Time magazine began choosing their Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) in 1927 with the selection of Minnesota native and famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh. Since that time, the list has been predominantly filled with politicians and world leaders. It's rare to see someone from industry make the list. In fact, in the first fifty years, only two people from the private sector were chosen – and they weren't Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. So, it came as a great shock to many when the 2010 recipient was the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.
However, choosing the inventor of perhaps the biggest change in how people communicate since the telephone came as no surprise to me. I've known about Facebook since my now 27-year-old son opened an account in his first year at college. That was back when Facebook was only available to people with a valid email address from a college or university.
A lot has happened since then. I knew that Facebook was much bigger than a toy for teens and 20-something year old college students when my 83-year-old mother-in-law opened an account, "friended me," and starting writing on my timeline. It was at that point that I realized just how pervasive Facebook had become in modern culture.
As 2015 begins, Facebook has over 1.35 billion users, supports over 70 languages (including pirate), and has a market capitalization of 214.36 billion dollars. That's quite the feat for a company that basically offers its services for free and whose chairman and CEO is only 30 years old.
So, how does this relate to you as a business owner, executive, or plain old decision maker? Consider these facts: Millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) outnumber baby boomers. Ninety-six percent of millennials have joined a social network. They account for a purchasing power of $200 billion a year and influence half of all spending in the United States.
Your business ignores this huge demographic at its own risk and peril.
Millennials aside, the way people learn about and interact with a company has changed tremendously over the past few years. When we want the phone number or an address to a business, we don't open up the Yellow Pages. We search for it online.
When we want to know what people think of a company's products, we do a Google search for the company followed by the words "reviews" or "complaints."
When we like a company's products or services, we literally "like it." These days, I would venture to guess that more people "like" Nike on Facebook than walk around wearing Nike t-shirts.
If I've learned one thing in all my time in this industry, it's that there is always another "next big thing" just around the corner. Therefore, nimble companies must be prepared to understand and adapt to changes that come their way. In terms of social media, it means that you must add the foundation for IP communication and Web interaction into your communications system today. Not tomorrow. Today.
The Social Contact Center
Where people would once grumble one-on-one about a bad product experience, they now blast it to 10,000 of their closest friends. Those friends then like, share, and repost it to their friends. Some may even go so far as to make a video that is seen by millions. Is there anyone out there who hasn't seen United Breaks Guitars? It has 14,515,422 views and counting.
A smart business monitors social media channels for the bad and the good that is said about them. Some data might only be used for trending purposes, but some needs to be responded to ASAP. The earlier a problem is caught, the cheaper the solution.
Technology exists that scans multiple social media channels and takes action on the applicable tweets, posts, or uploads. For example, the Avaya Social Media Analytics tool can identify and classify posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even Google blogs. Rules can be established that then send actionable items to the appropriate contact center agents. These agents can answer a question, send a thank you, or mitigate a potentially damaging issue. This level of automation can process hundreds of thousands of social media interactions in order to find the select few that require company involvement.
Speaking from personal experience, I am thrilled when companies respond to my tweets about their products or services. On the flip-side, I am annoyed when I send out something I feel is important and all I get in return is silence. It tells me that they don't care about me or my business.
Be Proactive
It's not all about sitting back and waiting for something to occur. Socially smart companies get out in front of their customers in the forums their customers congregate.
Do you sell high-end audio equipment? Well, then you better be watching Twitter for #audiosystems, #subwoofer, #rmaf, and #soundsystem. If you aren't, your competition will be, and first-in-line is the name of the game.
If You Build It
Millennials have made it perfectly clear. Telephone calls are yesterday's news. If they want to "speak" with you, they will post a message on your Facebook page, tweet you, or send an instant message – anything but call you.
Social-savvy companies don't force their customers to use technologies they don't want to use. They also don't just meet phone-avoiding millennials halfway. They jump feet first into the deep end of the social media pool and give them the communications interfaces they want.
You build it. They come. It's that simple.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Of course, Facebook isn't the only game in town. Twitter rules the world of mass consumption sound bites. Skype is the de facto way that we make online voice and video calls. Pinterest and Tumblr have significant followings. A user of one service is most likely the user of multiple services.
Of course, these social media outlets are the face of today. Who knows who the next Mark Zuckerberg will be, but I will put money down on the fact that he or she will build the next big thing on Web-based technology that comes into the world on an IP connection.
Will you be ready for the next new thing? Are you prepared to meet the expectations of the Web-based consumer? Do you have a social media strategy? What are you doing with WebRTC? Have you upgraded to SIP?
If the answers to these questions are important to you and your company (and they should be), now is the time to take a serious look at how you support the new paradigm of doing business with businesses.
Remember, it's not social. It's business.
Andrew Prokop writes about all things unified communications on his popular blog, SIP Adventures.
Read more of Andrew Prokop's thoughts on Facebook in the recent article, "[email protected]: Will Enterprise Social Take Off?"
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