“Social media did not create social conversations,” says Brian Solis, but it certainly seems to be our most habitual method of interacting these days.
In observance of this trend, Brian recently spoke to Full Sail’s campus and online students, faculty, and staff about the emergence of social media. The lecture and Q&A session was hosted by the Internet Marketing Masters Degree Program on Full Sail’s Wimba online platform, which is software that supports both video and audio webcasts and collaboration-focused chat rooms.
“This new era of digital Darwinism,” as Brian puts it, is changing the relationship between how businesses and customers affect one another. He pointed out that our rapid consumption of social networking sites is used to reveal our preferences and behaviors to businesses; therefore, we are heavily influencing the way they are operating.
Brian is a widely respected Social Media and Internet Marketing author and consultant. His professional credits include: chief of award-winning, New Media agency FutureWorks in Silicon Valley; implementing programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups; author of several books, including the co-author of Putting the Public Back in Public Relations used in some of Full Sail’s Internet Marketing courses.
Throughout the online presentation, Brian reinforced the topics outlined in his newest book, Engage! The book serves as a guide for brands and businesses to take the “very personal” social media and then utilize them toward their own communications, advertising, marketing, and customer service needs.
But Brian stresses that his scope of work has more to do with “socialization of business,” and that it’s not just an instructional how-to for using Facebook and Twitter.
“The book [was] written to set the stage for what’s ahead of you. It represents this opportunity to become an influencer,” Brian says. “[It was] written in ways to motivate and inspire you…and designed to show you where to focus, how to get answers to your questions, and to ask questions you never would have even thought to ask.”
The following topics were the most heavily discussed and revolved around the characteristics of social media and what’s changing:
- Relations vs. relationships
- Social media has to embody “one plus one equals many”
- Social media begins with ‘me’
- Social media is rich in emotion
He also highlighted that the “social media ecosystem consists of paid, sponsored, owned, participatory, or earned” communication from us.
“You share something [in online networks] because you hope to engender a reaction,” Brian says.
And you can bet that companies are reacting. “We have the ability to change marketing—to humanize this in a way that’s going to help.
“This is the time to not define yourself, but to create yourself.”
For more on Brian Solis, including information on his bio, blog, or books, please visit www.briansolis.com.
