Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the 28th annual Canaccord Adams Global Growth Conference in downtown Boston. There were approximately 240 small and mid-cap companies in attendance, representing the following sectors: Technology, Life Sciences, Real Estate, Consumer, Sustainability and Industrial Growth.
I usually speak at events where the audience is comprised of employees, consumers, and social media professionals, but at this event, I was presenting in front of analysts, investment bankers, and venture capitalists. One would think that given the disparity between the two groups, my presentation would be drastically different. However, it wasn’t.
My message was and always will be the same regardless of the audience: conversations or social interactions will fundamentally change the way companies do business.
While I did cover some facts and figures like market growth and Mzinga’s financial outlook, the bulk of my presentation was this message that customers are driving innovation, sales, distribution, and branding. I essentially recycled my standard “WE” book presentation for this event and used the same videos (a parody ad for Chevy Tahoe produced 3 years ago and this year’s Superbowl ads) in order to demonstrate my point.
Whether you’re a blogger or investment banker, someone who cares about social media or someone who only cares about profiting from it, watching these videos signals one thing: customers are empowered as a result of social technologies.
I almost take it for granted that I’m consistently surrounded by people who understand this message. What I recognized as a result of prepping for and participating at the Canaccord Adams event was that education on the enterprise and investment side is just beginning. Before I can even get into the nitty gritty numbers and discuss things like market caps, organic growth, inorganic growth, profit margins, etc., audiences across the board still need to understand the ABC’s or 123’s of the game:
Consumers want to talk and they will talk. Companies have less control of their brands as a result of their ability to produce user-generated content.
Companies will be rewarded if they talk back and punished if they don’t. It is essential that we build internal and external communities in order to house conversations. If we don’t, conversations will take place elsewhere where they can’t be monitored.
The idea of managing conversations is universally appealing. It’s not just about Facebook and Myspace. It’s not just about kids. It’s about people interacting with people in order to help businesses prosper and make employees and consumers happier.
As many times as I’ve repeated myself about all of this, I am determined more than ever to keep repeating myself. I have been giving this same pitch for 7 years, but these days, it feels fresh because of these new audiences. They’re hearing me for the first time, and even better, I think they’re finally listening.
