For this week’s Profile Snapshot we talk with the legendary Brian Solis, the socialite of social media.  He’s gone through a career boost this past year, moving to Altimeter Group to round out a powerhouse team alongside Charline Li and Jeremiah Owyang.  The added focus on data collection and research has put some oomph behind his latest endeavor; that of authoring books.  Solis has been on a tear lately, releasing his second book The End of Business as Usual.  He takes an unparalleled look at the consumer revolution, establishing some initiative behind his first work Engage, which acts as a guide to social media.  Here Solis talks about the fresh direction of this newest book, and how we can use data to help “balance the future.”

What have you learned from your shift to a research and analysis firm?

As principal analyst at Altimeter Group I will say that I’ve learned more than I imagined since March 2011, and the learning continues.

Research informs decisions and in a time of incredible transformation facing business leaders, information, insight, and experience are priceless commodities. While I had an opportunity to run research and strategy for enterprise organizations in my last role as Principal at FutureWorks, I have the ability here to work directly with business leaders to translate research into insights, develop executive-level directives to improve customer and employee relationships and experiences, and in turn, bring about change from within.

The importance of research is paramount. At the same time, data is just data without an understanding of the culture and vision of the organization and the delta that exists between business performance and customer satisfaction. What I continue to learn however, is how to help business leaders realize the opportunity before them based on the prevailing culture within, its propensity for change, and the effective means to chart a course for transformation.

I also see the big picture and am lucky to work with colleagues who are each in their own right, leaders in their field of expertise. As our relationships with businesses evolve, we assemble to help provide a complete view of the opportunities before them and also how to execute.

How does The End of Business as Usual depart from your last book Engage?

Let me start by saying that The End of Business as Usual is not a book about social media, the top 10 ways to get the most Likes or followers, nor does it dive into the specific networks defining the new media landscape. That was the job of Engage.

Engage helped marketers, service professionals and executive understand the importance of social networks and how engagement wold help in creating brand lift, increase presence and preference, and foster deeper relationships with customers. Business leaders often do not use social networks, and to convince them to transform their business based on the likes of Facebook and Twitter is ineffective and inaccurate.

The End of Business as Usual makes the case that the need for business transformation is bigger than social media and more important than just connecting or communicating with customers in social networks. For executives to realize the opportunity for innovation and leadership, they need your help in making sense of the differences between traditional and connected customers. They need to know that this emergent consumer category affects business objectives, priorities, and financial goals.

The book examines how leading companies are finding success with connected customers. The lessons, case studies, and best practices contained within will help readers earn the support of organizational leaders by identifying growth opportunities and prioritizing where to invest time and resources. The end result is creating an adaptive foundation for businesses to not only build relationships with connected customers, but improve customer AND employee relationships overall.

The book is divided into two key parts…

In the first half, The End of Business as Usual looks at the entire new media landscape and explores its effect on consumer behavior, how they find and share information, how they make decisions and influence the decisions of their peers, and how they expect companies to compete for their business.

In the second half, executives learn how to recognize both the short and long-term business impact, how to prioritize opportunities among traditional and connected customers, bring together cross functional teams, and beginning the inevitable process of change toward true customer and employee centricity.

What’s more difficult for a business: building brand recognition or maintaining reputation?

I don’t see either being mutually exclusive. Each present their own set of challenges. But when we look at your question in the context of the new book, we see the brand and reputation of the company as no longer being created, but instead co-created by those connected consumers who freely share their experiences across their online networks.

The collective experiences from customers are searchable, indexed, and already influencing the decisions of other connected consumers who don’t simply rely on websites or traditional google search results to guide their decisions. Connected consumers are far more sophisticated and create, or better said, curate their online networks to improve their online experiences. Decision making is part of the greater ecosystem of finding, sharing, communicating, informing, learning, and collaborating and it’s completely different than how their traditional counterparts interact in the real world and online.

Companies first need to realize what their brand and reputation looks like among traditional and connected consumers today. Without observing how the brand and the reputation form, what’s behind the experiences, and the related outcomes, we cannot take meaningful or effective steps to steering the brand or correcting the reputation. In the end, the future of business is indeed co-created and without creating and leading experiences, businesses are relegated to responding to them. And once you respond, you’re already starting from a negative position.

Your current obsession?

My current obsession is fortunately or unfortunately work related. I study and study the delta that exists between customers and businesses and employers and employees and how to bridge the gaps between each. I am consumed with studying the impact of technology on not just trends, but its impact on business, culture, and on us as individuals. In fact, it’s this research and obsession that served as the inspiration for the new book and also the actionable insights in the second half to help businesses recognize the emergence of a new breed of consumers and also how engage them and build a more adaptable infrastructure to lead and support them over time.

What does “balancing the future” mean to you?

Balancing the future is an interesting concept to consider. It can mean so much depending on what we’re attempting to balance the future against. At first thought, we’re presented with an onslaught of technology. In fact, one interpretation could examine the balance between disruptive and emerging technology and where it fits in our personal and professional lives. Many already feel overwhelmed by the endless array of devices, apps, online services, and social networks that surround them. For me, there’s user experience, value, functionality, and capabilities that factor in my decisions to balance what is versus what could be. But more specifically, I see the balancing of the future against the separation between where we want to be and where we are today. The division between reality and aspiration is separated by our actions and words and naturally any other factors that are unique to your endeavors. But in the end, the future of our experiences is in our hands and as such, we are in a special position to help those whom we work for now.

image credit: PistachioLaura