Social Business Imperative, The: Adapting Your Business Model to the Always-Connected Customer - Softcover

Shih, Clara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 013426343X ISBN 13: 9780134263434

Publisher: Pearson, 2016

Synopsis

“The power of Clara’s book is that it highlights not only social media practices but fundamental business practices and how company leaders need to entirely rethink customer engagement models. The implications for every business—regardless of industry or geography—of today’s social, connected consumer cannot be overstated. This book provides a powerful vision and a compelling call to action for company leaders everywhere.”

—Ted Mathas, Chairman and CEO, New York Life 

Social media is now the dominant online activity and drives more website traffic than online search. The implications for businesses are as profound as the rise of Google fifteen years ago. Delegating this opportunity to a social media team is not enough—today’s leaders must personally grasp the tectonic changes arising from today’s social, always-connected customer, and must re-architect business practices and models accordingly.

 

In The Social Business Imperative, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and renowned thought leader Clara Shih identifies powerful new opportunities created by social media across the entire customer lifecycle. The functional breadth of this book is critical for today’s leaders, who must deliver a consistent experience across every brand touchpoint, from marketing to sales to customer service, online to offline, because that is what the customer expects.

 

This guide is a must-read for all professionals—from boards of directors to front-line sales managers, and from chief marketing officers to recruiting, IT, and compliance directors—who need to understand the digital transformation taking place not only in their own department but in all departments. Only with this broader understanding can functional leaders effectively collaborate on delivering a cohesive customer experience spanning previous organizational silos.

 

Going far beyond her global best-seller The Facebook Era, Clara offers unprecedented insights into why and how traditional organizations must re-imagine their existing business processes to capture “the digital last mile” across social media, mobile messaging apps, the Internet of Everything, and the collaborative economy. Drawing on her immense experience helping Fortune 500 companies operationalize digital transformation to drive measurable uplift in sales and loyalty, Shih also presents powerful new case studies spanning multiple industries and companies from Wells Fargo to Warby Parker.

About this title

About the Author

Clara Shih is a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur and bestselling author. She is founder and CEO of Hearsay Social, an enterprise software company whose predictive omnichannel marketing platform helps financial advisors engage clients across social, text message, email, and websites while complying with industry regulations. A pioneer in the social media industry, Clara developed Faceforce, the first social business application, in 2007 and subsequently authored the New York Times-featured bestseller, The Facebook Era (Addison-Wesley, 2011).

 

Clara has been named one of Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs,” Fast Company’s “Most Influential People in Technology,” BusinessWeek’s “Top Young Entrepreneurs,” and both Fortune’s and Ad Age’s “40 Under 40.” She was also named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum.

 

Clara is a member of the Starbucks board of directors and previously served in a variety of technical, product, and marketing roles at Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce.com. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in computer science from Stanford, as well as an M.S. in Internet studies from Oxford, where she studied as a United States Marshall Scholar.

 

Connect with Clara on social media:

http://twitter.com/clarashih

http://facebook.com/clarashih

https://www.linkedin.com/influencer/clarashih

https://instagram.com/clarashih

http://hearsaysocial.com/blog

Review

“Whether you’re a global brand, small local business, or individual who wants to turn your passion into a livelihood, this book simply and clearly articulates how to channel the power of social media to delight audiences and grow your business.”

—Marne Levine, COO, Instagram

 

“Clara literally ‘wrote the book’ on social media with her first book, The Facebook Era. In this follow-up, she gives us a practical guide on how to drive social, mobile, and digital platforms to transform and elevate the customer and employee experience. This is a must-read for any business leader who wants to thrive in this time of disruptive change.”

—Chip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.

 

“The combination of social media expansion and increasingly powerful data analysis capabilities is creating unmatched opportunities to fundamentally reorganize our businesses and ultimately better serve our customers. Clara Shih helps us understand how and why. This book is a milestone for all of those who want to successfully transform their traditional companies into a powerful and more customer-friendly social business—a business of the 21st century!”

—Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO, AXA

 

“A book worth reading, a voice worth listening to, from a leader of real consequence. A clarion call on the promise and potential of social channels to transform business.”

—Walter Robb, Co-CEO, Whole Foods Market

 

“Every company today must think of itself as a technology company and become customer-obsessed. The Social Business Imperative elegantly, succinctly, and powerfully describes why, how, and what to do.”

—Kristin Lemkau, Chief Marketing Officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

 

“When it comes to mapping the brave new terrain of social technologies, Clara is miles ahead of the curve. The Social Business Imperative serves up a detailed and flexible plan of attack that will prove invaluable to forwardthinkers everywhere.”

—Neil Blumenthal, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Warby Parker

 

“In contrast to so many books about the promise and tactics of social media, Shih offers something much more valuable. The Social Business Imperative is a strategy and execution roadmap for everyone from boards and CEOs to front-line employees.”

—Eric Ries, author of the New York Times-best-seller The Lean Startup

 

“Advancements in technology coupled with changing consumer preferences have ushered in a new, always-on era of the consumer. From understanding the needs of millennials to powerful marketing and customer strategies that drive sustained growth, The Social Business Imperative offers a comprehensive guide to implementing a social media platform and culture change to address the complex demands of today’s social, mobile, digital, and in-charge customer.”

—Dave McKay, President and CEO, Royal Bank of Canada

 

“From professional sports to media, entertainment, and retail, no aspect of business or consumer life has gone untransformed by social business. Clara’s book is a clear and compelling guide for navigating and succeeding in this new era.”

—Larry Baer, President and CEO, San Francisco Giants

 

“In her latest book, Clara explores an important reality we all face today: Consumers are socially connected, digitally minded, and have higher expectations than ever before. Read this and you will think differently about how to reach and serve your customers in this new digital environment.”

—Helena Foulkes, President, CVS/pharmacy

 

“A must-read for today’s business leaders, who must drive their organizations to embrace the growing opportunity on social media and stay relevant with customers.”

—Ivan Chu, Chief Executive, Cathay Pacific Airlines

 

“Paraphrasing Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, after air, water, and food, what we all need and crave most is social connection—friendship, intimacy, and family. Maslow would have loved Clara Shih. Since her breakout book The Facebook Era in 2009, Clara has been showing us the way social media is changing our world. Clara’s new book cuts through the tech-world jargon to deliver a message to business leaders everywhere: We are all social beings and in business, as in life, building relationships first is the key to success.”

—Jim McCann, Founder and CEO, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc.

 

“The Social Business Imperative is a must-read for all client-facing business professionals, field leaders, and organizational leaders. Written by a master strategist, it will transform the way you conduct business.”

—Robert R. Johnson, PhD, CFA, CAIA, President and CEO of The American College of Financial Services

 

“Almost overnight, social media has transformed business and the way we as companies interact with our customers. In a way, social media has become part of everyone’s job. Clara’s book gets right to the heart of the matter and gets us thinking critically about what could be next on this roller coaster ride.”

—Robin Hayes, President and CEO, JetBlue

 

“This book is a guide that connects social technologies to other critical technology-enabled trends that every business leader should understand: the Internet of Things, big data, mobile, and omnichannel. Clara peppers these insights with practical advice from her experience as CEO of a company taking advantage of these trends.”

— Michael Chui, Partner, McKinsey Global Institute

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 013426343X
• ISBN 13: 9780134263434
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256