by Steffan Pedersen (Excerpt)

Over the last few weeks my schedule has changed significantly, following the completion of an ongoing consulting project. Since then I’ve been working full-time on finding full-time work, complete with the full suite of coffee meetings, volunteering, and researching opportunities of interest. This week my plans abruptly changed again, when my friend, mentor, and former Cox Communications manager Adam Naide announced his coming to town to speak at Netbase Live 2016. I was thrilled to receive a ticket and attend for more formalized networking and social media-specific programming. […]

Keynote: The Relevance Revolution – Using Social Insights to Compete for Customer Relevance
Presented by Brian Solis: Social Media Influencer, Anthropologist, Author, and Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group

A seriously thought-provoking keynote offering a ton of food for thought around innovation and social relevance, rethinking community norms. I’ll look to keep this Keynote recap relatively short, as to not ruin Brian’s book to anyone interested in his innovation philosophies and anthropological topics.

The slides were outstanding, and Brian’s delivery was on point. Take a look at two of my favorite slides, below.

Brian urged us to consider “Embrace” the new “Engage,” as empathetic brands who proactively listen are putting themselves in ahead. Co-creation is replacing advertiser-created messages that have been historically shoved down the consumer-throat until the messages are automatically tuned out.

Unlearn in order to innovate. Brian mentioned rethinking his book-creation process in his latest release. Can a simple image or chart replace a paragraph of text? What’s preferable, and more beneficial in information retention, to consumers today? How are the new generations consuming content? The takeaway: Social media is not a platform, it’s a community.

“Community is much more than belonging to something; it’s about doing something together that makes belonging matter.”
– Brian Solis

I had the opportunity to meet-up with Brian following the presentation. He mentioned to us in passing that he actually studied children’s adoption of technology and their consumption methods in deriving his innovative emerging media methods. If you’re interested in more Solis, check out his book titled X: The Experience When Business Meets Design. Thanks, NetBase, for giving them out at the conference! […]