The list of disruptive technologies on the radar of stakeholders is expanding. 

Ownership is moving to the C-Suite and managed by cross-functional, collaborative groups. Customer experience (CX) continues to lead digital transformation investments, but as we observed in 2017, employee experience and organizational culture are also rising in importance to empower and accelerate change, growth, and innovation.

So says the headlines from this recent report by the awesome 'Brian Solis' (link below) who is someone I have a lot of respect for. 

Digital transformation for many started life as an IT project, it's objective to improve efficiencies and reduce cost across the enterprise. 

Many hours were invested by the CIO/CTO and respective teams reviewing all possible vendor pitches with a final short list being presented into the board for rubber stamp approval. 

Many of these vendor deals were gained from previous relationships, based on previous projects and all very hush hush in case the competition gained advantage, occasionally they would come via a referral from someone in the same industry, and leadership team pecking order. 

Gartner and Forrestor research now tells us that antiquated 'old school' process is fundamentally changed beyond all recognition, in fact the entire 'buying process' has altered and inertia sits even more with the vendors prospects than ever before.

The key triggers for this change have been altered by the key changes in consumer behaviour, there ability to interact with a brand, company, and it's employees, all driven by social media.

Today's socially savvy, digitally connected prospect is using social platforms to perform their due diligence in stealth mode. They no longer go to your website as the first port of destination to invite you in to 'pitch', circa 68% of that due diligence is being done prior to any direct contact being made with a potential vendor.

Due to the accessibility of social media there are now 8-10 internal stakeholders involved in that due diligence, they can see what you your employees are really like, they can evidence what your current customers are saying about you, and they can also benchmark you against the same things with your competitors.

If your an organisation that still thinks that 'Social Media' belongs to marketing, or is just another way to 'advertise and promote' your brand then you're in for a shock my friend.

Human resource is one of a companies biggest assets, and if engaged in the right way with a better understanding of 'Social Selling' via an accredited industry recognised training program it's people can become a huge force for transformation and change. 

Business transformation as Brian says is more about;

What’s also evident is that there is still much work to do as companies are, by and large, prioritizing technology over grasping the disruptive trends that are influencing markets and, more specifically, customer and employee behaviors and expectations.

If you would like to find out how to unleash the huge Superpower with social media as part of an employee engagement strategy, please feel free to contact the author of this blog.