A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive

Written by Mark S. Babbitt and Ted Coine

Narrated by Sean Pratt

Just like the meteor that likely precipitated the end of the dinosaurs, social media is having a monumental impact on the world's economy; a change so dramatic that it has created a new business era. Welcome... to the Social Age.

What does the Social Age mean for your business? Containing stories, analysis of real-world scenarios, and indispensable guidance, A World Gone Social gives you the tools and information you need to survive--and thrive--in a business climate in which customers hold all the cards... jobseekers have the power to easily find out what working at your company isreally like... and expertise has become more democratic than ever as employees collaborate with each other, as well as with vendors, customers, and even competitors.

You'll discover what the "Death of Large" and "Flat: The New Black" mean for you and your organization, how to build a socially enabled team that puts the customer experience first, and what it means to create an "OPEN" network of partners, collaborators, and brand champions. Filled with fascinating stories of success and failure at organizations including Barilla, Zappos, Bank of America, Lululemon, Abercrombie Fitch, Southwest Airlines, and more, the book reveals how to avoid the dangers of insincerity as well as what it takes to become a "Blue Unicorn"--the social leader. Finally, you'll learn how to objectively assess the fitness of your company's current culture and social presence.

In the Social Age, companies unwilling to change will play the role of the dinosaurs: destined for extinction. A World Gone Social gives you the keys to avoid this fate--and lead your organization into this exciting business climate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ascent Audio
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781469091563

Reviews for A World Gone Social

[liscarey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Coiné and Babbitt make the case that the future of business--any business, any industry--is social. Every company, big or small, business to business or business to consumer, must not only have a presence on social media, but an active, interactive presence. They need to make social media presence not just a marketing tool but an integral part of how the company operates, at every level and in every function.

And on the "every level" point: They also maintain that the best-run, most successful companies will be those that make their organization as flat as possible, ideally so flat that only the CEO has a title, and only because that's necessary to represent the company to the government and the media. The goal of this book is to both make the case for this radical viewpoint, and to lay out the basics of achieving it.

One of the unifying themes is that everyone is in the service business; you are either serving your clients and customers, or you are serving the people who do. This is not an area where there are a lot of hard numbers demonstrating direct return on investment. The authors make their case with both personal experience--including a rather compelling personal anecdote of trying to buy shoes from Zappo and instead buying from Topo Athletic because the Zappo team was asleep at the switch that day, and a Topo intern was paying attention to the right hashtags on Twitter. In addition, they use examples of other companies that have made significant gains by successfully leveraging social media to be both useful and highly responsive to current customers, potential customers, and even people who might at some point be potential employees.

They're very clear about the need to be genuine on social media. If you're there only to promote yourself, your company, or your product, your efforts will be counterproductive. They also, to the extent it's possible with the rapidly moving target of social media, attempt to lay out some clear guidelines for moving an entire major enterprise from traditional management and marketing approaches to the flat and social future. Therein may lie the rub for some potential readers; this really isn't aimed at the individual looking to use social media to make themselves more useful, more valuable, more connected. This book, despite some impressive if not necessarily persuasive happy talk about how social media has shifted all the power to the employee in employer/employee relations, is really aimed at those making decisions for the entire company, whether large or small.

That's not really a criticism. It's what the book's target audience is. But it does mean that the cover and early parts of it will attract readers who really aren't looking for this book.

Recommended with reservations.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.