Consumer brands like Pepsi and Southwest Airlines are also out front. As near as I can tell, IBM is a leader in moving its business toward social, as is Dell. It’s going to be as much fun watching business change in the next ten years as it has been watching social networks grow over the previous ten. Bank of America can’t charge a customer $5.00 to use a debit card, because it will provoke a firestorm of public criticism. Customers occupy both Wall Street and Main Street.
No business can ignore its customers–many have tried, most of them used to, but all of them are now tryingto figure it out. There’s a coming movement called “social business,” about which I’ve been studying and writing lately, and it focuses on the forced engagement with customers that’s facilitated by social media. What’s happening on the consumer side and in politics is echoed in the business community, where old command-and-control infrastructure is being replaced by networks, both internal and external, that are trying to reach beyond traditional silos.
