiatives. Turning passion into contribution should be our primary goal. This goal is only furthered by creating the right incentives and promoting their contributions back to the community at large.

3. Give it time.

It is critical to give these efforts the oxygen they need to survive. It is easy to be discouraged by first-time efforts, however, building a great community always takes time and starts small. To that end, a few simple techniques are worth considering.

For special events and at the onset, create campaigns specifically crafted to encourage your customers to participate. These will most often take the form of a contest or something related. They focus your audience’s energy around a specific task and have the best chance for success.

For publishing and other content creation, integrate calls to action for contribution around your ideas to draw great content from the community. This ties in well with editorial pieces and other content tied closely to your brand. Your more savvy consumers will have content on the ready or accept these unique opportunities to create new media.

Cultivating a “Culture of Contribution” is not simple by any means. Some companies trade in products and services that easily lend themselves to media-centric stories while others must dig deeper to surface these opportunities. Regardless of how hard the initial process is, however, the rewards of building a strong community ready to create compelling, targeted media is hard to deny.

Social Media and the Bystander Effect

Guest post by Francisco Dao, noted tech author and founder of 50Kings

If you logged on to any of your social media accounts this past Monday you undoubtedly saw an outpouring of posts thanking our veterans for their sacrifice along with multiple links to the typhoon Haiyan disaster in the Philippines. As I scrolled through my feeds I started to wonder if the appearance of support was actually discouraging people from helping either group. How many people decided posting was enough? Have social media platforms become the ultimate example of the bystander effect where nobody does anything because they assume someone else will?

The bystander effect is a well documented sociological occurrence in which people do not offer assistance when others are present. Instead, they share. The more people who appear to be available to help, the less likely any one of them will help. In some cases, such as the murder of Kitty Genovese which brought the bystander effect to the public’s attention, nobody will step up to provide assistance because everyone assumes somebody else will.

If you consider that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter resemble massive online rooms full of people, they present the perfect conditions for the bystander effect to take hold. Most of us have hundreds of Facebook friends, surely someone will step up and offer aid, right? Considering so many of them are posting about the issue it’s not an unreasonable assumption, but when everyone assumes the same thing, nobody ends up doing anything.

My friend Brian Solis led a project for the United Nations in 2010 to help increase awareness of Malaria in Africa and also generate $10 donations for bed nets. He found that initially most people shared rather than donated, essentially accomplishing just one of the two goals. In his research to uncover why, he found that people believed that their act of sharing was worth much more than a $10 contribution. He found that people truly thought that their digital influence or social capital equated to tens or even hundreds of individual donations from their connections. This inflated sense of net worth in social will only bankrupts the real nature and value of the network effect.

What happens when everyone believes they have excessive digital influence and social capital?

When we delve deeper into the factors that contribute to the bystander effect, we find that distant problems shared on social media present the ideal conditions for lack of action.

1. Ambiguity of need. If people aren’t sure what kind of help someone needs, they are less likely to offer. In the case of veterans, some need help but many are successful. Furthermore, most people don’t know how or where to offer assistance. The veterans administration? Find a random charity? Give a dollar to the guy on the corner who claims to be a veteran? Both the need and the manner of providing aid are ambiguous. In the case of typhoon Haiyan, the problem is literally on the other side of the world. All we know is what we see in pictures and what we know from a few links that might have a donation button. Social media helps us share our sentiments but does little to clarify the ambiguity of the problem at hand.

2. Cohesiveness of the group. A group which shares strong bonds between its members is more likely to offer help over one with weak bonds. Social media bonds are largely virtual. We don’t really know many of our social media connections at all. Using myself as an example, I have 911 Facebook friends and I’d estimate I’m legitimately friends with maybe 100 of them. The rest are basically entries in an online Rolodex. A social media group is likely to be far less cohesive than one you would encounter in the real world.

3. The option/possibility of diffusing responsibility. As I mentioned earlier, the larger the group the less likely people are to step in and help. In a small group, it is unreasonable to assume that someone else, or someone more qualified, is available to provide aid. But in a large group, it becomes easier to assume that there are people who are better equipped to offer assistance, and therefore easier for any one person to ignore the problem based on the assumption that someone else will take responsibility. In a giant “room” such as a social media platform, it is no stretch to take for granted that someone else will be there to help.

Returning to veteran’s day and typhoon Haiyan, I’m curious to see how our actions compare to what we display on social media. How many of you posted or tweeted some message of thanks to veterans without contributing anything of value that might be helpful to a veteran in need? How many of you shared a link about typhoon Haiyan without donating anything to aid in the Philippines? I’ll volunteer myself as the first hypocrite. I didn’t post about veterans day but I did share links about typhoon Haiyan and until I wrote this post, I had not contributed. I have now.

The social psychology of the bystander effect is proven and likely working against you. Don’t let social media turn you into a do-nothing.

The Ultimate Moment of Truth and The Art of Digital Engagement

In 2012, Google along with Jim Lecinski published a fantastic book that explored how digital customers made decisions in what Google refers to as “The Zero Moment of Truth.” The ZMOT as it’s abbreviated, helps strategists discover relevant strategies and tactics on how to show up at the right place, at the right time and with the right content in a digital ecosystem.

In a world where consumers “Google it” to begin their digital journey, ZMOT revealed that brands need to re-think the connected experience and the resulting click path. But what happens when the web sites that appear in traditional Google search results no longer suffice for someone so connected that impatience becomes a virtue? This is after all someone who begins the journey on a smart phone or tablet tapping review sites and social networks to make information come to them before conducting formal research. Some call it the lazy web. Others refer to it as the social web. In the end, it’s just how people make information come to them. Once they do, it becomes the norm.

Even though web sites technically work on smaller screens thanks to adaptive and responsive design, they’re still web sites. In the very least, they go against the very nature of how someone interacts with the screen and what it’s designed to make possible. Here, it’s less about clicks and scrolls and more about pinching and swipes. That’s not all of course. The intention of a web page is called into question, or should be, in a time of connected consumerism. Step back and think about it for a moment. The information included on web sites isn’t written for you and me, it’s written for the person approving it. When you consider context in addition to the screen in the Zero Moment of Truth, you learn that people aren’t seeking marketing copy, they’re seeking the experiences of others to help humanize information and apply it to their state of mind, needs, and aspirations. Let that sink in because I’ll wager it’s not where a majority of your investments are allocated right now.

So, the truth unfolds…

In my latest book, What’s the Future of Business, I introduced the Ultimate Moment of Truth, that moment where people who convert an experience into discoverable content in any one of the countless social platforms people use to stay connected these days. And in this connected economy, the Ultimate Moment of Truth, or UMOT, becomes the next person’s Zero Moment of Truth, over and over again.

In addition to web sites, landing pages and corresponding SEO and SEM strategies, businesses now must consider how to create experiences in every moment of truth that aren’t just meaningful or remarkable, but also shareable. The future of brands now lies in how UMOT meets ZMOT throughout the customer life cycle. See, without design, these experiences are left to chance. Instead, marketers must begin to architect, foster and optimize positive experiences in each moment that’s native to each screen, efficient in steps, and tied to desirable outcomes.

When Google learned of my work around UMOT, the team reached out to consider how me might work together to help marketers better connect the dots to enhance the ZMOT. Our first collaboration resulted in a whitepaper that’s free to download, “Give Them Something to Talk About: Brian Solis on the Art of Engagement.” I’ve included parts of our discussion below.

Stay tuned for what’s next!

Give Them Something to Talk About

First impressions matter. They matter to people and they especially matter to brands. At Google, we’ve taken a long look at how, increasingly, first impressions are formed online and have a big impact on what we decide to buy. We call this online decision making moment the “Zero Moment of Truth,” or ZMOT for short. In his latest book, What’s the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences, Brian Solis, a principal analyst at Altimeter Group builds further on ZMOT’s implications. He zeroes in on how consumers’ first impressions of a brand often come from fellow consumers sharing experiences online. The accumulation of these shared experiences, Solis says, means brands need to pay more attention than ever to customer experience, journeys, and the relationships they nurture.

What does engagement mean for you?

Engagement is really about Actions, Reactions and Transactions; something that I refer to as A.R.T. Engagement, for me, is something that locks in an interaction or exchange. Thinking about engagement in that way inspires a different approach for content creation; you want somebody to feel something, not just see it.

If you think about engagement in this way, is it measurable?

Absolutely. You define your desired outcome and that outcome becomes what you measure. It’s the relationship between cause and effect. Unfortunately, most marketers don’t consider the outcome to be more than some low-level engagement measure — a ‘Like’, a ‘Share,’ a comment — when in fact you could introduce an emotion. If you love something, you share it. This isn’t just about impressions; this is about expressions. You want people to share it and do something and that should be designed into your engagement strategy.

How can you enlist ‘shares’ to support a campaign objective?

No content should be designed today that isn’t inherently shareable. Take the Jeff Gordon Pepsi MAX commercial on YouTube. It comes from that same thinking that goes into Super Bowl commercials, where you stop and go, ‘Oh my god, that is the best commercial I’ve ever seen!’ For some reason marketers only get that creative once a year, but YouTube and the social web are unlocking that type of thinking. Everything you introduce to the social web should have the same caliber of creativity that goes into a Super Bowl commercial.

Is there a tendency for marketers to feel so overwhelmed by technology that they lose sight of their basic instinct for how consumers behave?

Look, I’m a consumer, you’re a consumer. When we talk about the brands we love, it’s very human and natural. But when we try to talk to people like us, we blank out and turn into ‘Marketing Man.’ We lose that human nature, that empathy. If you take a technology perspective, you are forever reacting. The minute you take a step back and say, “What’s the bigger mission?” you start to realize what you are trying to do is change behavior. This relationship between cause and effect is very human. Once you articulate that vision, technology becomes an enabler. It starts to work for you.

Consumers share brand experiences, whether the brand is listening or not. Do brands listen enough to those conversations?

Author Maya Angelou said: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Take Twitter, Facebook, YouTube — what is shared is experiences. Somebody is eating a delicious dinner; that picture is published and shared. Somebody spots a product that makes them feel fantastic; it too becomes a shared experience. There are shared experiences that represent every step of the customer journey. These conversations existed before technology, but now they are searchable, retrievable and building on each other. Shared experiences, in aggregate, become the brand.

What happens when a brand’s marketing doesn’t reflect its image among consumers?

You may say: “This is our brand, this is what it represents, this is what we want you to feel, say, share.” But always ask yourself: “What is the collective experience that is published across the social web?” If you compare the two, many times there’s a disconnect between promise and real world experiences. I refer to this as the ‘experience divide.’ In many experiments I’ve found the brand promise and the experiences that are felt and shared are not even close to being aligned. That’s a problem.

How can brands close that gap?

If we spent less time ‘talking’ about our brand and brand promise and more time designing how we bring it to life, the experience divide would naturally narrow.

What can brands do when online consumers’ first impressions are being shaped by other consumers’ experiences?

These conversations — these shared experiences — they don’t self destruct. They build upon each other, creating a collective index. Search engines plug into this cloud of shared experiences and that Ultimate Moment of Truth, or UMOT for short, of shared experiences becomes the next person’s ZMOT. Experiences form impressions. Impressions become expressions as they’re shared. Expressions form new impressions. The link between UMOT and ZMOT is the future of branding and relationships.

This is a new way of thinking. As a brand you have to create the experiences you want people to have and share, and reinforce that through positive conditioning, so those are the things people find — over and over again. To get people to share more positive things, you have to first make sure they have a positive experience. This is a renaissance opportunity for brands to look back: ‘Why did we start this company? What are we trying to do?’ Because in the social web, it is those experiences that become your brand.

What’s the Future of Business? My new book…#WTF

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