Social Media Evolution: What Does the Future of Social Marketing Look Like?
Are you amazed at how much social media has changed over the last few years?
Want to discover whats next?
To explore the evolution of social media, I interview Brian Solis.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. Its designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Brian Solis, a principal analyst at the Altimeter Group. Hes written eight books, including Engage and Whats the Future of Business? His newest book is called X: The Experience When Business Meets Design.
Brian will explore how social media has changed and how it continues to evolve.
Youll discover how marketers can use moments of truth to engage their customers.
Listen as Brian Solis discusses the evolution of social media.
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Here are some of the things youll discover in this show:
Social Media Evolution
From Engage until now
Engage by Brian Solis.
Brian recalls that in the late 90s and early 2000s, he helped with development around what became social media and realized that two-way digital marketing aspect was going to be phenomenal.
He says his book Engage was the culmination of all that work put into a book designed tohelp anyone in marketing orbusiness really understand how to become social.
After Engage, Brian says, the world started to change and technology started to accelerate. This is something hestudies as both an analyst and an anthropologist.
Brian has continued to write books, do research and speak onhow to bridge the world of brand or business with technology and people. He says social has become part of that process, as hasmobile and digital transformation, wearables, etc.
When asked about major changes in social media that have taken place between his first book and today, Brian talks about creatingan infographic calledThe Wheel of Disruptionwhile he was writingWhats the Future of Business? The infographic showed all of the things thatweredisrupting industries, with an emphasis on brand, marketing and engagement.
Brian Solis Wheel of Disruption.
He explains that then and now,the three things Fred Wilson once called The Golden Triangleare at the core of everything.
Brian goes on to discuss howwearables, augmented reality and serviceslike Uber, Instacart,Postmates,Amazon, Drone Delivery and Google Expressare creating disruption not only on technology fronts, but also on behavioral and expectation fronts at a human level.
Listen to the show to hear Brian explain howthe disruption happening today has grand implications for every business in every industry.
The importance of experience
X by Brian Solis.
Brian shares that while many marketers, brand strategists and executives say experience is one of the most important things to deliver, that means different things to different people. From great customer service to great product design, its all over the map.
Brianbelieves that everything that happens when you buy, use, shop for or have a problem with something are moments that contributeto the overall experience.
Brian shares why he thinks we should be abletodefine and design experiences as part of business and branding to build better relationships, and why hebelieves experience is the next competitive advantage.
He says that while some savvy organizations have introduced efforts to define a brand experience (BX), a customer experience (CX) and a user experience (UX), all of these efforts are disparate. Thus, by default or by design, the experience isdisconnected.
Listen to the show to hear why Brian wants to bring all experiences under one banner of X, where everything works together.
Businesses doing a great job with experience
Brian explains thathe chose the companies he talks about inhis book not because they are examples of holistic experiences, but because they each contribute moments of truth that when combined, show what a holistic experience would look like.
He shares how Disney created an intentional experience around Snow White and how Steve Jobs was meticulous about designing a connected ecosystem in terms of experience for Apple.
Experience is all-encompassing. Image: Shutterstock.
He talks aboutTelstrafor stitching together digital and physical for better customer experiences.Brian also discusses howLEGO hired anthropology consultancy ReD to study the behavior of their customers, thenre-imagined their entire business to cater to the people they were hoping to reach.
He points out that what each of these companies share is a human-centered approach to their products, marketing and service.
Brian goes on to share the example of DisneysMagicBands. To the user its just a seamless devicetheywear toget into the park, pay for food and open their hotel door.Its also one of the most beautiful strategies for insight- and data-gathering, Brian says.
Listen to the show to hear more about howDisney uses the data from MagicBands to improve experience.
Moments of Truth
Brian says that when you think about marketing as engagement, meaning amoment of truth in which you can take someones attention and give them your attention, you have the opportunity to do something thats not only productive and useful, but also great.
Marketers can make the most of each moment. Image: Shutterstock.
The future of business, he says, is in optimizingthe four Moments of Truth.
The Zero Moment of Truth, the discovery process, occurs when someone wants to know something. Online, they useGoogle search, social networks, review sites, etc.,to learn more about what theyre searching for. In the Zero Moment of Truth, businesses want to engage and hand-hold someone to the next step.
The First Moment of Truth is when peoplehave included you (the business or brand) in their final decision process.This is where themarketing, packaging or presentation line up and customers buy your product.
The Second Moment of Truth happens aftersomeone has whatever theypurchased. Is thecustomerhappy? Do theycontact customer support because theyneed something? Are theylooking for alternative ways to use the product?
Finally, theres the Ultimate Moment of Truth when the customers overallexperience is evaluated asbad, inconsequential or fabulous. Whatever it is, that experience is going to be shared, whether it comes back in a survey, on Amazon or on a social network.
Brian explains that if you compare each customers Ultimate Moment of Truth to your brand promise, youll seeeither great alignment or a disconnect. Disconnects help you understand where to make improvements, enhancements or corrections.
Use the data from disconnects to make improvements. Image: Shutterstock.
Someones Ultimate Moment of Truth (what they share) becomes the next persons Zero Moment of Truth, so these four Moments of Truth are more important than ever.
Brian explains thatpeople share bad experiences most often and whymarketers need to get into the business of positive reinforcement to reward those who share positive experiences.
When asked for an example,Brian shared the story ofaUnited Kingdom cell phone provider thatdidnthave enough staff to support customers. They rewardedcustomers who answered peoples questions on Twitter and other social networks with free minutes or data and response time was lowered toa minute or two. This created a community of people helping people that ultimately became the companys brand experience.
Brian says Digital Darwinism,the notion that technology and society are going to evolve, isa common theme in all of his books. You have a choice: do nothing, compete for the moment (keep up with trends) or compete for the future.Businesses who want to survive need to look at how these trends are playing out over time, how peoples expectations and behaviors are evolving and get in front of it.
Thats the whole point of X, Brian says: design experiences that become meaningful, significant and shareable, and the people you embrace become your community, your salesforce and your customer service. They become everything.
Listen to the show to discover how Brians last two books are meant to work together.
Thoughts on emerging platforms
Brian says 2016 will be the year of live videoand the smartest marketers are really starting to understand it. Folks like Joel Comm andBrian Fanzoarent just building their own communities, theyrealso demonstrating to marketers whats possible with these channels.
In X, Brian uses theterm mediumism, which he defines as placing an inordinate value on any of the new channels without thinking about how to add value to it and really understanding the culture of the people within each one of those networks.
He says the emergence of live video represents both a challenge and an opportunity for marketers to really connect with people in ways that are intuitive and natural.
Listen to the show to hear what Brian thinks live streaming meansfor the future of entertainment.
Immersive technologies
Brian says Facebook is already experimenting with Facebook 360and shares that there are also incredible 360 orb cameras that are capturing things in real time. All it takes, he explains, is a video architect to stitch them together into new worlds and new experiences.
He believes were only scratching the surface of whats possible.
Brian explainsvirtual reality, 360 and immersive videomake it easy to understand why what he calls experience architecture is important. He says none of these products will be amazing unless you can immerse yourself in something thats incredible.
He goes on to share a suggestion he made tothe manager of Radioheadfor including anOculus Riftexperience in the release of their new album.
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Brian discusses the idea that social networks are evolving to become the center of our consumption and entertainment, and why these networks have to continue to evolve.
When considering the future, Brian says there are three different kinds of impact: iteration (doing the same things better), innovation (doing new things in new ways) and disruption (doing new things in new ways that make the old ways obsolete). Thereare people who spend every day thinking about those three things, and thats why he believes the next big disruption is going to come from some future Mark Zuckerberg.
This is a great time for iteration, innovation and disruption, Brian says, but we have to be prepared; you will either disrupt or be disrupted.
Listen to the show to learn why Brian wants big businesses to think like startups.
Discovery of the Week
WhileInstagram is first and foremost about images, its secondarily about the hashtags in terms of being found and finding others.
Grama is a free iOS app that helps you find Instagram hashtags related to hashtags you already use.
The Grama app helps you find relevant hashtags.
Type in yourhashtag and the app brings up awall of related hashtags.For example, if I type in #travel, the app willgive me tags such as instatravel, travelgram, vacation and traveling.Then you simply tap on any of the tags you want and Gramawill export themto your clipboard so you can jump back into Instagram and use them.
Check out Grama in iTunes.
Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how Grama works for you.
Other Show Mentions
Todays show is sponsored by Social Media Marketing World 2016.
You can now sign upfor Social Media Marketing World 2016. Its the worlds largest social media marketing conference. By attending, youll make connections with 100+ of the worlds top social media pros (plus 3,000 of your peers) and youll discover amazing ideas thatll transform your social media marketing. Speakers include Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Michael Hyatt, Jay Baer and Michael Stelzner.
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See what attendees experienced at our 2015 conference.
The event takes place in San Diego, California on April 17, 18 and 19, 2016.
Hundreds of people have already purchased their tickets and have committed to coming to this conference. If youve heard about Social Media Marketing World,and always wanted to go and connect with thought leaders and soak in a lot of knowledge, visit SMMW16.com.
During this episode, Jennifer Ballard from the Social Media Examiner marketing team shares some of the things she and Kimberly Reynolds do with on-location video to give attendees insider tips and a behind-the-scenes peek at Social Media Marketing World.
You can check outthese videos on our Facebook event page!
We have the best pricing you will ever find going on right now. Click here to check out the speakers and the agenda and grab your early bird discount.
Listen to the show!
http://traffic.libsyn.com/socialmediamarketing/SocialMediaMarketing-179-16-01-08.mp3
Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:Learn more about Brian and the Altimeter Group.Connect with Brian on Twitter or LinkedIn.Check out XtheBook.com.Read X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, Engage and Whats the Future of Business.ExploreThe Wheel of Disruption andThe Golden Triangle.Learn more about Uber, Instacart, Postmates, services through Amazon, Drone Delivery and Google Express.Check out AppleandTelstra, howReDstudied the behaviorof LEGOs customers andDisneys MagicBands.Explorethefour Moments of TruthandDigital Darwinism.Learn more aboutFacebook 360,360 orb cameras,virtual reality,immersive video,RadioheadandOculus Rift.Check out Grama.Follow me, subscribeand listen to the Social Media Examiner weekly blabs.Learn more about the 2016 Social Media Marketing World.
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What do you think? What are your thoughts on the evolutionof social media? Please leave your comments below.
Experience photo, Moment of truth photo,Improvement photo from Shutterstock.
Michael Stelzner talks with Brian Solis about the evolution of social media.
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