This week is a special episode, recorded at the CeBIT Global Conference (CGC) in Hannover, Germany. Neal Schaffer spoke and participated in this great event, and had such a good time sitting down to speak with Ingo Stoll about the role information technology can play in social media. This episode takes a step back from the usual more applicable advice and looks at the bigger picture, including the current state of social media, and the future of the industry.

Key Highlights

[00:25] Introduction to the Interview with CGC Radio

[04:24] The Future of Social Media is Now

[05:36] Evolution of Social Business

[05:58] Social Media is a Two-way Conversation

[09:09] Disruptive Technology

[11:40] The Importance of Keeping Your Employees Happy

[16:05] Change Agent

[18:09] Lessening the Gap Between Consumer and Brand

Notable Quotes

• So it's less about speaking and getting 1000 questions or about people tweeting you out, but it's more about the audience is extremely influential.
• So instead of thinking about the future, it's there, it's now people are using these platforms. And if you're not engaging with people there, then maybe your competitors aren't right. And the big social data, it's there to be tapped into.
• It's less about thinking about the future and really getting busy and hunkering down and creating a strategy and looking at all the potential and figuring out what makes sense for your company to do. 
• Social business is a place where you know, social media, like the internet, it just sort of overlaps everything your company does, and every department, and companies need to be thinking about that.  When you create a social media strategy, it's critical that you include every department in that strategy, and that every department has a say, and in the future, you know, more and more departments are going to be using social media in more and more different ways. 
• Social is the public media, it is the ultimate media that represents who we are. And people are not only your customers, but they're your employees, right? So it becomes sort of a, you know, a natural central focus.
• Social media is bringing departments together, it's breaking down silos, and with employee advocacy, and we'll talk about this tonight at your event, obviously, but it's tapping into who we are as a company, what is our brand?
• Change is not enough anymore, we need transformation. And that brings it to the point that the changes we see are so substantial, that just adopting things is not enough anymore. It's really disruptive. What happens and it puts great pressure, great chances on the one hand, but great pressure on the leaders, and the managers of the organizations of today. 
• So when you put it all together, it becomes a great representation. And it changes the organism of a company

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