Your Take: 2012 Social Horizon?

What do you foresee to be the social game changer in 2012?

Doing the Research...

I am putting the finishing touches on a post regarding how product research plays out across search engines and social networks, but I need a bit more input.

Are you more likely to research a product via your social network or the classic search engine approach?

Thanks for contributing your feedback!

Anatomy of a Social Customer

The widespread adoption of social media has altered the way customers are communicating with businesses and has facilitated the shift of a business-centric marketplace to a customer-centric one. Your once static patrons have become dynamic social customers. This new breed of customer is shaping and more often then not, leading the way we market our businesses, products and services.

Are you aware of the defining characteristics of Social Customers?

• They are hyper-connected - The smartphone or internet-ready device is the constant companion of this audience. The Social Customer treats a smartphone more like a pocket computer then a phone.
• They readily reach out to peers and influencers - Social media give customers wide spread access to the opinions and experiences of their family and friends, people they trust. Let's be honest, people care about what others think and certainly like to draw upon the past experiences of those they know. So if three of their friends tell the Social Customer they love a particular product, the customer may be a bit more inclined to buy it.
• They are constantly researching - Review sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, Google Places, etc., offer customers the opportunity to voice their praises and complaints of a product, service or business for future customers to read and evaluate. The good, the bad and the ugly about past customers' experiences is available for research and review.
• They are share what they think of you - It's not uncommon for Social Customers to use the very sites where they researched your business to also trumpet their thoughts about your business. The beauty of many of these tools is the fact that you can respond to these questions, comments and concerns quite expediently. If a Social Customer lodges a complaint via social networks and review sites, you can respond accordingly, too.
• They expect brands to engage them - Due to the real-time nature of social media and the precedent set by many businesses of near instant response to customer feedback, many Social Customers are expecting the same of all brands they patron. They want the information and response they desire when they want it.
• They control the purchasing cycle - The business no longer tells the customer when it's time to buy, the customer tells the business when they're ready to buy. When groups of Social Customers have the ability to band together online in favor of or against a product or service, that collective voice has strong influence over a their extended network of influence. If a large enough group finds disfavor with your product or service, watch out! It could be catastrophic to the life cycle of that product or service.

Keep in mind, these are general characteristics. Each industry and sector will have niche demographics specific to its audience. Don't let this untethered communication access get the best of you. Focused research, a strong strategy and a dedicated effort on the part of the business will assist with interacting with the Social Customer at the speed of social media! The way we communicate with current and potential customers has been revolutionized. Social customers are at the helm and businesses need to have their proverbial finger on the pulse of what's driving their audience.

What strategy have you developed or steps are you taking to learn about the characteristics of your Social Customers?

A Culture of Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is a long standing tradition of family, food and American football. What's not to love? Thanksgiving provides a reason to share a languid day of feasting and celebrating, till our hearts are content, with those we cherish most.

Don't take this opportunity for granted, and for pete's sake consider making it a daily (or as often as you can) experience. Gather your family around the dinner table, spend time reveling and sharing in each other's company! The pace our society has adopted as a "normal" rate of living life often leaves little room for slowing down to appreciate the moments that can be all too fleeting.

What's to stop us from creating a culture of Thanksgiving in our homes, in workplaces, or in the most fundamental of places, our own hearts? The content of our heart is where our character stems from, it's the source of the words we chose to impart, the attitudes we hold and our perceptions of the world around us.

I'd challenge you (and me too!) to reflect tomorrow (and every day) upon what's important to you, what drives you, what you're thankful for, and what's at your core. The culture of your life, begins with you. Consider marking it a culture of Thanksgiving.

To you and yours, I wish you a blessed and happy Thanksgiving.

Weekender: Humanize Your Brand

Today's Weekender revolves around the latest push from social media practitioners, humanizing your brand.

How do you humanize a brand? This isn't rocket science! The person or people that are strategizing, creating and implementing your business' content should be encouraged to include:

^empathy
^personality
^transparency
^care
^honesty
^etc

Are you getting the point of humanizing a brand? Be human! People (your fans, followers, subscribers) want to know that there is more than just an automaton behind the content they're consuming.

There's no harm in being real, being available and being human. Want to take it a step further? Interject a touch of brevity, too! C'mon who doesn't love a sense of humor?

Weekender: Social Mashup

Take the relationships you're building online and develop them offline. Met an insightful contact via social media that you'd like to put heads together with on a project? Invite them out to a cup of coffee! Found a group of folks that love Hershey Bears hockey as much as you do? Meet up in betwixt periods and compare notes on the puck play and player fights! That's one of the small beauties of the Interweb, you can Mashup online and offline relationships, maximizing and leveraging the network of connections you're amassing. Don't be afraid to be social in person, not just online.

Reflection on Jobs

Yesterday evening the world caught its collective breath as we heard word of the untimely passing of Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs and his business partner Steven Wozniak are undoubtedly two of this era's greatest visionaries in the technology sphere, bringing us Apple Computers in a garage in 1976.

Jobs' life drew to a close as he lost the 8-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He is by no means a saint, but he was a technology revolutionary. Not only did Apple change the realm of personal computing, but the company introduced us to the concept of the smartphone with the debut of the first iPhone in 2007.

Through the early years, his departure from Apple, and eventually his return to Apple in 1997, Jobs never lost his sense of curiosity, exploration and pushing the envelope. It is under his leadership that innovation thrived at Apple and Pixar. He was a genius that looked to hire like-minded individuals and encouraged his teams to never lose their sense of adventure.

He left us with a series of undeniable leadership and life lessons:

• The most enduring innovations marry art and science.
• To create the future, you can't do it through focus groups.
• Never fear failure.
• You cannot connect the dots forward - only backward.
• Listen to the voice in the back of your head that tells you if you're on the right track or not.
• Expect a lot from yourself and others.
• Surround yourself with the most talented people.
• Stay hungry, stay foolish.
• Anything is possible through hard work, determination and a sense of vision.

I am admittedly one of the millions whom have had their personal and professional habits influenced by the innovation spurred by Jobs and the Apple developers. I travel daily with my iPhone and iPad close at hand for calls, emails, appointment keeping, social networking and more. The music heard in my Volkswagen is fueled by the playlists on my iPod touch. I run countless miles with an iPod shuffle clipped to my person.

If I might close with a quote from the 2005 commencement address that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever
encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost
everything - all external exceptions, all pride, all fear of embarrassment
or failure- these things fall away in the face of death, leaving only what
is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are
already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart...Stay hungry.
Stay foolish.

While the world has lost a visionary, we've not lost his legacy.