When writing my new book, What’s the Future of Business, Changing the way businesses create experiences, I felt that text wasn’t enough. So, I sought the wit and creativity of my good friend from the ole Web 2.0 days Hugh MacLeod aka @gapingvoid to help summarize each chapter in the form of a toon. Then we got to talking, why limit the cartoons to just the book? Hugh MacLeod is not only a dear friend but also one of my…
How to Foster a Culture of Contribution: Communities Take Investment and Engagement, Not Just Content
Guest post by Greg Narain (@gregarious), co-founder of Chute, a social media platform that helps brands and publishers obtain rights to UGC content. Customer-contributed stories are not only powerful, they’re also influential and important. Yesterday, customers conveyed their stories through text and voice. Today, we’ve moved to visually rich tools like photos and videos. While compelling to look at at face value, there’s quite a bit more hidden within. Ever one of these stories affords us much more than just…
Social Media and the Bystander Effect
Guest post by Francisco Dao, noted tech author and founder of 50Kings If you logged on to any of your social media accounts this past Monday you undoubtedly saw an outpouring of posts thanking our veterans for their sacrifice along with multiple links to the typhoon Haiyan disaster in the Philippines. As I scrolled through my feeds I started to wonder if the appearance of support was actually discouraging people from helping either group. How many people decided posting was…
The Ultimate Moment of Truth and The Art of Digital Engagement
In 2012, Google along with Jim Lecinski published a fantastic book that explored how digital customers made decisions in what Google refers to as “The Zero Moment of Truth.” The ZMOT as it’s abbreviated, helps strategists discover relevant strategies and tactics on how to show up at the right place, at the right time and with the right content in a digital ecosystem. In a world where consumers “Google it” to begin their digital journey, ZMOT revealed that brands need…
Impatience is a Virtue: What’s Next for Social Business
Guest post by Philip Sheldrake as a reply to Chris Heuer’s post, “Social Business is Dead! Long Live What’s Next!” As he finished a game of Cut The Rope on his iPhone, my young godson asked what my phone was like when I was his age. I broke it down for him. I was in my twenties before someone offered to take north of ten thousand dollars for a basic digital camera, and not much less for a GPS device….
Introducing Wolf & Wylan, a new line of pocket squares that directly benefit cancer research
My good friend Jesse Redniss, Senior VP of Digital at USA Network, and I are aiming to bring back the lost art of gentlemanliness with a twist, one that blends style, character and digital philanthropy. And, we need your help. Jesse and I are introducing a very special line of pocket squares in honor of October and the fight against #breastcancer and #Movember to combat prostate and testicular cancer. This very special line flies under the brand of Wolf &…
The New Kodak Moment: Why Storytelling Is Harder Than Ever
Guest post by Greg Narain (@gregarious), co-founder of Chute, a social media platform that helps brands and publishers obtain rights to UGC content. As a brand who innovated and heralded a technology that made time stand still – the Kodak moment became a colloquialism equivalent to capturing a moment worth savoring forever. For several generations, Kodak was the world’s record keeper. But those times have quickly come and gone. Every moment ever photographed was a Kodak moment. Until they f***ed…
This So-Called Digital Life: Re-Evaluating the Value of Social Media
I think I’m getting tired… My connectedness is slowly seizing my quiet moments. My sanctuary of enjoying my thoughts alone is now threatened. The moments of watching life pass by as I take pause are now replaced by the need to plug in and socialize without truly socializing. I swipe, pinch and zoom, and scroll as if I’ve become a digital conductor of sorts. The light of my mobile screen is the calming I need to fall asleep each night…
Your Brand: The Next Media Company – Become A Content Organization
Guest post by Michael Brito, author of Your Brand: The Next Media Company There are four fundamental truths shaping today’s digital ecosystem, which I outline in my upcoming book, Your Brand: The Next Media Company. Number one. There is a content and media surplus in the market place. There’s no shortage of advertising, marketing messages, mobile devices or social interruptions trying to command our attention, daily. Number two. There is an attention deficit in the minds of consumers. Our brains…
Altimeter Group’s State of Social Business 2013 Report
Each year, The Altimeter Group hosts an annual Social Business survey to learn how social media is evolving within enterprise organizations. Data is then compared to previous reports providing a sense of movement to the numbers and also a developing benchmark for our analysts and clients. Our last survey was studied in Q3 2013 and also Q4 2012, the latter was used to provide context to a report published by Charlene LI and me in March 2013, “The Evolution of…
