That sounds like the biggest change. It also shows how, it’s not something new in a sense of social media, but in just how we communicate. It’s been streamlined, basically.
Les: Yeah, it’s been streamlined. Another interesting statistic states that forty percent of the Fortune 500 will no longer exist in ten years.
Craig: Wow.
Les: If you think about why is that? The CEO of Cisco added to it that, companies need to be disruptive. You can get several definitions of what disruptive means, but the biggest thing is, businesses have to do things differently to get different results. You and I have discussed, a couple of times, that hundred year old way to do corporate business, was based upon a foundation that, you only saw what we let you see. We told you to do something, you did it because we were so big.
Craig: Wow.
Les: Now that it’s like, people are coming to grips with, “All right, so you sent out a new product, but let me see about recommendations from real people or real businesses. Are they using this product? Is this product creating results for them? Are there any bad reviews about your business? If there are, how are you dealing with them?” The old additive that bad press, press is press, bad press is okay if you respond to it in this world. If you don’t respond to it, bad press just lingers and eventually you may not be in business anymore.
Craig: It becomes truth, I guess.
Les: Exactly.
Craig: Or perceived truth.
Les: Yeah, perception is reality. If you think about it from this perspective, now as a business, you even have to be more on the ball, because since, perception is reality, and the availability of people who don’t like you, as well as people who like you to talk about you in a million different places, as a business, you need to be talking about you and the people that work for you, and what you’re doing to help society, to help your own community, to help the global world. You’ve got to be part … It’s been a worn out expression, especially among social media people, “Either you’re part of the conversation or you’re part of the problem.”5
The big thing is, “Engage in the conversation.” That was a big key phrase when social media first began. Now it’s like, to the people that have done social media it’s like, “If you’re not engaged in the conversation, at this point, what are you doing? What wall were you behind that you missed the last five years? Because they’re creating that format of, “We’re going to tell you how we are, not how it really is.” Social media is allowing people to see how companies really are, as opposed to how they want you to see them.
Craig: You mentioned something, just a while ago, about big business, and the B to B, and B to C. I look at it is the smaller business where the communication that you have, on a daily basis, could very well be considered the B to C. The B to B it still the conversation you would have with big business or a small business, what is the difference, between B to B and B to C, in the social media efforts?
Les: In the social media efforts, B to C, seems to be the more simplest way to get the word out and to get your products, and services or a restaurant, or a department store sold, because you could tell them about a sale that’s happening. You can tell them about discounts that are happening. Plus you put in reviews of people that have enjoyed the service, or that enjoy the products, and things of that nature. You get the word out more quickly with that, from a B to C standpoint. B to B is a little harder, but it’s more about influence and less about selling whatever it is you’re trying to sell.
Building that influence and building those loyalty, people that are loyal customers and evangelists of your business. Whether it be Coca-Cola, Virgin, IBM, AT&T, name your top five favorite Fortune companies, you’re seeing them even make more of an effort create evangelists. There’s a great example of what not to do, I believe the company was Comcast, where a guy called in customer service and recorded it, and it went viral. You’re like, “Okay.” It’s one of those examples of, where did we go wrong? Where we went wrong, we were promoting and advertising that we are all about the customers and all about customer service.
Then we had a really vivid example of that we just had a guy trying to push us to stay onboard and wouldn’t let us go. That’s a great example of B to C, it seems to be more quick from point A communication to the actual person who’s buying the service. B to B, is more about building that loyalty base, that influence among your customers and amongst the population, wherever you’re doing work, and building more of an image around who you are that makes people want to come and do business with you, other businesses to come and do business with you.
