Brian Solis - The End of business as usual

Brian Solis@briansolis

Digital Darwinism is the evolution of

consumer behavior when society &

technology evolve faster than your ability

to adapt

This is a time for introspection…for reflection. It’s time to lead and not follow. But to do so requires you to think outside of the traditional use cases. Instead…Think.Like.The.Customer

Traditional ConsumerDigital Consumer

CONNECTED CONSUMER

Employee and customer behavior & expectations are evolving. They expect to engage in new channels…their way.

You are now marketing to an audience with an audience of audiences - Strategies must engage and trigger the social effect

Connected Consumers see the world differently. They’re “always on” and that can work for and against you. The secret is to…See the world through the eyes of your customers.

Awareness

Interest

Evaluation

Decision

Action

Referral

Loyalty

Consumer Attention

The Customer Decision Journey 1.0

WITHOUT AWARENESSTHERE CAN BE NOCONSIDERATION

Gen-C takes to their social graph to make decisions with a little help from their friends

A social consumer hierarchy is emerging and connected customers are being incentivized to spark word of mouth and influence friends. A social consumer hierarchy is emerging.

Mobile engagement introduces opportunities to connect with customers and guide digital experiences optimized for devices and platforms

“Tweet Your Way to Savings!” American Express encourages group buying by activating the power of the crowds through co-branding and gamification in social networks

Customers shop for the best deal and advice. They will abandon the transaction if you don’t engage – at the right time.

1. Best price2. Information3. Peer reviews4. Experiences 5. Ideas6. Support7. Direction

Facebook friends go with you online & offline. Tying together the digital & real world is something that Gen-C “Likes!”

The connected customer sees the world differently, uniting the online and offline world for others to see & experience

Consumers split their attention between the destination web & activity streams. To connect requires an engaged approach.

Online behavior is changing: Attention moves to a “social” dashboard

Red = where users looked the mostYellow = indicate fewer viewsBlue = least viewedGray = didn’t attract any fixations Green = boxes drawn on top of the images after the study to highlight the advertisements

The fight for audience2 attention takes place where attention is focused

New campaigns and content must reach people where their attention is focused and how they consume and share information

The “customer voice” is expressed through shared experiences and must be co-created.

Without design or engagement, the collective of customer experiences become the “brand” for connected customers.

Whether we like it or not, customers contribute to the state of our brand simply by sharing their experiences.This is where co-creation begins…

The last mile of experiences is paved through engagement and you are its engineer

Anti- Social Business

Representative Customer

Engagement Elements

Customer Engagement

Brand Experience

#INNOVATEORDIE

The

EXPERIENCELayer

Connected consumerism is linked through share experiences. These experiences require design.

By design, businesses are optimized to work in groups and collaborate in the matrix. When it comes to co-creation we first ask, “What’s the ROI?” #FAIL

43% block access to social networking sites*

The Internal/External Social disconnect

Note: n = 521. “Not sure” responses were excluded from this analysis. *Society for Human Resource Management Survey, November, 2011

Note: n = 475. “Not sure” responses were excluded from this analysis.

Discouraging internal usage, promoting externally

Yet 68% of companies surveyed in the same study indicate they utilize social media to engage external audiences. Why the disconnect?

*Society for Human Resource Management Survey, November, 2011

Invest in a culture of innovation & co-creation

Over 40 percent of the companies that were at the top of the Fortune 500 in 2000 were no longer there in 2010

People are more comfortable with how things are than how they could be.

the top 5 reasons for transformation1. A new audience of connected customers is emerging, and they

are becoming more influential than your business.

2. Social platforms create new touchpoints and expectations.

3. The roles of the customer (and employees) are greater than the reach of marketing, co-creation is the DNA of engaged and adaptive businesses.

4. Without co-creation, customer activity and shared experiences steers conversations, impressions and activity without you.

5. Co-creation improves products and services, builds trust, and says to the world, “we’re listening…we’re improving…thank you.”

"We're finally tapping into the knowledge housed in the world’s greatest operating system in the world—the web—and unleashing the potential of billions of creative minds to work together in ways we’ve never seen before.”

— Michael Dell

We’ve arrived at a crossroads and we need to make a decision on our role driving change within the organization

Social Media Expert Change

Agent

@briansolis

Go your own way, We will follow…

The “boundaryless organization” brings people together…whether it’s employees, customers or

other stakeholders

A customer-centric business focuses on process, employees, philosophy and experiences.

Co-creation platforms are enablers of customer and employee-centric strategies that is driven by desired outcomes.

Company

WORK

illingness

pen

oadsey

to

new

is

Decision Maker

Influencer

CustomerAdvocate

Adversary

IdeaGenerator

AdvisorPeer

The roles of the social consumer

Enterprise social networking is more than “Facebook behind the firewall.”

It takes 1) Purpose, 2) Design, 3) Resolve & 4) Reward

What are we solving for?

Customer centricity begins with an idea on how to improve something that may not “be broken”

six qualities that define engagement

The Pillars of a Collaborative BusinessConsumers cited "feeling valued" as the most important element of brand engagement

The Future of iCommerce is the Digital Experience

Starbucks moved an executive from its Digital Ventures team to lead the new role of Chief Digital Officer. Starbucks is investing in the #digitalexperience. The CDO controls web, mobile, social media, digital marketing, Starbucks Card and loyalty, e-commerce, Wi-Fi, Starbucks Digital Network, and emerging in-store technologies.

“There’s been such a seismic shift that we needed to pull it all [digital] together and make it a priority.”

— Adam Brotman, Starbucks CDO

It’s time to change. But change is not the goal.

The goal is to improve customers experiences and relationships…

Do this again and again until it becomes a way of business.

The 10 Steps for Transformation

Become the Champion:

Find the courage to take the first steps…then prepare to make the business case for experimentation.

1

This is your time…Fear, risk, and uncertainty are off the table. Your work is an investment in creating a test and learn culture.

The key is not to be afraid. The worst mistake you can make is to not try. This is your time to use your voice. We would love to be in a position to have to say no to too many ideas- Management

Run an internal audit for capabilities, opportunities, and needs.

Assess the roadblocks, hurdles and other champions.

Identify your internal stakeholders and start the process of earning buy-in.

2

Understand customer behaviors, needs, and opportunities. Create a short list of engagement initiatives to engage them. The platform and the process – should fit the objective, not the other way around.

3

Scope and Metrics:

Bring customers into your organization one project at a time…

Understand that where you are and where you could be with customer engagement today and co-creation tomorrow. Pick a pilot program that can demonstrate value.

Begin with the end in mind…define what success looks like now.

4

Information commerce must be focused on high-impact areas to learn and prove value

Co-Creation

Research and

Development

Collective Intelligence/Predication

Co-creation/

Open Innovation

Creative, Design

Refinement

Transparency

Problem Solving

Platform Selection:

There’s a difference between Enterprise Social Networking and co-creation. Pick the right platform based on objectives and customer expectations.

AND define success before you begin.

5

Community Management/Rules of Engagement:

Define how best to approach customers, employees, suppliers, and any other stakeholders that can offer valuable insight.

Determine if the program is private or public.

Define roles and responsibilities.

Define a listening framework and a conversational workflow.

Document new processes.

6

Transparency:

Transparency is critical. Set clear expectations and give feedback to your community: how will you act upon input? For example, will an idea with many positive votes be implemented? If not, why not? (e.g. not feasible?) If so, how and when?

7

Identify patterns and trends in stakeholder input. Depending on the forum, they can do this for you through collaboration, debate, and voting.

8

Reward users for participation, not with dollars or discounts, but with badges, points, and other forms of acknowledgement.

9

Become the change you want to see…

Create an Innovation Center of Excellence and lead a culture of innovation based on proven process and results.

Introduce a co-creation playbook that 1) communicates best practices, 2) shows how to launch co-creation programs, and 3) offers training and support.

10

This is the time of risk takers and visionaries. Those who see what others don’t and those who

will do what others won’t

Brian Solis

brian@altimetergroup.com

briansolis.com

Twitter: @briansolis

For more information & to buy the

books,

please visit:

http://bit.ly/EndofBusiness

http://bit.ly/engage2

Connected consumers want a “magical” and frictionless experience

Deals are part of the commerce ecosystem, but personalization, gamification, rewards and personalized incentives will help trigger buys and shares. Design meaningful experiences that outpace fatigue.

Apps “know” when consumers are in store to deliver a personalized experience and reward them for engagement.

“as we’re all learning, social networks can do more than simply play a role in just connecting friends, family and co-workers for meaningless banter or pleasant distractions.”

@briansolis

Reality Check: An Undercurrent of Concern

Businesses struggle to sustain value creation and adoption of ESNs. Most organizations see one or more of the following 5 scenarios:

1. An initial enthusiasm and usage followed by slow decline.

2. Only one department strongly adopts the ESN.

3. Culture confusion and lack of executive engagement stymied growth from the start.

4. Lack of social business maturity.

5. Platform Proliferation” = another “thing we have to do”

Businesses must think through what success looks like and they must do so looking beyond the competition

Corporate Social

Local Community Manager

Mention

Marketing Intern

Qualified engagement Requires Attention Read only

Monitor for response

Acknowledge or Express gratitude

Positive

Negative

EngagementCommunity

Mgr Engagement

Urgent

Escalate 2Corporate

SocialExecutive

Review

Manager Review

cc: VPs/Directors

Corp Comm Escalate 1

Conversational Workflow

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

customers don’t really know what they want, but they know when they see it…

Before we can innovate externally, we have to innovate within

Social networks permeated the enterprise from the outside in. Because people use these

networks in real life, how they communicate, learn, and share is evolving beyond traditional

enterprise tools in play today. Engagement is at risk of decay.

Employees and customers “are” already social

As social media becomes part of the everyday lifestyle of connected employees, a new genre of engagement is required to foster co-creation and innovation

Have a grand vision for how you co-creation, but start small to test and learn.

@briansolis