The Future: How Shared Experiences Are Reshaping Business

Are you wondering where the future of business is heading?

Do you want to know how shared consumer experiences are impacting business?

To learn about where the business world is headed and what you need to know, I interview Brian Solis for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Brian Solis, digital analyst at the Altimeter Group and author of multiple books, including Engage and The End of Business as Usual. His latest book is What's the Future of Business?

Brian shares the ideas behind his new book and how the changing social landscape is impacting business.

You'll learn about the "four moments of truth" and what steps as a marketer you need to take to prepare for the coming changes.

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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
The Future of Business
What prompted you to write a book called What's the Future of Business?

The last book Brian wrote was called The End of Business as Usual and when he thought about what was next in terms of the future of business, he realized that the natural progression would be a book that actually tells us what the future is and what we need to do about it.

Business can no longer operate as it had been because things are different now.

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The subtitle of the book is "Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences." Customers have become increasingly connected and informed, no longer relying as much on traditional sources such as Google or websites. Now when they begin a discovery process or look to make an informed decision, they are using networks, friends and apps for help or direction.

It's the shared experiences that define what they do next. You'll find out why these moments are critical to businesses.

The book explores what these four moments of truth are, what they look like and how businesses need to activate them.

Below in chronological order are the four moments of truth.

Zero moment of truth
First moment of truth
Second moment of truth
Ultimate moment of truth

You'll discover what they mean to businesses in this podcast.

As a business, you have to look at the people who are sharing their experiences about your business, product or service and why you should intentionally design those experiences.

You'll hear how Procter and Gamble created a division around the first moment of truth and why your business would benefit from having that type of person or group in each division that handles each moment of truth.

Listen to the show to hear what happens when customer experiences go into blog posts, tweets, status updates, YouTube videos and become the collective consciousness.

How the social landscape has made an impact on businesses

Brian explains how advertisers and marketers have known about these moments of truth for a long time. The first and second moment of truth especially. People are thinking this way because Google made a tremendous push around the zero moment of truth. There is a lot of journey-mapping going on right now.

When it comes to writing, Brian normally takes an academic approach, but this time he didn't. He made the book an experience in itself, so it could be a proof point to show the reader what he is talking about.

Brian worked with the guys at Mekanism to reimagine what a book experience could be. It's a visually rich book. It simplifies a complex subject to the point where you know what to do.

Many businesses today are using social media in very expe...