Charlene Li: How social changes business

Just a few days ago, we had the pleasure to host Charlene Li at our offices in Milan. While having a typical Italian “aperitivo” with her, we were able to ask her a couple of questions about how social media is changing both marketing and business. Charlene has huge experience in this space: she is co-author of Groundswell, author of Open Leadership and founder of Altimeter Group. We could could think of no-one better to to ask about the transformational impact of social media on business, and we’re pleased that she agreed to let us share this video with her thoughts. Some highlights:

• brands are recognising social media is much more than marketing
• they’re looking to social technologies to help them change their organisations to work with customers in a better way
• brands need to partner with experienced agencies to help them do this
• social media usage is mainstream, but you need to understand how people use it
• move from transactions to relationships with your customers

Charlene also invites all social media business decision makers to answer a few questions: if you work at a company with more than 1000 employees, please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. It will help Altimeter Group, in an “Open Research” approach, to outline how companies define their priorities and social strategies. It takes less than 20 minutes and can be done until December, 6th. In return, Altimeter Group will email you their resulting report (and will not subscribe you to any mailing lists).