This of course plays into the fears of executives who do not understand the value of social media nor its place in our modern society. “We can’t respond to them,” I hear executives declare. “If we do, we’ll invite more complaints and questions,” they’ll contend in defense of their position.

This isn’t as uncommon as you might think. I recently presented at a corporate conference where I received a question from someone in the C-Suite that gave me pause. The question went something like this, “Customers will complain on social media because it’s a natural thing to do. We know more people will say negative things than they will share positive experiences. What’s a company to do? What’s the point? How do we change behavior?”

The future of branding is shared experiences

The reality is that people will share their experiences at every step of the customer journey and throughout the customer lifecycle. In every moment of truth, touch points open and close and it is what they ask and find in each moments that decides the fate of their decision and your place within it. Among connected customers, websites may or may not play a role in providing guidance to prospects or resolution to existing customers. What will factor into every moment of truth however are the shared experiences of their peers and those who appear in blogs, review sites, communities, YouTube, and in the responses during real-time engagement across social networks and customer-facing apps.

The expressions that come back in those moments represent the real world, and they’re only amplifying in volume and magnitude. See, those experiences don’t disappear. They stay online forming a collective repository where expressions shape impressions. People trust experiences of their peers, whether good or bad, and without your engagement, you are the victim of a digital game of grapevine. Perception is reality. This is why now is the time to take part in shaping the experiences your want people to have and share. And, that takes an investment.

So how do we change behavior?

It starts by changing our behavior first.

Become the change you wish to see

Customers don’t’ see the roles and functions that define a business. They see one brand and therefore everyone who touches the customer must work together to deliver a consistent experience. When it comes to social media, customers are for the most part, only getting a glimpse of the brand, usually the lens of the marketing or communications department. This assumes that customers only want to connect for marketing or entertainment purposes. When you consider the multiple dimensions of the customer lifecycle and the expectations in each moment of truth, businesses are rather antisocial in their social media approach. It’s rather absurd that businesses think that social media is yet another channel for traditional marketing guised in a social promise of engagement and transparency.

Changing behavior takes understanding

We know that customers take to social media to share experiences for a variety of reasons:

• Because they can.
• Becase it’s cathartic and validating.
• Because social media tests and rebuilds relationships.

So if companies aren’t investing in cultivating positive experiences, they are by default investing the active exchange of grievances and speculation.

According to a recent report published by SimplyMeasured, almost 99 percent of businesses in the Interbrand Top 100 Brands maintain a social media presence on Twitter. Yet, only 30 percent have a dedicated customer service handle.

Among the top 10 brands as measured by engagement, with dedicated customer service handles, response times ranged from 40 minutes to 20 hours.

Yes it’s a new expense. Yes it’s different. But we know that it works. Improving the quality and quantity of “word of mouth” starts with changing perceptions. Martiz and Evolve24 found that when people seeking help or expression discontent were engaged on Twitter by the brand, 32 percent and 51.5 percent loved it or liked it respectively. Of course they did! And you know what? It changed how they feel in that moment and over time.

A Risk-averse leadership leads to a complacent market

Does engaging customers on Twitter invite more complaints? Hardly. Research shows that people take to social networks to vent because their attempts at seeking resolution through traditional channels already failed. People are seeking solutions; if not from you, from anyone.

Shared experiences are powerful and they don’t always have to be negative. The solution is positive reinforcement or positive conditioning. People are busy. They ask questions or voice frustration in the moment because there’s usually something in it for them. The same could be true for positive reinforcement. If you want people to share their honest experiences, and you believe them to be true, then you must proactively foster the behavior you wish to see.

Positive reinforcement applies rewards to induce or encourage desired behavior. To work, it must be individualized and then promoted to greater audiences to demonstrate your good work.

Earning good “carma”

When Ford launched its 2013 Fusion, it understood that people would share both praise and displeasure. However, the company believed that in order to incite social acclaim and positive experiences, it would need to proactively invite and reward the desired behavior. To do so, Ford introduced “Random Acts of Fusion” to thank fans for essentially saying nice things.

From customized “thank you” baskets to pop-up car washes to test drives to having comedian Reggie Watts remix customer Tweets, Ford was loud and clear in its intentions. As evidenced by its hashtag, #backatyou, people were at the center of this campaign and reciprocity was the takeaway. Ford’s random acts of kindness weren’t really random at all. Everything was not only cleverly planned but also promoted across social media far and wide. The company found that in addition to expanded reach and priceless PR as a result, positive conditioning works. And over time, Ford’s continued investment in positive engagement will eventually contribute to a more meaningful, co-created brand where people and their experiences define what the blue oval means to them and their peers.

Behavior change is just the beginning. If you want people to share positive experiences and accolades, you have to intentionally invite and reward them to do so. Additionally you must alter the negative experiences of those in need. The old adage, you reap the seeds you sow, has never been truer. In a social economy, happy customers will tell a few, and unhappy customers will tell thousands. It’s up to you, your imagination, and your intentions to shift the balance and change the equation to your benefit now and over time.

The future of business isn’t created, it’s co-created. #backatyou

Brian Solis is the author of the book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

In each network, and across multiple social streams, you’re fed a visual buffet of travel, food, fashion, and celebrations. In assemblage, they tell the story of life well lived, or at least a life well curated. At the center of each of these experiences is the person living and sharing them in real time.  Every day that passes, it seems that a growing network of our friends, family, and colleagues are charmed with this picturesque life.

But who are we kidding? We described those in our social networks, but we might as well be talking about ourselves.  It’s a social world after all, and shared experiences are the epicenter of a growing majority of engagement. As such, we’re introduced to a new law of social physics, if you will, where for every action there is an equal or greater reaction. The truth is that social sharing is part self-expression and also part provocation. People share to communicate who they are or who they want to be, while concurrently hoping to incite a reaction that validates or substantiates their intended online persona.

This phenomenon may seem like a personal discussion, but I can assure you that it has everything to do with your business.

I’d like to officially introduce you to your connected customer. I believe it’s about time we get to know the connected set to better understand how to engage them in social and mobile networks now and throughout the entire customer lifecycle.

It’s all about you and me…but mostly me

If you’re reading this, then you’re most likely the very person you’re trying to reach. You’re connected, always on, unabashedly multitasking, and living across multiple screens each and every day. You live a digital lifestyle and without realizing it, you and others like you, are gradually exhibiting slivers of narcissism. Believe me, I say this with the utmost discretion. You can’t help it of course. These networks prompt you to share your world, your way, all day, every day. And each time we do, we contribute to our “egosystem,” where we are the center of our own digital universe. Experiences and engagement represent the orbits that bring us together.

Let’s visit planet Facebook and its orbiting moon Instagram for a moment. Facebook is now home to over one billion digital denizens. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly about 12 percent of planet Earth. Instagram is a fledgling digital society in its own right. At 100 million residents and counting, a culture of sharing one’s experiences is further enhanced by the ability to instantly enhance them with a creative filter, broadcast them across multiple networks, and earn the attention and reaction of a boundless and seemingly idle audience.

The question is, if everyone is busy sharing content, then who is consuming it? This is also the law of social attraction. It’s a reciprocal relationship where to earn reactions, one must equally or progressively react. How do you do that if the real-time web moves in real-time?

The age of prevalence

Understanding digital behavior has never known greater importance. As it evolves,  we need to appreciate its velocity and impact. For example, on Facebook, conversations lose momentum in an hour, give or take. The reason for this is because people consume until they create. As they create, expectations shift as characteristics of narcissism take over. What about Instagram? Allow me to share some revealing behavioral stats that will make you say “Wow.”

Statigram is a third-party tool that tracks activity on Instagram. According to a fascinating article in pdn (Photo District News) written by Kathleen Hay, Statigram tracked the number of photos tagged “selfie,” social slang for self-portrait (yes, that’s a thing.) At 11 p.m. PST on December 28, 2012, the number of selfies numbered at a noteworthy 5.5 million. The egosystem wouldn’t be the same without the “me” in social media. At the same time, photos tagged ‘me’ completely eclipsed “selfie” with a staggering 72.6 million self-portraits. Added together, you start to get the picture of just how prominent the egosystem is becoming.

In the article, Hay introduces us to Dr. Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology and author of Generation Me and co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. The titles alone convey that connected consumerism is nothing like the conventional customers you once knew. To better understand the crux of selfies and the digital “me,” Twenge explains that at the core of narcissism is this invention or aspiration that people are better or more important than in reality. In the digital realm however, perception is reality.

Agree or disagree, this is your connected customer. And in many ways, you and those you know are among them.

How can you re-imagine your engagement strategies to align with and inspire the “me” in social media? How does — or how can — your brand evoke an experience that elicits self-expression? And how will your brand become part of the egosystem and create a gravitational pull for others to orbit?

Brian Solis is the author of the book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

Answer: Stop talking about social media.

Type “social media” into a Google search bar and you’ll find roughly about 4.7 billion results in .30 seconds. Next, try “social media conference.” You’ll see something along the lines of 1.2 billion results in .25 seconds. Social media is important but I’d argue we aren’t celebrating it for the reasons we should. Instead, we are forcing social media to conform to traditional thinking and processes rather than adapting business philosophies and supporting methodologies to meet new opportunities.

Every day, I hear about how social media strategists and managers are frustrated with the lack of executive support. Yet, many aren’t doing themselves any favors. Executives don’t speak the language of social media. They speak the language of the C-Suite and their audience are shareholders and stakeholders…not necessarily customers or employees or “people” in its most human sense.

So, in the face of skepticism or fear, the best advice that I can offer you is to learn the language of the C-Suite when making the case for what it is you believe is the right thing to do. Making the case for social media has less to do Facebook or Twitter or “likes,” views or “retweets” and more to do with using these networks to glean or introduce value. To earn the attention and respect of the C-Suite and ultimately customers is the ability to connect the dots to the very things that every stakeholder values and communicating it in a way that is approachable and appreciated. This takes a thoughtful approach to rendering value in a contextual means that hits home with different people their way.

Social media alignment

Altimeter colleague Charlene Li and I conducted a series of research interviews and surveys over the last year on this very topic…how social today’s social media strategies align (or do not align) with business goals. We shared our findings in a newly released report, “The Evolution of Social Business Six Stages of Social Media Transformation.” Needless to say, we found a significant gap And, it is this gap that makes communicating value to executives difficult if not impossible.

Charlene and I found the following interesting results:

• Only 34% of businesses felt that their social strategy was connected to business outcomes.
• Just 28% felt that they had a holistic approach to social media, where lines of business and business functions work together under a common vision.
• A mere 12% were confident they had a plan that looked beyond the next year. Perhaps most astonishing was that only one-half of companies surveyed said that top executives were “informed, engaged and aligned with their companies’ social strategy.”

The value of take-aways

In the early days of social media, emergent networks changed how people connect to one another and the information that’s important to them. With each update, shared experience, and event, the world shrank. People were and are becoming increasingly connected and as a result they are more informed. With information and connectedness comes the reality of increased customer expectations. Value, engagement, entertainment, personalization, people must take away something meaningful from the exchange otherwise there can be no relationship. A relationship is after all a mutual exchange where all parties believe that connectedness is beneficial.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and every network thereafter are merely communities, ecosystems, and platforms where information is exchanged and relationships are formed and abandoned. How you make the case for engagement and how to deliver or extract value isn’t directly tied to the nature of the environment as much as it is the facilitator of the way and the weight that value is defined, expressed, and measured.

If we’re not providing solutions we may in fact be contributing to the problem. See, social technology isn’t the answer; it’s part of the answer. Yet social strategists are often caught up in a socialized ecosystem of catch-up and that’s part of the challenge and the test. There’s always going to be a new network or another shiny object. There are always new case studies or expert theories flooding blogs, conferences, and books.

Again, the best advice I can give you is to stop talking about social media as a means to an end and start thinking about how social media becomes a means toward triggering meaningful activities or outcomes that align with business priorities or objectives and customer expectations.

This is the time to get back to basics. This is the time to take a step back.

Social media is not the crux of you argument. It is an enabler.

What are you doing to lift the conversation from tools to value? Are you prepared to translate the promise and opportunity of social into customer engagement that aligns business goal, social media strategies and customer value?

Brian Solis is the author of the book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

What people watch and the reactions they have ricochet from the big screen to the little screen in real-time, creating a rich network of information and conversation. Something as simple as an onscreen #hashtag can spark a convergence of reactions that bring people together. As mentioned in my previous post on the subject of social TV, Twitter refers to these spontaneous moments as the convergence of discovery and engagement.

What if they weren’t spontaneous, but were designed to play out as stories of their own?

In Twitter’s recently published report out of its UK branch, “Tune in with Twitter,” we learn that discovery and engagement aren’t just isolated to on screen programming; advertising is also part of the conversation. And smart advertisers are using Twitter to make the ad, program, and online conversations one.

#Advertising

Every advertisement has a Twitter presence just like every program triggers Tweets. Essentially, they happen with or without your direction. Whether celebrated, lambasted or indifferent, Tweets fly — and what those Tweets communicate are yours to define.

By integrating Twitter into advertising, the report found that brand recall scores and other intentional marketing goals increase. The deeper the integration, the deeper the engagement. As advertisers integrate brand and story together with the Twitter ecosystem, they realize greater success in both reach and engagement.

To help advertisers see the potential of Twitter integration, the report provides a simple and convincing display of mentions based on depth.

1. All ads have a presence. Even ads without integration enjoy a limited conversational presence.

2. Hashtags are the new brand tagline. Brands that include a hashtag in ads will hear conversations soar, while also organizing conversations around a desired axis.

3. Promoted Trends drive discovery and engagement. Twitter sells a variety of Promoted products, one of which is a Promoted Trend. Add that to the mix, and Twitter guarantees top spot visibility on the second screen while the campaign runs on the first screen.

4. Deeper engagement involves even more users and viewers. Consider the future of product placement, where brands become a native part of the story.  The unification of brand, ad, story, and Promoted products amplify conversations to unfathomable volumes.

#Hashtags

Hashtags are more than the new brand tagline. Hashtags are a vocalized expression that conveys an afterthought or the underlying meaning or notion of the Tweet. For example, “Have to visit family today for brunch #betterthingstodo.” Hashtags are creating a unique culture in Twitter and they have become part of not only the Twitterverse but also real life. Hashtags can play a big role in advertising.

In the report, Twitter observed three main ways brands use hashtags successfully.

1. Brand tagline. Adidas used the hashtag as a master brand theme. #takethestage or #stagetaken was used in ads online and offline.

2) Hashtag jacking. Leverage existing conversations to draw new, desirable, or extended audiences.

3) Activate the community. Use Hashtags to drive engagement, action, and outcomes.

#PromotedTrends

On the surface, Promoted Trends seem to be just another ad vehicle. Brands, however, are encouraged to think of them as a gavel striking a table in a large and noisy room. Once you silence the clamor and draw attention to you, what are you going to do about it? Clever use of Promoted Trends is found to have an incredible effect on the proverbial social conversation.

Deep integration implies more than syndication across multiple screens. Integration is enveloped by story and an interactive ecosystem that provokes and channels conversations and engagement.

As Twitter notes, Promoted Trends and Promoted Tweets drive discovery and engagement. Promoted Products gain visibility by helping brands target interest groups that reach beyond existing followers.

Twitter tells the story of Coca Cola. The company seeded its Christmas ad on Twitter using a Promoted Trend before it aired on TV – #holidaysarecoming. The Promoted Trend boosted discovery instantaneously, triggering almost 100k Tweets and 7.6m in unique reach on Twitter before it aired.

#Integration

We’ve already established that every ad is the beneficiary or victim of conversations on Twitter. If a conductor can assemble a myriad of instruments in an orchestra to create something harmonious and beautiful, why not orchestrate conversations in a similar manner?

Aligning Twitter and TV is the keystone. Twitter plus TV opens up new and creative possibilities for brands to include viewers in a new genre of dynamic storytelling where brands become heroes.

For example, Mercedes aired a pioneering TV campaign that invited viewers to Tweet “#hide” or “#evade” to have a say about the next stage of the story.

The key to remember is not to judge the success of the ad by the number of Tweets, as that frequently represents only a small subset of those who are exposed to the message. That’s a ratio that you can change. Nonetheless, those exposed and those who tweet demonstrate value to brands. Doing so increases lift and overall brand metrics. In this example, 1 in 4 sought to learn more about the Mercedes A Class.

Overview of Twitter’s Promoted Products

#Fin

As the relationship between television and Twitter evolve, first and second screens become portals to relevant conversations and connections. People are going to talk, so give them something to talk about.  How content plays out on television shapes the Tweets that unfold in each moment. This happens whether content creators and advertisers know it or not. Why wouldn’t producers and creatives then reconsider storytelling and desirable actions and outcomes?

Tweetable moments require architecture. Second screen behavior, what’s said and what happens next, also requires architecture. The intentional design and integration of branded value and story turn the wheel of discovery and engagement to the benefit of everyone from viewers to marketers. At some point the role of the first and second screen blurs in the background, creating one living and Tweeting ecosystem of story and experience.

How could aligning Twitter and TV advertising open up new opportunities for your business? Are you ready to take advantage of the second screen by giving your audience something to talk about? Please share your approach in the comments.

Brian Solis is the author of the new book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

I am exaggerating, of course. What is not an exaggeration, however, is the importance marketers place on influencers and advocates without understanding the role each can play in word of mouth or engagement programs. If you were to spend any time in a conference room full of brands, agencies or social software vendors, you would quickly realize that the words influence and advocacy would be used interchangeably.

What’s the difference between influence and advocacy? The differences are quite notable but the answers aren’t often sought.

Influencers are individuals who’ve earned authority on any given topic and have built a community or series of communities around their body of ideas or work. They have the capacity to cause an effect on the character, actions or behavior of someone or something.

Advocates are champions (and/or enthusiastic customers) who align with or embody the tenets or the mission of a thing (in this case a brand) or a cause. Advocates may or may not carry influence individually. When advocates unite, the concerted group can wield influence.

On the subject of influence, Technorati recently released its 2013 Digital Influence Report. In it, I discovered some interesting stats about the various ways that brands are approaching influence.

Influencers become part of the mix

For years, I’ve studied the art and science of digital influence, especially what it is, what it isn’t, and how it works (and can work for you.) As a long time blogger, I found it fascinating that “influencers” are most active on blogs with the likes of Facebook and Twitter supporting their efforts according to Technorati.

Their efforts don’t go unnoticed. Not only are they building audiences and communities, brands are actively seeking to work with them. Technorati learned that 65% of brands participate in influencer targeting as part of its digital marketing mix.

I was equally fascinated by how brands measured the elements of “influence.” In an interesting twist of cyber fate, brands appeared to calculate influence, or at least the semblance of it, using a myriad of popularity-based metrics rather than studying impact or the capacity to cause effect or change behavior. Ironically however, Likes, followers, friends, audience size, and views ranked higher in terms of weight than those very platforms designed to measure “influence,” i.e. Klout, Peer Index, Kred and even Technorati Authority.

Is it quantity or quality? In this case, when it comes to influence, less can be more. Similar to an influence study I conducted a few years ago with Vocus, Technorati Media found that most brands, in this case 54%, believe that individuals or groups that boast concentrated communities carry greater influence. Please repeat, influence is not popularity and popularity is not influence.

Influence is relative, however, if it can’t be attributed to cause and effect.  Technorati learned something quite profound. When it comes to decision-making, consumers turned to blogs in droves when making a purchase. Blogs were found to be the third most influential digital resource at 31% behind retail sites (56%) and brand sites (34%).

When it comes to services most used, blogs ranked in the top 5, ahead of noteworthy destinations and networks such as Twitter, news sites, Pinterest and even brand sites. YouTube and Facebook respectively ranked as the first and second most used online services.

Which online services are most trusted by consumers? Technorati’s study revealed that news sites are by far the most trusted followed by Facebook. YouTube and blogs also made the top 5.

The report overall makes it clear that brands will miss important consumer touch points if they do not employ either new media influencer and/or advocacy programs as part of the greater marketing mix.  As consumers research products to make informed decisions, published experiences and impressions in social networks and blogs become the peer-driven digital equivalent to Consumer Reports.

3 strategies for cultivating advocacy programs

To succeed here requires distinct strategies aimed at cultivating influence and advocacy programs over time.

1) Identify, learn, brief, and support influencers based on what’s important to them, not what’s just important to you. It’s important to build relationships before you need them.

2) Recognize advocates and what it is they love about the brand. Develop online and social programs that allow them to connect with other consumers where touch points and decision-making intersect.

3) Reward advocates for asking and answering questions and for sharing experiences and passions.

Genuine influence and advocacy initiatives will only help your customers discover your value in key moments of truth. How are you using advocates and influencers in your overall strategy?

Brian Solis is the author of the new book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

On December 17^th, Twitter and Nielsen accounted an agreement to create a new Twitter-based TV rating. Steve Hasker, President, Global Media Products and Advertiser Solutions at Nielsen, shared his view on the importance of Twitter’s role in the new world of TV in an official statement, “As a media measurement leader we recognize that Twitter is the preeminent source of real-time television engagement data.”

Twitter didn’t stop there, however. In February 2013, Twitter announced the strategic acquisition of Bluefin for its TV-centric data science to, according to Twitter COO Ali Rowghani, “help us create innovative new ad products and consumer experiences in the exciting intersection of Twitter and TV.”

Analytics. Ad products. Experiences. The deals with Nielsen and Bluefin represent wise investments considering that they were led by a leading social media company that’s often misconstrued as a mere second screen product in this space. Instead, we can consider Twitter now as an extension of personal experiences…a digital form of self-expression if you will.

So how is Twitter affecting our television viewing habits? To answer the question, we need not look any further than an ebook that Twitter UK recently published, “Tune in with Twitter.”

The ebook opens with a strong assertion that the relationship between Twitter and television is strongly symbiotic. It’s justified perhaps with this follow on statement, “Twitter is the shortest distance between you and what interests you most.” In my research, this is what truly makes Twitter less of a social network and more of an information network. Whereas Facebook is the digital habitat for the social graph, Twitter is the social club whose members form the interest graph. At 400 million Tweets published per day, Twitter is the popular voice for a connected society. Is 400 million daily tweets a significant number? Even if you considered 400 million a year, would that seem significant to you? Consider that amount on a daily basis.

Discovery + Engagement

The magic of Twitter is that it promotes discovery and engagement as part of its nature. As Twitter denotes, Tweets and TV programming drive each other in a complimentary cycle. Hashtags aired in programming is proven to boost online engagement by organizing viewers around a common Tweet to Action (T2A) where people tweet reactions to trigger interactions. A TV-related Trend or Tweet on the other hand sparks discovery.

The goal for content producers and advertisers is to create content that positions and strengthens the TV as the first screen and introduce “Tweetable moments” to spark engagement. Those that learn how to better introduce Tweetable moment drive outcomes and as Twitter found, drives increases in brand recall scores.

Social Programming Profiles

Twitter UK monitored the social profiles and tweet patterns of popular programs. The team observed that Twitter activity follows patterns driven by three factors: genre, demographics and time slot. Tweet peaks and engagement are driven by content, storyline, of course celebrity Tweets and also hashtags displayed prominently on air.

Twitter also learned that Tweet patterns differ based on the genre of the aired program. Please see the ebook for histograms that display Tweets per minute TPM for each genre). Tweets tend to compartmentalize around the following five categories:

Factual

Engagement patterns mirror key events or iconic moments.

Drama

Dramas tend to see peaks in Tweets that bookend the beginning and end of episodes.

Entertainment

Entertainment often sees a higher proportion of Tweets from mobile. Tweet peaks are largely content-driven, but also occur during ads.

Current Affairs

Interestingly, a higher percentage of Tweets emit from desktops. Tweets peak largely following climatic moments in the narrative or because of on air hashtag prompts.

Films

Films on TV regularly trend on Twitter. Tweet patterns follow key storylines with quotes often tweeted widely.

Twitter is already observing consumer behavior and the patterns around how, when and why they Tweet. Content producers and advertisers must rethink their approach to create Tweetable moments based on the genre of the content, including advertisements. Production and creative teams can now work together to converge social storylines and product/brand placement into Tweetable events complete with desired discovery and engagement journeys.

This opens the door to new monetizable products for program sponsorship as well.  Social programming and architecture will fuse the first and second screens and the desired relationships and activities among connected viewers will unfold as a result. Without it, viewers will act and react as they see fit, which may in fact relegate the television as the second screen instead of the primary screen.

Have you experienced Twitter as a second screen? Is your business working to create Tweetable moments? If so, share your approach in comments.

Brian Solis is the author of the new book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

In 2007, I published the Social Media Manifesto, which served as a rallying cry to help businesses understand the new opportunity for transparency and engagement presented by social technology and the resulting shift in consumer expectations. While that may seem like recent history, it is in fact a bygone era. Times are just different now.

Just one year prior to publishing the manifesto, Twitter debuted to a then (and in some cases now) skeptical audience. Facebook opened to the general public shortly thereafter. In November 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion. What seems mainstay today was just materializing then. Ultimately, the momentum underway would ultimately transform the channels. Consumer touchpoints were evolving…quickly. And in many ways, that’s still the case.

Here we are in the present day and social media is now the new normal. Smart, connected mobile devices are now our digital appendages. So, just because social media and mobile are ubiquitous, what does it mean in aggregate and what do we need to consider moving forward? Technorati Media’s 2013 Digital Influence Report might have the answers or offer some insights that might help paint a clearer picture.

The New Normal

What does the “new” normal look like for social media in business? The answer is prevalence.

According to Technorati Media’s report, 91% of brands manage a presence on Facebook. 85% and 73% stated that they manage presences on Twitter and Youtube respectively. Interestingly enough, Pinterest ranks fourth with 41%, ahead of LinkedIn, blogs, Instagram, and Google+.

Digital Spending

When it comes to spending, budgets on overall digital efforts are not as high as you may think and they’re distributed. 30% and 11% of all digital budgets represent total spends of less than $10 million. 22% of budgets however jump up to $10-$25 million, 14% range from $25-$50 million, and a whopping 10% boast $100M+ digital budgets.

Budget Breakdowns

It appears as if the dead or dying display ad still ranks almighty at 41% of overall digital budgets I guess that old school box of clickable pixels no one supposedly sees or clicks on still has merit. What Google refers to as the “Zero Moment of Truth” ranks a strong second with search representing 19% of overall digital spend. Video cannot be underestimated and here we can see that brands are making the investment at 14% of overall digital budgets, which is ahead of social ads at 10%.

When you look at how the 10% is distributed, you see that brands “like” Facebook at 57%. YouTube and Twitter share the second, though distant, spot at 13% apiece.

Digital Budget Outlook

Brand managers and service providers have reason to celebrate. Digital budgets across the board are not only increasing, they’re soaring. For example, mobile budgets will skyrocket by 79%. Social advertising and video will shoot up 59%. Additionally, search and display advertising will spiral 37% and 31% respectively.

On the contrary, there are brands that will decrease spending on these fronts, which may or may not indicate interesting, but unknown insights. In these cases…

- 23% are slashing display advertising

- 6% are trimming video

- 3% are cutting social advertising

- 2% will reduce mobile spend

Paid vs. Earned Media

On the other side of any paid media strategy is owned and earned media. To balance paid efforts, it’s interesting to note that more than half (55%) of brands have stated that earned media goals are a priority. While some of these goals deliver somewhat tangible or at least accepted outcomes, others are still a bit soft.

For example, most brands report earned media goals as Facebook Likes (68%) whereas only 64% would list increasing website traffic as a top goal. Now, don’t get me wrong, often website traffic could be irrelevant if the website itself is designed to underperform or fail in design or in the context of various screens (smartphone, tablet, PC, TV).  But with solid, scalable designs centered on dynamic, desired click paths, traffic could mean the difference between a lead or at least sustained interest. Instead, we see here that traffic is bookended by Likes and Facebook fans at 59%.  You’ll notice earned media goals waver from social “activity” to traditional events as you move from left to right.

What’s clear according to the Technorati report, is that not only is it a case of “social is as social does,” complementary-yet-dedicated cross-channel digital strategies are becoming much more important to the success of brand marketing strategies. With effective experimentation, budgets can flow through to fund the appropriate mix of successful engagement programs across an increasingly distributed series of touchpoints. That’s how smarter, connected brands will learn to thrive in the new moments of truth.

How does this compare to your digital and social strategy?

Brian Solis is the author of the new book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

Several years ago, I adopted a way of thinking to help me realize that how things are done today isn’t indicative of how they could be done. As such, I’ve adopted a mantra of “constraint forces creativity.” Constraint isn’t defined by cash flow or edicts, but instead the restriction of the boundaries that confine us to customary processes and views.

Yes, there are times when you can, when you should do more with less. But doing more with less isn’t a mantra in and of itself. It’s a representative of a form of administration that attempts to boost productivity while operationalizing processes and optimizing efficiencies. Yes, that was corporate speak. It’s nonetheless true however.

This is how organizations compete today without necessarily thinking about how these activities position them in the future.

Innovation and risk taking often carry too much of a cost to bear for some companies. It’s more than finances however. Exploring new solutions also presents a significant opportunity cost that may in fact signify doing more with more rather than doing more with less. This presents a catch 22 of sorts. If you effectively “do more with less,” you may actually deliver less with less. If you discover ways to creatively excel, the pervasive culture of optimizing and operationalizing business practices may not truly appreciate the extent of your (and your team’s) sacrifices. New ideas often die on the vine.

The Hacker Way

“The Hacker Way” is the ideology that Mark Zuckerberg has long employed at Facebook. It’s also the name of the road that leads to the company’s sprawling campus inMenlo ParkCalifornia.

To succeed in business today, there’s indeed a hack for that…

Everything begins with a shift in perspective and culture. What if the entire organization or at least those with driving impact where empowered? Sometimes it takes learning from the lean and mean world of startups to get larger organizations back on track.

Startups are the new darlings of their industry. Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Pinterest, Uber, AirBnB, these are the forces that are disrupting age-old business models while creating entirely new markets. In the world of startups, unlike larger organizations, employees not only wear multiple hats, they’re empowered to excel on each front to help the organization gain momentum and ultimately grow. This is classic intraprenuerialism. This approach takes the elements that represent the defining pillars of entrepreneurialism and attempts to celebrate them within a larger ecosystem.

Intrapreneurs are the New Entrepreneurs

Intrapreneurs rethink and promote innovation in processes, product development, marketing, collaboration and anywhere and everywhere it’s needed or possible.

In the startup community, one of the most talked about trends in intrapreneurialism is the role of growth hacking. To be a growth hacker is someone who is specifically tasked to do more with less. The difference here is that growth hackers take it upon themselves to do more with less as they hack the way things are done to find a potent way of obtaining goals.

What is a growth hacker?

Growth hacking is the art and science of creating awareness, traction, adoption, and advocacy using unorthodox and surprising means. It’s quite literally a hack for traditional processes to accelerate business.

In 2010, Sean Ellis introduced us to the role of growth hacker in his post, “Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup.”

In his post Ellis recognizes the difference between Growth Hacking and traditional marketing and business development: “…The problem is that most startups try to hire for skills and experience that are irrelevant, while failing to focus on the essential few skills.  Typical job descriptions are often laden with generic but seemingly necessary requirements like an ability to establish a strategic marketing plan to achieve corporate objectives, build and manage the marketing team, manage outside vendors, etc.”

If you’re unaware of Quora, spend some time there. Quora is the de facto Q&A hub for all things disruptive and bleeding edge when it comes to technology, trends and the people behind them. On the topic of growth hacking and what it is and isn’t, the top ranked answer comes from Andy Johns: “It’s the idea that an entrepreneur can take a clever or non-traditional approach to increasing the growth rate/adoption of his or her product by ‘hacking’ something together specifically for growth purposes. What people call ‘hacking’ today will become common sense to most in the tech world in the future because people are waking up to the fact that growth doesn’t simply come from having a good product.”

Of course when you hear the word hacker, you probably think of breaking into networks or hijacking computers to illegally access files and information. Hacking is though a method of bypassing traditional tasks to obtain a goal.

To compete for the future and ultimately relevance, leading technologists believe that the future of marketing comes down to technologists. Growth hacking sounds intriguing, but at its root, it represents homage to programming and respect for the culture of online, social, and mobile communities in order to influence different behavior.

In 2012, Andrew Chen, an entrepreneur and blogger based in Silicon Valley, described the skillset that serves as the undercurrent of growth hacking in his noteworthy article, “Growth Hacker is the New VP of Marketing.”

This is a defining piece as it outlines the importance, the responsibilities and the potential outcomes when growth hackers assume the role of marketing. This isn’t just a single role – the entire marketing team is being disrupted. Rather than a VP of Marketing with a bunch of non-technical marketers reporting to them, instead growth hackers are engineers leading teams of engineers.”

Growth Hacking is intrapreneurialism enacted.

Chen continues, “Before this era, the discipline of marketing relied on the only communication channels that could reach 10s of millions of people – newspaper, TV, conferences, and channels like retail stores. To talk to these communication channels, you used people – advertising agencies, PR, keynote speeches, and business development. Today, the traditional communication channels are fragmented and passé. The fastest way to spread your product is by distributing it on a platform using APIs (application programming interface), not MBAs. Business development is now API-centric, not people-centric.”

People are the 5^th P of marketing and the source of growth in Growth Hacking

While I take exception to the last line being “API-centric” and not “people centric,” Chen’s bigger argument is that it takes technologists to hack technology to reach desired audiences to drive desirable clicks, conversions, and outcomes. He’s right. But, he’s wrong about people. People represent the 5^tH P of Marketing and it’s through empathy in understanding real world challenges that opens the doors to new opportunities. Said another way, people and their aspirations and frustrations should inspire you.

The key is programming journeys that deliver coveted experiences. And that’s what this is really about. Growth Hacking finds new ways of creating awareness and constructively handholding people into a dynamic customer journey that is thoughtful, productive, and meaningful…on any platform.

To succeed in business and continually compete for the future takes a culture of intrapreneurialism to spark innovation within. Remember it’s less about doing more with less and absolutely about finding or creating solutions when resources or opportunities are either constrained or inhibited by convention. Growth hacking isn’t just about finding new means for the sake of hacking it, it’s about discovering a means to an end when the various forms of other means produce mediocre or lackluster results.

Why settle when new frontiers have yet to be discovered?

Are you growth hacking at your business – or do you see opportunities to spark creative solutions this way?

Brian Solis is the author of the new book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

The world is always changing. However, in these disruptive times where technology is impacting how people connect, make decisions, and influence the impressions and actions of others simply by what they do and say online, risk and sanctuary are at odds in the face of evolution.

What’s at stake?

Survival. And, that’s why we live in a time of digital Darwinism, an era in which technology and society are evolving faster than many organizations’ ability to adapt.

If Darwinism represents survival of the fittest, digital Darwinism is defined by the survival of the fitting.

These times call for new approaches and measures. Innovation is certainly at the crux of barreling through any safety net. But how do you innovate or take chances when the management imperative dictates an invulnerable stance?

It starts with business goals and objectives. It’s brought to life through a culture of intrapreneurialism and employee empowerment.

The Spirit of Intrapreneurialism

An intrapreneur goes by many definitions, but each are bound by a common theme. Intrapreneurialism is, at the heart, a philosophy that promotes free creativity, imagination, and experimentation within the company. They rethink and promote innovation in processes, product development, marketing, collaboration, and anywhere and everywhere it’s needed or possible.

See, inside every organization is a sense of aspiration. The truth is that organizations are slow to change, if at all. One of the greatest threats to executives, whether they realize it or not, is the fine line between aspiration and the internal obstructions that prevent meaningful change. This eventual shift from hope to despair naturally gives rise to low morale and the loss of any agility to remain competitive in the long term.

Here’s the reality. Executives drive for growth, efficiencies, and optimization, among other things. That’s just what they do. But growth is often the derivative of ambition. And, ambition is often the culmination of vision. The question is whether or not ambition is a tenet in the culture of the organization. To survive digital Darwinism requires strategic risk taking. And, employee empowerment represents one of the most profound enablers, to use corporate speak, to spur much needed organizational transformation.

While we often speak about the need for creating a culture of customer-centricity or integrating innovation into everyday business, everything must begin with empowering employees to do what they love and love what they do.

Empowering employees creates the foundation for a culture of empathy and ambition. Imagine giving employees time to think through new ideas and providing them with a supporting process to consider and implement them over time. Imagine creating a culture that rewards significant contributions that impact areas outside of the main responsibilities. This isn’t just about those in middle management and above. This is about the younger generation of employees who think differently than your current employment infrastructure supports.

Mind the gap

The need to transform and sanction employees is already upon us.

Empowerment is often a strategy by design. Whether its purpose is to accomplish new goals or tasks, to pivot direction, or to improve morale, the need to foster ownership, progress, and relationships with employees is forever vital. Sometimes a catalyst emerges that spurs change, and right now that spark is generational.

Generation Y (aka Millennials) and Generation Z behind them, represent a tsunami of transformation that will reshape how employees are recognized, rewarded, and directed. What these employees expect, how they communicate, and what they value is very different than the previous generations that currently form the management team.

In an interesting infographic published by Millennial Branding in 2012, it was learned that…

• Gen-Y will form 75% of the workforce by 2025.
• Only 7% of Gen-Y works for a Fortune 500 company.
• Startups dominate the workforce for this demographic.

On Facebook, “Owner” is the fifth most popular job title for Gen-Y. They’re an entrepreneurial group!

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Intrapreneurialism Becomes Part of the Corporate DNA

If large corporations want to remain competitive, they need to aggressively recruit Gen-Y workers using creative and beneficial means. Once inside the company, it is this spirit of intrapreneurialism that will challenge and inspire them to contribute and excel. Without it, recruitment turns into bait-and-switch, and management becomes the courier of false promises.

The key to intrapreneurialism is to authorize and even commission the right employees to take charge. They must possess the ability to convert ideas into accomplishments to reshape the intangible into something tangible, actionable and measurable.

The beneficiary of course is the organization as a whole. But thinking back to the need for organizations to become more customer-centric and innovative, empowering intrapreneurs within the organization equally benefits customers, partners and employees alike. Over time, empowered employees will galvanize a new movement. Management will see markets and opportunities differently. The organization will pursue goals with fervor. The workforce will adapt and earn invaluable skillsets. And, in the end, the idea of intrapreneuralism changes the very DNA of the organization until innovation, empowerment, creativity and experimentation become a way of doing business.

How do you think intrapreneuralism could help shape your organization for the better? How can you empower your employees to make a difference?

Brian Solis is the author of the new book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

Well, wrong and wrong.

Social media isn’t going to save your business nor is it going to make it. This may sound commonsensical, but to succeed in business takes much more than a Facebook or Twitter account. Hostess baked over 400,000 likes on Facebook and yet the iconic American brand is now shut down. Even small businesses are not immune to the real world. According to the SBA, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first five years. Social media isn’t saving those businesses either.

Michael Ames, author of Small Business Management, assembled the top 8 reasons that contribute to small business failure and you’ll notice not embracing social media isn’t one of the contributors:

1. Lack of experience

2. Insufficient capital (money)

3. Poor location

4. Poor inventory management

5. Over-investment in fixed assets

6. Poor credit arrangements

7. Personal use of business funds

8. Unexpected growth

From experience, there are two other ingredients that serve as harbingers to the future of any business, under-scoping or underestimating sales and marketing and underemphasizing product quality and customer experiences.

In any one of these scenarios, social media is not your saving grace—regardless of business size, number of followers, or however many viral videos you’ve introduced.

Am I saying that social media is useless?

No.

It is, after all, where connected consumers are spending a significant amount of time these days. Nielsen recently found that Americans spend 121 billion minutes per month in social networks, which is significantly up from 88 billion just one year ago.

I do believe that many experts are, however, taking their eye off of the ball in the name of social media. But, success takes design, intent, and the relentless pursuit of opportunities even when they are elusive.  As a digital analyst and also an entrepreneur and investor, I’ve learned that technology is always going to introduce new channels for engagement. And, that’s a good thing. But they are not in themselves channels for necromancy. The ability to surprise and delight customers starts with the ability to understand how to exceed expectations. Even before that, it takes an understanding of what expectations are and where they’re met or missed.

So, here’s where social media can help.

Listening with Intent

Listening is among the most valuable ways to use social media for business relevance and ultimately success. However, value depends on the questions you choose to ask. For example, in addition to asking, “What are people saying about me or my competitors,” also ask, “What are people saying or seeking to improve what they’re doing today?” It’s the difference between information and insight and also listening to and hearing customers in a way that inspires innovation or iteration.

Designing the Experience

To deliver exceptional customer experiences takes experience design. You have to articulate, thoughtfully, what you want people to feel, say, and share. This is more than defining differentiators and value propositions. Businesses must think through how products and services evoke the original inspiration for starting or joining a company and the ongoing aspirations necessary to exceed expectations in the future. Social media then represents a series of open windows to engage customers during each and every moment of truth before, during, and after transactions to reinforce experiences and desired sentiment. Think marketing, sales, service, support, and word of mouth.

Paying It Forward

If social media is about conversations, you can bet that much of it is based on people asking questions. People are often looking for answers or direction. Rather than “Googling It,” it’s easier to ask those you trust. In this economy where trust is fleeting and transparency is elusive, there’s a tremendous opportunity to become the resource in your community. Don’t sell…instead; sell through the art of reciprocity. Customers feel a sense of appreciation for those who help and provide value.

The Power to Tell

As my good friend Peter Guber says, storytelling helps people align with your mission through aspirations or solutions. Don’t sell just on price or features. Make your customers the hero by helping them see what they can accomplish simply by aligning with you. If you use social media, don’t just post questions, polls, or random pictures; instead unleash a gravity that pulls customers to you because they can clearly see that you “get” them and the things they struggle or hope to accomplish with or without you.

These are just a few ways to think about social media. But, there are many, many other initiatives that you can consider that deliver value during each moment of truth. You have to consider though, that social media represents a series of new channels that complement other avenues that define your digital and real-world opportunities.

What do you think? How else can social media help businesses contribute to business success while helping foster customer and employee relationships and experiences?

Brian Solis is the author of the new book, The End of Business as Usual. He is also a principal analyst at Altimeter Group. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.