Yesterday, in Singapore, I attended the last of 4 legs of the Dachis Group’s Social Business Summit tour.
The event was described as a day, focusing on Social Business with a community of practitioners, thought leaders and industry experts.
It lived up to that billing and more.
The day was kicked off by Anne Bartlett-Bragg (Managing Director, Asia/Pacific – Headshift | Dachis Group) who got us settled in before introducing us to Jeff Dachis (Founder & CEO, Dachis Group).
Jeff’s presentation really set the tone for the day (although I didn’t actually realize it at the time).
I’ve been talking about Social Media for some years now and have listened to plenty of other folks do the same and I think a lot of us, including myself, have had a tendency to be a bit ‘flaky’ – a bit wishy-washy – and we end up talking about engagement, about dialogue, about humility and not owning the space etc.
All true and all good stuff, but Jeff’s presentation was about (whilst giving all that a cursory nod) focusing on the next step – focusing on operationalizing Social Business.
He described how we are sitting just at the beginning of this change. And whilst Social Media has been largely focused (in most organizations) around marketing efforts, he suggested that all businesses will essentially become inherently social in almost everything they do.
Incidentally, Social Business is basically doing Social Media in a business context.
Sam Fleming, (Chairman and Founder, CIC) spent some time talking about social business intelligence in China. His company uses technology to understand the ‘chatter’ and turn it into business insights.
As another person mentioned at some point during the day – ‘it’s all about actionable insights’.
Living in Asia I hear a lot about China but Sam’s presentation didn’t fail to surprise me and further cement my opinion that the ‘west’, rather than simply acknowledging and nodding towards the (poor, behind a firewall) Chinese when it comes to the Internet, would do well to listen to the insights from people like Sam.
With their own ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’ the levels of involvement, creativity and innovation around Internet content in China would humble a lot of efforts elsewhere in the world.
Sourcing the script and storyboard for the next episode internet based dramas and people rocking up to car dealerships with their own (nothing to do with Groupon or any other site) group sourced buy offers of over 50 Toyotas are just some of the everyday activities.
And, by the way, did you know that ‘Grabbing the Sofa’ is being the first person to comment on a blog post in China?
Simone Pregellio (Jetstar Asia, Manager Corporate Communications) shared with us her introduction to Social Business.
Whilst reaching customers and encouraging user-generated content, Simone’s involvement over the past couple of years has, perhaps, been dominated by a less than welcome aspect of communication – that of Crisis Management.
“There have been plenty of opportunities,” she said, referring, to the floods in Australia, the earthquake in Christchurch and, of course, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
She shared some figures about how quickly a ‘negative’ tweet from a user about there being ‘no refund’ on some cancelled flights spread on the Twitterverse. Happily, a tweet from Jetstar themselves putting things right and communicating a phone number spread just as quickly.
Simone concluded with a tip suggesting that organizations should look to empower all staff in their Social Business efforts where appropriate whilst adding that she struggled with understanding where a ‘Social Media’ manager would sit in an organization.
Kevin Tate (VP, Business Development, Dachis Group) really built on Jeff’s opening presentation when he talked about Facebook in a way I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about Facebook before.
Whilst some of us have been staring into the bright light of Social Media, Kevin still has some of his attention rooted firmly in business objectives and how marketing and specifically Facebook marketing can support those.
This is a guy that really understands what Facebook can do well and what it’s less good at - all communicated in a framework and language more aligned with how marketers spoke a few years ago when they talked about calls to action and conversion rates.
These things still make perfect sense of course – it’s just that, for some, they’ve been lost in the new soft and fluffy language of engagement, advocacy and dialogue. I am guilty of this to some extent. Aren’t most of us?
“The new loyalty is granting permission for brands to be in your attention stream.”
Just look at Facebook for a literal interpretation of this.
Dion Hinchcliffe (Senior Vice President, Dachis Group) reminded us of some of the staggering figures around Social Business and of some of the trends.
It’s happening and, in some cases, happening faster than some of the wildest predictions.
Dion is a highly respected thought leader and has a knack for being able to see all the numbers, all the trends and all the tech and understand what this might really mean for us all.
He asked me what challenges I faced talking with businesses in Singapore and I mentioned a (still) prevailing attitude held at a very senior level in some organizations in Singapore that Social Media – Social Business – is still something of an unwelcome enemy – maybe even some nasty rash that might go away.
At a time when (according to Dion) organizations like Siemens and Atos Origin are looking to do away with conventional email altogether and when businesses will simply have to be social at their very heart, some organizations might do well to lose some of their people desperately clinging to the intransigence of their own comfort zones.
I remember not too long ago when responsible for the Regional online efforts of a huge MNC being asked to do my monthly online report at the end of the monthly marketing meeting when each of the businesses had covered of all their other marketing touch point for each of their portfolios.
Remember those times?
To address Simone’s issue earlier – shouldn’t we just remember that lesson of yesterday?
Social Business is everywhere – it’s not a specific activity – for me, at least, it’s becoming a way you do everything.
It’s the new life force that should flow through every part of your business.
Oh, and the people I listened to yesterday will probably say the same thing.
I’d certainly recommended you spoke with them. Like me, you’ll probably learn more than a thing or two.
And in addition to lining up a great list of speakers, they know how to put on a bloody awesome lunch.
