I have said that Facebook is a more intimate way of staying in touch with connections in a more personalized manner. You get to know a person more simply because people tend to be more selective on who they befriend because they lean towards giving insight on their personal lives - family, special events.
The one thing that I have absorbed is that there is still a lot of resistance or under appreciation of social media to many brands and companies. Treating it like giving in to a wave because all reports indicate that you should be there. Unfortunately, it is a half hearted attempt or completely missing the mark based on who is guiding your presence.
Through understanding and study, one uncovers the major benefits of social media: to be informed, gain knowledge. For a self-processed "knowledge junkie" I was an easy recruit. I have become more objective in what I am drawn to: social media, the world, business and technology. Being informed makes my personal brand value go up. Third party evaluators on my brand value like KLOUT or KRED reinforce what that value may be. They may even go so far as to identify me as and "Expert" on topics like my home town: Calgary, what expertise I tend to share: Sales, what knowledge I soak up: Technology; what burns my passion: art/photography.
I am not like a academic of anything. I would say that if anything, I have pretty good instincts on what is leading our world. At the time I joined the social media ring in 2010, I recognized how important it was. Now, five years later, sometimes I get credit for developed insights.
"The value of anything is determined by what others are prepared to pay for it."
~Jeannette Marshall
Today and in the recent few months, my focus has remained with those same interests, while expanded greatly to mobility: smartphones, applications, services. Many paid attention to Google's consistent communication on how important Mobile-friendly websites are and will be. That may have resulted in some new self-proclaimed experts emerging to be the holy grail of mobility marketing or incorporating mobility into your brand and marketing plans. However, it isn't much different from the adoption of social media: some are all over it, others are in watch mode, some are opportunists.
The true visionaries are the founders of Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple -- famous people that don't need repeating but are respectfully heralded. These innovators saw opportunity long before the curve was even twitching upwards. I'm a student of trying to understand how these geniuses could make something that "became" the trend and not because of it. Many of us dream of being so lucky. The practicality of it is beyond most of us: money, backers, supporters, technical know how, a business plan. Now, they become books, movies and lessons at the greatest universities and MBA programs.
Well, if it isn't obvious to you, it is certainly to me. The next wave or curve has started the next big curve on the tail of cloud is mobility. Unfortunately, for manufacturers in general (Xerox, case in point), they don't always see or understand the magnitude their tool will impact consumers or business. I hardly think that even the most innovative innovators from those mentioned could have imagined the impact they would have. Some of the greatest become stories or examples in books. Not quite being the great that they could have been. Many inventors or even writers see how close to the thin edge they were and throw up their arms in exasperation: they could have been "somebody big".
Certainly, there are the hold outs. Those CEOs who fall off the bandwagon or dig their heels in and refuse to accept what is in front of them. With mobility, they may even refuse to carry of smartphone or give in by having the very oldest technology of a flip phone "for emergencies".
The next greatest innovator is going to tie mobility in a way that everyone will want to use it or those that don't, will be the odd man out. The tools are out there in the populace hands. Some are early adopters and link the smartphones to their business. For example, when I with "X-really-big-corporation" (we're talking five years ago) each sales and service professional had a cell phone, typically a Blackberry. No big deal, you say, so what? Well, what was truly exceptional was their cellular infrastructure was tied into their customized CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, which was linked to their service. Service being the crushing blow to their reputation and ability to sell, slowed customer satisfaction, declining sales. By linking their cellular which was in the hands of any customer-facing soul in the organization, they were able to get up-to-the-second information. Sales and service personnel would be texted when an order left the warehouse, with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for which customer, identifying the main contact, allowing notification to increase in response time which communicated importance to customers, and overall improved customer satisfaction.
Service is all about responsiveness in my opinion. Sales and marketers are the messengers of importance, operations are the delivery of executing importance, service is reinforcing it matters. Whether you are being asked a simple question by an administrator in a really big enterprise on behalf of an important decision maker, or a new entrepreneur launching his business .... your reaction time, how you react, and by whom can be an easily identifier as to which organizations organically believe that their customer is the life blood to their organization's existence.
Getting critical information out to your front line people needs to be faster than an email these days. Most agree that emails are clogged, considered a necessary evil in business, ignored a lot of times while those critical people are doing what they perceive their organization has dictated is important actions.
However, anyone in business, regardless of size, appreciates there are times when they need to communicate catapult ahead of every other distraction in their team's sphere to react, now ... not when they get around to it.
What better way than mobility? Everyone is carrying a smart phone or cell phone device of some sort -- especially the forward thinking personnel, techno-gurus, developers, marketers. Consider how you can get reactive fast, either directly or cascade to teams.
I am sorry if your organization hasn't even got on the social media adoption for business. Now, I am suggesting that you should get in on the ground floor on mobility. Speed means money. If you are in business, driving revenue, satisfying customers, gaining new customers, retaining exceptional employees they are all part of your mandate for survival.
Nobody likes to hear why a company fails, only what can be learned from it to avoid the same mistakes. Yet, even the most forward thinking organizations may have a Twitter account but only have a person, not a team, sending out relevant messages, like after thoughts and maybe only once a day. The same "smart marketers" may have a blog used to inform and educate their customers on how to use their service in order to improve their ratings ... but only how to find their social media platforms (@Twitter, Facebook Page, etc.) are listed. Crazy as it sounds, they are assuming that the consumer or business are on standby waiting for that tweet to drive them to the website.
What about an executive who catches up his reading on the weekend, reviews reports and makes decisions after a round of golf on Saturday? He sees an article that he believes is pertinent to his leadership team so what does he do? He emails it to them. Well that is great, however, a few many get caught with a cluttered email inbox and miss it. That message may be significant, why not tweet it to those same leaders? Why not have those 10 leaders, for example, sharing and connecting with an audience that is important regardless of follower numbers or self-proclaimed expertise?
Two heads are better than one right? Well, 10 or 500 are better than one. I'm suggesting that a force be out there educating, informing and sharing knowledge to allow buying decisions. You are not directing or telling them where to go or what to do, you are establishing your organizations as the preeminent authority.
Why not have that same executive text a heads up to his leadership team? That would be immediate and unlikely uncluttered. Ask them to have your phone number (or do it yourselves) have a special ring tone like "Game of Thrones" (like my ringtone) to signify the troops they are needed for an emergency meeting or a frontal attack by a competitor or sliding stock prices?
I have had numerous conversations with executives and business owners and I can hear it before it is a fact. Opposition to texting cemented against because of safety, insurance costs, risks. What is the risk of your business if you don't have a team with common sense that knows better than to text and drive?
Heck, you may have Twitter and a Facebook Page at the minimum. Why not have a hangout on Google + instead of outlay of expenses for on online meetings? Send a text out that there is a meeting scheduled. Send a text with link to your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool stating that a customer has an issue, needs attention, what you delivered didn't work, service is needed or that big new shiney contract will be at risk to go to a competitor.
I am obviously not a visionary like the great ones, nor do I have the money to even develop a solution, nor the technical know how. What I do have is a strong sense that there is a supreme opportunity out there for the next great innovator of our time that uses what is at their disposal.
Because of my interest and knowledge gathering on mobility and smart phones, I have boards on Pinterest that I use as a repository of information assembled from all platforms of information (media, blogs, authorities) called "MobileZoom" for all things related to smartphones, technology and mobility. Yes, I have one dedicated to Apple, Apple-A-Day, SocialMediaMatters, and realized I'm behind on another one for "Cloud". (I just created one called CLOUD-y Days). Pinterest is the poor man's SharePoint site.
How do you link your network with mobility/cell with social media with proprietary tools? The solution is most likely -- The Cloud -- Cloud computing metaphor: For a user, the network elements representing the provider-rendered services are invisible, as if obscured by a cloud. (Image and information Source: Wikipedia)
What do you say? I say NOW is a good time to have your head in the clouds.
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