Brian Solis's Blog, page 94

The Truth About Creating Customer Experiences

 

Bryan Kramer is just one of those people with whom you instantly bond. For those who don’t know him, he shot onto the social, digital, content marketing scene with fun and fervor. He’s highly regarded as a strategist, speaker and author. He’s also someone I think of as a good friend. Recently, I had the honor, and enjoyment, of shooting an episode of H2HChat (Human to Human) with Bryan and his super smart co-host Suzi McCarthy. The conversation was both educational and also incredibly entertaining. I laughed to the point where I feel like I did crunches in the gym.

Please take a moment to watch, share and comment!

Show Description:

As humans we are constantly defining and redefining our world in accordance with a myriad number of experiential criteria ranging from the physical to the psychological. Marketing strategists have long since recognized the potential should they be able to harness this power. Considerable resources are allocated each year by brands to experiential components from the physical layout of a brick and mortar store to the nuance of a logo color palette.

In his latest book, “X:The Experience When Business Meets Design”, bestselling author Brian Solis argues that the advent of the “always on” world means that customer experience is now 100% of your brand. Brands that want to survive in the future of business must place the creation and cultivation of meaningful experiences at the forefront of their strategy.

 

Twitter: @briansolis

Facebook: TheBrianSolis

LinkedIn: BrianSolis

Youtube: BrianSolisTV

Experience is everything…read my new book, X!

How to Create Content that Connects with Your Customers

Guest post by Jessica Ann (@itsjessicann), CEO and Creative Director of Jessica Ann Media, and author of Humanize Your Brand: How to Create Content that Connects with Your Customers.

We’re living in a post-advertising age. Instead of lamenting the past, or focusing on “the good ole’ days” of traditional marketing, we’re now being called to get more real. Everyone (and their mom) is affected by how we’re consuming the fast-paced media of today. And in turn, the content that we create is influencing the future of business. If you’re not proactively taking part in the profits and process of being more human, you’re missing out on the fun, authenticity, and serendipity that happens when you fuse technology with marketing.

If this sounds like some science-fiction meme out of The Matrix, you may (or may not) be right. It depends on the pill you take (do you want the red pill or the blue?)

Before we slide through another version of reality, we must understand that it’s not only the color of our content that matters – it’s the context behind the red or blue reality that we choose.  The content that we create can act as a catalyst for cultural change – not only within your own company, but for the collective of business as a whole.

This means that marketers who strive for more meaning in their written messages will flourish. According to Demand Metric, 86% of people skip TV advertisements. Yet 60% of people are inspired to seek out a product after reading content about it. Businesses who conceptualize and create Human Content understand that the need for a massive cultural change within their organizations are building the new world on the web.

Here’s what will need to happen to create more meaning and cultural change. Human Content will need:

1. More empathy than traditional advertising.

This isn’t hard to do. Empathy is the undercurrent to the ebb and flow of sticky content. This incredible emotion is how we recognize ourselves and our lives in the stories of others, and it’s how we build relationships that foster connection with people and companies (big and small).

Breaking free from the oppressive mold of yesterday’s advertising (through the use of empathy) isn’t a trend. It’s not the future. It’s not a buzzword. It’s right now. And it’s liberating.

Companies who stop advertising and start humanizing are part of the transformative shift in business. Will you be one of them?

2. Context. Lots of context.

The former days of advertising had little context. The “spray and pray” approach often sends customers running in the opposite direction (often with their hands over their ears). But when we use human content, we add layers of context to effectively reach customers in a fun, informative way. This more personal way of communicating is needed (and necessary!) to thrive in the noisy world of today.

As consumers (and readers) of the interwebs, we’re looking for relevant and inspiring content to either 1) get us through our day or 2) educate us about a product or service so that we can make an eventual purchase. When Human Content connects with us in the right way, it builds relationships that help us to add even more context to what we’re creating.

3. Relevance and meaning

Many brands go out of their way to get as many eyeballs as possible. But consumers are getting smarter. If we’re going to be shown an ad, we want a good experience. We want to be left feeling better than we started (which is hard to do when most ads intrude into our personal space).

This brings us to the curious case of the chicken and the egg. Is the future of marketing “custom content” because of the sheer amount of of annoying ads (and the ability to block them)? Or is the future of marketing “custom content” because we have no other choice? This is a rhetorical question – because the answer is both. And the stats prove it.

According to Demand Metric, 78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. And it’s no surprise that the young folks don’t like ads either: 8 out of 10 Millennials have clicked out of a website because they were turned off by an ‘irrelevant or intrusive ad.’  

Instead of turning the younger generation (and everyone else) off, turn them on by creating Human Content that has empathy, context, relevance, and meaning. The upshot is that you’ll slowly create cultural change within your organizations because it’s more accessible and real – no matter the color of the pill you choose.

 

26 Disruptive Tech Trends for 2016 – 2018

Each year at this time, I read all of the predictions for the new year plus the “top X” lists wrapping out the previous year. Add to that the first week of chaos that is CES and all of the new tech debuting in Las Vegas. And each year, I’m left wanting more substance as I plan my research. So, in 2015, I officially threw my hat into the mix with my inaugural look at “25 Disruptive Technology Trends in 2015 – 2016.”

Rather than look at just one year ahead, I organized my research against a two-year horizon and then added an analytical layer of what each trend meant and why each was important. But that still wasn’t enough. Nothing moves in calendar cycles except for taxes, birthdays, anniversaries, earning reports, etc. So, this year, I added one year to the event horizon…

Introducing the “26 Disruptive Technology Trends for 2016 – 2018.”

In this report, we’ll explore some of the disruptive trends that are affecting pretty much everything over the next few years-at least those that I’m following. It’s not just tech, though. The report is organized by socioeconomic and technological impact.

26 Disruptive & Technology Trends 2016 – 2018 from Brian Solis

Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list of every technology and societal trend bringing about disruption on planet Earth. What follows thought definitely affects the evolution of digital Darwinism, the evolution of society and technology and its impact on behavior, expectations and customs.

Disruptive Trends: Socioeconomic trends that are notably impacting civilization in the near-term.

1) The New Brand: Experiences are More Important Than Products

Customer experiences become more important than products; companies now have to consider how products and services enhance specific lifestyles and workflows.

The legacy value of brands is overtaken by brands that earn relevance by investing in engagement and collaboration in moments of truth…beyond creative. Marketing becomes CX. This includes the sum of all disparate parts, marketing, product, sales, service, support, CRM, R&D, etc. Brands must also zero-in on the needs, values and aspirations of a generation that defines everything radically differently than previous generations.

2) Goodbye Sharing Economy, I Want My On-Demand Economy…Now!

Was there ever really a sharing economy if no one was actually sharing? The sharing economy officially dissolves: everything becomes on-demand and this forces economists and ultimately businesses to understand new markets and workforces that create alternative supply based on rising demand. On-demand companies and their ecosystems of workers and customers trade on the value of reputation + trust + value.

Beyond seeing the “Uber or Airbnb of everything,” new classes of services will rise and fall based on new behavior and expectations. I also refer to this movement as the “selfish” economy in that consumers will expect every business, even those that are traditional, to do business where transparency, immediacy and context reign supreme. Everything will be on-demand, including B2B services.

3) Digital Detox Improves Digital Productivity

Digital is its own drug. People will learn how to hack their workflow because they have to. There’s too much email, too many meetings and not enough leadership to change routines. This leads to the need for individual productivity hacks. These acts go beyond employee efficiency; they will improve experiences and relationships professionally and personally. Everyone will need some sort of digital detox and/or focus.

While some will simply unplug from the Internet, others will discover and share “life hacks” such as…

Writing down distractions from tasks at hand
Checking email once a week
Scheduling meetings in 20-25 minute increments
Listening to music without lyrics
Spending 10 minutes a day on Headspace
Fasting from media
Not responding to every txt
Turning off all desktop, social and mobile notifications

4) Every Company Undergoes Digital Transformation and Gains Empathy in the Process

Digital transformation – the re-alignment of, or new investment in, technology and business models to more effectively compete in a digital economy – becomes standard. Companies will invest in digital customer experiences to improve experiences for all customers and employees.

There is no one type of customer or employee. Thus, digital transformation efforts will not be informed by digital trends; instead, social science will help decision-makers better understand how digital trends affect how people work, shop, communicate, what they value etc. Technology will then be an enabler to human-centered transformation in the enterprise to create more adaptive models, processes and systems to evolve.

5) The Dynamic Customer Journey Changes Brand Dynamics

The customer journey decentralizes, becoming a series of non-linear mobile-centric micro-moments, mimicking everyday consumer activity and communication. This sets the stage for relevant brand and product serendipity.

For example, Google learned that 90% of smartphone users are not absolutely certain of the specific brand they want to buy when they begin looking for information online. And, 65% look for the most relevant information regardless of the company providing it. How companies become discoverable and how they lead customers through their journey requires a new marketing infrastructure to support a customer journey comprised of micro-moments. This means that legacy strategies are good only for yesterday’s customers. To reach mobile customers in each moment of truth requires new methodologies for search, advertising, content engagement, sales and support.

6) The Consumerization of Work Turn Employees into Collaborators 

The consumerization of work goes beyond IT and devices; workflow, behavior and expectations mimic real-world apps like Snapchat, Uber, Tinder, etc.

Digital employees and customers think, act and expect differently. They want every business to feel, serve and work just like their favorite apps.

Enterprise software will start to mimic consumer apps and ultimately reshape the role of IT and the processes it manages to support employees. Slack is just the beginning of an enterprise renaissance that doesn’t just change tech – it changes how companies (and people) work.

7) Humans Need Not Apply for Old Jobs

The gap between expertise for the jobs of yesterday and tomorrow is widening. Everyone becomes students again. Yes – robots already are and will continue to automate workflow. Factories aside, intelligent devices are replacing people in front-line roles such as those at eateries, including Eatsa and McDonalds.

Traditional education no longer suffices as people are learning basic skillsets without understanding or knowing how they correlate to tomorrow’s careers. People will specialize in tasks that computers need humans to complete. Scholastic and workplace education will formalize computer-proof and computer-partnered careers and programs, and thus education becomes a constant.

8) The Age of Corporate Renaissance

Old ways give to new business models, processes and philosophies; disparate departments merge, uniting tech and complementary disciplines.

Marketing and IT work together rather than compete. CX, CRM and marketing form new experience teams.

CIOs realize the “I” stands for “innovation” and as such understand external/internal behavior to rethink how people and tech work together now and in the future.

Training and education become proactive to help modernize the workforce.

HR undergoes a renaissance to provide a workplace that is native to Millennials and up-and-coming Centennials.

9) Corporate Innovation Centers Displace or Complement R&D; The Maker Movement Becomes Threat or BFF to Incumbent Companies

Traditional R&D is no longer sufficient. Big companies invest in innovation centers: some aim to act like startups, others set out to partner with or acquire them, and some seek to lure people away from #startuplife.

Either way, innovation centers allow slow-moving, risk-averse companies to spark new ideas, experiment faster, fail faster and gain momentum to affect HQ and force change from the outside-in.

Some great innovation that cannot see the light of day within larger organizations will develop new markets, upset incumbents and either succeed solo or rollup into those companies that could not innovate.

The maker movement is “Shark Tank” for geeks and it doesn’t need judges to fund them; there’s Indiegogo, Gofundme, Kickstarter, et al. for that.

10) Culture Finally Gets Its Time in the Spotlight – Welcome to Culture 2.0

Culture is largely misunderstood and undervalued by the C-Suite today. It’s one of the reasons morale is at an all-time low. This will change because it has to. Employee engagement or the lack thereof creates a morale-busting “engagement gap”, giving way to an executive-level charter to invest in “culture 2.0”

11) Businesses Must Live by Radical Transparency to Gain Trust and Business of Customers

Businesses must also practice radical transparency or risk irrelevance. Customers want to do business with companies that match their beliefs and values. Customers are more aware and informed now. This means businesses must run counter to its normal practices, change and communicate this vision and changes in everything. With a more plugged-in understanding of human nature, businesses will not only create a happier and more productive culture: they will benefit from empowered employees, leading to an internal renaissance that yields new and innovative products, services, processes, and more.

12) Schools Pay Students to Learn and Become Agencies that Connect Companies with Expertise

The race for technical talent extends to Africa and other non-traditional establishments (such as prisons, etc.) to train qualified students computer and engineering sciences. Specialized schools will identify and teach students – even pay them to learn – and become an IP lab for companies to employ, similar to how outsourcing of other business functions works today.

Technology Trends: Technology trends that are changing how people live (and for how long), communicate, network and work.

13) Jarvis is Your New Chat Buddy and He Ushers in a Dawn of Conversational Commerce

Chatbots (and a dash of human interaction) turn messaging into concierge services (aka virtual assistants) and eventually predictive services that simplify everything from search to shopping to travel to customer service.

This sets the foundation for “conversational commerce.” The ability to buy products and order services without leaving the chat window becomes the new norm for everyday shopping, much like Amazon has become the standard for e-commerce.

Intelligent attendants such as Microsoft Cortana, Google Now, Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri will become staples in how people navigate life and work. Very soon, the complicated and often silly questions you ask of Alexa and Siri, will be answered.

You’ll be taken aback for a split second and then you’ll go on as if you couldn’t have lived without it.

14) Mobile-first Behavior Transforms the Web

The entire Web will be re-imagined for a mobile-first and mobile-only world that is screen, location, context and intention-aware. This radically transforms the purpose of the web to become more dynamic, personal and useful at a time when people are forcing the end of a traditional information-broadcast, page/form-based, keyword world. Everything from websites to apps to commerce will require overhaul or complete innovation to cater to the EGOsystem, or the demand for real-time personalized engagement.

15) The New @Machine Age Discovers the Fountain of Sleuth

Quantum computing dramatically accelerates the artificial intelligence race, applying machine calculations that are 100 million times as fast as today’s machines. IBM’s Watson is being applied to healthcare, finance and even cooking, to explore new solutions in cognitive computing. AI can sort through and assess information that humans may have missed or never considered. This type of work is already leading to new treatments, products, services, and yes, recipes. You can bet it will also be applied to call center technology and may or may not make you want to use counter services such as @service in response.

Artificial intelligence is just one area that will benefit from experimentation. Machine learning will also yield innovation in pattern recognition, predictive analysis, mimicked common sense, and even new ways to compute and solve problems.

More immediately though, breakthroughs in programming will eventually iterate and innovate existing engineering issues, air traffic control, curing diseases, etc.

16) Reactive Medicine Gets Proactive

Regenerative medicine cuts through the ethics debate by helping everyone gain access to cloneable organs.

Nanobots will be able to assess and fix us from within. Those made from our own DNA will eventually help cure us from deadly diseases ranging from blocked arteries to cancer.

Healthcare and athletic brands will also learn from Disney’s massive Magicband investment to bring big data insights to improve health and life experiences as part of a Human Operating System (Human OS). A human operating system becomes a platform for innovation that mimics the Apple product and iCloud universe. A Magicband-like device and other products designed to work in its ecosystem are constantly plugged into personal clouds accessible by healthcare providers. Blood, oxygen, vitals and more will shift the practice of medicine from reactive to proactive care.

17) The Sh#tshow that is The Internet of Things Finally Plugs into the Human OS

The Internet of Things becomes the Internet of Sh#t because it’s a mess with too many products and apps competing for consumer attention. This creates confusion and chaos as devices are proprietary, capabilities are too narrow and not reflective of everyday life and only a few companies such as Google’s Nest and Apple’s Homekit are designing plug-and-play smart ecosystems. Even still, technology must be invisible and interoperable.

Developers must plug into the Human Algorithm and the Human OS, envisioning the body and critical activities as an ecosystem/platform rather than technology and device-first products.

On the immediate horizon, smart connected products (The Internet of Things) will help consumers in transparent means, such as in-product communication, where products communicate to manufacturers, users and suppliers about state, maintenance needs and updates. This will be done in-home and also onsite where locations become smart about visitors to better guide experiences.

18) Live! Streaming! Mobile! Video! Now!

Live streaming (video) continues to bring niche moments to life, interrupting streams everywhere, making conversations on demand a form of engagement and entertainment. This makes everyday activities such as gaming, sports, concerts, events, TV, discussions, etc., become content and its hosts and participants the new weblebrities. This puts pressure on Youtube, Vine, Facebook, Snapchat to rethink video algorithms and subsequently monetization/advertising platforms. With streaming services forcing the unbundling of traditional subscription channels and the democratization of content production and distribution, consumers re-define programmatic content and reshape the definition of “TV.”

19) Say Hello To My Little Mends; Drones Join the Workforce

Drones will continue to revolutionize photography and videography but real innovation will derive from utility in vertical applications such as delivery, care, exploration, etc.

20) Ctrl-P: Print Solutions at Will

The proliferation of 3D printing solves problems and creates solutions in vertical industries (healthcare, aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, etc.), disrupting supply chains as it matures.

Personal applications will initially be served by brick and mortar establishments such as home improvement, auto repair, and other services where parts take time, are too expensive or unobtainable.

21) Siri, Take The Wheel

You may already own your last car. Autonomous vehicles will start to make their way onto public roads as laws rapidly iterate to make way for the inevitable. v1.0 will be very beta, with initial cars shipping with steering wheels and requiring drivers to “take a back seat” but be ready to take over at a moment’s notice. Fully autonomous, self-driving cars will be on the road by 2025. Cars will learn not only how to drive, but also how to limit or strategically consider accidents, injuries and even death of passengers, drivers and pedestrians.

Intelligent transportation not only changes how people, goods, etc., get from point A to point B, but also how vehicles and technology talk to one another to create safer passage ways. Each will also transform regulation to expedite a connected grid where transportation engineering and infrastructures as well as vehicles, gear, components, etc. work together.

22) Experiences Get Real Virtual

Oculus, Hololens, MagicLeap are bringing the virtual world to life. Immersive computing will find its niche beyond industrial design and start to permeate high-end gaming and other experiential sectors. It will open up an entirely new world that truly brings VR/AR alive…or closer to lifelike.

VR/AR are already a given. As gear becomes increasingly portable (think something like Google Glass), though, experience architects and next-gen imaging equipment will design immersive 360-degree experiences that don’t just replicate everyday life, but instead enhance and even challenge it. Think about shopping with products and attendants that appear out of nowhere, or information about products that come to life as you pick them up. When you visit Hawaii and the land where Jurassic Park was filmed, you will have the opportunity to actually visit Jurassic Park. Playing games where the field of play is your physical environment with challenges greeting you in your own space. Total Recall and Minority Report are just around the corner.

23) Power On…ward

In-home battery systems provide an entry-level solar solution to those with electric cars. Systems such as Tesla’s Powerwall and Powerpack lead to a battery innovation race that benefits households, devices/appliances and other goods powered by less eco-friendly means and the greater power sector.

24) Fashion Sense Gets Smart, Darlings

Intelligent or smart fabrics (E-textiles) make clothes more than fashionable or useful: they become part of a new genre in the wearable movement. Working together, many types of sensors integrated into one larger garment can tell different stories and unlock new possibilities.

Clothes will have beacon-like technology to control/inform surroundings. Clothing articles will transform based on environment and activities, and also sustain desired body temperatures.

Through Bluetooth technology, clothing will communicate body status to core devices that track performance, state, etc. for you and your healthcare provider.

25) Finance Gets a Makeover Inside and Out

The blockchain allows you to create a public ledger system that’s accessible for all, and secure. Blockchain technology will influence global financial organizations to rethink banking infrastructures. Rather than transacting based on the individual, currency and ultimately goods become individual assets. Each transaction becomes a micro-purchase around your account, but it doesn’t actually involve your personal authentication. Authentication is performed by your assets. All of this is recorded on your bank’s open blockchain ledger in real-time, easily and inexpensively.

Speaking of banks…based on the rise of the “selfish economy” and the consumerization of all tech, the idea of what a bank is and how people interact with it creates new micro-banks that look, act and perform banking functions for a digital/mobile generation.

26) The Cloud Takes Over Business

Critical ERP systems beyond CRM, marketing, etc. move to the cloud. Businesses cannot compete at the speed of digital Darwinism if they don’t change how they “do” business.

Nearly a third of all enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the world will attempt the migration to the cloud in the next two years.

If You’re not an Experience, You’re not a Brand. Period.

The headline was inspired by my new friend Manuel Diaz, president of Emakina.fr.  It’s a wise observation that he shared with me while talking about the future of brand and experience in Geneva recently. Luckily, Manuel’s team was on hand to document the experience for an episode of Marche Ou Crève and I wanted to share it with you here. It was the kind of conversation you have in a café in Europe over a glass of champagne…and although this was shot in a very swank hotel (The East West) in Switzerland, we did indeed have champagne!

In X, I make the case that experience is the new brand and that without experience architecture, your brand is leaving an incredible opportunity for meaningful engagement open to interpretation. In a connected society, impressions become expressions that influence the impressions of others. Experiences, especially intentional experiences, are more important than ever as they become a competitive advantage the more they are experienced and shared.

You’re customers are now an audience with an audience of audiences and as a result, brands are no longer created, they’re co-created. Experience is everything. Design it…for every moment of truth…where they matter in each moment and collectively.

Twitter: @briansolis

Facebook: TheBrianSolis

LinkedIn: BrianSolis

Youtube: BrianSolisTV

Experience is everything…read my new book, X!

The P2P Business Advantage: People to People, Peer to Peer

Guest post by Leo Bottary (@leobottary ), coauthor of The Power of Peers

There are two fundamental truisms in business and in life: 1)Who we surround ourselves with matters; and, 2) We can help each other in ways that can’t be realized anywhere else.  No book, business course, coach or consultant will give you what you can get from a group of peers who share your skill and commitment to excellence.

A 2013 study conducted by the Center for Leadership Development and Research (CLDR) at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance and The Miles Group, disclosed that nearly two-thirds of CEOs do not receive outside leadership advice.  Combine this sobering statistic with the results of the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, which revealed that trust in institutions (government, business, media and non-governmental organizations) remains at an all-time low.  Facing a future we can barely imagine, where will we turn?  The good news is we have each other.

CEOs, business leaders, and employees alike will turn to their peers to find the kind of help they simply won’t find anywhere else.   Fortunately, technological advances have made connecting, networking, optimizing and accelerating (the four ways business leaders typically work with their peers) more convenient than ever before.  Understanding the ways we engage one another can help us discern the difference between the peer influence we experience every day and the peer advantage that can result from a more selective, strategic and structured approach.

We connect with our peers in person or online.  Online, this often occurs with people we’ve never physically met, yet with whom we regularly exchange information or share a common interest, even if only temporarily.  We often trust the prevailing sentiment of our peers more than we trust institutions.  We network online, at conferences, or at local business events in a more selective and more purposeful attempt to advance personal and professional interests.  Examples would include finding a new job or securing financing for your next business venture.  Connecting and networking tend to be individual pursuits and are, by far, the most common ways we reach out to our peers.

Turns out, there’s a big difference between the peer influence most organizational leaders experience when they connect and network, and the peer advantage that can be realized when they optimize and accelerate.  We optimize when we work in teams to bring a high level of excellence to achieving a common goal. Leaders often form organizational “tiger teams” to tackle special projects. The Blue Angels (the U.S. Navy’s flight demonstration squadron) conducts debriefs following every (what we see as perfect) flight to talk about how they can do better the next time. Top sports teams participate in practices that are often more rigorous than the games to ensure top performance when it truly counts. The work of optimizing tends to take place among a more homogenous group of peers and be temporary in nature, determined by either the length of a specific project or the span of a season.

We define accelerate as the ultimate means for gaining peer advantage.  It’s what top CEOs and business owners do when they work with peers outside their industry sector on an ongoing basis.  The objectives are to help one another identify opportunities, meet tough challenges, achieve organizational goals, and grow as leaders.  The diversity of the group, coupled with rich dialogue, fosters a safe environment for building trust and addressing complex issues.  CEOs in these groups help each other arrive at their own solutions, and they create a culture of accountability to ensure successful implementation of their stated action items.  Over time, during this repeated collaborative process, the participants become better listeners and better leaders.  (You can’t get that from a book or a consultant!)

While thousands of CEOs and business owners will tell you that being part of a CEO peer advisory group has transformed their lives and their companies, as we’ve learned, too many others don’t avail themselves of this resource.  My hope is that more CEOs and business owners will find a group that’s right for them and experience it firsthand.

There’s an African proverb that reads:  “If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.”  Timeless advice.

Leo Bottary is Vice President, Peer Advantage for Vistage Worldwide , an adjunct professor for Seton Hall University , and coauthor of The Power of Peers: How The Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth, & Success . 

 

 

 

 

 

The Twitter Diaries: Wall St. vs. Main St. and Why an Algorithm isn’t the Problem

Twitter is automating (part of) its timeline via an algorithm. Cue the panic! Signal the backlash.  Twitter’s new timeline is making investor buy and sell, inciting a media storm and ironically thousands of Tweets questioning the future of social media’s loveable yet difficult-to-categorize social/broadcast network. This has culminated into a ominous theme #RIPTwitter with many citing that the “end is near.”

What Twitter is Introducing

Twitter introduced an upgrade to its beloved (and oft misunderstood) timeline that is rolling out to all users incrementally. “Best Tweets” introduces a new algorithm into a human curated feed that picks what Twitter estimates to be the most interesting tweets from friends, the Twitterati, brands and trends in the moment.

As Twitter describes it…

Upon opening Twitter, the Tweets they’re most likely to care about from the accounts they follow will appear at the top of the timeline. The rest of the Tweets will then be displayed directly underneath in reverse chronological order, like always. People can choose to turn this option on in their settings for iOS, Android, and web.

In case you missed that last part, it is not an opt-in service but instead, Twitter makes it visible and easy to opt-out.

Why Twitter Had To Do So

The short answer is that Twitter is introducing a new algorithm because of increasing market pressure to grow the company and deliver shareholder (and hopefully user) value.

Twitter will be 10 years old in March 2016. The service famously sparked a digital movement at SXSW in 2006 with many of the early digerati embracing it instantly creating an online cool kids club. From there, it steamrolled into popularity with traditional media companies, brands, celebrities (really starting with Ashton Kutcher), etc,. sending it into the “statusphere.” This created a new generation of short-form, real-time communication that paved the way for the likes of Snapchat, Instagram, et al.

Twitter, like many fledgling startups, required significant investor funds to drive user engagement and adoption and build and attract advertising revenue.  At some point, investors needed a return and Twitter’s most viable solution was to go IPO. Doing so opened up Twitter’s feedback loop to include many influential shareholders who either don’t get or don’t use (or both) Twitter to maximize returns.

Over the years, Twitter’s user growth stalled and this caused investor concern to swell. With the uniqueness of Twitter, you either can’t live without it or you can totally live without it because you can’t understand what it is all about.

Twitter hasn’t helped itself either with user acquisition either. It largely left the marketing of Twitter to media companies, celebrities and the Twitterverse to bring everyone to the world’s “digital water cooler.” The company also abandoned its once thriving developer community. More so, Twitter has made a pattern of not introducing new features, updates or UX (user experience) innovation in a timely or relevant manner.

The Tug of War Between Shareholders and Stakeholders

Let’s not confuse shareholder and stakeholder value. Twitter serves two masters and it could do better at innovating for both of them.

What’s the difference?

Shareholders have a vested interest in Twitter from a financial standpoint. Stakeholders have ownership in Twitter from a user experience perspective. Both are important. And, I’d argue that to deliver shareholder value, you must start with consistently creating stakeholder value.

The question is, does everything have to scale for it to be successful? The answer is user defined.

Twitter’s Q4 revenue is actually up 48% year-over-year at $710M. But, it lowered revenue guidance for Q1 to $595M and $610M. I guess that’s not good enough. Shareholders want Twitter to be Facebook from a financial perspective simply because they can’t tell you the difference between the two networks. On the other hand, Twitter users use it because it is not Facebook. So what’s the difference?

Twitter is not a social network. It is an information network and there is nothing else like it when it comes to real-time engagement and information delivery. It’s core user base is fanatical about it whether they’re Tweeting, Persicoping, Meerkasting, Vine’ing or simply consuming any or all of the above.

Twitter is the digital pulse of society. Tweets and the data behind them are dissectible globally, nationally, locally and in an number of psychographic or demographic samples.  I used to say that news no longer breaks, it Tweets. As such, Twitter is a human seismograph measuring the world’s activity, events and trends in real-time, propagating experiences, stories, conversations and news across big and small screens as they happen.

“Twitter is not for everyone. And, that what makes it so special.”

Facebook is trying to be a platform for everyone. It is a social network that thrives on an expanding social graph, connections made and strengthened by relationships, even if those relationships are a blend of strong and weak ties. Twitter on the other hand, is an information network that forms an interest graph where people follow others based on shared interests, aspirations, dislikes, etc., whether or not a relationship exists.

On Twitter, shareholder expectations are often out of alignment with stakeholder expectations. Maybe it’s time the company go private to strengthen its core value proposition for the people who use and love it to then expand its evolved charm to new groups of users. For example, Reddit spun itself out of Conde Nast because it had to. While perhaps the acquisition was lucrative for Reddit founders and investors, in the end, Reddit users as stakeholders outpower shareholders. Without them, there is no Reddit.

What Twitter’s New Timeline Really Means

Some argue, that Twitter doesn’t need an algorithm. Some pundits insist that lists are the answer. Others suggest that people curate who they follow. The magic of Twitter is that it’s user defined. It’s part human algorithm and now code to improve the user experience. If you can now easily see the important or meaningful Tweets that you would have otherwise missed, then your Twitter experience is likely to be more engaging than simply fumbling through something sorted by time and those whom you follow.

In an interview with Techcrunch, Twitter product manager Michelle Haq emphasized the capability of this new algorithm to spike engagement, “We noticed across the board this [the algorithm] caused users to create and interact more.”

Haq also shared the upside for brands in organic engagement, which as you can imagine, will lead to more experiments and official campaigns in Promoted products, “Throughout our tests, we also saw an increase in engagement for brands’ organic Tweets and an increase in engagement for Tweets about live events.”

In its official announcement, Twitter explained that increases in engagement lead to increases in time spent and activity, “We’ve noticed in our early experiments that people who have this experience turned on Tweet and Retweet more on Twitter — and we believe this means that brands can reach a more engaged potential audience.”

“But that’s the way it’s always been done,” said no innovator ever.

Improvements in the timeline only benefit everyone regardless of what you and I are used to. It’s an experiment to balance right-time and real-time.

In Twitter’s own words, “The updated timeline shows people the Tweets they’re most likely to care about.”

It’s our job as users, marketers, newsmakers, media, et al., to make people care. Hopefully this algorithm inspires content creators to be more thoughtful in what they share as they have a gift to talk to and through people. Like in anything, you get out of it what you invest in it.

That’s the point. Increases in engagement by surfacing more relevance content begets increases in user experience, which leads to greater monetization opportunities, which ultimately delivers stakeholder value and shareholder returns. At least that’s the goal as I see it.

Twitter is special. It’s an always on community rich with expressions, experiences, information and irreverence and irrelevance that promotes serendipity in activity and connections.

Now all that CEO Jack Dorsey needs to do is to re-engage developers and then we’ll have a thriving ecosystem (or egosystem as I like to think of it) that also designs new ways to experience Twitter in the absence of Twitter doing so rhythmically.

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Experience is everything…read my new book, X!

Image via Anthony Correia / Shutterstock.com. 

The Embrace: Creating Experiences that Nurture Attention into Engagement

Attention is a currency. We spend it. We earn it. And, sometimes we waste it.

Experience is something special. It’s all the rage at the moment, yet, we often talk about it as is if it’s a thing. But, as we know, deep down, the best things in life aren’t things, they’re experiences. One of things that makes it so hard to make experience a strategic and actionable part of our work is that the word “experience” means so many things to so many different people across so many aspects of the organization.

We continue to think operationally, which prevents us from feeling empathetically, which stops us from acting experientially. 

To CMOs, experience may be something creative, whether it’s a campaign, a viral video, an online journey, an event, a physical escapade, fantastic packaging, etc.

To CX, it could be an optimized and frictionless customer journey, better customer support, more personalized CRM programs, et al.

To those CDOs and CIOs, experiences could be technological, providing a modern foundation for engagement throughout the customer lifecycle.

To product designers, experiences are great products.

The truth is that experience is all of these and more. It’s everything. And, more importantly, it’s measured by the sum of each moment and its moving parts, not individually or departmentally. People don’t see departments, they see one brand.

Your brand promise can no longer be rooted in clever wording or creative design and marketing. It must come alive in the experiences that you design and how they come to life in each moment of truth and measured holistically from a human-centered perspective.

Again, experiences are not things. Experiences are emotional. They’re reactions to important moments and are something that’s felt and in turn, acted or not acted up in a variety of ways…great, bad or indifferently.

Today, experiences are largely left to chance.

I believe that the best relationships moving forward will be guided by experience architecture so that we shape those moments, nurture reactions and This means that experience must be…

Thoughtful

Meaningful

Useful

Engaging

Personal

Intentional

Mutually beneficial

Alluring

Shareable

Aspirational

Inspirational

Experience takes design. How people feel throughout their lifecycle takes an integrated approach to experience architecture. It takes a shift in perspective, collaboration and innovation to do things differently and experientially.

Start with a vision for what an experience could be…how it engages the senses and the responses and reactions that unfold in each moment and also as one masterpiece. Think about those moments as the embrace…that moment when you my attention and I have yours and together we create unforgettable experiences together.

The experience is yours to design…

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Experience is everything…read my new book, X!

The Internet of Things Connects the Future of Business

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most incredible feats of modern technology. With the right vision and architecture, IoT will bring to life new possibilities and experiences. It’s also one of the most confusing and ambiguous. To make sense of it all and specifically understand how IoT applies to business, I assembled a short list of examples of companies successfully employing this new web in interesting applications.

Why is IoT so mystifying? First, it’s the name. The Internet of things doesn’t necessarily roll of the tongue. Second, it’s big. I mean, it’s everything that’s connected to the net, ranging from wearables to appliances to industrial equipment to cars. Yep, it’s more than your Nest thermostat, Apple Watch, FitBit, et al. There’s a reason Cisco refers to it as the Internet of Everything. That’s the thing. Anything and everything can connect to the Internet and share information with other devices, software platforms or direct to people. That information is dependent on the device, what it’s meant to do and also what it’s intended to communicate.

For example, GE manufactures jet engines that send operational information to a cloud-based software platform that aviation engineers can monitor and study to gauge, streamline and improve performance. But that’s just one instance in a vast sea of diverse business applications.

The Need for Feed: Tesla Races to the Front of IoT

Tesla is making electric cars that are feats of engineering. More so, these connected automobiles are also stars in the constellation of IoT.

In addition to being a luxury, performance vehicle, the car is one big IoT device. For starters, Tesla features an always-on 3G cell connection to the Internet, which is provided free by company. The car also features WiFi and bluetooth connectivity. This is the gateway to share and receive information about the car and its environment to Tesla (anonymously), to users, and ultimately to other vehicles and devices.  For instance, the car can receive new software and firmware versions and upgrade itself automatically.

Tesla captures pretty much everything that happens when the car is on. Instead of producing smog, it emits big data. From geolocation to internal and external climate to energy consumption and power to altitude and angle to driving patterns to user preferences and settings, etc., virtually all aspects are digitized and organized to be used inspection and utilization.

The amount of data the car produces helps Tesla understand how to improve efficiencies and performance based on how and where people drive the car. Drivers too are rewarded with insights and upgrades to enhance the driving and owner experience.

The Logistics of IoT

UPS is a company that is built upon logistics. The global delivery network manages more than 16 million shipments a day. As such, UPS has integrated a sophisticated IoT infrastructure to learn how and where to streamline operations and also introduce opportunities for innovation. More importantly, the company is seeking ways to lessen its environmental impact.

UPS uses a proprietary package flow system that determines what packages are loaded on each vehicle then also gathers a tremendous amount of fleet data using telematics. Dubbed “telepathic trucks,” UPS also integrated sensors into every facet of its operations tracking not only packages but also everything related to the running of its fleet, including:

– Engine

– Speed

– Mileage

– Fuel consumption

– Location

– Number of stops

– Emissions

– Devices for delivery and service

– Maps

One thing that’s inherent with IoT is data. And, the bigger the application or the installation, the bigger the data that comes from it.  But Jack Levis, UPS Director of Process Management believes that data isn’t the secret sauce of IoT, it’s the insights and actions that bring to life new possibilities. “It’s not the data alone that helps us improve,” he said. “It’s what we do with it that makes the difference.”

As a result, the company reported dramatic reductions in fuel usage, saving 1.5 million gallons and also 13,000 metric tons of carbon emissions in 2012 alone.

While IoT and its everyday impact is nascent, the applications for and benefits of IoT in business are practically infinite. While we’ve explored just a few brief examples, what lies ahead is a new era of connected products and services. What ties everything together is the data and services exchanged between people, devices and systems. The real magic happens though when the vision to design new, integrated experiences are enhanced because the ecosystem is designed to improve itself with usage.

The future of IoT is now beginning to unfold at the intersection of technology, design and data science.

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Experience is everything…read my new book, X!

Image Credit: Shutterstock

 

In 2016, Resolve to ‘Disrupt Yourself’

Guest post by Whitney Johnson (@johnsonwhitney), author of Disrupt Yourself

Oft-spoken though it is, ‘disruption’ is not a catchword; it’s a powerful force transforming organizations, communities, and ultimately the world. But it starts small, as an individual choice to change. Companies and organizations don’t disrupt unless their people do.

Individual disruptors upend their companies in ways not always welcomed by their associates. Disruptors can be seen as a fifth column, undermining the familiar and comfortable status quo, not to mention their colleagues’ territorial aspirations. One example:  an HR program manager (we’ll call him Ben) employed in a storied Silicon Valley company leveraged his distinctive strength of coding to write a program that remediated a departmental pain point—a full-application ecosystem and operational dashboard complete and in production in less than a month at zero additional cost to the team. His colleagues in IT had to decide whether to “bless” his initiative and solution, or reject it because he had inadvertently done their job quickly and affordably. They opted for the latter: instead of cheering, they booed.

In reality, it is the status quo and those who defend it that are the enemies within. Disrupt or be disrupted is the battle cry. According to a study conducted by Accenture, high-performing companies that surpass their peers on financial metrics across business cycles and leadership eras, are those that develop capabilities before they need them. Average and low-performing companies don’t. Meanwhile, companies that support and encourage their employees’ dreams — the engine of disruption — breed loyalty, resulting in higher profitability. According to Towers Perrin, Intl., organizations with a highly engaged workforce increased operating income by 19.2%, while low engagement led to a 32.7% decline in operating profits.

As the ever-pressing imperative of driving performance collides with a massive cohort of millennials bringing their dreams to work, I am naming 2016 ‘The Year of the Disruptor.’

Here’s what I expect to see:

Rising in-house mobility. Managers recognizing the potential value of their disruptive employees will clear their path, green-lighting dreamers and innovators and speeding new ideas on to realization. Instead of obstacles thwarting progress, managers and co-workers will be facilitators, like a team in a cycling race helping the fittest riders rise to the top.

Real stretch assignments for promising talent, with a real potential for failure. Instead of over-protection, managers will allow a risky playing field for employees to explore dreams and ambitions, and cumulate the competence and confidence to play where others aren’t playing — a hallmark of innovation.

Rewards for talent developers. Management thinker Dave Ulrich said it well, “Instead of asking Donald Trump how many millions he’s earned, ask how many millionaires he’s created.”  The new performance metric for managers will be the number of their reports who have been promoted coming out of their department or for whom they have brokered a move. A real leader will be willing to promote the person who could replace them. Managers add value by developing untapped talent, and build morale and momentum, pushing innovation into hyper-drive.

Success celebrated. Genuine praise and tangible remuneration will be available for all who work hard and employ their distinctive strengths, hand- in-hand with bona fide bottom-line growth. Personal disruptors will be celebrated and rewarded with open doors to additional innovation.

Job-training to train, not retain. Opportunities to learn and do more will be the normal modus operandi, instead of a last-resort tactic to placate disgruntled high value employees. Employees that are already firing on all cylinders will be groomed for additional responsibilities, and innovators and entrepreneurs will take on challenging new tasks because they want to, not because they have to.

Stock price fluctuations. Disruption from within may lead to short-term loss of productivity in order to garner long-term gains. The dips in stock price may take your breath away, but you’ll see higher value for your equity over the long-term. Change can be accompanied by growing pains but they will be growing pains, not the more acute discomforts that accompany ossification or degeneration. Sometimes the way forward requires a side-step, or even a step back. The way to change the game is to start anew.

Engagement. Loyalty. Innovation. High-performance. Higher profits. Social change. Impressive outcomes due to one simple input: encouraging personal disruption. It’s easy to talk about; a little harder to actually do. As one who talks about disruption, my resolution for 2016—The Year of the Disruptor—is to continue to disrupt myself. To lead by example. And equally important, I’ll be watching for fellow travelers on, as the poet Robert Frost labeled it, the ‘road not taken.’ Looking to assist, to encourage, to reward. Looking to celebrate and cheer for their success.

Whitney Johnson  is the author of the critically-acclaimed  Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work , and in 2015 was inducted into  Thinkers50  as one the world’s leading management thinkers. If you want to receive bi-weekly updates (here’s a sample !), leave a comment, and say, sign me up.

The Future of Retail: Stop Iterating and Start Innovating

The team at OneStop invited me to Los Angeles to speak to a wonderful group of digital marketers, etailer/retailer, search and commerce strategists.  Among the many things I’m studying and speaking about these days, the future of retail is fascinating to me personally and professionally.

The future of retail isn’t just about new technology, the latest gadgets and all of the incredible startups that are pushing retail, commerce and everything else forward. It’s also shaped by connected/mobile customers who are more discerning, elusive and sophisticated.

Here, experience is everything.

The future of retail is about vision to see how everything is evolving, including human behavior and expectations, along with how people use tech, and also about how these things can re-imagine space online and in the real world to make retail relevant in a new world.

Technology is everywhere. Customer evolution is constant. Ideas about how and capabilities to implement them are scarce.

Many retailers and others online are still introducing services and digital features that only build upon old ways of doing business. We’re bringing to the customer all this rooted legacy…that’s ruining the experience for the new customer.

Dumping an entire catalogue’s contents online and calling it e-commerce is an example of what won’t work for the new breed of customer. This new consumer is ageless and has developed shopping habits anchored in the “ego-system,” as I dubbed it. And the primary trait of this habit is that customers want product when they want it. The on-demand economy is more important than the sharing economy.

 

The summary of my talk was beautifully visualized by Sophia Liang.

11 X-Factors in Designing the Future of Retail

1) Accept that legacy thinking, processes and metrics facilitate iteration at best not innovation

2) Remember that innovation doesn’t have to start with technology, it starts from within, empathy is key

3) Identify activity in the four moments of truth

4) Introduce yourself and the team to Generation C

5) Understand their behaviors, expectations and values – especially their differences from traditional customers

6) Think like the customer in ideation and strategy

7) Rethink the customer journey and what it can be even if it’s starting with a blank slate based on Google’s “micro moments”

8) Design consistent and meaningful experiences for every touchpoint throughout the customer journey

9) Remove friction and optimize touch points based on the existing journey

10) Apply all insights to reimagine space, physical shopping, clerks, checkout, demos/dressing rooms, etc. – And, look beyond other retailers for ideas

11) Help customers make decisions, encourage and reward people to share experiences

Create the future or wait for it to tell you your place in it.

Also see WWD‘s summary of the event.

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Experience is everything…my new book is finally available!