It's a new era of business and consumerism—and you play a role in defining it

Today's biggest trends—the mobile web, social media, real-time—have produced a new consumer landscape. The End of Business As Usual explores this complex information revolution, how it has changed the future of business, media, and culture, and what you can do about it.

"To be successful in business, you need to see what others don't. Start with this book. Someone's going to do it, why not you?"
—Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Chairman of HDNet

"Innovation has always changed the business landscape. People expect to access information anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Collaborative, cloud, and video technologies are leading this change. As Mr. Solis correctly writes, companies have to lead this change, not follow."
—John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, Inc.

"Winning the hearts and minds of customers with new media experiences will turn them into your most valuable sales force. Solis's book is the map to unleash this treasure."
—Peter Guber, author of Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story

"Your customers will share their experiences both good and bad. Now that everyone is connected, it's amplified and incredibly influential. This book will help you rethink your vision and mission to survive in a new era of digital Darwinism."
—Mark Burnett, Television Executive Producer 

Join this webinar to hear Brian Solis, author of The End of Business As Usual, reveal how to deliver customer experiences that will increase not only engagement but ultimately loyalty and advocacy.

Attendee Bonus: 100 randomly selected webinar attendees will receive a copy of Brian's book, The End of Business As Usual.

Attend this webinar to learn how to:

·         Translate listening into learning and insights.

·         Document the impact of disruptive technology on your business.

·         Meet the needs of customers in emerging channels.

·         Foster advocacy by delivering the right value to consumers.

Brian Solis’ The End of Business as Usual is crucially important for individuals who live in our new digital culture. Digitalization has completely revolutionized how we live and do business. Nothing is as it was even a few years ago. Because of this, it is difficult for many people to keep up with the new culture that is evolving around them.

We are suffering from information overload in our businesses and lives. We are always plugged in to cell phones, computers, tablets, and other social media devices. Some of us prefer to communicate through these social devices rather through face-to-face interaction. Some of us are defined by the number of tweets we receive every day. And businesses are not exempt from this either. In fact, it is difficult to run a business without being part of what Solis calls the Digital Darwinism that surrounds us.

The difficulty with being plugged in all the time is that we are not conditioned for this kind of social networking 24/7. We know many individuals only through computers, tablets, and other digital devices. We are content to communicate without face-to-face interactions. This type of introverted socializing is very unhealthy for us. We are social creatures who need human contact and interaction. Being in front of a computer screen and digital device is stifling our social natures and making many of us depressed and lonely. And this should not occur.

Solis’ book will be relevant to individuals and business people alike who struggle to understand their new digital world. The important questions to ponder while reading Solis’ book are as follows. Are we wired for distraction to this extent? Is the computer revolution changing the face of communication? And, is this change healthy for social beings like us? After reading The End of Business as Usual, the reader will have an answer to these questions.

Tra qualche giorno avremo il piacere di intervistare Brian Solis, marketing executive americano attualmente direttore di Altimeter Group.

Solis è riconosciuto a livello globale come uno dei più importanti thought leader e autori sui nuovi media. Analista digitale, sociologo e futurista, Solis ha studiato e influenzato gli effetti dei media emergenti sul business, marketing, editoria e cultura.

In Altimeter, Brian lavora con le aziende sulle strategie con nuovi media e le cornici per costruire ponti tra aziende e consumatori, dipendenti, e altri stakeholder importanti. In più, è specializzato nel cambio di management per aiutare le aziende (e le leadership team) a introdurre nuove risorse, sistemi e processi media e strati di management per riuscire ad eccellere realmente intorno all'utente connesso. Come risultato CRM Magazine ha nominato Brian come influential leader del 2010.

Prima di passare in Altimeter, Solis era direttore di FutureWorks, dove ha fondato un'agenzia creativa e di consulenza business per i nuovi media nel 1999. Attraverso FutureWorks, Solis ha condotto programmi interattivi e sociali per aziende Fortune 500, celebrità e startup web 2.0.

Il suo blog, BrianSolis.com, è tra le risorse online di punta  nel mondo per il business e il marketing, classificato nel primo 1% dei blog tracciati daTechnorati. E' classificato anche come una delle voci di punta nell'indiceAdAge Power 150 dei blogger che si occupano di marketing nel mondo. Inoltre ha contribuito in FastCompany, BusinessWeek, AdAge, Harvard Business Review e Mashable.

Speaker ricercatissimo, Solis condivide attivamente la sua visione e le sue esperienze attraverso keynote e presentazioni in eventi in tutto il mondo per aiutare le organizzazioni a capire ed abbracciare le dinamiche che definiscono l'ascesa del consumismo sociale, il social business e i loro impatti sui mercati, il comportamento e la cultura.

Solis ha scritto attivamente di nuove strategie di marketing e business dalla metà degli anni '90 per documentare come il Web stava ridefinendo l'industria delle comunicazioni - ha coniato PR 2.0 prima di concentrare i suoi sforzi sugli impatti più grandi sul futuro dei media, del commercio e della cultura. E' stato anche tra i primi thought leader che hanno lavorato per organizzare e definire il movimento "Social Media" per stabilire una categoria definitiva di media.

Il suo libro più recente, The End of Business as Usual, esplora ogni strato della rivoluzione complessa dei consumatori che sta cambiando il futuro del business, dei media e della cultura. Man mano che i consumatori si connettono tra di loro, una rete di informazioni vasta ed efficiente prende forma e inizia a guidare le esperienze, le decisioni e i mercati. In breve, qualcosa di dirompente.

E' autore anche di libri come Engage!, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, Now is Gone, ed è autore della prefazione di molti altri, tra cuiSocial Media ROI e The Hidden Power of your Customers, giusto per citarne alcuni.

Avremo modo di parlare di social media, social commerce, il modo in cui i nuovi media hanno cambiato i mercati e il modo di intendere il marketing e il business.

How do you view your customers? Do you go around and create print ads, schedule media buys, develop websites and hope people will buy your products? Are you going out of your way to figure out what the trends are and are you evolving with them? If not, then you’ve already doomed your business to failure – or at least stagnate its growth.

The marketing world has long been focused on selling and influencing the way their products and information are being sent out. Long has this been the modus operandifor this industry and eventually you just grow suspicious about the motives of advertisements and pitches that come your way through the television, radio, newspaper, and even online. Businesses shouldn’t be continuing this line of marketing. It’s no longer about sell, sell, sell…it’s more about building trust and forming relationships with your customers and encouraging them to try out your product. Are your customers being ignored by brands? Are marketing strategies taking into consideration the power of Word of Mouth 2.0?

Sorry, but this is all the way of the past. Something has to change.

Time has come to change the business

A couple of weeks ago, I got one of the first copies of Brian Solis’ (@briansolis) new book The End of Business As Usual.The premise behind his next book is to help businesses and brands “rewire the way you work to succeed in theconsumer revolution“. Yes, there is a consumer revolution. It’s the age of what is known as the socially connected consumer — someone who is known to be technology savvy, agile at using social networks to share ifriends, and knowledgeable in reaching out to the Internet for insights and advice on products and brands.

Think about it: as a customer, when you’re thinking about buying something, where would you go to find recommendations on the best item, price or service? Traditionally, one would probably have gone to a catalog or went to a nearby store if they wanted to buy an item. But these days, customers have a plethora of opportunities. They can go to review sites, find used prices easily on Craigslist, compare prices using a single application, or buy in bulk for much lower prices. The opportunities are endless and this is causing brands to worry – and even some to shut down.

But why is that? It surely can’t be because of the price, right? No, this issue shouldn’t be blamed on the price businesses charge their customers. All competitors can have the same exact price for their items, but what it boils down to is customer service. And I’m not talking about just handling complaints or answering questions. I’m talking about how do brands treat their customers. Are brands cognizant about what power and leverage they have? I suppose that Christopher Locke, one of the co-authors of the pioneering book The Cluetrain Manifesto once said:

We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings — and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it.

That’s exactly how we need to treat customers. We need to treat them as human beings and not just as something that contributes to our brand’s return on investment. It goes to what Mr. Solis covers in his book. It’s more about understanding the sociology of your audience and getting to know their behaviors and thoughts instead of marking them off as a statistic.

What your brand says to customers can reverberate across time & space

We all know about the saying that it takes several good to be fans about you, but it only takes one bad thing to make them turn on you. Obviously I’ve paraphrased that a bit, but the meaning still holds true. How you interact with people using the tools at your disposal, whether it’s in person, over the phone, by email, or through the Internet via tweet, Facebook, message board, blog, etc., can be a positive or negative boon to your reputation and standing in the community. In fact, Mr. Solis points it out in one of his chapters with the title “Your Audience Is Now an Audience of Audiences with Audiences”. People are keen and interested in sharing their experiences not only with their friends and family, but also in real-time. To exacerbate it a further, those same friends and family will share it virally themselves causing your experience to snowball and grow into something massive. If you had a great experience with an airline, for example, then you’ll want to tell everyone in real-time about it. That will grow and grow and more people will want to follow that brand and learn more. But, the reverse can also happen. Remember the band that crafted “United Breaks Guitars“? That  was a negative experience with United Airlines through a video on YouTube and has since viewed over 11 million views – not something you’d want to ignore and brush off…and the company acquiesced and finally started to talk and resolve the matter.

What you “think” your customers want isn’t what they want

In February 2011, IBM’s Institute for Business Values did a report on the perception gap that businesses and consumers have when dealing with social sites. Just what was the motivation for consumers to follow brandt did brands think about consumers who followed them? Were they the same perceptions? The above chart may just surprise you as to the motivations…61% of consumers wanted to know more about discounts, but 73% of businesses thought consumers wanted to learn about new products. What a pretty different disparity between the two. In fact, businesses thought the reason to receive discounts was the least plausible reason why someone would follow them on social sites. Are you paying attention to what your consumers want or are you focusing on what you “think” your consumers want?

Marketers, learn what social capital and social consumer can do for your brands

Let’s not pretend that we don’t need help reaching out to customers…because we all do. Any advantage that we can get would be helpful and that’s what you’ll get in The End of Business As Usual. Marketers and businesses will get a better understanding about what drives the customers to make their decisions. Like I said earlier, it’s a sociology book, but one that will get you to dive deeper and explore not only motivates your customers but how you can update the culture in your business to make it more successful. The Internet and technology have transformed ordinary people into influencers and celebrities in their own right. And it’s all based on social capital, which Mr. Solis believes is the “square root of influence”. In his book, he says:

As connected consumers live in public, their activities are captured and measured. These actions, reactions, and the relationships…contribute to the state of an individual’s social capital within each network. This capital is a reflection of the size, quality, and scope of their social or interest graph…

What does this mean? Simnot going to have experts, real-life celebrities or professional athletes promote your products anymore. Instead, you’re going to need to pay closer attention to what your customers are saying and doing online and try and move on that action. In fact, in the chart above, you can see the plethora of roles belonging to the social consumer.  Mr. Solis believes that at any moment, consumers are capable of expressing any number of “faces” towards a brand. We could be a peer who might blog our thoughts to share with friends, advisor, idea generator, adversary who might be a competitor, advocate, customer, influencer, or ultimately a decision maker. There are many roles and it’s the job of the brands to realize this and build relationships with these individuals.

Why should you read this book?

Get into the minds of your customers. Understand how a change in your company’s culture is essential to empower success. What Mr. Solis offers in The End of Business As Usual are conceptual and strategic advice on knowing thy audience. But while it may seem verbose at times, what you will find helpful are case studies and language that will make it easy for you to translate into your own business. This isn’t a 101-level course book on how to use social media or a book on Internet marketing – we’re way past that. And while Mr. Solis’ last book Engage was more about the phenomenon of getting yourself out there to talk to your clients, The End of Business As Usual takes it one step further by looking at the cultural shift in business and takes it to a more conceptual and theoretical vantage point. Something is definitely happening in the world of business…it’s no longer about things revolving around the company. Rather, it’s about making your business work around your customers. The customer may not always be right, but they are always on and can affect you in more ways that you can imagine. By reading thto inch your way into the consumer revolution and be better skilled at making them happy. From research to listening to engagement, brands will be able to leave traditional marketing ideas in the past and jump right into the new paradigm: you’re dealing with human beings and they’re not at your beck and call anymore.

Part 2 of my review of Brian Solis' "The End Of Business As Usual" looks at one of the strong themes that runs through the book.



Most of us are suffering from information overload and people immersed in social media are no exception. Brian points out that for many people, the Web 2.0 approach to social networking was to befriend anyone and everyone. The early adopters often have huge networks and they get overloaded with the noise of it all. Ironically, they have become overloaded after keeping up with only a fraction of the data coming at them from their links, connections, friends, whatever term is used on that particular platform.



Pointing at the Circles concept in Google + (one I've been advocating here for at least the last 18 months), he says that the future will be to create micro-networks within your networks, based on common interests and how closely you want to be linked to each person. It mimics what happens in the offline world where we have friends, associates, acquaintances etc.



It's Brian's view that as we mature in our use of social media, we will pause before we write updates and ask ourselves:



1. What do i share with everyone?

2. How do I interact with a smaller group of more intimate friends and peers?

3. How do I see only the content that's shared by a more relevant subset of qualified connections?

4. How do I accomplish tasks or collaborate with others on specific projects?

5. How do I share and learn within a specific context of interests?



The alternative is to keep your huge networks as they are and broadcast at them, conning yourself that you are networking and engaging with them



I'll finish this review with another great point he makes that made me pause for thought: "Businesses are no longer the sole creator of a brand; it is now co-created by consumers through shared experiences and defined by the results of online searches and conversations." That's a great way of pointing businesses to the way social media has increased the power of the consumer.



I'm about a third of the way through the book (I had a long flight today) and without even reading the rest I'd say buy it. It's the best book on social media business strategy I've read.



I'm not going to carry on with this review in this format. Instead, I'll write a few blogs around the themes he addresses and the key points he makes.



Thanks for reading,



Blessings, Light, Love and Peace



Nic

Best-selling author and renowned new media thinker Brian Solisdelivered a neatly-packaged glimpse into the future of public relations during his opening keynote address at the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s PR Directions national conference in Sydney this week.

Could Solis have jam packed any more information into his one-hour presentation? I think not. That said, social media and its effect on PR and marketing is a massive multi-headed beast of a subject, and so props to Solis for being able to paint such a broad (but vivid) picture within his allotted one and a bit hours.

It was perfect timing because he has only just released his new book: The End of Business As Usual (Rewire the way you work to succeed in the consumer revolution) and the theme of his presentation was more or less along these lines.

These quotes, from an interview with Solis that appeared yesterday in ZDNet, will give you a pretty good feel for Solis’s current pitch:

The End of Business as Usual is aimed squarely at change agents and business leaders. It isn’t about social media as much as it is about building a business that connects with a new generation of connected customers.

Think about the ties that bind in social media for a moment. Everything and everyone is connected by shared experiences. What you’re doing, what you’re witnessing, what moves you, what you’re learning, what you love, what you hate, you are compelled to share your experiences.

When it comes to businesses, shared experiences assemble to form a brand that’s co-created very sexy stuff!) created content around questions people were asking for/searching for online.  

The company’s portfolio of blogs (yep, they have way more than one, indeed its portfolio of blogs is written by a team of 15 writers) -  increased inbound leads by 600%! More on Indium here.

 “Content is not king,” Solis contends. “Context is king”.

(NOTE: author David Meerman Scott is also a strong advocate for the concept of brand journalism – check out his take on it here).

Paid, Owned & Earned Media … and more

In PR circles, the concept of paid, owned and earned media is now well accepted.

However, Solis throws two more into the equation – ‘promoted’ and ‘shared’ media (i.e. shared media = Dell’s IdeaStorm and the My Starbucks Idea platforms; promoted media = promoted tweets and sponsored Facebook stories).

Solis gives the example of Budweiser which created a Wordpress site that became a hub for Bud content that was interesting and newsworthy, and targeted to people who loved commercials, Superbowl and beer.

“It’s about making something so interesting it’s shareable,” he says.

“This is a time when we can become part of the story.”

Solis urges brands to adapt to a new KISS model: Keep It Significant and Shareable.

Resonance is the new ROI

Solis is big on listening to connected consumers – he says you’ve got to listen so you know what they want … “it’s about intelligence, not (just) monitoring for followers and likes”.

Intelligence, he mn translate into ideas.

“Being in public relations is more incredible than ever before,” he says.

  

Part 8 in a series introducing my new book, The End of Business as Usual…this is not content from the book, but instead, this series serves as its prequel.

Social media says so much and so very little at the same time. First, social media implies that media is just that, social. But when you study many of the best practices or test the advice dispensed through popular “top 10″ posts, you find that at the heart of notable social media successes is simply brilliant creativity and desirable incentives, not necessary authentic or genuine value or engagement.  With every Tweet or Like to win campaign, hilarious viral video, and user-generated promotional series, businesses make social media more of an oxymoron than a movement to transform two-way conversations into improved customer relationships.

According to an annual IBM study, getting closer to customers is the overwhelming top priority for CEOs. And, social media is lauded as the great facilitator for engagement and renewed business relevance. What we tend to forget however, is that social networks are merely platforms for people to connect with friends, family and peers. Businesses are not the primary beneficiary of connections, but they can certainly benefit once they realize that a Like or follow does not equate to an opt-in for marketing communiqué.

If CEOs are placing increasing importance on customer relationships, why is it that we are less aligned with the “Rial CRM and closer in alignment to the “M,” where M stands for marketing and not management. That’s because of where social media lives within the organization today.

In IBM’s recent “From Social Media to Social CRM” report, it was revealed that social media is already siloed within marketing, marketing communication, or public relations, accounting for 52%, 45%, and 42% ownership respectively. When we think about the primary function of each of those functions, it’s clear to see why the premise of many of today’s top social media best practices are marketing driven rather than market driven.

The difference between a social brand and a social business is internal connectedness, preparedness, and collaborative approach to customer and employee engagement.

A Social Media and Social CRM Strategy are Different

As good friend Paul Greenberg noted in his book CRM at the Speed of Light, “The underlying principle for Social CRM’s success is very different from its predecessor….traditional CRM is based on an internal operational approach to manage customer relationships effectively. But Social CRM is based on the ability of a company to meet the personal agendas of [its] customers while, at the same time, meeting the objectives of [its] own business plan. It is aimed at customer engagement rather than customer management.”

At stake here is relevance among the growing base of a more connected consumer landscape. Engaging consumers from a marketing-driven approach may work for the short term, but engagement requires a holistic approach. Consumers see one brand, one company, one experience andected silos experimenting in social media without a common vision, mission, or process. While businesses are building an infrastructure to support social media, governance, policies, and strategies are only as strong as the experiences they’re designed to create, the problems they’re intended to solve, and the ability to adapt to and lead consumer experiences because you can see what others don’t.

IBM studied how businesses view their foundation for social media and found that many times, the prevailing corporate culture impeded innovation and collaboration, not just with consumers, but also within. And for any change agent, that will come as no surprise. Whether they know it or not, change agents are becoming hybrid cultural anthropologists and politicians learning how to adapt the culture while rallying internal champions to bring about real change.

Here you can see the number of businesses that have defined KPIs, flexible business models, established policies, adaptive approaches to incorporating social media into business strategies, and defined governance. The blue shades on the left equates to those that strongly agree while toward the right, companies start to show that they’re not where they would like to be. According to the IBM report, only 38% are confident in the support of their company in innovation and creativity. Just 30% can comfortably say that they have strong executive sponsorship for social media. And, a measly 27% say they share insights across functions.

Once you see these numbers, it’s clear that businesses are on the right path, but we’re really just at the beginning. More importantly, one could argue that the direction of the path is questionable. Even though the businesses on the far left are established and confident, they might be opout a holistic strategy that spans across lines of business, products, functions or across the globe.

And what of a centralized or holistic approach, defined by a common goal and reinforced through not only governance, but compliance?The effects of connected consumerism require nothing less than internal transformation and in many ways, a new outlook.

The challenges that businesses face are still relatively immature as IBM discovered. ROI, employee use of social media, and negative brand exposure lead the top three challenges companies face today. In the number four and seven spots however, we see the true threat to progress, lack of strategy and lack of support. We can not march into new territory without a unified vision. We can not lead consumer experiences if those experiences are either undefined or unsupported by the leadership organization we’re to stand behind.

When’s the last time you looked at your mission and vision statement? Can you Tweet it? Does it speak to you? The truth is that in addition to processes, businesses must rethink who or what it is to a different breed of consumer. This consumer is not just social, they’re connected across networks, devices, and they influence and are influenced differently than traditional consumers.

Mo Data, Mo Problems

What we need to do, where we need to be, how, why and to what extent is available to us today. We won’t discover these answers in the form of brand or competitive monitoring using social tools. We must capture data, interpret it, and also act upon it, now and over time, to learn and pursue relevance without forgetting our core markets and competencies.

Companies are clearly capturing data as IBM found. But as you can see, how data is analyzed, interpreted, and in turn shared across the organization is scattered. And, what happens to information (or insights) once its distributed is unclear in this study, but we can assume that it isn’t embraced and acted upon across the board.

Businesses are experimenting. Businesses are learning and adapting. But this can’t just be about social media. This must be about using disruptive technology to improve customer experiences and relationships. We can’t find comfort until we’re clearly operating outside of our comfort zones. And even then, we can’t rest until we are meeting the needs of connected consumers, where they are, how they connect, and reinforce the values, products, and services that are important to them.

Times are a changing and as a result, the foundation of business must also change. It’s a new era of business and consumerism and you play a role in defining it.

Order The End of Business as Usual today…

Brian Solis is known to most of our readers and his blog is one of the most influential marketing blogs in the world. He is on the forefront of social business, marketing, publishing, and culture. Now that his new book, The End of Business as Usual, has come out I asked if he could answer some questions for our readers. Brian gladly agreed.

What are the key takeaways of The End of Business as Usual?

Brian Solis: This book deconstructs a new era of business for you to rebuild within your organization. It’s hard work. It’s important work. The answers are at your disposal and they’re the direct result of organizations that are paving the way.

Many books to date have focused on helping businesses master social media. This was really the focus of my last book Engage. There comes a point however where the opportunity that social media presents falls short of executive expectations or understanding. The truth is that you can’t make the business case just because of social media. Incial media is just part of the story. If you align social media, mobile, gaming, deals, geolocation, et al., with business priorities and corporate objectives, you will not have to wait for negative experiences to find you, you’ll be well on your way to shaping experiences based on the delivery of real world value against real world metrics of business.

This book tells the whole story of exactly how consumer behavior is changing and how to change the infrastructure of the business to adapt and ultimately lead the way.

It says “you play a role in defining it”, who should read this book?

Brian Solis: Good question. The word “you” was carefully chosen. Many readers are the very people that they as businesses professionals are trying to reach. As everyday people embrace new technology, their behavior evolves. How they find and share information, how they make decisions, how they influence and are influenced, requires not only understanding, but a new approach. This book tells their story and as people read along, they feel a sense of validation. The second half of the book is prescriptive. It provides instructions for how to recognize the effect of new consumerism and how to adapt as a result.

Will the big faceless corporations disappear or will they still exist in the background like utilities?

Brian Solis: The tagline of the book is “rewire the way you work to succeed in the consumer revolution.” Prior to the official release of the book, someone took the opportunity to criticize it as sensationalism, mentioning that there have consumer revolutions over the years and that this was nothing special. When I used the word revolution, I was being literal. In the book, I discuss the concept of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to adapt. I truly believed that at some point, we would see consumers rise up against the “big faceless corporations” to demand an era of value, accountability, personalization, and a long list of other demands. And then the OCCUPY movements emerged around the world. While the book doesn’t necessarily predict OCCUPY, it does make clear that this consumer revolution would require the humanization of businesses, changing their culture and philosophy at the very core.

What book should we read before this one?

Brian Solis: I think back to when I wrote Engage 1 and Engage 2. In some ways, Engage is the book that you could read after The End of Business as Usual. My new book paints a clear path for the future of business. Engage connects the dots for marketing and service organizations to effectively engage with connected consumers. A big theme of the new book is also the design of meaningful and shareable experiences. I have a chapter on how Steve Jobs approached by thinking about experiences at the intersection of technology and liberal arts. Perhaps his biography could serve as a complementary read as well.

I had a chance to dive into Brian Solis’ new book, The End of Business As Usual this weekend. What Brian does so well is take the competing trends that are changing the marketplace, as well their impact on consumer sentiment and behavior, and helps us think through the ways we must reframe our businesses and our relationships with our customers to succeed in this new social business marketplace.

His ability to understand the present so well as to be able to reliably predict the future is something that Solis has been able to do for some time in his blog. But as his book suggests, we are now at a point where the impact of social media has drawn a line in the sand between business as we practiced it in the past, and the new strategies and relationship dynamics that will define the business success stories of the future. Solis rightly calls this “Digital Darwinism“, and as we have seen in the film, television, video, music and publishing industries, those companies that ignore the way that technology is transforming business do so at their peril.

Perhaps the most powerful message of the book is the appropriate priority that he now gives to the consumer. He explains how Millennials are increasingly defining what consumers need and want from brands, how social networks have allowed consumers to effectively have their own personal operating systems, and the growing importance of platforms like Facebook within this new “ego-system.”

Solis explains in clear and actionable steps exactly how business can respond t business environment, capitalizing on the fact that information is now available in real-time investing commercial relationships with a degree of intimacy unimaginable only a few years ago. The middle chapters of the bookare critical to this end as he explains about the intersection between media and the human network. The importance of earning social capital for social brands, and the rise of connected consumerism, cannot be overstressed and Solis carefully walks us through how to understand them both.

He then goes on to explain the importance of mobile commerce and the blistering rise of mobile applications that will increasingly define the business landscape, making it ever more challenging for brands to maintain customer loyalty. As such, Solis provides invaluable insights into the co-creation process of the new brand/consumer dynamic. Importantly, he looks at its implications for the sales cycle, and how brands can create shared experiences that will inspire customer communities to build a business in partnership with brands, referencing case studies like Starbucks, Zappos or Dell. These examples are very instructive in terms of the emotional dynamics that are now driving customer engagement and the purchasing of products, such as social responsibility, empathy and philanthropy. Finally, Solis takes an insightful look at the role of employees within this new business culture, and the type of change management that is needed for brands to not only engage social technology, but to stay nimble enough to keep changing with it.

As such, Solis does a wonderful job of explaining and synthesizing the many competing and potentially confusing trends that are now redefining the business marketplace, and provides an invaluable guide as to what we can expect from the future in terms of a brand’s relationship to its customers, employees, and its new leadership dynamics. If you’re interested in the social business marketplace, if you’re committed to reinventing your brand for success, if you’re fascinated by the ways that social media is impacting customer relations, organizational dynamics, leadership and the future of business, ‘The End of Business As Usual,’ is a must-read. It will redefine how you see your business, the marketplace, and your future, and provide a deep understanding of the incredible opportunities available to brands today.

You can follow Brian @briansolis, here’s his blog and you can order his book on Amazon.

Summary: Brian Solis’ new book, The End of Business as Usual, is now available. In a quick email interview, Brian explains the focus of his book, the shift from Social Media 1.0 to 2.0, and the transition from hype to real value.

In an era of self-proclaimed gurus and experts, there are only few that spend less time talking about themselves and more time focusing on getting down to business. Brian Solis has spent most of his time in social media leading the pack with his focus on big picture thinking and how the necessity for adaptability in business should not be taken lightly. In this quick hit email interview, I managed to get some his time and feedback on his new book, The End of Business as Usual. Brian explains the focus of his book, the shift from Social Media 1.0 to 2.0, and the transition from hype to real value.

You have just put out your new book, The End of Business as Usual. What’s it about and why so soon after Engage 1 and Engage 2?

Engage was aimed at social media professionals and forward thinking executives looking for a deep dive in social media. The End of Business as Usual is aimed squarely at change agents and business leaders. It isn’t about social media as much as it is about building a business that connects with a new generation of connected customers.

Think about the ties that bind in social media for a moment. Everything and everyone is connected by shared experiences. What you’re doing, what you’re witnessing, what moves you, what you’re learning, what you love, what you hate, you are compelled to share your experiences. Wheo businesses, shared experiences assemble to form a brand that’s co-created by the consumers who experience it. Connected customers see this pool of experiences within their social streams or in the results of a social search. Experiences are influential and they are absent from a traditional Google search.

When we think about the consumer, buyer or influencer, whether it’s B2C, B2B, etc., it is no longer just a collection of one type of persona or segment. We are witnessing the emergence of a new class of consumerism, individuals that are far more connected than many of the businesses that attempt to reach them. They require a different approach.

This book deconstructs a new era of business, shares how to connect with connected consumers, and helps you rebuild your organization to be relevant as you compete for the future. It’s hard work. It’s important work. The stories and lessons I share are told through the businesses that are doing this successfully today.

It’s been a couple years now since you came out with the first “Engage!”. Between that book and this latest one, what are some of the most crucial shifts in social media that you’ve seen?

Between the release of version 1 in March of 2010 and version 2 in March of 2011, I learned quite a bit about how organizations were or were not changing to adapt to market opportunities. Engage inspired success within departments and also empowered change agents to make social media matter across the entire organization. To help, I decided to give them a bit of air support. Neither book focuses on the technology. The coming change in business is taking place not because of social media or the likes of Facebook or Twitter, but because of what they represent to the connected customer. Expectations are now heightened because of the empowerment these networks offer. Decision making is connected and becoming much more efficient.

I believe that we’re at the end of a href="http://www.briansolis.com/2011/08/the-end-of-social-media-1-0/" target="_blank">Social Media 1.0, an era of networking and engagement that really was about the hype and not the value.

When you study many of business case studies for social media, you actually find that even though they were successful, they were also very antisocial in their approach. Social media is meant to be just that, social. Yet social media is run within marketing departments in over 50% of businesses out there. The consumer sees one company and expects a holistic presence, meaning that what’s next for social media is that regardless of the hot network of the month, businesses need to be present and engaged where their customers are and provide the value necessary to them whether it’s marketing, sales, service, R&D, HR, finance, etc.

What do you think the biggest challenges will be for brands during the Social Media 2.0 era?

The biggest challenges start with recognizing that there’s a different breed of consumer. How businesses are selling, marketing and servicing customers assumes that all are created equally and that all behave similarly. You and I know that this isn’t the case. It requires a new approach, a new philosophy and a new infrastructure to support new engagement.

The book examines how leading companies are finding success with connected customers. The lessons, case studies, and best practices contained within will help readers earn the support of organizational leaders by identifying growth opportunities and prioritizing where to invest time and resources. The end result is creating an adaptive foundation for businesses to not only build relationships with connected customers, but improve customer AND employee relationships overall.

What types of takeaways do you hope your readers will get after reading your new book?

The book is divided into two key parts…

In the first half, Thesiness as Usual looks at the entire new media landscape and explores its effect on consumer behavior, how they find and share information, how they make decisions and influence the decisions of their peers, and how they expect companies to compete for their business.

In the second half, executives learn how to recognize both the short and long-term business impact, how to prioritize opportunities among traditional and connected customers, bring together cross functional teams, and beginning the inevitable process of change toward true customer and employee centricity.

The End of Business as Usual explores the rise of the connected consumer and how organizations can in turn adapt to effective compete for their attention, their business, and most importantly, their loyalty.

This book serves as the manifesto for the change agent giving them everything they need to make the case, make decisions, and bring about meaningful change.

#AdaptorDie

Colleague Brian Solis’s latest book, which focused on organizational change across many of today’s disruptive companies launches –I want you to buy End of Business as Usual now for your team.

In the spirit of Groundswell, Open Leadership, and Engage, another book to your business library is available.

The book is organized in two distinct phases. The first focuses on the changes to the converged and connected customers, the external forces. This is suitable for anyone who’s focused on customer strategy from marketing to support to product innovation.

The second half is designer for changes leaders within your company. These change agents within corporations may be managers, VPs, and your CEO who wants to shift the corporation to quickly adapt.

Across all of the book, I was excited to see see charts, diagrams, bring the book to life, including some of Altimeter’s work on org models and how companies are changing internally. If you want to learn more about the book, see the dedicated page discussing the premise at End of Business.

Facebook redecorating its interface by adding Timeline and Open Graph, Twitter involved in political advertising, Google+ intensifying gamification features, sleeker design of Apple 4s, Samsung tablets priced reasonably, daily deals and healthcare IT—these are some of the innovations that the world was fed the past few weeks or months. But amidst all the updates and refurbishing, there is one constant factor that seemingly assumes the commander-in-chief post—consumers. The way things are planned, executed and evaluated boils down to the people. And yes, tech advancements are going the consumer-centric direction.

This idea, together with movers and shakers of the present-day business routes are discussed in Brian Solis’ “The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution”. Seasoned author and marketing blogger, Solis tackles the modern relationship of consumer and business models. He said, “This book is about the new age of business, consumerism and the individual’s role in defining the future of everything. Simply by discussing the experiences we’ve had with brands and business on review sites, in blogs, and in online communities, we’ve created a new world of consumer influence. ution is already underway, and the question is: How do you better understand the role you play in this production as a connected or social consumer as well as business professional?”

In an interview with Forbes.com, Solis gave his insights on the now and then business, especially with social media becoming one the premier drivers of growth: “What I try to tackle in The End of Business as Usual is the migration from a rigid business to that of an adaptive business. Rigid businesses were/are very top down focused from strategy to execution, from marketing to broadcast, and from experience to service. Businesses thrived for decades with a rigid model and there’s still plenty of opportunities to squeeze it for profitability over the next few years.”

He added, “The future however, requires an augmented approach which may over time evolve into a standard framework. I have to say that this transformation is partly due to social media, but mostly this revolution is led by the rising tide of new consumerism and flooded by the perception of brand oppression and the disregard of customer value from a human perspective.”

Gaining advantage over competition in the current realm is no easy job. But seeing what others don’t could be just that shining moment you could possibly own. The book serves as a recipe on how to fuel the engine of businesses by studying consumer behaviour and how the “ego-system” has panned out and become social media’s anchor to success.

The easy-to-digest bits of the book are empirical truths on how people power works even inside the technology scene. The “digital culture” is redefining the way organizations respond to business needs, consumerism, work arenas and even at home. Simply put, the collective “Wly dictate the future of an enterprise. It is the end of business as usual.

Brian Solis

I recently caught up with an old friend, and one of the first people I connected with in the social media era. Brian Solis is one of the most prolific and well-known bloggersin the social space. He writes daily about the impact of social media on consumerism, the workplace, and culture. He is Principal of Altimeter Group, a leading research-based advisory firm in Silicon Valley. His latest book, The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution, comes out today. In this interview, Brian talks about the move from a rigid business to an adaptive one, why customer-facing brands are the most impacted by the social revolution, and much more.

What was business like before social media and what is it like now? What are the similarities and differences?

What I try to tackle in The End of Business as Usual is the migration from a rigid business to that of an adaptive business. Rigid businesses were/are very top down focused from strategy to execution, from marketing to broadcast, and from experience to service. Businesses thrived for decades with a rigid model and there’s still plenty of opportunities to squeeze it for profitability over the next few years. The future however, requires an augmented approach which may over time evolve into a standard framework. I have to say that this transformation is partly due to social media, but mostly this revolution is led by the rising tide of new consumerism and flood by the perception of brand oppression and the disregard of customer value from a human perspective.

Yes those are bold and borderline grandiose statements, but think about the#OCCUPY movement for a moment. It doesn’t have a tangible objective or centralized focus. It is a physical response to years of eroding consumer confidence in business, government, and everything in between. The 99% is fed up. The 99% wants change. Rest assured, change is going to come. It always does. Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff calls this a “corporate spring” when employees and customers overthrow rigid business regimes. The reality is that revolutions are a natural part of evolution and that’s why this is the “ End of Business as Usual.”

The underlying current for the rise of what the book unveils as a new category of consumer, one that complements traditional and even digital behavior. This connected consumer shares and discovers information differently. And, how they make decisions is unique, not at all similar to the funnel that the other consumer groups follow. Therefore, this genre of consumer requires a completely new and personalized approach. New media, social and mobile for example, open doors to better see, hear, and understand this consumer. That’s why social media is important. We gain insight into the hearts and minds of customers and the people who influence them. It’s less about Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. They represent important channels. and more about building an infrastructure and a culture that supports change and starts to move the organization centricity.

Which industries are most impacted by social media and what are some examples of companies in those industries that have used it properly?

Naturally consumer-facing brands are affected by consumer activity within social networks. Social media is a repository for shared experiences. This new group of connected consumer is sharing everything publicly and brands are a fixture in that dialogue. While traditional and digital consumers begin the discovery process in Google, connected consumers will take to their social streams to gauge the experiences of people in their network by asking a public question or simply searching Twitter or Facebook, for example, to see what people are saying. There’s a saying, the future of brands are not created, they’re co-created and such is true in social ecosystems. Brands can market and advertise to contribute to brand in social networks, but in the end, costumer experiences are shared and it is in those exchanges that define the brand in the last mile.

I did some research with PeopleBrowsr for example, of what a consumer might find if they were searching for shared experiences about a particular airline. As you can imagine, consumers who are presented with tis information are only not likely to consider this airline as an option. Perhaps most alarming is that the airline is unaware of the concentrated brand sentiment across the thousands upon thousands of people that have expressed dissatisfaction. No amount of marketing, advertising or social media strategies will change this. Rethinking the business and service approach and redesigning the the customer experience is where it all begins. Here’s the result fed into a word cloud generator: https://img.skitch.com/20111011-jjdx614dcd4fawtx55i2ctr8ne.jpg

You m the “Egosystem” in your book. Can you define it and explain why it could be a good (or bad) thing?

The Egosystem is an endearing term that describes the nature of the social graph. Rather than a social ecosystem, it is quite literally an egosystem where the entire experience revolves around you. You are at the center of everything. The information that you see, the people around you, what you share, are all unique to you. And, your experience will be absolutely different than mine or anyone else for that matter. As such, the egosystem is personal, powerful and reflective of all that moves you. For businesses, tapping into the egosytem changes the game for marketing, sales and service. You’re in control, not the brand, and in order to get your attention and ultimately your trust, they will have to commit act of empathy to show that they are listening, that they’re sincere, and that they are genuinely reaching out to you and not millions of “people like you.”

Every once in a while, something shows up on the Internet that creates a game-changing shift in the way we view the world. In the context of online business, this happened to me in the fall of 2008 when I first saw the Conversation Prism developed by Brian Solis.

As a social media evangelist, the Conversation Prism became a disruptive tool that inspired both fear and opportunity. I leveraged it as the star slide of every presentation I gave over the next year – and also came to recognize a new thought leader in Solis, one who was articulating the future as well as the client experiences unfolding right in front of me.

I caught up with Solis this week to talk about his new book, “The End of Business as Usual: Rewire The Way You Work to Succeed in the Customer Revolution.” The following are highlights from our conversation.

Jason Cormier: Was there any feedback or key learning’s you established from your last book, “Engage”, as a foundation for this new book?

Brian Solis: Yes. "Engage" was aimed at the social strategist, marketing and communications team, and progressive management teams that were ready to… just as the title instructs, engage.

Between the release of version 1 in March of 2010 and version 2 in March of 2011, I learned quite a bit about how organizations were or were not changing to adapt to market.

”The End of Business as Usual” is written for change agents and those fighting to compete for attention and relevance. This time, I’m also pursuing the executives who are responsible for leading their business to what’s next. And, this book makes the case for leadership teams to look beyond social media to see the impact of the connected customer on their business.

This isn’t a book about case studies on how to use Facebook or Twitter. Executives don’t use these networks so making the argument, while necessary, really was the role of “Engage”. This time, I make the case from a business level to demonstrate how running a rigid business, business as usual, will open the doors to digital Darwinism where companies that fail to adapt will become victims of natural selection.

JC: I saw Peter Guber called your new book “the map” to win the hearts and minds of customers with “new media experiences.” Do you dig into any of the practical and tactical here or would you say it’s more of a map as opposed to a set of directions?

BS: Interesting question. The book is broken into two halves. First, I make the case for the future of decision-making and how connected consumers are influencing and influenced by interest graphs (those individuals connected by keywords, shared relationships, and expressed interests).

The second half of the book focuses on how to build an adaptive organization that’s optimized to learn, engage, adapt, and lead. It’s part map and part step-by-step directions.

JC: I caught your interview with Radian6 CEO, Marcel Lebrun, last week. In the context of “what’s next,” I like how he talked about the shift of how we must line up for our customers instead of the traditions.

He was using the idea of waiting on the phone in a support queue as an example, but was obviously referring to much more of an encompassing business concept – one he believes we’ll spend “the next 10 years” trying to figure out. What’s your take on his statements, and how might your book address them?

BS: The entire book is based upon the premise that businesses are stuck either reacting to customers or developing products or services in a vacuum that may or may not deliver against needs or aspirations. That’s business as usual and perhaps it will suffice for traditional consumers.

But for connected consumers, businesses have to focus beyond “figuring it out” to getting in front of customer experiences in order to shape and steer them. “The End of Business as Usual” looks at the “why” and also the “how” to help businesses rethink the infrastructure of the organization, the culture, processes, systems, methodologies, and decision trees to improve the internal collaboration needed to promote external collaboration.

You can’t engage externally if you can’t engage within. Employees, like customers, are stakeholders – and their support, input, and passion are critical ingredients in the recipe of tomorrow’s relevance.

JC: Over the years, you’ve referred to the “uh-oh” moment or “a-ha” moment as one that will ultimately lead companies into social media. What are the most common uh-oh moments you are seeing at this point in time?

BS: It’s amazing. Still today, businesses are thrust into social networks because of the “uh oh” moment. What’s even more amazing is that many businesses that are currently engaged in social media are also vulnerable to unsuspecting moments that blindside them into the new reality.

Businesses are not in control of customer experiences because they’re wrestling with the idea of what cthan consumers, buying media that tells people what to think, again, that’s business as usual.

Facebook currently houses 800 million active residents – that’s the size of the entire Internet in 2004. There’s no going back. Yet businesses today believe that they don’t need a social presence because that “might” invite negative interaction or operate social media in a silo while they wonder why they’re getting service related questions or complaints on a Facebook page dedicated to CSR activity.

JC: Earlier this year, Shiv Singh said, "When it comes to digital marketing I believe marketers need to be more strategists & research minded than idea evaluators and implementers." What’s the first thing that comes to mind regarding how your new book might help marketers (inside of brands or within agencies) best address the ever growing demand for strategy in social media?

BS: Shiv is right. If we examine many successful social media initiatives today, we’ll learn that great ideas connected with consumers to spark word of mouth, interaction, and desirable outcomes.

But in reality, this is yet another example of implementation. And, when you really think about it, there’s very little that’s truly social in everyday corporate social media campaigns. Sometimes I jokingly refer to social media as a great oxymoron.

One of the greatest advantages of social media is to listen to conversations to learn about mentions, context, sentiment, and reach. But when we really hear what people are saying and why, we start to peel back the layers of significance to research, learn, and adapt to new opportunities.

The insights that we extract simply by listening, hearing, and feeling what’s transpiring in social networks helps us translate empathy into action. The result is campaigns, service strategies, prBy default, relevance is earned simply by reflecting customer behavior, wants, and opportunities. #AdaptorDie!