Five ways to Resist the Seductive Allure of Pointless Technology

What is it the tech that's in fashion week?

Blockchain, IOT, 5G, AI ... they are all solutions looking for a problem.  I'm really sorry to tell you this, but none of them are the magic bullet that will transform or change your business.  They will not make you sell more, or make you relevant to the modern buyer.

Social media has transformed society.  Today, when I switched on the television there is an interview with somebody that had posted a photo of the burning bush in Australia.  He had captured a house burning, with a kangaroo in the photo.  It's a great photo, that is going "viral" after being posted on Instagram.  The BBC had found the photographer and were interviewing him.

It made great television.

Not only were people talking about a very serious situation the other side of the world but we are talking about a social media post.

Welcome to a social world.

Social has also changed society and the way we do business -- especially Business.

Today we are using social right across the business, tactically.  Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Procurement, Finance ... and Human Resources.  But even though we are "social" animals we are not using it strategically.

Social enables us to change (transform) our business, in other words, do more for less.

If we look at Simon Kemp's Q4 Digital Snapshot 

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2019-q4-global-digital-statshot

There are 3.75 Billion people in the world active on social media.  Your staff are on it, your alumni are on it and your future employees are on it.

So here's a thing.

Why don't we start using social?  Why don't we start using social strategically?  Why don't empower people to use it and use it for our own advantage?

How do I mean?

Our social selling program enables companies to get 20% increase in sales and a 40% reduction in sales cycles.  Now that is something all business would want.  What a competitive advantage!

As well as sales we can also use social in Human Resources.  We can use social to support maternity returners, make them feel welcome and get them contributing quicker.  In fact we can use social to enhance the employee experience across the business, supporting new starters enabling them to contribute faster.  We can also use it to get salespeople to contribute faster.  This, often is a game changer and the business case for this change in business.

Empowering your staff on social will also enable you to get access to the talent faster.  It will probably even reduce the amount you spend on recruiters and job adverts.  It might even make you the employer of choice in your industry.  This again is often a business case, based on the savings.

But emphasizing the employee experience, social is often a driver to help retain employees and impacting on the recruitment process. 

Finally we would expect a 25% increase in employee efficiency in using social.  That's 25% more employees for free!  Again, another business case.

In 2020, let's be smart.  Let's start making our people and process more efficient and effective by using social.

Oh, and by the way, there is a crazy (do more for less) business case as well.