On this episode Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo are back to talk privacy and security, a topic they're both passionate about and yet often share a different point of view and passion for the topic.

On this episode they discuss:

Facebook privacy concerns is this new?
Apple Siri we know it's listening but do we care?
FaceApp should it concern us or is the concern a positive sign
The Great Hack Netflix documentary covers Cambridge Analytica scandal what more can we learn
Where does security and privacy go from here?

Also check out Daniel Newman's new book Human/Machine!

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On this episode Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman talk everything Elon Musk from Tesla latest earning numbers to Elon's most recent tweets to the future of autonomous vehicles!

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On this episode of SMACtalk Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo start the conversation off discussing recent cybersecurity breaches but this leads into a much bigger discussion on privacy and transparency posing a lot of unanswered questions...

We would love to hear your thoughts on the topic.... post on twitter using hashtag #SMACtalk and @DanielNewmanUV or @iSocialFanz will jump in the conversation!

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On this episode hosts Daniel Newman & Brian Fanzo preview the upcoming technology event Mobile World Congress 2019. Daniel will be heading over there to cover the event as an analyst and provided his predictions for the event.

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On this episode of SMACtalk Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman breakdown the current drama and flexing of muscles between technology giants Facebook, Apple and Google.

Article Referenced in this episode: https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-and-apple-argue-over-who-removed-facebook-research-app-2019-1

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Marketers aren’t marketing in 2019 without technology but sadly most marketers don’t think of themselves at technologists but even more troubling aren’t doing the research to understand the emerging technologies that will massively disrupt the industry over the next 10 years. A recent Digiday survey found that 9% of marketers consider themselves fluent in blockchain… This mindblowing stat was the inspiration for this episode of SMACtalk hosted by Daniel Newman & Brian Fanzo.

On this episode they discuss:

Are you an analytical marketer?
Are you a marketer that loves change?
Why aren’t we linking data between PR, Marketing & Sales with AI?
Do marketers understand the impact of blockchain on the future?
How can marketing leaders stay up to date with emerging technology?
Why are marketers still measuring and reporting on data of the past.

Blog posts referenced in this show:

Digiday Research: Marketers lack understanding of emerging technologies

Harvard Business Review: The Era of “Move Fast and Break Things” Is Over

Hit up Daniel & Brian on Twitter and let them know your thoughts on this episode or simply tweet with the hashtag #SMACtalk

@DanielNewmanUV: www.twitter.com/danielnewmanUV

@iSocialFanz: www.twitter.com/isocialfanz

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On this episode hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman tackle a topic that they probably love talking even more than technology and that's digital leadership and more importantly what are some of the trends and changes that must be made by leadership and for leadership in this digital transformation age.

As you’ll hear both Brian and Daniel are extremely passionate about this topic as its the main theme that they speak about on stages around the world and on this episode they covered a wide range including:

How to manage with 4 generations in the workforce
What role does technology play in better understanding employees
Why big compies such as Apple, Uber, Google, Facebook, and others have a big problem thanks to their big ego.
Importance of TRUST when it comes to employees but also technology
Why we can’t throw technology at people problems
Is employee morale and work/life balance a leadership priority in 2019
Do collaboration tools increase productivity or do the data show it actually increases emails and disconnection

These are just some of the areas covered on this episode and make sure you are following both Brian and Daniel on twitter as they share articles and content around these topics daily.

Also checkout Daniel Newmans Forbes Post: Breaking Down The Six Pillars Of Digital Transformation From The CEO's Perspective

Interested in hiring Brian and Daniel to be a keynote speaker at your upcoming company event:

Brian Fanzo Speaker Site: www.isocialfanz.com/speaker

Daniel Newman Speaker Site: www.danielnewmanspeaks.com

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It’s CES time of the year and Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo are back again to talk about the trends they are excited about and what they expect to emerge from CES 2019 week in Las Vegas.

Daniel wrote a CES post for Forbes titled CES Predictions: 5 Key Themes For CES 2019 and on this episode they’ll cover the topics in this post and also debate some other trends.

Some of the trends discussed in this episode:

Artificial Intelligence
Smart Speakers
5G (Real vs Fake)
Autonomous Vehicles and Things
Flexible devices
IoT
Future of Cloud computing
Automotive innovation
And much more...

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Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo are excited to be back for 2019 and have big plans for the upcoming year. On this episode they add a new twist to the yearly prediction show by focusing on each letter of the show acroynm S.M.A.C providing some bold and also some not so bold predictions for social media, mobility, analytics and cloud computing.

What are Daniel and Brian’s predictions around:

Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Apple
5G Real + Fake
Edge computing
Linkedin

You’ll have to listen to this episode to find out!

Cheers to a great start to 2019! Make sure you listen to the next episode which will be the yearly CES technology preview show!

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In this episode of SMACTalk, Daniel Newman invites IBM Automation (Client) GM/VP Gene Chao to share his insights on how Customer Experience is being impacted by Automation. On the show, Gene is asked the following questions.

Do you have a story as a consumer to share about how automation optimized a recent customer experience for you? Or what the organization could've done better? (could be a blind reference)What are some of the pitfalls organizations must avoid when it comes to automation being part of the customer experience? What are good ways to overcome them?
What do you view as the key factors to automation successfully optimizing customer experiences?
What's the one thing you advise clients to pay attention to? To avoid complacency? To be prepared for?
When we think of customer experience and automation, people tend to think of chatbots - but are there other types of automation solutions we should consider?

Packed with insights, Gene helps companies understand the ways that Automation is going to change the way people interact with companies. This isn't just customers, but employees too. But the positive thing is that automation isn't going to displace, but rather drive better experiences and a stronger movement toward upskilling the workforce to help companies transform as quickly as modern technology.

Don't miss this episode packed with insights for marketers, technologists and business leaders.

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On this edition of SMACTalk, Co-hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman invite special guests Ginger Shimp and Jeff Janiszewski from SAP to talk about innovation in content marketing. While so many B2B companies struggle to evolve beyond traditional funnel marketing, Shimp and Janiszewski share how they have taken traditional funnel methods like white papers, lead generation and social media, and utilized new tactics like audio books white papers (http://sapinnovate.me/reports)and podcast-inspired storytelling (www.searchingforsalai.com) to shake things up AND to challenge the thinking and traditional marketing practices of their colleagues throughout SAP.

Don't miss this great conversation. So much to learn here about a highly successful SAP campaign that helped launch their new digital intelligence platform SAP Leonardo, while helping more than 25 of their BU's drive custom content to their end customers and channel partners. All of this and more, on SMACTalk!

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In this episode of SMACtalk, Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo welcome guest Steve Rudolph of Pegasystems. In his role at Pega, Steve leads the industry market group covering telco and all the industries it touches, from insurance to financial services. In his role, he focuses on how to create value in customer relationships by using data effectively.

During the podcast, Daniel, Brian and Steve discussed the need for today’s industries to embrace AI and machine learning in advertising to ensure positive relationships with their customers. Many industries, including telco, have gotten stuck in the “tyrannosaurus rex” method of marketing—direct marketing—even though it’s clear traditional segmenting approaches are no longer effective. In fact, it often leads to outcomes that are bad for both the marketer and the customer. Customers are irritated that they get hit with ads that aren’t relevant—and marketers are frustrated that they aren’t getting the results they need.

Why does that happen? Steve notes that traditional segmenting is good for averages, but not for individuals. Using AI can help companies make smarter use of customer segmentation by combining data about their real-time actions taken by the customer (performing a search for keyword or product) with historical information from them pulled across channels. This allows companies to market in a way that doesn’t feel like marketing, and it helps hit customers at the time they’re most willing to buy.

Who is responsible for leading this change? Steve says today’s digital heroes are the forward-thinking executives focusing on ways to increase customer lifetime value, not just marketing impact. Just like we build CX journey maps, we need to use AI, omnichannel data, and marketing to plot our services, sales, and marketing touchpoints. For instance, providing the right services puts people in right frame of mind to buy. We must begin with the end goal in mind—incorporating CX and UX to build a seamless and positive experience for customers.

While many people are afraid of AI, Steve feels that when use it effectively – to create value for our customers – most won’t even realize they’re encountering it. Ultimately, AI won’t just be used to sell, but to make our customers’ lives better.

A year from now, Steve hopes we will be using AI to enhance every service we interact with on a daily basis. AI itself isn’t quite perfect yet—and it still has some hurdles to cross in terms of transparency and trust. But in the end it remains an incredible tool for allowing almost every industry move with their relationship with customers forward.

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In this Intel-sponsored episode of SMACTalk, Daniel Newman leads a show focused on the visual cloud. Joining Daniel is Lynn Comp, Vice President of Data Center Group and General Manager of the Visual Cloud Division Network Platform Group at Intel. During the show, they discuss what Intel is doing in the realm of the visual cloud and what we can expect in the future.

Lynn focuses her time on helping cloud services be transformed. She talked about the visual cloud including visual workloads that are processed on the cloud and consumed remotely, resulting in horizontal make-up. She mentioned that a lot of enterprises want their subcontractors to be able to view their 3D models, but not the whole model itself. So, remote access is critical for intellectual property.

Lynn mentions that individuals aged 18 to 49 tune into YouTube more often than they do TV. This is a worldwide trend that is exciting and pushing the visual cloud forward through the delivery of things like Comcast and other similar broadcasters.

Lynn discussed how video marketing is becoming more and more common, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. The best way to work with this tech is to learn what the most effective solution might be for the network that they have. With the visual cloud, there is no single design point. Instead, there are multiple points, creating a better hook to increase conversions. The visual cloud gives developers more opportunities in their business models, workload placement and the user experience as a whole.

Lynn explained what Intel’s strategy is for the visual cloud. Intel is taking a “software acceleration” approach, being in the market with software such as the Media Server Studio and Web RTC, which is a way to conduct streaming. Continuing on this acceleration, they will soon be open-sourcing DLDT or the Deep Learning Deployment Toolkit and OpenVino to help unleash innovation and make it easy for solution providers to find the right solution and deciding where to put it. Will they need to place it in the cloud or the edge?

She also shared that Intel will also be opening up access to Scalable Video Technology and working with Google and others in the industry. By open-sourcing these capabilities, Intel believes they can unleash even more innovation.

Lynn further explained that it doesn’t matter how optimized your solution is, if you don’t have the ability to move between the different design points. With Intel, you should have access to the same software that is scalable across all solution points. Instead of broadcasters needing to rip and replace their infrastructure, they can upgrade their hardware seamlessly through software.

Lynn discussed how the whole broadcasting industry is making the switch from black box equipment to software-based architectures to be cloud ready. As the cloud makes 5G possible, it also leaves space for flexibility with the software to find visual cloud workloads.

Daniel wrapped up the show by asking what the real outcome will be in investing in the visual cloud. Lynn explained that to some extent, everyone has the opportunity to be a creator. They can show their passions and talents to a wide audience using YouTube and other broadcasting tools. It isn’t just a passive experience anymore. We’ve unleashed the user’s creativity to create channels, broadcasts and communities that didn’t exist in the past.

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In this IBM sponsored episode of SMACTalk, Daniel Newman goes solo on hosting duties and leads a show focused on the future of automated work. Joining Daniel for the discussion was Mike Gilfix, Vice President of Digital Business Automation at IBM, a software that digitizes business operations and provides them with intelligence around digital labor to upscale their business.

The show focused on how technology such as automation, AI, data and machine learning is going to make companies more successful and productive. During the show, Mike shared how IBM is making use of automation to improve their customer service touchpoint by changing the way they support their clients. They found that time to resolution of an issue is a main driver behind customer satisfaction. By leveraging automation technology interaction through chatbots and more, the process is simplified, creating a better customer experience.

Mike also discussed some of the biggest trends he is seeing around the realm of automation for work. First, there is a revolution happening in businesses today around knowledge work. This revolution is creating tons of changes in the way technology supports what they do and the way they conduct their processes. Technology is helping knowledge workers be more effective and better at their tasks, helping them make decisions and freeing up more time for innovation. This trend is driving new things such as robotic process automation and decision management. It’s changing the way people work and is here to stay.

Both Daniel and Mike shared how AI and automation technology will not steal jobs from employees but will instead likely create new opportunities. To get there, executives must think about the transition and how they can help employees make the leap into a new position with new responsibilities. Organizations will need to help change the culture of fear surrounding automation within their teams through communication.

Mike made the point that we’re not anywhere near running out of work to do. In fact, most businesses have large laundry lists of work they want to complete and not enough people to do it. Automation will help businesses get done what they want to get done by creating capacity.

One of the challenges for businesses is getting automation to work and minimizing failure. Mike discussed how most organizations don’t know where to start. They’re looking for the concept but have chosen basic technology to get them there. There is an opportunity to open up their eyes to the possibilities and see the true potential of automation. There’s also an opportunity here to help IT teams leverage technology to its full potential, aiding in operation changes within business.

Mike emphasized that automation will benefit both sides of the spectrum in both revenue generation and cost basis. If businesses want to improve their reach with consistency, accuracy, personalization and transparency, these things require automation technology. The tech will enable a new level of scale in businesses. New revenue generating opportunities will follow suit, allowing these businesses to become more competitive in this technology-centric world.

To learn more, read Daniel Newman’s recent blog post for IBM, “4 Exciting Things About the Future of Automating Work.”

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SMACTalk Live at VMWorld with Intel

In this special Intel sponsored episode of SMACTalk, Daniel Newman leads a show focused on digital transformation while attending VMworld 2018. Joining Daniel is Lisa Davis, Vice President and General Manager of Digital Transformation and Scale Solutions, Enterprise and Government for Intel’s Data Center Group. During this podcast, Daniel speaks to Lisa about what Intel is doing to further digital transformation and how data will make it all happen faster.

During the show, Lisa discussed how Intel talks digital transformation, mentioning how it sometimes becomes an overused term. Every company today is a technology company. To remain competitive, you need to use technology to move faster and drive more meaningful insights inside your business. Digital transformation is all about enabling businesses to compete in a tech-centered world.

Lisa gave us an example of Ford—who is no longer just an auto-manufacturing plant. Instead, they are a mobility service provider. Every company is transforming themselves into this technological world. No matter what business you’re in, you are a tech business at the core. And for each business, digital transformation should be a top priority.

In this episode, Daniel and Lisa both discussed what digital transformation means to business systems. It all comes down to data and building a digital transformation system depends on it. Whether the data is from a software or a database, it should be leveraged to move businesses forward faster than ever before. Digital strategies are connected to business strategies and should be aligned with data strategies. All three should be aligned to one another for success.

At VM World, VMware’s multi-cloud environment was a big focus. Having a hybrid cloud strategy is all about workload and data mobility. Lisa discussed how seamless orchestration and flexibility as an organization to drive insights for data is what Intel supports in this new environment.

Daniel mentioned how 90 percent of the world’s data was created in the last 12 months. Data is growing exponentially. Technology has to support the digital transformation and cannot be done without it. Furthering this point, Lisa discussed Intel Select Solutions, a partnership with VMware. The whole purpose of the tool is to help organizations adopt tech faster, simplifying the integration of the new technology to form a data-centric environment. Intel performs tests, benchmarks and validates reference architecture so customers don’t have to. It simplifies the process and helps customers modernize their environments faster.

During the show, Lisa shared how to make the cloud work and how collaboration is key over competition. An ecosystem of partners needs to work together to help customers adopt technology. It’s all about easing the complexity of the environment. As a former CIO, Lisa has 26 years of experience being the customer. Understanding what customers really need, she helps Intel further their customer-centric approach and experience, both keys to success.

As a last point, Daniel and Lisa discussed the future of the data center being the hybrid cloud which will bring about so many new opportunities for businesses and CIOs. The more data businesses can put next to their computing power, the more problems they can solve. And the ability to process data faster and store it in larger quantities is going to change the face of data.

About Lisa Davis

Lisa M Davis

Vice President and General Manager for IT Transformation, Enterprise and Government Data Center Group, Intel Corporation

Areas of Expertise:
Disruptive Technologies, Women in Tech, Supply Chain, Higher Education Technology, Federal Government, Cyber Security

Industry Experience: High Tech, Higher Education, Federal Government, National Security, Intelligence, and Defense

Twitter: @LisaM_Davis

Lisa Davis is vice president and general manager for IT Transformation in Intel Corporation’s, Enterprise and Government Data Center Group where she is responsible for growing Intel’s data center business and working alongside enterprise and government CIOs to create IT transformation strategies for their organizations.

Lisa joined the Data Center Group from Intel’s IT Group where she led and developed the IT architecture and integrated technology solutions supporting Intel’s world-class global supply chain, HR, Finance, and M&A IT.

Davis is a three-time Chief Information Officer and has led four technology transformations over the course of her 30-year career in technology. Prior to Intel, Davis served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Georgetown University, and held a variety of technology leadership roles in her 26-year career in the Federal Government. As a member of the Senior Executive Service she was the CIO of the U.S. Marshals Service in the Department of Justice, as well as CIO of the Counterintelligence Field Activity in the Department of Defense.

Throughout her 30-year career in technology, Lisa has been a champion for women in technology and leadership – channeling that passion into leading professional development initiatives for women. She serves on the board of Mirantis, as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and a number of non-profit boards.

Lisa holds a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University, and a master's degree in human resources management from Golden Gate University, and is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). Find her on twitter @LisaM_Davis or LinkedIn.

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On this episode co-hosts Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo discuss the business value of social networks Twitter and Linkedin breaking down what's working for each of them and providing tips and tricks for all business professionals.

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In this special Intel sponsored episode of SMACTalk, Co-Host Daniel Newman goes solo on the hosting duties and leads a show focused on what to expect from Intel at VMworld 2018, starting August 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Joining Daniel for the discussion was Jake Smith, Director of Data Center Technology at Intel Data Center Group, where he focuses on Xeon Scalable Processors and Optane Persistent Memory product lines and how those products can be integrated with technology like VMware.

During the show, Jake shared that Intel first began working with VMware in 2002 with efforts to reduce latency via new tools and scalable usage models like ESX, MSX, and VMware Cloud. In that time, they’ve developed technology that has sped up the process of launching virtual machines (from buying, provisioning, and developing) from months to minutes to seconds, which will drive digital transformation moving forward. In the past, for instance, companies could launch new apps just every 90 days, which put a cramp in their ability to digitally transform. Now using virtualization, they can deploy apps simultaneously, allowing users to make the most of the technology being created.

At Daniel’s request, Jake discussed Intel Optane in-depth, explaining the importance of persistent state memory (PMEM), which allows a virtual machine to keep running even if the power goes out with no need to reset. It reduces boot times and increases performance with scalable memory up to 3 terabytes per socket. Jake emphasized that Optane would allow a company to move an entire database into memory, putting it within 18 microseconds of the user. The difference is like using a cached history of data, rather than opening a new site.

Daniel and Jake discussed that technology like Intel’s Optane is what will allow AI and machine learning to do the work they’re meant to do because ultimately AI and machine learning are only as good as the machines that can manage the data. Using Optane, data can be trained fast enough for companies to use it in real time—be it an autonomous vehicle or facial recognition software. Jake shared the example of picture recognition working not in 11 seconds but 1 second. The technology would work quickly enough that you could be offered a coupon to The Gap as soon as you walked into the mall. Optane helps provide the architecture that can deliver this level of intelligence—a nexgen virtualized database.

For the non-techy listeners, Daniel emphasized that Optane is about creating more storage and more access to virtual machines – making it easier, faster, and more affordable for companies to use AI and machine learning technology. Jake also emphasized that Intel’s goal is always to create a better TCO (total cost of ownership) and lower transaction cost for its business users.

What Intel will preview at VMworld: Intel Select Solutions; optimized hardware solutions – CPUs, chip set technologies filled with virtual technologies; hyper threading; VSAN non-volatile memory architecture; Optane data centers with persistent memory technology; hybrid cloud environment solutions; workload optimization for hybrid cloud environments. The goal is to reduce as much latency as possible in CPU, networking silicon, SSD silicon, and memory silicon.

What Intel is working on outside of VMworld: Accelerated FGAs; custom chips that accelerate V motion; and the concept of “enterprise reassurance.” Enterprise reassurance means building compatibility generation over generation so that businesses know that investments in tech will carry over year to year.

Update/Correction: (18:42) In the podcast, Jake Smith suggests that Raj Hazra would be in attendance at VMWorld 2018 to discuss Enterprise Reassurance Solutions. Raj Hazra will not in attendance, but the topic will be covered by Intel Staff at the event.

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On this episode co-hosts Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo discuss the massive stock drop by Facebook not as financial advisors because they won't claim to be that but they share their thoughts on what it means for the future of social media marketing. They also discuss why Twitter losses even when they do win and where they think social media marketing is moving in the future.

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Today on SMACTalk Brian and Daniel welcome a new partner effort with IBM Call for Code welcoming David Clark, CEO of David Clark Cause and Angel Diaz, IBM Vice President. It isn't often enough that developers are recognized for the work they do. Sure, they have built those pesky apps that help us order books, coffee and listen to our favorite music anywhere we have internet connectivity. However, too often we hear about the negatives of programmers and developers. Those that are building code to steal our data or use it maliciously to irritate us with ads we don't want ad interruptions to our experiences. David Clark, who has worked on causes with the great Mohammid Ali and Nelson Mandela asked a different question. As a non-technical person, he wanted to know how could technology and code be used for good. With this, and a partnership with the UN, a large venture capital firm, and IBM, Call for Code was born. In this episode of SMACTalk, David and Angel share with the community all about the Call for Code project. They discuss the current state of the project, the successes to date, the movement and how it is impacting society as a whole and then they peek into the future of the movement. With early focus being on how code can be developed to help natural disasters, something that effects billions of people worldwide, the project is off to a great start. So far, there are code days aka hackathons going on in nearly 100 cities and interest that goes well beyond that for more. For those interested in learning more or participating as a developer or just as a social activist, there are ways for all to get involved. For more info: www.callforcode.org We hope that you will check out the movement, share the podcast and get involved. It's social good meets big tech at its best and we can't wait to see all the great ideas and projects that developers worldwide create in the coming months.

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In this episode of SMACTalk Live, cohost Daniel Newman goes one on one with Intel Marketing Executive Bryan Madden to get an inside look at this year's 5G World and to explore where 5G technology will take us.

This exciting conversation live at 5G World London takes a look at the following...

Intel's 5G Strategy
How Intel and Intel Select are empowering the partner ecosystem to role out best of breed 5G strategy.
5G applications that are market ready today.
What to expect for 5G and its impact on the near future (6-12 months).

For more information about Intel's announcements from 5G World London, please visit the following links.

| https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/communications/mec-smart-stadium-brief.html?CID=2018_q2_dcg_gb_dcgnt_dcgn_smart_stadium_brief | | https://www.nokia.com/en_int/blog/mec-5g-smart-stadiums-changing-sports-entertainment-game?CID=2018_q2_dcg_gb_dcgnt_dcgn_smart_stadium_sports |

About Bryan Madden:

Bryan Madden leads the CommSP Industry Marketing function for Intel's Network Platforms Group. He is responsible for a worldwide marketing team that conceives, plans, directs and executes strategic marketing activity across the CommSP value chain with direct and indirect customer collaboration as well as ecosystem co-marketing in support of the transformation of the network and communications services industry with focus on SDN/NFV, Media, Telco Cloud, Intelligent Edge and 5G. Bryan is an IT and Telco industry veteran and has held various roles spanning sales, product, program and marketing management at Intel. Prior to Intel, Bryan held senior positions at Dell, Allfinanz, Softco and Kraft Foods. You can find him tweeting about life, music, food, love, and #ManUtd. Follow Bryan @maddsey.

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Special SMACTalk double interview episode with SAP's Torsten Welte & Joe Miles. Aerospace: Torsten Welte, Global Vice President and Head, Aerospace Industry Business Unit

The demand for single-aisle airplanes is exploding, while large aircrafts are scaling down production. Space travel is shifting from a government ambition to a private enterprise, and there's a lot of research fueling innovation. With the increased risk of fraud, the promise of blockchain offers increased visibility and security into the supply chain.

Life Sciences: Joe Miles, Global Vice President, Life Sciences Industry Business Unit

Transformation within life sciences has been driven, in part, by the erosion and progression of reimbursements, which then exerts margin pressure. Clinical trials are experiencing an exponential increase in patient data because of sensors that can be analyzed to provide a more holistic view of patients – and blockchain offers the promise of an irrefutable record of trial results.

In this series of podcasts, we’ll explore how you can make that happen in your business. Listen in on these talks from your fellow innovators to discover how to embrace digital transformation and become a disruptor in your industry.

Learn More: https://fm.sap.com/campaigns/CRM-US17-1LE-LSMACTLI/index.html

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On this episode of SMACtalk, Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman discuss the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the retail space including how Starbucks is leveraging data analytics and AI. They also breakdown the impact of GDPR but don’t worry this isn’t a full episode on GDPR because as we can all agree we’ve had enough of GDPR for the moment.

Discussed on this episode:

Do today’s consumers realize that A.I. is already impacting them every single day?
What impact with the GDPR changes have on AI?
How will consumers demands of AI change in 2018?

“Nobody will ever complain that you’re helping them too much or providing too much value!”

Articles referenced in this episode:

Starbucks: Using Big Data, Analytics And Artificial Intelligence To Boost Performance

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/28/starbucks-using-big-data-analytics-and-artificial-intelligence-to-boost-performance/2/#19cc302e5531

Stitch Fix: The Amazing Use Case Of Using Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/25/stitch-fix-the-amazing-use-case-of-using-artificial-intelligence-in-fashion-retail/#54cb012a3292

State of Digital Transformation Report

https://futurumresearch.com/futurum-2018-digital-transformation-index/

S.M.A.C.talk the podcast launched in 2014 and over those 3 years hosts Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo have covered topics that included Big Data, Digital Transformation, Social Selling, Data Center Migration, Millennial Marketing, Digital Marketing, live streaming video, customer experience and everything else impacting today's technology world.

SMACtalk became much more than just a podcast as every episode is live streamed via Facebook Live and Periscope while also going live to technology events such as Mobile World Congress, IBM developer conference, CES, SXSW, HP Discovery, SAP Sapphire and other technology events. Past sponsors of the podcast include IBM, SAP, SAP Store, Avnet, Adobe and currently Cisco.

Hosted by Brian Fanzo @iSocialFanz and Daniel Newman @DanielNewmanUV

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

Host emails DNewman@broadsuite.com Brian@iSocialFanz.com

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In this episode, Daniel and Brian discuss the data from the 2018 Digital Transformation Index from Futurum Research. This report goes in depth with over 1000 responses to understand how companies are adapting to new technologies but also explores leadership, innovation, and culture as it pertains to companies being prepared for digital transformation and shifting consumer demands. Some specific topics covered in this episode include: * Leaders and Laggards of Digital Transformation * Who in the organization is leading Digital Transformation * What are the biggest hurdles to companies achieving their Digital Transformation goals * What technologies are companies most comfortable with today * Which technologies will be the most important in the next 12-18 months * And much much more.

Join us for this data-rich, hot stove topic AND if you want to connect more in-depth with the research, it is available free to our listeners. https://futurumresearch.com/futurum-2018-digital-transformation-index/ -- S.M.A.C.talk the podcast launched in 2014 and over those 3 years hosts Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo have covered topics that included Big Data, Digital Transformation, Social Selling, Data Center Migration, Millennial Marketing, Digital Marketing, live streaming video, customer experience and everything else impacting today's technology world.

Hosted by Brian Fanzo @iSocialFanz and Daniel Newman @DanielNewmanUV

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

Host emails DNewman@broadsuite.com Brian@iSocialFanz.com

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SMACTalk special episode with SAP's Paul Pessutti, Global Head, Travel and Transportation Industry Business Unit Transportation companies have done a pretty good job at operational efficiency; however, the threat of new entrants is a forcing factor to push into customer-centric innovations. For instance, shippers could use blockchain to provide greater transparency into the journey of goods from factory to customer receipt.

Increasingly, customers expect personalized services when they travel; however, providers have struggled to keep up with customers’ imaginations and expectations. Now, with new technologies, travel companies have an opportunity to leverage live data to connect with travelers in the moment.

| Innovation itself isn’t the entire challenge – pockets of innovation can be found in most any company, from the wildly successful to those that have failed spectacularly. The real challenge is being able to innovate at scale across an entire organization, all while creating a mechanism for those innovations to be shared, sustained, and to drive value back into the core of the business. In this series of podcasts, we’ll explore how you can make that happen in your business. Listen in on these talks from your fellow innovators to discover how to embrace digital transformation and become a disruptor in your industry. Learn More: https://fm.sap.com/campaigns/CRM-US17-1LE-LSMACTLI/index.html |

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Cambridge Analytica situation.... Who controls our data? Is it a new problem or an old problem that people are just now making a fuss about? What impact will blockchain and other technology have on problems like this in the future?

"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you." - Mark Zuckerberg!

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In this episode of SMACTalk, Co-Host Daniel Newman goes solo with Intel VP and General Manager, Caroline Chan to discuss the quickly evolving state of 5G as well as the growth of Edge Computing.

This brief, but jam packed episode explores not only how these mega trends are impacting the future of technology, telecommunications and work, but Chan also provides an inside view from Intel as to their strategy to support the growth of these technologies as they become more and more a part of our lives.

Other topics discussed include product releases and news from Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, Spain.

This episode was sponsored and it has been brought to you in part by Intel. For more information about Intel's Edge and 5G strategy, visit their network transformation hub by clicking here.

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What does our MOBILE future look like? Dan shares his thoughts from Mobile World Congress and Brian shares insights from this topic being discussed at Social Media Marketing World!

For an audience looking for a business-centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Founded in 2014 as a weekly podcast by Brian Fanzo & Daniel Newman, S.M.A.C.talk was featured as an iTunes “Top 10 New and Noteworthy” for Technology and Social Media. With hard hitting conversations on not only the technology but how it relates to business and the future of work, listeners can count on this podcast for a straightforward analysis that makes the future of technology more accessible and a whole lot more fun.

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SMACtalk launched December 18th, 2014 as an anti-niche video podcast show where hosts Brian Fanzo & Daniel Newman shared their thoughts and interviewed experts on the massive technology trends: Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud computing.

Fast-forward to Jan 2018 for episode 100 and so much has changed around the platforms the hosts have used to push the podcast live not to mention the interviewing skills of the host while other things have stayed the same since the start.

On this episode Brian and Daniel take a look back at the early days of the podcast and discuss some of the behind the scenes stories that happened when broadcasting this show live at Mobile World Congress Barcelona or the 20 hours of SMACtalk from the Superbowl. They also discuss the impact S.M.A.C. technologies have had on new mega trends like artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet of things and wearables.

Everyone here at SMACtalk are beyond excited that we made it to episode 100 but as you’ll learn on this episode, we have only just begun and both Brian and Daniel have big plans and ideas including more guests, new brand sponsors, new live event broadcasting and if everything works out a more consistent publishing of the shows for you our audience.

We want to thank you for coming on this journey with us for the first 100 episodes and we truly hope you’ll join us in talking SMAC for the next 100 episodes.

Ideas for the show, sponsor requests?

Email: DNewman@broadsuite.com or Fanzo@iSocialFanz.com

Twitter: @DanielNewmanUV or @iSocialFanz

You can watch the shows live at www.Facebook.com/SMACtalkLive

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These days the way we shop is changing more than ever before. We have smart speakers that we can talk to, “Alexa, order paper towels, oh and grab me a burger from Wendy’s as well.” And voilia, in comes your paper towels and Grub Hub delivers you lunch. Of course, this is just the power of shopping in the home. What is even more powerful is how these in-home experiences, mobile experiences and in the store experiences are all coming together.

In the next few years, we will see technologies like IoT, Blockchain and Real Time Data and Analytics influence even more change in how we shop. Companies will know us better than ever before and they will be able to personalize to our needs. The outcomes will be so spot-on that consumers cannot even complain about the trade off of privacy because the convenience will be so invaluable. Brands will know what we want, when we want it, where we need it and more just by leveraging the data we input and provide every day just by going through our routines. Scary awesome we may say. And what about drone deliveries? We think stuff we order online gets here fast now, well it’s possible to get even faster.

On this week’s episode of SMACTalk, we had SAS Software’s Dan Mithcell join us. Dan is a Principal Industry Consultant and Connected Consumer lead at SAS Softwre.

In this episode, some of the topics and questions we covered with Dan included:

What are the major drivers of adoption? In what ways is IoT a necessity? An opportunity?
Describe the kinds of things can retailers do now with IoT that they couldn’t do before?
What do the major capabilities retailers need to plan for to be ready for the 'Analytics of Things?
Are there some data management and security challenges of IoT in retail?
What are some of the organizational and other non-technological challenges?
What are some key things that retail executives and technologists need to know and do to drive business value with IoT?

Be sure to download and tune into this episode of SMACtalk brought to you in partnership with SAS Software (Link). We promise it is full of learnings that all business leaders can leverage in planning the future of their organizations.

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2017 was an interesting year in technology and digital marketing but will it lead to great innovations through digital transformation in 2018 or will 2018 be the year innovations flat line. This episode is a must listen to show as you might be surprised by Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo's predictions for 2018 and beyond.

Before you can talk about the future you must analyze the past and on this episode, Daniel and Brian spend much of the show discussing and in many cases debating the good, bad and ugly of 2017 that ultimately leads to some interesting predictions from both of them on what 2018 will hold.

From a debate about Apple, to the future of Facebook, to a debate on what trends will capture the enterprise technology space in 2018, this predictions and recap episode is guaranteed to be unlike any other you'll listen to this season.

As always we are beyond thankful for another amazing year with the SMACtalk family and sponsors and have even bigger plans for 2018 and beyond.

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Today the FCC voted along partisan lines to repeal regulatory provisions we had come to know as “Net Neutrality.” The purpose of Net Neutrality was to ensure an open internet where all users can enjoy the same quality of access. We believe the FCC’s decision will put too much power into the hands of a few companies, and ultimately weaken the innovation ecosystem that relies on a free and open internet to grow and thrive.

Most of the services we enjoy today, like Netflix, Facebook, Uber and Amazon, could have only flourished under the types of protections that net neutrality guaranteed. Without these protections, the next generation of disruptors and innovators may find themselves shut out by a good ole’ boys club of incumbent companies holding the keys to the internet’s fast lanes. I shudder to think of the impact that stifling the next wave of innovation and startup capital might have on the US economy, to say nothing of our hindered ability to compete globally for top digital talent.

Not sure what Net Neutrality is or how it will impact businesses and the future of work. Listen to this episode of SMACtalk as Daniel and Brian take a deep dive into the topic that had the live audience watching on Facebook Live passionately engaged and inspired to take action!

Full blog post: https://futurumresearch.com/net-neutrality-how-did-we-let-happen/

New York Times Post: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/technology/net-neutrality-fcc-tech.html

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In just the past few years we have seen extraordinary change in the connected vehicle space. Companies like Tesla are launching new vehicles that don’t only provide thrills to drivers with their incredible speed and efficient electric motors, but they are also more connected than ever before with their ability to create usable data that can connect drivers and passengers more closely with their surroundings.

In the next year, we will see a tidal wave of change come as the launch of 5G nears and this new technology finds its way into new vehicles. This technology will enable data streams to flow between vehicles, roads, buildings, cities and those tasked with making all of the aforementioned more safe and efficient.

There are also massive opportunities for vehicle data to be used beyond just smart cities and infrastructure, but also to reshape industries like auto insurance by making concepts such as usage based insurance possible to deliver a more personalized program and price. This is just one of many ways that the data can be used in a world of intelligently connected vehicles.

On this week’s episode of SMACTalk, we had SAS Software’s Lonnie Miller join us. Lonnie is a Principal Industry Consultant and Connected Vehicle Guru at SAS.

In this episode, some of the topics and questions we covered with Lonnie included:

How does analytics really help automotive companies who want to exploit their connected vehicle platforms?
There’s a lot of talk about UBI (usage-based insurance). What are some implications on auto insurance services with a growing # of connected vehicles?
What analytically-oriented technologies help connected vehicle strategies?

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We all are hearing about the impact that IoT and Analytics are having on the way we shop, however, by the time the consumer is seeing the impact of these groundbreaking technologies, they have already potentially had a major role in how the products and services were made and brought to market. This is because we have entered an era of the "Connected Supply Chain," and while many consumers don't fully grasp how this impacts their life, it does, in a big way. In this exciting episode of SMACtalk, co-hosts Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo sat down with Roger Thomas who is the Principal Consultant for Connected Supply Chain at SAS Software. This conversation gives listeners an overview of the connected supply chain and helps business leaders get a handle on what leading companies are doing with their supply chain, how they are embracing technology to take their business to the next level and how companies can plan to embrace what is possible thanks to Analytics and IoT. § What are the latest IOT developments that supply chain leaders need to take note of?

§ How do you avoid the traps of the ‘IOT science projects’ which fail to deliver value to the business?

§ How should supply chain leaders structure their IOT initiatives to create a competitive advantage for their business?

§ What roles can IOT play in supporting your organizations IBP and S&OP initiatives?

§ What key metrics should supply chain leaders be watching to measure the effectiveness of their supply chain IOT initiatives?

Be sure to download and tune into this episode of SMACtalk brought to you in partnership with SAS Software. We promise it is full of learnings that all business leaders can leverage in planning the future of their organizations.

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“Organic Facebook is now the office water cooler. Nothing more.”

This episode started out discussing this claim co-host Daniel Newman made about the trends he’s been seeing lately on Facebook.

As Daniel and co-host Brian Fanzo began to discuss the changing landscape of Facebook and all social media channels for that manner the discussion took an interesting turn invoking a wide range of emotions and comments from the live video audience that you can read about below. This episode might be a bit of a change of pace from the traditional SMACtalk discussions but the underlying foundation of this discussion can be translated across every aspect of your business today!

More of Daniel’s Statement here:

It has truly returned to its roots of being purely a place to BS and talk about politics, family, sports and news, but comparatively to the time that many people spend on it, it has almost no business value.

Here is an easy way to tell. If you share something on FB that is closely connected to your work, what kind of engagement do you get? Now, share an article about your kids or politics and see what happens. If I share an article about cloud, semiconductors or IoT, I get almost nothing. If I share a picture of my kids I get a day or two of endorphin rising notifications.

Over the past couple of months I've spent much less time here, but I've actually become a better customer to Facebook because instead of using it Organically, when I share business related things I put paid behind it so the content reaches a very targeted audience that could potentially consume what I'm trying to share/sell/spread. Furthermore, I've realized that the time I spent here and the "Influence" built here has no correlation to the work I do nor does it for many others. This has since been further proven as I've never been busier with client work when I was spending less time being distracted by a few interesting discussions and a littering of mind numbing self serving opining and a sprinkle of self-promotional content that makes me further understand why people don't want to see such content from me. Also, studies have shown it takes 25 minutes to return to work following a distraction. As a partner in multiple businesses, I find this troubling to consider how those constantly being lured in by these distractions are able to produce at even a fraction of their potential. This maps to a conversation about the future of work and compensation that will have to wait for another day.

Now, having said that, Facebook is a perfectly great place to have the water cooler talk. It is nice to spend time catching up on world events and having the chance to debate them and do it in volume. However, I seriously doubt many people are able to look at their time spent here critically and come to the conclusion that their is a good return on their investment of time. Facebook is great to reach an audience, but really this is a paid vehicle not an organic one. If you aren't selling MLM, then most client acquisition won't take place here and you would be better suited to make your connections on LinkedIn or Twitter or a more specialized group setting that has more targeted audiences.
And yes, I realize some people will not agree with me. Some may even lecture me as to why I'm wrong. I'll hear about the many great relationships that have been built here (and those are important too). But I would also suggest that odds are some good things would have happened for those people had they spent the same time on other networks or at risk of sounding crazy, that time spent working.
Okay...I could go on and on, but I'll stop here. And I'll come back to look at some point, but not until I'm done with stuff that makes the hay.
Next look for a barrage of pics of the kids and dog. Because that is what people really want to see here

As always we live stream the podcast recording on Facebook Live and this topic had the audience fired up.

You can checkout some of the comments below and watch the full Facebook Live video below.

Jane Stewart · 36:40 I hope everyone is REALLY LISTENING 🔥👈

Julia Bramble · 39:20 Great discussion guys!!

Owen Hemsath · 32:05 This is such an important conversation guys

Nazim Beltran · 39:34 Super happy to have caught this live! Thanks guys!

Carlos Phoenix · 14:42 I am currently working with a major media company thanks in part to LinkedIn.

Vincent Orleck · 16:42 If you're in social media and you're not also integrating DIGITAL media, you're doing it wrong.

Pamela Saunders · 38:31 The times they are a changin'.

Marc Gawith · 12:23 I have fallen in love with Twitter.

Vincent Orleck · 31:48 business influence vs personal influence

Owen Hemsath · 38:11 Priorities?? More like brains 😂

Terry Johnson · 5:29 FB is pay to play

Martin Lepage · 41:35 Great podcast 😉👍

Julia Bramble · 22:40 FB for business growth is always going to be about groups and ads …

Owen Hemsath · 26:31 But I’m not on FB to have fun-I’m on to run ads, promote content, engage in my groups, and grow the business

Jonathan Tripp · 34:41 This is #realtalk on steroids!

Alan Berkson · 34:05 It's always good to take a step back and look where your value is being generated. And be agile. What worked yesterday doesn't always work today.

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In this episode of SMACtalk, captured live at Intel Shift, host Daniel Newman sat down with Amir Khosrowshahi. Amir, who quietly revealed that he is cousin to the new Uber CEO, is also quite impressive in his own right as he made a significant Silicon Valley exit when his former company, Nervana was purchased by Intel. Amir is now the CTO of the AI Products group at Intel and he shared with SMACtalk a number of tremendous insights on AI. First, he painted the picture of how AI will be utilized in more commercial applications. He backed that up with giving CTO and tech leaders inside the enterprise a roadmap for deploying AI and perhaps just as important, Mapping AI strategy to be able to compete in the future as AI continues to proliferate. Lastly, Khosrowshahi touched on how Intel is differentiating its AI strategy from the competition. Check out this exciting discussion and get your “Geek” on with SMACtalk.

Amir Khosrowshahi, VP & CTO, Artificial Intelligence Products Group, Intel

Amir Khosrowshahi is VP and CTO of the AI products group at Intel. He was previously co-founder and CTO of Nervana, a startup acquired by Intel last year. He has a BA and MA from Harvard and PhD from Berkeley.

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Who in the world would eat bugs? On Purpose? If you ask our SMACtalk Host Daniel Newman, the answer would be no one, but if you talk to “Foresight Extraordinaire,” MIT Ph.D. Mitch Joachim, he says there is a problem that we are trying to solve and from a sustainability standpoint eating bugs may have its place. Before you jump or grab your silverware, the context is far more enticing than just bug eating, but the real direction of the conversation is how can thinking outside of what is normal provoke us to solve new problems. In this fascinating episode of SMACtalk, Newman gets Joachim to share the whole “Bug” story and much more about how to keep your business from being disrupted. Don’t miss it, download now!

Mitchell Joachim, Co-Founder, Terreform ONE

Mitchell Joachim is a leader in ecological design, architecture and urbanism. He is a founding Co-President of Terreform ONE in 2006. He earned a Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD Harvard University, M.Arch. Columbia University. Mitchell is an Associate Professor at NYU and EGS (European Graduate School). He previously taught at Columbia University, Syracuse University, Parsons, Washington University, and the Frank Gehry Chair at University of Toronto. He was formerly an architect at Gehry Partners, and Pei Cobb Freed. He has been awarded fellowships at TED 2010, Moshe Safdie Assoc., and Martin Society for Sustainability at MIT. He won the Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability and Humanityy, the History Channel and Infiniti Excellence Award for City of the Future, Time Magazine Best Invention of 2007, Compacted Car w/ MIT Smart Cities and a Bronze Medal at iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) for Gen2Seat. His project, Fab Tree Hab, has been exhibited at MoMA and widely published. He was chosen by Wired magazine for "The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To". Rolling Stone magazine honored Mitchell in "The 100 People Who Are Changing America". In 2009 he was interviewed on the Colbert Report. Popular Science magazine has featured his work as a visionary for “The Future of the Environment” in 2010. Mitchell was the Winner of the Victor Papanek Social Design Award sponsored by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austrian Cultural Forum, and Museum of Arts and Design in 2011. Dwell magazine featured Mitchell as one of "The NOW 99" in 2012.

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Intel Shift changes directions on this high impact conversation with 3 top thought leaders on analytics and AI. In this show Dez Blanchfield, Intel’s Bob Rogers and Montefiore MD Michelle Gong soundoff on AI and Analytics. Starting off with a discussion around the advances that have taken place in analytics over the past 5-10 years followed up with some insights from Bob Rogers, a Harvard phD on the differences between advanced analytics and AI. The conversation then turned to Dr. Michelle Gong who shared some fascinating ways the hospital is utilizing advanced analytics to improve patient care. One example included using data identifiers to better predict when patients would require the assistance of a clinician. The episode concludes with some best of breed advice from the panel on how to apply analytics and AI into your business today. Tune in to hear these great insights and more.

Dez Blanchfield, Chief Data Scientist, Gara Guru

As an Industry Analyst, Business & Technology Consultant, covering Digital transformation, Cloud, Big Data & Analytics, Internet of Things, Machine 2 Machine, Cyber Security, Cyber Risk & Resilience & Smart Cities, Dez has invested his professional career of some two and a half decades thinking out and influencing the development roadmaps of technology companies, aligning them to the customer experience demands and possibilities of forward thinking digital enterprises. He sits on and works with boards of government and private sector organisations, to help uplift the digital quotient of organisations as a thought leader and practitioner across a broad range of disruptive technologies. He enjoys assisting organisations to disrupt themselves before being caught on the back foot by emerging new entrants or competitors. Passionate about leveraging the possibilities of new and emerging technology business, he is currently focused on bringing the likes of Cloud, Big Data & Analytics, Machine Learning, Cognitive Computing, Robotic Process Automation, Cyber Resilience, Blockchain and Agile DevOps to organisations to ensure their enduring success.

Michelle Ng Gong, MD, MS, Director of Critical Care Research, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Jay B. Langner Critical Care Service Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center

Dr. Gong is the Associate Director for Academic Affairs, the Director of Critical Care Research in the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Professor in Medicine and Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After receiving an engineering degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Gong went on to earn a medical degree at the Yale University School of Medicine. She then completed her postdoctoral training at the Beth Israel Hospital in medicine and at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the Harvard Combined Program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. She also studied at the Harvard School of Public Health, receiving her Master’s degree in Epidemiology. Prior to coming to Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, she was Assistant Professor of Medicine in the division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She joined the Einstein/Montefiore faculty in July 2009. Dr. Gong is recognized nationally and internationally for her expertise in critical care research. A model clinician-researcher, her scientific projects influence her clinical care, and her patients influence her research. Her overall research focus has been on the prediction and prevention of acute critical illness and their complications. Continuously funded by the NIH for over 16 years for her research, her current projects range from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) to prevention of delirium, treatment of severe influenza and the development of new electronic acute care interfaces.

Bob Rogers, PhD, Chief Data Scientist, Big Data Solutions, Data Center Group

Bob Rogers, PhD, applies his experience solving problems with big data and analytics to help Intel build world class customer solutions. Prior to joining Intel, Bob was co-founder and Chief Scientist at Apixio, a big data analytics company for healthcare. He believes that accurate understanding of patient clinical and genomic data, physician behavior, and the characteristics of the healthcare delivery network are foundational to a better future for healthcare, and that Big Data analytics is essential to driving this transformation. Bob began his career as an astrophysicist, developing computer models of physical processes near super-massive black holes. He became interested in computational intelligence and incorporated research on artificial neural networks into his academic work. He co-authored the book “Artificial Neural Networks: Forecasting Time Series,” which led to a twelve-year career managing a quantitative futures trading fund based on computer models he developed. In 2006, Bob transitioned into healthcare at Carl Zeiss Meditec, where he was responsible for new product development for the diagnostic device that is the global standard of care for glaucoma. He received his BS in Physics at UC Berkeley and his PhD in Physics at Harvard.

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In this live podcast captured at Intel SHIFT, SMACtalk Co-Host Daniel Newman sat down with Intel Executive Robert Crooke, who leads Intel’s Non-Volatile Memory Group. Crooke, who is driving some game-changing technology, explains the importance of a platform approach when developing a memory strategy; this being driven by the interdependence of the two. When processing power increases, the storage and memory is impacted. Crooke also shares the key areas of investment for Intel including their 3D NAND and Optane technology. Optane will become a workhorse for the big data age as it enables enhanced storage and better access to real-time memory. As a bonus, Robert Crooke shares with our host about how Intel’s inventions find their way into many products and software suites enabling the proliferation of new technology to be maximized. Check out this great conversation and capture great insights on the future of memory and its impact on business transformation.

Robert B. Crooke, SVP & GM, Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group, Intel

Rob Crooke leads a worldwide organization responsible for NVM technology design and development, complete solid-state drive (SSD) system hardware and firmware development, and wafer and SSD manufacturing, as well as marketing for Intel’s component, module and SSD NVM businesses. Before assuming his current role, Crooke led the Intel group responsible for developing world-class, low-power processors within the Intel® Atom™ processor product line, and for developing enabling technology for system-on-chip (SoC) products across the company. Earlier in his Intel career, Crooke served as vice president and general manager of the Business Client Group, where he was responsible for overseeing Intel’s desktop products and Intel’s vision for business client computing. He also previously served as vice president and director of marketing and planning in Intel’s Desktop Products Group; as vice president and general manager of the Platform Architecture and Solutions Division; and as director of marketing for the Basic Microprocessor Division and Performance Microprocessor Division. Crooke joined Intel in 1989 as a field applications engineer in the company’s sales force. Before coming to Intel, he held design engineering positions at Alliant Computer Systems and Custom Silicon. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer systems engineering from the University of Massachusetts.

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In this episode of Intel Shift on SMACtalk, Daniel Newman speaks with Scott Hawkins, Executive Director of Marketing at Lenovo. In this show, captured live at Intel Shift, Newman and Hawkins dive into the biggest trends in IT Transformation and how companies can become more knowledgeable of these trends in order to improve business outcomes. Other topics covered throughout the conversation include a discussion around the challenges of IT Transformation and some specific ways companies can overcome those challenges. Also highlighted is Hybrid Cloud, The Culture of Transformation, Importance of Agility and even a sprinkle of AI. What is for sure is that there is much to be learned from the experience of Lenovo and their ongoing partnership with Intel. Tune in and download this high energy episode of Intel Shift on SMACtalk.

Scott Hawkins, Executive Director, Worldwide Marketing, Lenovo Data Center Group

As Executive Director of Worldwide Marketing for Lenovo’s Data Center Group, Scott is responsible for strategy and execution of brand, demand, and sales enablement programs for the data center systems and solutions portfolio.
Scott has 19 years in the technology industry spanning brand management, product marketing, communications, and operations. He joined Lenovo in 2014 and holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

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In this episode of Intel Shift on SMACtalk, Daniel Newman speaks with Armughan Ahmad, Dell’s Senior VP of Hybrid Cloud and Ready Solutions. In this fast paced conversation Newman and Ahmad discuss Dell’s recent IoT announcements at their IQT day in New York City. Ahmad shared how Dell is making a massive investment in their IoT Group and what this will mean for customers and consumers as this investment is rolled out over the next three years. Additionally, this conversation sheds a light on the rapid expansion of Dell Technologies and points listeners in the right direction of better understanding the impact of the rapidly growing Edge Computing and how it will tie into current Cloud Strategies. For this and so much more, download and listen to this don’t miss podcast from Intel Shift.

Armughan Ahmad - Senior Vice President and General Manager, Hybrid Cloud & Ready Solutions

Armughan Ahmad serves as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Hybrid Cloud & Ready Solutions at Dell EMC, where he leads solutions and technology alliance teams globally that deliver innovative Hybrid Cloud, Software-defined, High Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data and Analytics, and Business Applications workload solutions for large enterprise, public institutions, small and medium business customers and partners.

Prior to joining Dell, Armughan served as Vice President at Hewlett-Packard, where he led the growth of HP’s Enterprise group, delivering converged and secured infrastructure solutions through partner channels. Previously, Armughan held executive management roles at 3Com, Enterasys, Cabletron and other technology firms ranging from $10M start-up’s to $100bn large corporations delivering hardware, software and services solutions for vertical industries globally.

Armughan is a graduate of Sheridan College, where he studied computer science. He serves on numerous non-profits boards as a passionate promoter of third world economic trade and development initiatives.

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In this episode of SMACtalk Live at Intel Shift, SMACtalk host Daniel Newman interviews Intel Executive Lisa Spelman. In this first live recording from Intel Shift in New York City, the upbeat discussion covers a wide variety of topics from futureproofing your business to IT workload planning to the shifting of IT budgets. Spelman sheds light for the SMACtalk community on how to plan for technological change in your organization. If you are thinking about how to plan for IT project and Business Transformation success, tune into this don’t miss Episode of SMACtalk Live.

Lisa Spelman, VP & GM, Intel® Xeon® Products and Data Center Marketing, Intel

Lisa A. Spelman oversees all outbound marketing activities for Intel's Data Center Group, including product launches, social media and go-to-market activities with equipment manufacturers and software vendors, technologies and solutions and performance marketing. Her team is also responsible for Intel’s data center channel business. Spelman joined DCG in 2014 after five years in Intel’s IT organization, culminating in her role as director of client services. Earlier in her Intel career, she held positions in finance, server product and brand marketing, and sales for a multinational customer account. She joined Intel in 2000 as a financial analyst supporting Intel’s server business. Spelman earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and marketing from the University of Washington.

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In this exciting podcast featuring Intel’s GM of Industry Sales, Shannon Poulin, SMACtalk Co-Host takes the host seat to discuss the rapid change that technology is forcing business to endure. The discussion starts off talking briefly about the upcoming Intel Shift event in New York City and then gets into a behind the scenes look at what Poulin is hearing from working with many of the Fortune 2000 companies across a variety of industries. One of the highlights of the conversation was when Poulin shared how the change we are seeing today is actually the slowest it will ever be from this point forward. Tune into this great conversation and get a view from Intel, one of the world’s leading high-tech companies on digital transformation and the future of business.

About Shannon Poulin:

Shannon Poulin VP in the Sales and Marketing Group and GM of the Industry Sales Group Shannon Poulin oversees the mission of Intel's Industry Sales Group (ISG) to work with the world's largest organizations in key industry, government and academic segments delivering business value through the effective adoption of solutions architectures designed to solve key industry challenges, creating pull for all of Intel’s products and technologies. ISG also delivers leadership messaging and sets strategic direction for accounts across all identified vertical focus areas. Prior to his current role Poulin was Vice President in the Data Center Group where he served terms as general manager of both the Datacenter Marketing Group and the Enterprise IT Solutions Group where he was responsible for marketing activities across all datacenter segments and business engagement with Enterprise IT accounts. Poulin has also served as global account director for a multi-national customer account at Intel Corporation where he was responsible for every aspect of driving a multi-billion- dollar enterprise relationship that spanned business and technical disciplines. Poulin joined Intel in 1999 as a strategic planner in the Intel Performance Microprocessor Division. Earlier in his Intel career, he held director and manager roles that encompassed product marketing, performance benchmarking, competitive analysis, product launches and press/analyst engagement. Before joining Intel, Poulin worked for Microchip Technology in a combination of sales and technical marketing positions. He began his career with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, where he designed embedded systems for military and nautical use. Poulin holds three patents in the fields of engineering and microprocessor design. He has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in business administration, both from Florida Institute of Technology.

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In this episode of SMACtalk hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman speak with SAS Industry Leader Marcia Walker about Smart Factories. With IoT and Analytics, manufacturing and the smart factory in particular have a massive opportunity to maximize productivity and minimize downtime. Walker shares how boundless new possibilities exist on the shop floor and gives our listeners a run down of how things like predictive maintenance, service automation and augmented reality can be applied to smart factory to deliver improved business outcomes. Tune in to this exciting episode of SMACtalk to learn about not just where Smart Factories are headed, but the opportunities that exist today. We promise you will come away inspired and entertained as to where this exciting industry is heading. Disclaimer: This episode was sponsored in part by SAS. For more on Connected Factory, check out our in depth coverage here. What is SMACtalk? S.M.A.C.talk the podcast launched in 2014 and over those 3 years hosts Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo have covered topics that included Big Data, Digital Transformation, Social Selling, Data Center Migration, Millennial Marketing, Digital Marketing, live streaming video, customer experience and everything else impacting today's technology world.

Hosted by Brian Fanzo @iSocialFanz and Daniel Newman @DanielNewmanUV

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

If you want to have SMACtalk live at your event like Dan and Brian did at Superbowl 50, HP Discover, SAP Sapphire in 2016 email DNewman@broadsuite.com Brian@iSocialFanz.com

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Today on SMACTalk Brian and Daniel discuss the iPhone 8 and iPhone X launch that took place a few weeks back. The question of the day, is Apple iterating, innovating or just plain imitating. Tech thought leader Shelly Palmer, wrote this past week... Imitation is not innovation. The iPhone X (pronounced iPhone ten) is basically a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (which is basically a Samsung Galaxy S8 with a pen and an additional camera) which is basically a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (which is its own story). And the Note 7 came out a year ago. Not only is Apple unapologetic about its blatant imitation of Samsung. The company took the artistic liberty of claiming that the iPhone X’s features were “amazing,” “incredible,” and “new.” https://www.shellypalmer.com/2017/09/iphone-x-imitation-not-innovation/ Both Brian and Dan agree that Apple has built its legacy on simple to use, beautifully designed devices, but the question of whether or not this is still their differentiator has come into play. Is Apple still easier to use? Are their devices more beautiful than the competition? The bottom line is that it is hard to discern anymore whether or not Apple truly holds a competitive advantage. Daniel likens the current state of Apple to the Steve Ballmer led Microsoft that followed Bill Gates retirement as CEO of the company.A strong supply chain company that often creates a challenging environment for its suppliers, yet no matter what, they still claim a huge market share and yield massive profits keeping shareholders happy. The jury is still undecided, but more and more Apple Fans from Palmer to Scoble to both our hosts are now questioning whether Apple still has the magic or if they are running out of the sauce that made them the "innovative" company they are so well known for being today.

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As digital transformation and innovation drastically shake up the technology and culture needs of today’s businesses, the question must be asked. What does the CMO role of the future look like?

Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman discuss this and more on this episode of SMACtalk.

Hosted by Brian Fanzo @iSocialFanz and Daniel Newman @DanielNewmanUV

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

If you want to have SMACtalk live at your event like Dan and Brian did at Superbowl 50, HP Discover, SAP Sapphire in 2016 email DNewman@broadsuite.com Brian@iSocialFanz.com

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Niche vs Generalist, the debate that seems to pop-up yearly inspired Daniel and Brian to take a very personal and transparent look at their own careers as millennials and although they both are generalists they found success in unique focused pivots.

Brian posted to facebook (see link below) a comment about having a niche being a smart play that exploded with 200+ comments and it inspired multiple videos and blogs by friends and fellow thought leaders so tackling this topic on SMACtalk was a no brainer.

Sit back and enjoy as Daniel and Brian hold nothing back sharing in detail their successes as well as lessons learned both as employees of brands and entrepreneurs.

Daniel shares his most successful pivot, going all in on digital transformation with his book Building Dragons and making it the staple of his speaking and online content.

Brian explains the motivation for his Facebook post and why most companies that reached out to hire Brian in 2017 wanted a generalist or evangelist but the company culture and leadership wasn’t of the mindset to make that type of role successful.

Questions asked and debated on this episode:

If you have a niche does it make sense to ever pivot to becoming a generalist?
When labeled something like “A Marketer” how do you change that?
Why generalists must be able to answer the question “What value/problem do you solve?”
Can a successful entrepreneur find a home within a brand or company in 2017?
What do companies need to do to set themselves up to hire a generalist?
Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur - What must a generalist do to be successful as each?

What are your thoughts? Follow SMACtalk on Facebook or use the hashtag #SMACtalk to let our host know your opinion on the topic and the questions being asked.

Want to learn more about the hosts checkout their speaker pages at:

Brian Fanzo: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

Daniel Newman: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com

Links mentioned:

Niche vs Generalist Facebook post by Brian: https://www.facebook.com/bfanzo/posts/10159083771455405?pnref=story

Building Dragons: Digital Transformation in the Experience Economy

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On this episode of SMACtalk hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman talk everything Amazon from retail competition to technology advantage to debating if Amazon is too big to fail.

This past week Amazon made two more big moves in retail by signing agreements with Nike and Sears to be able to sell their products online.

For Amazon, the illusiveness of certain name brands has been one of their few achilles heels. People have long known that buying name brands from Amazon and their partners was often risky as everything from clothes to diapers were all potentially “knock-offs” given Amazon didn’t have direct brand relationships.

This week the first domino fell as Nike reached an agreement to allow the sale of Nike products on Amazon. This will likely lead to more brands succumbing to the pressure and setting up similar sales agreements with Amazon. Given the way people shop and buy on Amazon, this wasn’t an if, but a when, and it appears the when is now.

Every episode is recorded LIVE on Facebook Live: Facebook.com/SMACtalkLive

WHAT IS SMACTalk?

S.M.A.C. stands for Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud and over the two years Dan and Brian have covered topics that included Big Data, Digital Transformation, Social Selling, Data Center Migration, Millennial Marketing, Digital Marketing, live streaming video, customer experience and everything else impacting today's technology world.

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

If you want to have SMACtalk live at your event like Dan and Brian did at Superbowl 50, HP Discover, SAP Sapphire in 2016 visit http://SMACtalk.Live or email DNewman@broadsuite.com Brian@iSocialFanz.com

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In this week’s episode of SMACtalk, hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman had the opportunity to speak with Pega CEO, Alan Trefler. Known for his “Pull no punches” approach to business, Alan makes for the perfect “SMAC” guest because he’s going to take questions head on and leave the audience wanting more. At Pegaworld, we found out that Mr. Trefler isn’t only the CEO at Pega, he is also a chess master who can engage in 20 simultaneous chess matches while enjoying a beer and having a chat with his customer and partner community. Impressive Alan!

In this show, we talked about a topic that Alan is uniquely passionate about, and that is the challenges of enterprise software. Knowing today’s importance on having tools that drive businesses forward, the Pega CEO believes that companies cannot risk investing and implementing software that is more hype than substance. We agree with this, but needed to make sure that this provocation from Alan wasn’t hype itself. This is where the interview came into play.

During this episode, Alan provided insights on the following questions and a few bonus questions that you will have to tune into to learn more about:

At PegaWorld, you mentioned the delusional behavior out there about software, specifically around cloud, AI, and bots. What is the industry getting wrong and how can it get back on the right track?
How can organizations “get real” and cut through the hype when it comes to these technologies?
You also discussed that many organizations aren’t getting it right when it comes to their end-to-end technology. How can organizations fully connect their organizations in a practical way?
You have been quoted saying that software is being built “wrong” these days. What do you mean by that and what should companies be doing instead?
A lot of the recommendations you are making have as much to do with culture as they do with technology. How do you build a great culture to succeed with digital transformation and the shifting customer landscape?
What do you envision the future of software, apps, and CRM looking like? What will drive the biggest change to business (at Pega and beyond)?

Throughout this episode of SMACtalk, Tom takes on the challenging questions that many of us are wondering about the role of the CMO in today’s enterprise as well as how that may change into the near future as Digital Transformation continues to shape industries.

Following another successful #Pegaworld in Las Vegas, this show was a timely episode to learn more about the challenges and opportunities for software in your business and getting inside of the mind of CEO of one of the fastest growing software companies in the CRM and Customer Intelligence spac. Want to learn more? Tune in, check it out and enjoy the episode!

Disclaimer: This episode was sponsored in part by Pegasystems. To learn more about Pega, visit them at (www.pega.com)

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When we picture authority or thought leadership or expertise, who is it that we picture? In the digital world today does becoming an author or writing on Forbes or tweeting a bunch on a hashtag mean someone is an authority on that topic?

On this episode hosts Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo are fired up to talk about the short cuts and unicorn rainbow selling tricks that many have used to convey they have authority and why this has to be stopped. Not only do they breakdown what is currently wrong with digital influence and self proclaimed thought leadership today. They share ideas and best practices to arm us the consumers so we can avoid being tricked by the fake news version of authority and thought leadership in today's digital world.

Every episode is recorded LIVE on Facebook Live: Facebook.com/SMACtalkLive

WHAT IS SMACTalk?

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

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In this week’s episode of SMACtalk, hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman had the opportunity to speak with Pegasystems CMO, Tom Libretto. Joining Pega just under a year ago, Tom is a seasoned marketing executive with a strong track record in driving results for the enterprise market. Tom has a strong background in driving fast moving marketing teams within the agile workplace to help tie together sales and marketing teams to meet the objectives of rapidly growing enterprises.

A topic near and dear to our heart, not only did we talk about the shifting CMO, but really the entire shift within the C-Suite to accommodate new roles like the Chief Digital Officer and the Chief Customer Officer as well as the challenge of a large number of CEOs that are still not prioritizing digital transformation.

During this episode, Tom provided insights on the following questions and a few bonus questions that you will have to tune into to learn more about:

Nowadays, there are many buzzwords to describe the shifting workplace, but this has happened because the rate of change has become so fast. Explain: What is an “Agile Enterprise,” and why must companies become one?
CMOs, more and more are taking the reins of digital transformation inside the enterprise. Do you as a CMO agree with this? What happens to the CMO/CIO partnership?
Yet, still nearly half of CEOs do not see Digital Transformation as a board level concern. How can this impact digital transformation inside of a company from hiring to customer experience?
Let’s talk B2B and Enterprise versus B2C. Is there still a line? As a CMO how different is the role of an enterprise CMO from the CMO of a consumer brand?
CMO Tenure has continued to shorten, what do you attribute that to and how do we reverse that trend?
Do you believe that the CDO role will continue to grow and how does that align with the CMO in the age of Digital Transformation?

With just one week until #Pegaworld in Las Vegas, this is a great time to learn more about Pega and the future of the CMO. Still interested? Tune in, check it out and enjoy the episode!

Disclaimer: This episode was sponsored in part by Pegasystems. To learn more about Pega, visit them at www.Pega.Com

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On this episode of SMACtalk Daniel and Brian are on the expo floor of the Sapphire Now event where they were hired as both analysts and influencers to do work with SAP and some of the SAP partners.

The discussion is focused around the future of digital journalism and the role of analysts and influencers and bloggers as brands look for authentic ways to reach their audiences do they need to restructure who they use and how they value them.

This episode was recorded live on Facebook Live which you can watch here:https://www.facebook.com/SMACtalkLive/videos/1919871028292980/

As always we appreciate you listening and sharing the podcast on social media and with your friends.

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In this week’s episode of SMACtalk, hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman had the opportunity to speak with Pegasystems CTO, Don Schuerman, part of Pega Systems leadership team. During this show we explored Robotics and Automation in the workplace.

Perhaps one of the most discussed topics in business today is the role that automation will have on jobs. There is an increasing concern that automation and robots will replace the workforce. We wanted to know if this was the case so this is exactly what was discussed with Don’s interview on SMACtalk.

During this episode, Don provided insights on the following questions:

Give an overview on what is "Robotics Automation"
Explain robotics process automation and robotics desktop automation
How will work change due to RPA and RDA? Can this be positive for people? (fear of automation etc.)
How advanced is Robotics Automation today and when do you think we will see this make a big leap into our day to day life?
What are some specific ways Robotics Process Automation is helping lead digital transformation?
What are your big predictions for the future of work in the next 1, 3, 5 years?

Some highlights include Don explaining the difference in some of the automation terminology such as Robotics Process Automation versus Robotics Desktop Automation. Don did a particularly good job of helping provide clarity as to what robotics and automation really mean, versus what many perceive. This may seem a bit funny, but many people who think about robotics, think about cyborgs that are sharing their work environment. Don helped clarify that this is not the case!

Want to know more? Throughout this episode of SMACtalk, Don continually answers the challenging questions that are thrown his way while providing useful insights for anyone interested in learning more about Automoation, Robotics and the future of work.

Tune in, check it out and enjoy the episode!

Disclaimer: This episode was sponsored in part by Pegasystems. To learn more about Pega, visit them at www.PEGA.com

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In this week’s episode of SMACtalk, hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman had the opportunity to speak with PegaSystems VP, Rob Walker, an experienced executive in the machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) that also happens to hold a PHD in the space.

While the show has covered the gambit of technology topics, this was one of the very first SMACtalk episodes that focused on the future of artificial intelligence, so having someone of Rob’s experience was a terrific fit and opportunity to discuss some of the key trends in the space. In particular, the focus was on AI and its impact on enterprise software tools such as ERP, CRM and Business Intelligence.

During this episode, Rob provided insights on the following questions:

What are some of the biggest technology shifts that are impacting the future of CRM?
AI and Automation are stirring up the Future of Work, but for CRM they are a powerful duo, can you share a little more?
Salesforce made a big splash with Einstein, but AI inside of CRM is going to be the norm, right?
Can you share an example of how intelligence will transform workflows inside of companies?
What do you see as the next big changes in CRM in the next 12 months? 5 Years?

Optimism for AI: Despite fear and knowledge gap, there is still optimism towards AI - nearly 70 percent (68) say they want more AI to help make their lives easier.

*Download full report here

Some highlights include Rob demystifying where AI is in its lifecycle and just how far it has come in the past 20 years. He also provides some wonderful insights as to the difference between real artificial intelligence and predictive programming that can often be misconstrued as AI.

Throughout this episode, Rob continually answers the challenging questions that are thrown his way while providing useful insights for anyone interested in learning more about AI, even if you are a technology novice.

Tune in, check it out and enjoy the episode! Stay tuned for more episodes with Pega Systems thought leadership and SMACtalk Live from PegaWorld June 4-7, 2017.

Disclaimer: This episode was sponsored in part by Pegasystems. To learn more about Pegaystems and download the full AI report mentioned in this episode of SMACtalk visit: https://www.pega.com/AI-Survey

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SMACtalk has been taken on the road around the world in some of the coolest venue's and technology events but episode 74 is without question the coolest experience yet!

Hosts Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo are working with the Adobe Insiders team at the Adobe Summit event in Las Vegas. For this episode the Adobe team let them jump in a giant glass box with a full production team referred to as the Think Tank.

On this episode Daniel and Brian breakdown a wide range of trends including some hot topics that are being discussed at the Adobe Summit including:

What is an Experience Business?
What is the future of Design, Delivery and Data?
Do we need marketers anymore if everyone in the company are responsible for creating experiences?
What is the role of privacy today and is privacy something that actually exists.
What role does Trust play with new technologies such as Chatbots, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and cognitive computing.

You can watch the live stream of the recording here: https://youtu.be/dT39Dd0am_4

*Adobe is a sponsor of SMACtalk Podcast and both Brian and Daniel were paid to attend AdobeSummit but opinions are their own.

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On this episode both Daniel and Brian were a little sad that they were broadcasting from their home offices not at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona missing #MWC17 as they’ve been broadcasting live from that event the last couple years.

This conversation started as Daniel brought up the most innovative tech coming out of Mobile World Congress was the Nokia Snake Game and Nokia throwback phone. The conversation took some interesting turns discussing a wide range of topics and questions

Questions and Topics discussed on this episode:

What makes people so in love with old school technology and is there a link to people wanting to live in the past or is it to slow down technology change?
Are Smartphones just boring now?
What does mobile innovation look like over the next 2-5 years?
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are exciting innovation but are today’s consumers looking for a new reality or want to hold on to the reality of today?
What features and benefits with the technology we use today get’s us truly excited?
What role does security and privacy play in many looking at old technology being a reminder of simpler times?
What technology was your favorite growing up?
Fun nostalgic technologies mentioned: Oregan Trail, T81 Calculators, Napster, Gateway Computer, CD Burners and Pagers

Every episode is recorded LIVE on Facebook Live: Facebook.com/SMACtalkLive

WHAT IS SMACTalk?

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

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At the center of SMAC talk, is the A, and the A is for Analytics and all the other topics like Big Data and Insights that encompass the world of analytics. Nowadays, data is core to getting closer to the consumer and brands have figured that out. With the best data, companies are able to offer the right products and services at the right time, and this is a powerful tool for growth. However, when you are leveraging, and especially when you are collecting and storing customer data, you also have a responsibility to protect that information. This shift has turned companies from mom and pop restaurants to hotels to service companies of all kinds into modern tech companies with a fountain of valuable data that helps them market and could potentially be valuable to cyber attackers, meaning these small companies now are in the business of security. In this week's episode of SMACtalk, cohosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman explore the importance of companies recognizing their responsibility when they collect and leverage data to improve their sales, marketing and overall digital transformation offerings. In this episode some of the topics covered: * Why all companies need to pay attention to what data they collect and how they secure that data. * The impact of a data breach on customer sentiment and satisfaction. * What industries are collecting the most data and which are at the greatest risk? * Who should companies look to in order to protect sensitive customer data. * Why it's important to have a technology and PR plan in the event a breach takes place. WHAT IS SMACTalk?

S.M.A.C. stands for Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud and over the two years Dan and Brian have covered topics that included Big Data, Digital Transformation, Social Selling, Data Center Migration, Millennial Marketing, Digital Marketing, live streaming video, customer experience and everything else impacting today's technology world.

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

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During this episode, Brian and Daniel breakdown their path to success with the groundbreaking Superbowl 2016 #SB50Disrupt campaign and the importance of collaboration and live video content with guest host Ursula Ringham, SAP Change Evangelist.

The #SB50Disrupt campaign, a collaboration between SAP and SMACtalk LIVE, created more than 20 hours of live streamed content over 5 days that averaged xx live viewers per broadcast and generated xx total social impressions.

Tune in to hear Ursula share how she assembled support from SAP executives and partners and how important the role of digital transformation is in business success. Curiosity is the key to change, says Ursula. Keeping current on technologies that are available now and always having an eye on what might be drives innovation at all levels.

http://discover.sap.com/superbowl/en-us/index.html

SAP YouTube Playlist with all 20 hours of Superbowl Coverage of #SB50disrupt https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAN4lvL4kFnjOGeA19iFb8pyZI4-fF6kA

About our guest:

Social media marketer by day, author by night and mother 24×7. I’d write all day but in my current professions—I take what I can get. I’ve lived and breathed Silicon Valley my entire life having grown up in Palo Alto, CA. I attended the prestigious all-girls school, Castilleja and my family was immersed in commercial and residential real estate development and local politics.

I innocently entered the high tech industry at the age of twenty through a summer job at a then small software company, Adobe Systems, Inc. My International Relations Degree from UC Davis provided me with a vast understanding of the world that I call upon quite frequently but it could not seduce me away from the adventures I found at home. For over a decade, I worked at Adobe and Apple in their Developer Relations organizations helping start-ups and strategic accounts bring technologies and products to market.

Today, I am a Director of Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategy for SAP. In this role, I stay on top of the hottest social media trends, actively blog, interact on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and Snapchat), and co-host a weekly live-streaming video show. In my spare time, I dream up amazing stories about the insidious side of Silicon Valley and find the time to write them down.

This adventure I call life, fuels my creativity for developing unique stories that I hope you enjoy reading.

https://twitter.com/Ursula_Ringham

http://www.ursularingham.com/

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Daniel Newman and Brian Fanzo are both pager-wearing millennials but both approach technology, business and productivity differently. On this episode of SMACtalk Dan and Brian discuss teamwork in this digital age and share a transparent view into their own collaboration over the last 3 years both the good and the bad.

Business Teamwork and Collaboration in a Digital World Still Comes Down To People!

Businesses today know that success in the marketplace requires an understanding of knowledge management and collaboration as well as increased options for flexible work/life balance for workers. Organizational psychology backs up the pursuit of open collaboration, and in many cases, a flexible work environment inspires loyalty and productivity. Combined with a younger workforce interested in new technology, these changes have significantly impacted how people both millennials and not will work together in the future.

Cisco Spark:

Brian and Daniel have teamed up with Cisco Spark to leverage their new collaboration product as it compares to tools like Jive, Sharepoint and Slack.

Check out Cisco Spark Tool here: http://bit.ly/SMACtalkCiscoSpark

---------------

WHAT IS SMACTalk?

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com
Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

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During this episode, Brian interviews SMACtalk co-host Daniel Newman. Many know of Daniel’s recent successes as an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and keynote speaker. Few know the story that enabled him to become the successful businessman he is today. In his early 20’s Daniel was a globally recognized DJ leveraging mutually beneficial relationships and honest hustle. These core entrepreneurial traits allowed him to smoothly transition and propel his next career as an audio visual sales executive. But, every story has lows and life lessons. Tune in to hear how Daniel still relies on high-touch relationship building and hard work to manage his speaking career and keep his five businesses profitable and how the bumps in the road made him a better entrepreneur and overall better human.

“Building relationships internally with your team is just as valuable as the external ones you build that bring profit” - @DanielNewmanUV

Who is Daniel Newman:

Author of 5 Amazon Best Selling Books, Newman is a trusted voice found weekly on Forbes, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, and in various interviews and podcasts.

I love technology, but I am also extremely passionate about digital transformation and strategy because I believe technology can only reach its potential when it is intertwined with humanity. When people and technology work together to meet their potential, the business results will follow. This is where I come in.

I am an entrepreneur focused in the Technology and Digital Space. Founder, partner and operator of 4 companies ranging from my role as Principal Analyst at Futurum Research, a Technology and Analysis firm to the CEO of Broadsuite Media Group and President of Digital Agency V3B.

Prior to my days as an entrepreneur, I served as the CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and Communication services provider. Prior to that at the spry age of 28, I was the CEO of United Visual, parent company to United Visual Systems, United Visual Productions, and United GlobalComm; a family of companies focused on Unified Communications and Audio Visual Technologies.

I am also an author and contributor to some of the world's largest media outlets. A regular on Forbes, Entrepreneur and The Huffington Post, as well as the author of 5 Amazon Best Selling Books:

Building Dragons: Digital Transformation in the Experience Economy
The Ultimate Field Guide to Digital Program Management
Evolve: Marketing as we know it is Doomed
The Millennial CEO
The New Rules of Customer Engagement.

Principal Analyst and Founding Partner: www.Futurum.xyz

CEO Founder of Broadsuite Media Group: http://www.broadsuite.com/

Co-Chief Executive Officer: www.v3b.com

Partner and Co-Founder: www.xvalabs.com

Partner/Co-Owner: http://www.themarketingscope.com/

Social

Twitter: @DanielNewmanUV
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danielnewman27/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellouisnewman

The New Rules of Customer Engagement: 6 Trends Reinventing The Way We Sell

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If you aren’t growing you’re dying! One of the oldest adages in business, but true by so many accounts. Even though social media and digital has changed the sales process exponentially, selling is still a core part of almost every business. The companies that are best leveraging new media, social selling and of course traditional relationship selling are going to fare the best, but what do companies need to do to succeed in all of these areas?

In this week’s SMACTalk, the fourth in our series partnership with Adobe Document Cloud, we explore the future of sales and how sales are being transformed across the enterprise. This week Adobe’s very own Lisa Graham and Selling Expert Colleen Francis joined hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman to discuss the transformation of the way we sell in a modern digital world; exploring the changes in how we sell, and what helps sales professionals rise above the rest. A few of the questions that Graham and Francis tackle on the show include:

How have sales changed in the past few years?
What has the impact of social selling been on sales professionals?
How should sales professionals balance social media and personal selling in the age of digital?
What can sales professionals do to stay on top for now and into the future?

Throughout the episode, there were countless great examples of the changing landscape of sales provided by both Lisa Graham and Colleen Francis. With Graham doing a wonderful job of using her personal experiences at Adobe as the model, Francis often took her learnings from consulting with companies around the globe to add context and show some of the similarities and differences between Adobe’s sales culture and enterprises across the board. Of course, our hosts Fanzo and Newman couldn’t hold their tongue throughout the episode as they often incorporated their own anecdotal visions as to the changes taking place in professional sales.

One thing is for sure, sales is transforming at a great rate and for individuals as well as companies to stay relevant in sales it is important that they change with the times and get on board with the advice of Graham, Francis and the SMACtalk hosts!

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We kicked off 2017 just like we finished 2016 with a lively and passion debate with lots of SMACtalk this time around new years resolutions, making business goals and this culture of no accountability.

This topic was fueled by Daniel's facebook post over the holidays which you can read below and the debate went on to include the importance of business goals, the role of public accountability and the current state of social media and marketing as it pertains to small business owners filtering the noise to work with true experts vs those who just make loud noises.

Here is the Facebook post from Daniel.

"I know this may make me sound like a crotchety old man...

But seriously, wtf is the deal with "It's a new year and I'm going to do all this great shit because it's a new year."

I have a feeling the people that are going to accomplish great things don't wait for some impending calendar date to get started on their route to greatness. Just start...Go...Do...Be... Celebrate the heck out of your wins, but don't wait. Start now...and if the date is June 9, start then, and if the date is November 4, start then... It's entirely in our control. We decide our outcomes and results. If the New Year is your only motivation to start then I'm pretty comfortable that the resolution will be a fleeting moment in a hot steamy pile of failed resolutions from New Years Past... PS: I'll post a Happy New Year pic later. :P

If you want to watch the Facebook Live recording of this episode you can do so here: https://www.facebook.com/SMACtalkLive/videos/1835608916719192/?pnref=story

On this prediction episode Dan and Brian decided to stick to the S.M.A.C. as they each shared one prediction around each letter that makes up the show title. From Dan’s very first prediction for social media in 2017 you’ll realize that these aren’t your normal generic marketing predictions.

Also listen all the way till the end as Dan and Brian also share sneak peeks into topics that they’ll be talking about on the keynote stage in 2017 that they’ve not talked about as professional speakers.

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com

Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

Dan and Brian spent the first couple minutes of this episode and the last couple minutes paying tribute to the SMACtalk community and all those that have supported them as the SMACtalk download numbers have doubled month over month since September.

Dan and Brian want to wish the entire SMACtalk community a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays with special shoutout outs to the brands that have sponosred the show over the last two years: IBM, Avnet, SAP, Adobe and 2017’s newest sponsor Cisco.

You’ll hear more about the Cisco sponsorship in the new year including how Dan and Brian are leveraging Cisco’s collaboration tool known as Cisco Spark. You can check out the tool now at: http://brianfanzo.live/cisco_smac

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This week marks the 2 year anniversary of the launch of SMACtalk, as you’ll hear Dan and Brian were fired up and ready to celebrate.

Visit Dan’s speaker page at: www.DanielNewmanSpeaks.com

Visit Brian’s speaker page at: www.iSocialFanz.com/Speaker

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On this episode Brian and Dan change up the time and day they record and I have a feeling you’re going to LOVE the SMAC results. The topic started off debating how new media needs old marketing skills and old marketing needs to embrace new media marketers but then things took off.

Based on the live viewers feedback, Brian and Dan might need to switch to recording at night because this was a passion filled 40 mins that you’ll need to hold onto your seats to enjoy.

Some of the takeaways from this episode:

Faster Marketing is the current trend
Live Video is growing and changing the game both for good and bad
What new problems result with new media
Brian stated: “I’ve been evangelizing for people to create a bunch of crap content!” Brian used the Facebook 360 and Discovery channel collaboration as an example of even with good content, good technology and good brands doesn’t guarantee the content won’t suck.
Importance of understanding the basics of marketing so that you can stay in business and market new technology like IoT, AR, VR and other innovations.
Brian and Daniel might be millennials but they took a hardline at calling out those that are just broadcasting and screaming on every channel and they feel bad for today’s business owner as it’s hard to find and filter the noise of who good marketers are.
Adobe Chat (Adobe sponsor of SMACtalk) was mentioned as the twitter chat topic was about the changing TV ads and Marketing in 2017.
Daniel gave shoutouts to Gary Vaynerchuk, Marcus Sheridan and Jay Baer on how they’ve created brands and messaging around true and tried marketing tactics not fluff or social media vanity.
Importance of defining success and working towards business goals no matter if it's live streaming, snapchat, 360 video or an email marketing campaign.
Brian launched a new podcast two weeks ago called FOMOfanz but in this episode Dan makes it a point to mention how Brian links a strategy and business goal to everything he does although big name marketers in the industry might not realize that.

There is so much more in this episode and much of it might surprise you or cause you to rewind but there is no doubt that the late night podcast recording brought the passion, the rants and a longer episode than SMACtalk normally.

Watch the live recording of the show here: https://www.facebook.com/iSocialFanz/videos/712131435601318/

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Founded in 2014 as a weekly podcast, S.M.A.C.talk was featured as an iTunes “Top 10 New & Noteworthy” for Technology and Social Media. With hard hitting conversations on not only the technology but how it relates to business and the future of work, listeners can count on this podcast for a straightforward analysis that makes the future of technology more accessible and a whole lot more fun.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on twitter: @iSocialFanz & @DanielNewmanUV

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Once upon a time, it felt like the only time an employee dealt with HR was when they were hired, when they left the company and perhaps when they had a question about their insurance or another benefit. All in all, the HR department has over the years earned a reputation as a bit of a stranger to the everyday employee. However, that reputation is changing.

In this week’s SMACTalk, the third in our series partnership with Adobe Document Cloud, we explore one of the critical topics inside of every business, Digital Transformation. This week Mark Grilli from Adobe and Theo Priestly, known Digital Transformation expert and Technology Evangelist joined hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman to discuss the transformation in the enterprise; covering where we are now, the biggest challenges for organizations looking to transform as well as some predictions as to the future of digital for organizations, how transformation efforts will continue to evolve and what leaders need to be thinking about to successfully transform their businesses. A few of the questions that Priestly and Grilli tackle on the show include:

As a subject that seems to have many different meanings, How do you define digital transformation?
What are the keys to building a digital transformation ready business?
How much does company culture impact digital transformation success?
What are the key technologies driving digital transformation?
Where should businesses that are on the sidelines start with their digital transformation?

While the opinions of thought leaders Mark Grilli and Theo Priestly has many similarities, it was interesting to hear from each their different views on the questions where Grilli provided some wonderful examples of how change is being accomplished inside of an enterprise like Adobe, whereas Priestly brought more of a wider lens few from across the digital landscape. Of course with this topic being near and dear to the hearts of the shows hosts, both Fanzo and Newman found themselves playing the role of host and guest at different points. I guess when the questions are this good, you can’t help but want to answer them. At one point the show even took a little turn from the questions above and went into who the responsible party is for digital transformation, there we got some interesting answers from our hosts and guests, but we won’t spoil the surprise as we want you to listen all the way through. (Hint: it wasn’t the CMO)

What we did realize for sure is that Digital Transformation continues to be a huge undertaking for every organization. However, it’s a critical vehicle for maintaining a healthy business into a very quickly changing future full of new technology, new services and a million other unknowns.

Follow our guests on Social Media:

Mark Grilli on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-grilli-7b5743

Theo Priestly: @itredux

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on twitter: @iSocialFanz & @DanielNewmanUV

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On this episode of SMACtalk, Brian & Daniel seem to be in a giving mood recording it on #GivingTuesday and you’ll hear some love given to their favorite cause of the year No Kid Hungry which you can read more about here.

Retail shopping without question is being transformed by all aspects of S.M.A.C. and on this episode you’ll hear discussions around the importance of:

Customer Experience
Desktop to Mobile Integration
Brick & Mortar Best Practices
Impact of AI, AR & emerging technologies

Of course it can’t be an episode of SMACtalk without both of them mentioning Dunkin Donuts at least once with all mentions of brand experiences at Amazon, Converse, The Buckle, Starbucks and many more.

Since this episode was recorded and posted on #GivingTuesday Brian & Dan gave a shoutout and asked for the listeners to donate and support No Kid Hungry, a cause they both support and care about deeply. https://www.nokidhungry.org/

They also reference this study from Adobe:

Media Alert: Adobe Data Shows Cyber Monday Largest Online Sales Day in History With $3.39 Billion

- See more at: http://news.adobe.com/press-release/marketing-cloud/media-alert-adobe-data-shows-cyber-monday-largest-online-sales-day#sthash.mdUvFOFQ.dpuf

Also checkout Daniel’s latest Facebook Video: https://youtu.be/X36tcLbb56Y

And Brian’s newest podcast: FOMOfanz: https://www.isocialfanz.com/new-podcast-turning-fear-joy-fomofanz/

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on twitter: @iSocialFanz & @DanielNewmanUV

Read more at http://smactalklive.libsyn.com/#oiEd3i3Xq77fBzsE.99

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On this episode Brian & Dan talk about the latest wearable technology rolled out from Snap.Inc known as Spectacles. These sunglasses with circle video creating capabilities are being rolled out in select locations by vending machine at a price point of $150 US.

The original plan was to compare the marketing and roll out to google glass and the "Glasshole" problem created thanks to tech elite but this conversation went down a completely different direction.

WE PROMISE: You won't hear this type of discussion and debate about wearable technology, AR, VR or Spectacles anywhere else!

Discussed on this episode:

What kind of content will people create using these sunglasses?
Do we need more bad content from people's points of view?
How can brands look at this new wearable opportunity and provide business value.
Do we have a posting too much to social media problem today, what will this type of technology create for tomorrow.
If we are watching this content or any social content from those in our circle of influence will we ever see the bigger picture or understand all sides of any issues.
Dan & Brian are fans of Spectacles but they question the types of content they’ll create or where they’ll find value.

Links from the show:

Spectacles Site: https://www.spectacles.com/

GE Tweet about using spectacles: https://twitter.com/generalelectric/statuses/798278242801053701

Cisco on Snapchat: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/snapchat

NY Times Post about quiting social media that Daniel Posted to Facebook: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/jobs/quit-social-media-your-career-may-depend-on-it.html?partner=IFTTT&_r=1&referer=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2Fi7wu8oCQs3

Brian's Facebook Post: Accused of being a cyber terrorist: https://www.facebook.com/bfanzo/posts/10157750225585405?pnref=story

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on twitter: @iSocialFanz & @DanielNewmanUV

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Once upon a time, it felt like the only time an employee dealt with HR was when they were hired, when they left the company and perhaps when they had a question about their insurance or another benefit. All in all the HR department has over the years earned a reputation as a bit of a stranger to the everyday employee. However, that reputation is changing.

In this week’s SMACTalk, the second in our series partnership with Adobe Document Cloud, we explore the future of Human Resources and HR Tech. This week Mason Stubblefield from Adobe and Matt Charney, known HR Tech Influencer joined hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman to discuss the transformation of the HR department; covering where we are now, where HR needs to go and some of the challenges and opportunities that exist. A few of the questions that Charney and Stubblefield tackle on the show include:

How has HR changed the most over the past few years?
What impact have new technologies and tools had on how HR functions?
Have we seen increased collaboration between HR and LOB? How else has HR improved collaboration with the organization?
Real time feedback has always lacked in HR. What are some of the trends to improve that and increase employee engagement?
Employees are more and more becoming extensions of brands. How can companies manage that while allowing employees to help with the brand story?

While the opinions of thought leaders Mason Stubblefield and Matt Charney tended to be similar as to the need for change in HR, it was interesting to hear from each their different views on the questions where Stubblefield provided some wonderful examples of how change is being accomplished inside of an enterprise like Adobe and Charney brought a fun, and sometimes slightly jaded view of the HR field and put a strong onus companies to strive for more employee, candidate and technology centric models that helped HR evolve fast!

One thing is for sure, there is massive disruption taking place inside the HR department as the role is moving from administrative support to the internal marketing champion for brands as well as the catalyst for employee engagement.
Listen below or on iTunes here

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on twitter: @iSocialFanz & @DanielNewmanUV

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What will the future look like? For businesses today this may be one of the most commonly asked and pressing questions. With the pace of change accelerating at breakneck pace, companies no longer have the luxury of depending on what is working today in order to sustain profits. As fast as companies rise today, they can fall. And for most companies, their product becomes obsolete the moment a better product, service or experience enters the market. At SMACtalk, we focus on talking about the biggest technology and people challenges that impact business, and on this episode of SMACTalk we bring the Future of Work from and center to the conversation. To kick off a four part series with our new partners Adobe Document Cloud, we had the opportunity to bring a special guest, Jon Perera. Jon is Vice President at Adobe and he is one of the future forward thinkers in the organization. In this episode we focus in on: 1. Why future of work has become such an important topic? 2. What can companies do to help people keep up with the changing workplace? 3. How Remote and Flex Work is driving performance in the workplace? 4. What are the biggest trends that we will see in the workplace in the next one, three and five years? While there are no crystal balls for what the workplace of tomorrow will look like, what we do know is rapid change and technological shifts are going to continue to put pressure on business leaders to create highly agile environments that enable businesses to innovate in the most challenging of times. Are you ready to take a look into the future of work? Join Brian, Daniel and our guest, Jon Perera in this weeks SMACTalk. For more information on our Sponsor Adobe Document Cloud as well as our guest Jon Perera check out the following. Jon Twitter: @jon_perera Jon Perera LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonperera Adobe Document Cloud Twitter: @AdobeDocCloud Adobe Document Cloud LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/adobe-document-cloud ---

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

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On this episode:

Brian and Dan breakdown the importance of social media, community building and social listening is for brands having success in the world driven by digital transformation.

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

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October kicked off with one of the craziest tech weeks of the year!

This inspired Dan and Brian to record two episodes back to back starting with a recap of everything from:

Google Product Announcment: Google Pixel Phone, Daydream VR, Chromcast Ultra, Google Wifi, Google Home
- Pixel YouTube Video Mentioned: https://youtu.be/Rykmwn0SMWU
Salesforce Dreamforce
Facebook Oculus Event
Samsung Note 7 recall

Listen to the next episode as they dive deeper into the hype created thanks to social media and the need for technology brands to embrace social media unlike Dan and Brian's favorite tech brand Apple.

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

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On this episode Brian & Dan discuss the future of video and really what matters when it comes to business looking at video, how do we link video to business goals and to solve business problems.

Brian and Dan have hosted #Cloudtalk video chat show for almost 3 years starting on Google Hangouts, moving to blab and now leveraging Bluejeans.Net live streaming it to Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SMACtalkLive.

Daniel talks about his experience with video and how he has written 5 books and numerous blogs a week but thanks to the evolution of social media, he has found the power of video for his brand and for each of his businesses.

Brian and Dan go in detail about the following topics as well:

How and where your audience consumes content should dictate your content strategy
Where live video fits into video marketing and video for businesses.
Why brands should understand Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook Organic Video, Twitter Video and Periscope Live video all of which Brian labels as social video platforms.
What is Up-cycling of content?
Why perfection and control are the enemy of all video strategies
What role a video strategy will play in embracing: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and the future of technology.

Checkout Daniels latest videos on his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/danielnewman27/

Brian quotes the Cisco whitepaper for stats about the future of video and more: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/complete-white-paper-c11-481360.pdf

Brian also mentioned Buffer and he was a guest on Buffer’s new podcast which you can listen to here: https://soundcloud.com/the-science-of-social-media/sets/the-science-of-social-media-1

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

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On this episode Dan and Brian look back at the last 25 years of the internet, the days of AOL, what has changed and really what hasn't changed including a walk down memory lane with websites like: eBay, Craigslist, AOL Groups, Yahoo and more.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the journey you've taken from Friendster to MySpace to Facebook and beyond.. Use the hashtag #SMACtalk on twitter and let us know your thoughts and memories!

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.
Founded in 2014 as a weekly podcast, S.M.A.C.talk was featured as an iTunes “Top 10 New & Noteworthy” for Technology and Social Media. With hard hitting conversations on not only the technology but how it relates to business and the future of work, listeners can count on this podcast for a straightforward analysis that makes the future of technology more accessible and a whole lot more fun.

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

Read more at http://smactalklive.libsyn.com/#MKqDe4HrArZYjmfs.99

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On this episode Dan and Brian breakdown the iPhone 7 launch, their love for Apple products while explaining how much they love the Samsung S7's they have. Also discussed on this episode is how how Samsung has handled the "exploding Note 7" and what does it mean that Apple now has a twitter account.

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

What is SMACtalk Live:

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

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Brian and Dan are in a Friday type mode and on this episode the discussion goes very deep into a space that most episodes on this show don't go.

Questions asked during this show that you want to listen for:

Does having more access to data enable more copies and less creativity?
When we share more data and information does it hurt or help our own personal success?
Do limitations inspire creativity?
Are people really listening to @GaryVee or are they trying to copy him?

These questions and more are covered on this episode of SMACtalk.

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

What is SMACtalk Live:

Find out more about SMACtalk Live: http://www.SMACtalk.Live

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Angry Birds Traditional — Pokemon Go Participatory Future On this episode Brian & Dan breakdown the PokemonGo craze and what that means for businesses and the future of technology. The discussion covers a wide range of topics including where the technology fits in today's business work flow and what it means for the future of technologies such as live video, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things and other more.

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

What is SMACtalk Live:

For an audience looking for a business centric multimedia experience on the topics of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud, they will have to look no further than to S.M.A.C.talk LIVE.

BONUS: Some additional thoughts from Brian on how PokemonGo is different then Angry Birds:

When working with brands I focus most of my strategy on the mindset shift needed to embrace real-time participation with the community matched with content created at the right-time. The mindset shift highlights 3 critical changes being driven by the consumer of today and the Pokemon Go players of tomorrow: 1. Access 2. Perfection is an illusion 3. Control is impossible.

I like to think of it in comparison to a game that also had massive growth and became a household name Angry Birds.

Angry Birds Mobile Game Without Mobility or Participation

Angry Birds is traditional in the sense that all the levels, interaction and control is predetermined by the game creators. Although the game is on the mobile device it doesn’t embrace MOBILITY rather takes game interaction and functionality we are used to on gaming consoles or computers and makes it work on the small screen.

This is very similar to what traditional broadcast and media companies are doing with live streaming and social video. They’re missing out on the features and benefits of mobility including GPS, bluetooth, ability to play anywhere while doing anything, motion sensor/accelerometer, gyroscope and other functionality that is only increasing with each smartphone upgrade.

Pokemon Go Leverages Mobility & Participation Without Social or Chat Functionality! (yet) Pokemon Go has created real-world offline interactions and conversations even without chat or social aspects being integrated into the app itself. (I believe this will be a component added very soon as the Twitch community is proof social chat conversations while playing & watching games is a massive desire of today’s gamers!). Pokemon Go creators are facilitating an experience within the game but unlike Angry Birds aren’t controlling every player’s path to success or even how or where the consumer participates.

With the growth of Snapchat and live streaming platforms Periscope, Facebook Live, YouTube Live and many others, the main component of the growth has to do with the consumer of the content as much as it does the creator on video.

Over the past 9 years our digital connections & digital desires have transformed thanks to the growth of cloud computing, social media networks and the smartphone. I believe we are now seeing a massive shift, no longer focused on “what” this technology can do, rather “why” it will transform our life experiences and “how” we can leverage it to accomplish our life’s missions and ultimately grow as people.

We > Me We as humans want to participate in every experience we consume and we want to consume it where and how we want so that we ultimately can become better ME’s! So it doesn’t matter if it’s a game like Pokemon Go or the TV show Mr.Robot, who released all of its shows on Snapchat and leveraged Facebook live all week to give fans access to the cast prior to the season debut, it’s time for every brand in every industry to ThinkLikeAFan or maybe even ThinkLikePokemonGo!

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On this episode Dan & Brian discuss the importance of community in the digital world of 2016 and how brands and small businesses can leverage social media marketing, mobility, analytics and cloud to grow a community that allows and empowers scale.

Beyond the weekly podcast Brian & Daniel also host the podcast at brand events and are excited to be adding 4 new events in the fall of 2016.

What is SMACtalk?

S.M.A.C.talk Live is a media hub founded by Brian Fanzo & Daniel Newman that has exploded thanks their podcast created in 2014 discussing Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud into a media offering that includes dual event Emcee and digital host, a weekly technology social showed called #Cloudtalk, an on location live stream socially powered tv show and event new media amplification that includes brand social account takeovers, Snapchat geo filters, twitter chat hosting, periscope & facebook live video streaming as well as live event community management and on-demand content creation and up-cycling. SMACtalk Live has worked for brands at their events including: IBM, SAP, Capgemini, Deloitte, iTelligence, HP, Dell and the Superbowl in 2016 alone.

Here are some links of past events SMACtalk Live has been a part of:

Past Experience: Enterprise Event Work 2015-2016

*IBM Interconnect: (10 Influencer Interviews & Moderated 3 Panels)*

Influencer Social QB
- https://youtu.be/e8IMqGpW0K0
- Influencer Interview with Bryan Kramer: https://youtu.be/U5cC1MkKDc4
Panel Moderator
Recap of Data Debates Brian Moderated
- https://storify.com/therab/data-debates-with-social-vips

*IBM Partnerworld (Social Business Workshop & 4 live podcast recordings)*

GM at IBM Sandy Carter Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6ICRijjmp4
SMACtalk Podcast (1 of 3) recorded at event: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smactalk-live-social-media/id953547333?mt=2#

*IBM Insight (Interviewed 24 influencers & Moderated 6 IoT & Big Data Panels)*

Emcee & Digital Live Streaming Host http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/internet-things-ibm-insight-2015

*IBM Amplify*

Promo video for Event on IBM Events Site: https://youtu.be/DxIzVf5SE5o

*Superbowl SAP partnered with: Capgemini, Deloitte, iTelligence, SAP (20 hours of interviews over 5 days live from Superbowl City)*

SB50disrupt: Press Release: https://sapsponsorships.com/SB50Disrupt?source=social-SME-TW-Jan2016-SB50Disrupt-Blog-SAPSponsorships
Landing Page with full Calendar of events off of main SAP site: http://discover.sap.com/superbowl
1 of 20 panel interviews we did on Blab that was reposted by SAP on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DrIUhkXXfyY
SAP Recap Blog Interview:https://news.sap.com/does-company-size-matter-in-a-digital-economy/

*SXSW w/ Dell:*

Interview on Future of IOT: https://youtu.be/Ia-QuXRZukU
Panel on IOT and Coffee Talk Session with Bryan Kramer on “how to create consumable content”

*SAP Sapphire Now (55+ Facebook Live Interviews on 7 SAP Brand Pages)*

Interview on @SAP Facebook Live page with Maggie Fox SAP SVP Digital & Content:
- https://www.facebook.com/SAP/videos/10153514639296770/
DEMO & Periscope Interview at SAP Digital Booth:
- https://www.periscope.tv/iSocialFanz/1vOxwBQweRVJB
Interview SAP customer Skullcandy on SapphireNow Expo Floor:
- https://www.facebook.com/SAPforSME/videos/10153672367435885/

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

Read more at http://smactalklive.libsyn.com/#wuDvwZe2jYWw90us.99 bu4fte2k

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On this episode Dan and Brian discuss the value of digital relationships and the importance of auditing how and what we are doing when it comes to our digital reputation for both brands and leaders

Beyond the weekly podcast Brian & Daniel also host the podcast at brand events and are excited to be adding 4 new events in the fall of 2016.

What is SMACtalk?

Here are some links of past events SMACtalk Live has been a part of:

Past Experience: Enterprise Event Work 2015-2016

*IBM Interconnect: (10 Influencer Interviews & Moderated 3 Panels)*
Influencer Social QB
- https://youtu.be/e8IMqGpW0K0
- Influencer Interview with Bryan Kramer: https://youtu.be/U5cC1MkKDc4
Panel Moderator
Recap of Data Debates Brian Moderated
- https://storify.com/therab/data-debates-with-social-vips
*IBM Partnerworld (Social Business Workshop & 4 live podcast recordings)*
GM at IBM Sandy Carter Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6ICRijjmp4
SMACtalk Podcast (1 of 3) recorded at event: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smactalk-live-social-media/id953547333?mt=2#
*IBM Insight (Interviewed 24 influencers & Moderated 6 IoT & Big Data Panels)*
Emcee & Digital Live Streaming Host http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/internet-things-ibm-insight-2015
*IBM Amplify*
Promo video for Event on IBM Events Site: https://youtu.be/DxIzVf5SE5o
*Superbowl SAP partnered with: Capgemini, Deloitte, iTelligence, SAP (20 hours of interviews over 5 days live from Superbowl City)*
SB50disrupt: Press Release: https://sapsponsorships.com/SB50Disrupt?source=social-SME-TW-Jan2016-SB50Disrupt-Blog-SAPSponsorships
Landing Page with full Calendar of events off of main SAP site: http://discover.sap.com/superbowl
1 of 20 panel interviews we did on Blab that was reposted by SAP on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DrIUhkXXfyY
SAP Recap Blog Interview:https://news.sap.com/does-company-size-matter-in-a-digital-economy/
*SXSW w/ Dell:*
Interview on Future of IOT: https://youtu.be/Ia-QuXRZukU
Panel on IOT and Coffee Talk Session with Bryan Kramer on “how to create consumable content”
*SAP Sapphire Now (55+ Facebook Live Interviews on 7 SAP Brand Pages)*
Interview on @SAP Facebook Live page with Maggie Fox SAP SVP Digital & Content:
- https://www.facebook.com/SAP/videos/10153514639296770/
DEMO & Periscope Interview at SAP Digital Booth:
- https://www.periscope.tv/iSocialFanz/1vOxwBQweRVJB
Interview SAP customer Skullcandy on SapphireNow Expo Floor:
- https://www.facebook.com/SAPforSME/videos/10153672367435885/

If you want to chat about having SMACtalk Live at your event or chat with our hosts please follow them and reach out to them on the following channels:

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

www.Twitter.com/iSocialFanz

Snapchat:

www.Snapchat.com/Add/DanielNewmanUV

www.Snapchat.com/Add/iSocialFanz

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In This Episode

Since the dawn of time, relationships have been the drivers of successful business. Forged by mutual interest, fueled by trust and reciprocation, relationships are powerful business pillars. Technology has removed distance from the relationship equation and our ability to friend, nurture, and sustain rewarding relationships continues to increase. What defines a good, bad, and ugly relationship in our digital world?

In this episode Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman break down the need for, the difficulties, and the general misconception around digital relationships. Jabbing, hooking, and jabbing again are the daily activities of the average business professional. We all have relationships that need to be supported. But what can we be doing to create better relationships in this digital age? Brian shares that he recently asked his community an interesting question regarding scaling digital relationships. Would you rather someone reply to 5% of their inbound messages personally or outsource that task and respond to 80%? The community responded that without question they would prefer a person to respond to 5% of their messages and know that they are getting a personal response from that individual versus a team member. Do you agree?

Feeling pressured to have large networks and continuously appearing to be active and “social” on these networks has forced business professionals to automate and in some cases neglect important relationships. While both Daniel and Brian are fans of social media automation they agree that making time for one on one communication is far more productive than one to many. Listen to this episode to hear what tools, hacks, and tactics you can start using today to forge better digital relationships.

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This weeks episode Brian & Dan jumped on after watching the APPLE WWDC event to share their insights and to recap what they thought about Apple's yearly developer conference.

Topics covered:

New form of communication with iOS 10
Open API for Siri, Apple Maps & other apple apps that previously were locked down.
WatchOS3
TVos
MACos now bringing the mobile experience and desktop experiences closer together
iOS10 biggest change to iOS since iOS8

Dan & Brian also shared their thoughts on Android and comparing some of the features as both of them also use and own Samsung S7edge devices.

As always use the hashtag #SMACtalk to share your thoughts on this episode and ideas you have on future episodes!

Connect on snapchat with our hosts:

www.snapchat.com/add/DanielNewmanUV

www.snapchat.com/add/iSocialFanz

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In This Episode

Business best practices are evolving rapidly and the future of work shines much brighter than the business models of the past. In this episode Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman discuss business mobility and the pros and cons of employees versus contractors for maximum business success.

Without question social media, mobile, analytics, and cloud technologies have enabled a much more agile workforce that is disrupting business behavior on a continual basis. As a business owner how do you decide if your workforce should be primarily contractors or employees? What is the risk versus reward?

Brian opens the conversation by stating that full-time employment is not as secure as it once was. Employees can be laid off on a dime and loyalty only gets you so far as productivity allows. Having a workforce of contractors who operate on deliverables has many benefits for the business and the contractor. Culturally we are more open to change and having the freedom to hire people for specific skill sets, undeterred by their physical location, is a business differentiator.

Daniel makes a very poignant observation stating that we have matured from a workforce seeking long term employment to a workforce striving for long term employability. The goal of working for a company for 20 years is not as desirable (or necessary) as honing your talents and always being in high demand. This trend is evident in the tech industry as we see many people bouncing from one company to the next working on cool projects with cool people. Goals and expectations for both businesses and employees has changed.

What does the future of work look like for your business? Listen to this episode of SMACtalk for candid comments from Daniel and Brian, who as business owners that work with contractors and as contractors themselves offer great insights into the employee versus contractor debate.

Resources:

http://buildingdragons.ontrapages.com/

www.snapchat.com/add/danielnewmanUV

www.snapchat.com/add/isocialfanz

Blab link: https://blab.im/b48a2f61f3b74ab2ad4a8ce5ec3ccab2

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In This Episode

Enterprise companies are often admired for their access to resources but digital is leveling the playing field for businesses of all sizes. In this episode Brian and Daniel discuss how small businesses are using social, mobile, analytics, and cloud to differentiate themselves from competitors.

How Does Leveraging Digital Benefit Small Business?

What is the best way to get to my customers? A common question asked by business owners. What should be an easy question to answer is often a daunting task for most business owners. A few minutes into this episode Daniel shares how he uses the acronym T.C.I.K. The Customer Is King when making business decisions. Historically small businesses have had to deal with a lack of technology, lack of customer intelligence, lack of ability to utilize data but thanks to the growth of cloud based applications small businesses are no longer at a disadvantage and can serve customers as well or better than larger entities.

Digital is powered by the cloud. Cloud allows us to have services on demand, pay for what we want or need, and be extremely agile accessing applications from wherever we happen to be. Digitally enabled small businesses are well equipped to take on larger competitors.

Why is Social Important For Small Business?

“Social is the great amplifier. Social allows you to not only communicate your message at scale but also crowdsource feedback on your product or service in real-time to then augment content creation and ultimately better understand the customers you desire to serve.” -- Brian Fanzo

Why is Mobile Important For Small Business?

“Mobile is the ultimate enabler. The ability to share, consume, and engage on the go has allowed for much greater collaboration between colleagues, departments, partners, and more. Mobile technology has made it possible for us to keep the ball moving no matter where we happen to be physically located.” -- Daniel Newman

Why is Analytics Important For Small Business?

“A small business has to be able to learn and pivot as customer needs and wants change. Analytics plays into every business decision. Answers to questions such as when is the right time to hire someone, how is our content performing on social, and how happy are our current customers can all be found in analytics. The information is available. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you’re not looking at analytics. There is no excuse to go on gut feel alone.” -- Brian Fanzo

Why is Cloud Important For Small Business?

“Cloud has been a mythical beast for many small businesses but I think this year we are finally seeing awareness and understanding. Cloud’s impact and necessity is that it impacts every single thing we do. The agility to migrate from an integral business tool such as a CRM to a better fit with little effort is priceless. Cloud is an equalizer. Employees can access tools from anywhere. Businesses can be nimble and pivot when needed. This is the future of business.” -- Brian Fanzo

“Cloud runs every facet of our business now - either indirect or direct. Every part - collaboration, back office software such as accounting, payroll, CRM, and all social tools - all cloud based. My entire business runs in the cloud. Do you know how many IT guys I have on staff to run it? None. You know how much money I’ve saved? Tons. The cloud allows small businesses to become big businesses very quickly.” -- Daniel Newman

How is social, mobile, analytics, and cloud transforming your business?

Blab link: https://blab.im/brian-fanzo-isocialfanz-social-mobile-analytics-cloud-usage-in-smallbiz-smactalk-podcast

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In This Episode

Digital transformation is more than a buzzword. It’s a movement. In this episode Brian and Daniel begin by defining what digital transformation is and exchanging views on the importance of buy-in and it’s role in successful digital transformation. The conversation then moves to how digital transformation starts and progresses. The episode ends with fantastic examples of why digital transformation is necessary - not just future business success - but success today.

In the opening minutes Daniel shares a few interesting statistics about this episode’s show sponsor the SAP Store. Launched just a little over a year ago in May 2015, the SAP store has driven 1.3 million unique visitors to its site and processed over 10K orders. A proud advocate for the digital economy and digital transformation the SAP Store is changing the way people consume applications and technology for business. On their site you can purchase SAP solutions, as well as 3rd party solutions, all designed to make businesses more efficient and successful.

Where should businesses start their digital transformation process?

Brian puts on his change evangelist hat and begins his answer by stating that digital transformation requires a mindset shift. You have to be open to change to transform but that alone won’t kick start the process. Successful digital transformation begins with an audit.

Ask yourself these 4 questions:

What experiences do I want to achieve?
How am I leveraging my existing solutions?
Where do I need to make immediate changes?
Where do I need to make programmatic changes?

And remember, change does not have to happen all at once!

Where does the buy-in for digital transformation start?

Top down. Bottom up. Daniel points out that there is no one size fits all transformation path. Often there is a ground swell in an organization that fuels digital transformation. As employees start to feel disgruntled by current applications and processes and the “what you give me isn’t good enough” sentiment increases employees will seek out other options and passive transformation begins. But change cannot be siloed. Effective digital transformation begins once leadership acknowledges that the way things have always been done are no longer working. Once leadership is willing to seek out new solutions and empower and educate employees, and adopt new strategies themselves to lead by example, that is when buy-in enables digital transformation.

This episode is 55 minutes long and full of incredible insights and actionable takeaways. Get a snack and keep your favorite note taking app or pen and paper close! Your digital transformation journey starts here!

Blab link: https://blab.im/brian-fanzo-isocialfanz-social-video-s-impact-on-content-consumption-smactalk-live

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In This Episode

Sometimes buzzwords are unavoidable. In this episode Brian and Daniel exchange views on the role of big data analytics in better business decision making. Not discrediting having the right mindset, the magic of gut feel, or the importance of context - the data we have available to us today gives us the power to make decisions like never before.

What IS Big Data?

In the opening few minutes Daniel leads with big data as a whole most often needs clarity. What is it? What does it mean? Outside of a niche community, when the term big data is thrown around, most people don’t actually know what it is. Data and big data is not a new thing. Companies have been collecting data for hundreds of years. Technology has enabled collection of data to migrate from notebooks to computers to the cloud. Simply put, big data is extremely large data sets that can be analyzed to reveal patterns, trends, and associations.

The collection of data may not be new but the ability to analyze big and small data sets to make smarter business decisions is. But still we’re faced with a dilemma. Are we asking the right questions? Are we focusing on the right problems? What keeps CIO’s and CFO’s up at night?

Demonstrating the Value of Big Data

In the second half of the episode Brian points out that demonstrating the value of big data can be challenging. Selling the use case to management requires actual examples of how department transparency of data will improve overall company operations. Equate to saving money for extra bonus points! Focusing on solving business problems - not data problems.

What if we treated big data like little data? Big can be scary and little is palatable. Maybe that’s the secret to making big data less of a buzzword and more of a success facilitator for businesses of all sizes.

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In This Episode

On the day of the Tesla Model 3 “launch” Brian and Daniel sat down and discussed the pros and cons of owning a smart car. Just one week later Tesla reported that reservations for the Model 3 totalled over 325,000, which corresponds to about $14 billion in implied future sales, making it the single biggest one-week launch of any product ever. Are all the people who stood in line and threw 20% down for a car that won’t be available for 18 months (or longer) crazy? Or super smart?

People today are willing to buy something sight unseen. Perhaps a generality but we do it all the time when we buy something from Amazon or eBay. Are we so accepting of this behavior that trust now extends to vehicles and other high dollar items? Early in the conversation, Daniel points out that the fact people are willing to put money down in advance on a $30K car in mixed economic times is a phenomenon. Talk about F.O.M.O.!

What Does the Future Hold for the Connected Car?

Will GMC, Honda, and other car makers be just as technology enabled as Tesla? Will the connected car become more universal? Daniel shares examples from Audi and BMW to highlight that other car makers are including more connected features in their latest models. He ends his thought by asking does the general public want or need a connected car? A car reading emails out loud is not for everyone.

In closing, Tesla has made simplicity extravagant. Giving people what they want and none of the excess packaged in a sleek exterior. Similar to some of your favorite apps - disruption is the theme. Connected car, smart car, what will the next cool vehicle be dubbed?

Connect with the show & hosts on twitter:

https://twitter.com/SMACtalkLIVE

https://twitter.com/iSocialFanz

https://twitter.com/DanielNewmanUV

Snapchat for hosts:

http://www.Snapchat.com/add/isocialfanz

http://www.Snapchat.com/add/DanielNewmanUV

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In This Episode

Apple is releasing a four inch phone?! Back to the future indeed! In this episode Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman debate the logic behind this surprising product launch and make comedic references to the early days of mobile and the popular movie Zoolander.

Brian kicks off the conversation by recapping the evolution of the iPhone. What started as a phone with a music player evolved to a phone with a limitless amount of apps to a device we heavily rely on for all aspects of life. Phones today give us access to anything and everything - anywhere.

Does phone size correlate to improved functionality?

The technology and innovation behind some of the most vital parts of a mobile phone, memory chip and battery, have shrunk. To increase functionality we no longer have to increase the size of the device. Going backwards in size does not reflect the usefulness of the new iPhone or its ability to complement other choices in your mobile workflow.

Does fashion dictate mobile device design?

Daniel insightfully points out that the smaller build of the new iPhone may have been dictated by fashion trends. Large devices simply don’t fit into everyday clothing items. Or is it simply the fact that iPad sales have suffered since the release of the iPhone 6 Plus.

It seems likely that the smartphone will become the central hub for human connectedness. Question for you - will your future smartphone be bigger or smaller than the current phone in your pocket? Tune in to see what Brian and Daniel have to say!

Resources from this episode:

Blab link: https://blab.im/brian-fanzo-isocialfanz-smactalk-podcast-apple-goes-back-to-the-future-4-iphone

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In This Episode

Inspired by recent news that Twitter claims it is no longer a social network but a media outlet Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman discuss the difference between social media and social network.

Social Media Needs Social Networks

Online social networks are the foundation and conduit for social media but they are not one and the same. In the first half of this episode Brian mentions that while social media heavy hitters Facebook and Twitter originally became popular by connecting people together they have evolved to be the way many people look for and consume news. Social networking sites have without a doubt disrupted traditional media. Social media is no longer “what are you doing.” Social media today is “what’s happening.”

In the second half, Daniel shares examples of the undeniable power of social media. Hyper-fast aggregation of real-time events. Audiences can now watch, talk with their friends, and be fully immersed in an experience in real-time thanks to social networks. Twitter is the clear front-runner as it is the only social network that provides an unfiltered view of current events.

The Attention Era Meets a Powerful Duo

Periscope plus Twitter is a new level of accessibility, a new level of live media engagement, and it’s a way for brands and individuals to create a need for consumption in an age where people are fighting for attention.

This episode is jam packed with quotable nuggets, actionable takeaways, and leaves you wondering will social media one day just be the media?

Resources from this episode:

Don’t Look Now, But Twitter Has Momentum With The Youth by Gary Vaynerchuk
https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/dont-look-now-but-twitter-has-momentum-with-the-youth/
Building Dragons: Digital Transformation in the Experience Economy
http://www.amazon.com/Building-Dragons-Digital-Transformation-Experience/dp/0692696350/

Link to Blab Show Recorded Live:

https://blab.im/brian-fanzo-isocialfanz-social-media-vs-social-network-smactalk-podcast-recording

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You can't do a technology podcast and not do a year in review and a technology preview for the upcoming year. Daniel and I might both be millennials but we have unique approaches to how we thinking about technology, how we use technology and what about technology excites us. In this episode we talk about trends like live streaming with Periscope and Facebook Live while also putting on our futurist hats and predicting the use of AR/VR, 360 Video and more.

Stay tuned for some exciting episodes LIVE as Daniel and I travel the world to events including: CES, Periscope Summit, SXSW, Mobile World Congress and thats just the first couple months!

We’ve had an amazing 2015 and we are beyond excited for 2016 as we make the commitment to you the community of doing an episode every week, because we’ve heard from you the community that you want more SMACtalk and we are going to do just that. Thanks as always for listening to our podcast, writing a review and sharing our episodes on social media.

Here’s to an exciting 2016!

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In this episode of SMACtalk, Daniel and Brian dig into the tech and business trends that shaped 2015 the most. From the launch of Meerkat during Mobile World Congress to the shifting forces in brand storytelling, 2015 was a year where companies embraced the power of Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud to drive their businesses forward. Other topics in the episode include the growing trends in remote work, mobility and how technology has the power to not only connect people, but connect people for good. Don’t miss this great wrap up show and one of the last shows for SMACtalk in 2015.

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We’re proudly sponsored by SAP.

Brian and I are both fans of Apple products. With the recent buzz about the iPhone 6S and the iOS 9 update, it seemed like a good time to talk about all things Apple as we see them.

Brian kicked things off by admitting that although he loves Apple products (going so far as to have @iSocialFanz as his social handle across platforms with the “i” being a nod to Apple) he also loves Android. So he has field tested a wide array mobile devices and can speak somewhat objectively about their pros and cons. He is also an Apple beta tester.

“Windows kept me employed, Apple kept me happy,” Brian said of his time working in cybersecurity. He had always found Apple’s software to deliver on functionality and fun. Unfortunately, he says that the iOS 9 beta version was far and away the worst operating system he has dealt with. It was buggy and unreliable, contrary to most of his previous experiences. He says he’s been seeing a decline in quality in Apple’s recent software releases, even outside of beta. He hopes this isn’t tied to Apple’s new leadership.

I happen to think iOS 9 is the best Apple operating system yet but prior to this update I’ve had to replace both hardware and software due to malfunction. I’m curious to know what our community thinks about this so I’d love it if you’d tweet us and let us know. I also think the QA process seemed to be better in the Steve Jobs days than it is now. And I wonder if pressure from competitors and Wall Street is causing Apple to try to innovate and produce too quickly. And if not, then why is Apple now putting out products that have problems?

Brian says that Tim Cook has done an amazing job of being accessible and visible as a CEO and that’s good for Apple. But is Apple adding features to benefit the customer or are they adding features as a means of keeping up with competitors like Android? What’s the result? Does the end user need an iPad Mini with updated cameras at every turn? Not necessarily. Innovation isn’t always about reinventing the wheel.

Is Apple Really Innovating?

I wonder what comes next. What will the iPhone 7 be? Apple has made strides or mini-innovations with things like the new glass on the iPhone. I spend so much time texting and tweeting on my phone these days I fear I’ll end up with carpel tunnel syndrome. I spend more time on my mobile than I do on my desktop. With that in mind, maybe better speech to text capabilities would be most helpful? But challenges still exist. I’d love to see batteries that can be swapped out, for example.

The Apple Store experience, on the other hand, is more innovative. Brian mentions that he uses his phone to conduct business while in store and that’s very convenient. He talks about the Apple experience and in-store is part of that. In addition, the product you paid for is there when you open the box (and you don’t need a chainsaw to get through the packaging). Apple is doing a better job with this than many others including Google. But Brian and I agree that all of these businesses could improve our experience tremendously with one essential thing: better battery life.

Apple is notorious for minimalistic design. You don’t see lots of extra slots or gadgets on an iPhone. They keep it simple and that does ultimately help eliminate human error. But now some phones have two full pages of preloaded apps when you purchase them. Many of the apps are native and can’t be removed. So even though most phones have a lot of built in memory today, native apps are draining resources right out of the gate. I see an opportunity for Apple to improve here.

Apps Are Key to Mobile UX

Speaking of apps, the rapid updates to iOS are putting a lot of pressure on app developers to keep pace. Apps are a critical part of the smartphone experience and when the iOS is updated, it impacts the user experience if the apps don’t function well. This is costly for both app developers and end users. Pacing iOS updates might help both.

Brian’s opinion is that most mobile apps could use improvement. They can be buggy and limited. But as iOS and hardware updates roll out, there can be a benefit to the UX of apps themselves. He also thinks Apple TV is doing good things for both users and developers.

A member of the community asks, “Has Apple really ruined what innovation looks like?” We expect a lot from Apple and, generally speaking, they keep delivering. Brian took a good look at one of his old iPhones recently and he struggled to even use it because the newer models have such different, improved functionality. My opinion is that in spite of any bugs or down sides to Apple products, there’s no alternative that will work for me.

Is Apple “Smart” to Look at Cars?

I read recently that Apple is going to be moving into the car industry. I ask Brian why he thinks they might want to do this. His answer is that cars are the essence of mobility and Apple is already heavily into the mobility business, so this is an extension that makes sense. He wonders if Apple will become something other than Apple – something larger and more encompassing of different verticals within consumer technology. What will the smart car really be? We might not want driverless cars but smart features could be a real benefit. I’d be really happy if car technology could improve people’s driving tendencies. Imagine if the act of merging lanes could be done more safely by all?

Should Apple be looking at partnering with companies that are already exploring smart car technology rather than starting from the ground up on their own? I could see Tesla powered by Apple, for instance. Such a partnership might enable the development to occur more quickly. But as long as Apple’s focus is on improving customer experience I think they’ll do fine. If they take their focus away from that, problems are likely. Consumers, a loyal and engaged community, are the reason for Apple’s success.

Join us on Blab sometime for one of our recordings! Brian usually hosts and schedules them in advance. Follow Brian and me on Twitter and look for our hashtag #SMACTalk.

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We’re proudly sponsored by SAP.

For the third Friday in a row I joined Brian on Blab to talk some SMAC for the podcast and the community. I don’t do a lot of live streaming individually but I’ve been taking part in a lot of collaborative sessions on blab lately and was happy to fill a square again.

I’ve seen a lot of self promoters out in the live streaming world promoting themselves or just making noise. What Brian and I really want to dive into today is what live streaming can really do to help businesses succeed.

Brian points out that in order for any platform to gain traction, it needs early adopters – even those who are just talking about themselves, their lives and so on. But, “All new technology needs marketers to embrace it,” he points out and this brings us to the heart of our discussion.

Embrace Change

The first thing businesses will have to do in order to leverage live streaming for their benefit is to embrace the new medium and technology. It’s not so much about the various platforms themselves as the new conduit for storytelling and communicating with their communities.

I recall when I first started using Twitter. It was like sitting in a room chatting with people all day long. It was fun but then over years we as marketers honed in on ways to use the platform more strategically. We learned how to grow our reach and our following. As Twitter became busier and more saturated we began using automation and scaling our engagement in accordance with the demands on our time. Now we might think it’s not as much fun but it’s been a maturity curve. It can still be fun but we are using it as a distribution platform in many cases. This is change.

Consider our smartphone usage over the past decade. The things we can (and do) make happen with our smartphones now compared to a few years ago are very different. Brian points out that with technology “Not only is it how you’re using it today but it’s how you’re going to use it tomorrow and not forgetting what got you there….” How we use platforms is a continuous change.

Live Streaming’s B2B Value Proposition

“If you just get on live streaming or any platform and you just start talking at people… and everyone wants to try to be a celebrity, I think you are missing a lot of the point and the value here,” I say. I think the most valuable Blabs, for instance, are those that involve discourse on air. We’ve injected new enthusiasm into our #CloudTalk hour each week by having the Twitter community and the Blab community participating in tandem. If brands could start to embrace the idea of partnering with their customers and employees to talk about their experiences, imagine what good storytelling could happen. It’s a powerful idea.

Brian adds that the fundamental difference between something like a polished, well produced podcast and a podcast recording like this one with us in the Blab community is essentially the difference between having people consume your content and having people participate in it. Use cases run the gamut from interviews, Q & A sessions, behind the scenes and more. With live streaming the audience can actually participate with questions, comments and so on. Why not allow and encourage this?

“We want to do a better job of talking about our business… I can’t tell of you one CEO, CMO, marketing VP who doesn’t have a strategic priority to have their employees and customers start to tell their story,” I say. And live streaming makes this user generated storytelling so much easier than ever before. You can get your customers talking about your brand, your story and your business in ways that were never possible before. The emphasis need not be on products and services. Businesses should lean into things like events, things of interest to the market, etc. and then associate their brands with those.

Because the B2B sector is more saturated with content, it makes attention grabbing and storytelling even harder. Live streaming is a great way for a business to accomplish this and distinguish itself. Businesses can provide insights to their communities that they’ve never been able to share before. Brian says to do this with the “Think Like a Fan” mentality. Live streaming doesn’t mean there’s no strategy or call to action. A great live stream comes from its value and engagement. Businesses should give their customers, employees and communities these things in order to build great stories and, by extension, great reputations.

Live streaming from events is an easy and powerful way for brands to get out into their communities. Showing behind the scene, providing access to watch or ask questions of keynote speakers and giving people a glimpse of things to which they wouldn’t normally have access are all great ways to grow and retain a community. It’s about connecting your digital audience with your offline event audience. Businesses can empower influencers to live stream as their advocates. Storytelling from influential members of the community gives a brand more reach and credibility.

Brian says the future of business is community and I say the future of business is experience. But really there’s interdependence. PR will change because of all of this. Businesses can now become their own channels. The entire process of creating and disseminating messaging is easier than ever before. Get real people in front of real people in a way that’s not only live but can be edited and distributed with ease.

Transparency, Storytelling and Community

The refrain from many businesses right now is “We need to be more transparent.” What could be more transparent than jumping onto a live stream to share a message or useful information with your customers? It’s live, it’s raw and it’s easy to do. No one says, “What will this logo tell me today?” But people do love to see and hear what actual human beings from a beloved brand have to say. This is the difference between talking at people with content and talking with people by engaging directly.

Regarding the idea that live streaming is for the egotistical or that there’s a gap in value, “It’s not vanity if you’re actually bringing value. If you’re helping people learn about something that they need to know about, that’s good marketing,” if you ask me. That’s value. And value is what builds community and experiences. It comes back to doing great things for other people. There’s power in the immediacy and the storytelling facilitated by live streaming.

Content marketing started so that brands and individuals could convey their messages. I admit I’m one who blogs frequently. But with the live streaming mechanism available to us all, why not take advantage? Why not tell those stories and make those connections now? Focus on a philosophy, have a strategy and then pick a platform and connect with your audience.

Brands, get your people out in front! Let them tell your story.

We’d love to see you on blab for one of our podcast recordings! Follow Brian and me on Twitter and look for our hashtag #SMACTalk.

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Highly caffeinated on a Friday afternoon, Brian and I convened on Blab to catch up and discuss digital culture and transformation. In the spirit of embracing change we have completely migrated both SMACTalk and our #CloudTalk chat from Google Hangouts on Air over to Blab because of its ease of use and versatility.

SMACTalk is all about social, mobile, analytics and cloud and these topics remain top of mind for most businesses today.

Digital Transformation is a Top Priority

The C-Suite is paying close attention to the issue of digital transformation. Companies are literally disappearing due to failure to adapt to new standards and technology. It’s important that we discuss now how we survive and thrive as businesses in the digital era.

In 2008 John Antioco, CEO of the now defunct Blockbuster Video, insinuated that Netflix wasn’t even on their radar as a threat. Just six years later in 2014, Blockbuster closed its last store because it missed a critical pivot for their business. Netflix spent its early days saving on overhead by not having brick and mortar costs and ignoring the rivalry with Blockbuster in order to focus on developing their infrastructure. Their tactics proved successful.

Brian points out that a lot of brick and mortar businesses make the mistake of considering themselves not to be digital businesses. The bottom line is that all customers are living and buying in a digital world today. So digital strategy is critical for every business whether there’s a three dimensional storefront or not.

Digital Strategy is Key

It’s not enough just to embrace or to “be” digital. Businesses have to be strategic about their initiatives and what digital can do to help their bottom line.

Brian likes to say “The future of business is community.” And I say that not only is this so, but businesses need strategy in order to find and nurture advocates, reach customers and influence decisions.

As an example, Brian and I recorded this podcast using Blab but we also take pains to ensure people know how to find our website, our social profiles, our podcast elsewhere and so on. This helps us reach more people and further our business objectives. It’s strategic, not accidental.

Brian mentions running into Krista Kotrla at a recent event in Dallas. They discussed content strategy and she said that she creates content based on questions she receives from her community. This may sound elementary but it’s strategic and good for business.

If You Skip Digital, You Miss Opportunities

Again, even for brick and mortar businesses, the digital space is full of opportunities. Social listening, advertising, customer service, talent acquisition… the list of ways to leverage digital for any business is virtually endless. Any business in any vertical can use digital methods to attract and retain both internal and external advocates.

What if your business would like to have employees work remotely? There’s no way you can take advantage of the overhead savings for your business or offer this perk to your employees if you’re not using cloud technology and embracing digital capabilities.

I’m taking it one step further than community and saying, “Experience is the future of business.” I think community is one part of that but an individual’s experience with a brand is multifaceted. As customers we can preview products and services right from our mobile devices. We don’t even have to go into a store or a showroom. We can also connect with a company via their social profiles. We can ask questions, provide feedback and so on.

Small companies in particular are well positioned to leverage the digital space by adopting omnichannel practices. They can guide the buyer’s journey from beginning to end and back again. But they must be careful to see their efforts through and enforce that customer experience and relationship at every turn.

Go For The First Down, Not The Touchdown

Achieving success using digital as a vessel is about strategy and relentless execution. Brian says, “Rather than going for the first down… we go for the touchdown …we go for the hail Mary every single time. And then we can’t figure out why we can’t embrace change.” We need to understand what digital means and implement it where it makes sense. We need to know not just what’s available but what makes sense for our business initiatives.

When it comes to leveraging digital, it’s a must for every business and it’s about building blocks, not just one thing. If you have just a website, Brian says, you’re not digital. Everyone has a website these days so that’s just not going to get you or your business where you need to be. Businesses need to listen to their customers. Data from digital and social channels is an essential component for business strategy. You have to listen and be ready to make changes based on feedback. This takes a lot of time and effort but it will separate the successes from the failures.

“You walked into a car dealership and by the time you actually closed that sale, you (the customer) knew everything. You know what you wanted to pay, you knew the color, you knew the interest rate… That data is all right there and available to you,” I point out. Digital transformation is about stitching all of this together. Mobility can’t happen and cloud doesn’t work until everything is tied together. You can foster transformation in departments but there has to be an overarching strategy in order to make the business work and succeed. Digital transformation in silos will fail.

Making small changes and working together across functions and departments is what drives large scale change and success for business. We can’t keep up with digital change if we do it wrong. While speed is important, strategy can’t be sacrificed.

Brand loyalty is entrenched in experience. Businesses need to create top notch experiences and build strong communities as a formula for building long term relationships.

We’d love to see you on blab for one of our podcast recordings! Follow Brian and me on Twitter and look for our hashtag #SMACTalk.

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With this episode, we proudly announce our sponsorship by SAP.

After establishing that I have no middle name and that growing up with the last name “Newman” during the Seinfeld era was interesting (and considering but discarding a rebrand to “Newman and the Fonz”) Brian and I settled in on Blab.im to record this episode.

We’ve recorded episodes via Skype and via Google Hangouts in the past. This was my first day using Blab, which Brian refers to as “the Brady Bunch version of Hangouts without all of the glitches.” While video conferencing is something I’m very experienced with, and live streaming apps are gaining popularity, I was glad to have a chance to get back into a multi-person video chatting environment. I especially enjoyed being able to engage with the viewers in the comments area.

Though Blab has been around for a couple of months already, Brian just discovered it about a week before we recorded this show. It features some robust offerings such as saving the entire Blab video session along with comments, an iOS app where both video and comments can be contributed via mobile, and links for both video and audio only that are emailed to the host of a recorded Blab session after recording. All of this makes Blab easy to use and easy to share.

The first time Brian tried the tool, Blab’s CTO jumped in on video with him and shared some tips and tricks. We love this level of attention and engagement!

How Do You Handle FOMO?

While FOMO isn’t really a problem for me (a pager wearing millennial who is willing to adopt things a little bit later than everyone else), Brian leans into this fear of missing out so that he can test things and pass his feedback on to others.

Brian points out that most people have an entire page of apps on their smartphones that they never use. His suggestion is to create a “FOMO folder” to corral all of these apps that you’re thinking about trying but haven’t gotten around to yet.

New technologies can advance the way you do things and make them better but sometimes we get focused on safety and not wanting to make changes. This has been the case, I believe, with Google Hangouts. They work and we know how to use them but they haven’t necessarily remained the best option for broadcasts.

Should Businesses Embrace FOMO?

I think “If we’re truly getting the community stuff right, what we’re doing is we’re looking at using tools that allow us to become closer to the community and closer to the people that we want to be engaged with, simultaneously creating deeper and more meaningful relationships and more loyalty to not just the content but the brand, our partners, our sponsors….” So, FOMO, for me isn’t something I look at from a personal lens but more from a business and community standpoint.

Brian says that the Blab team clearly sees things along these lines as well. There’s almost always at least one member of their team present in a user generated Blab to field questions or just to greet their community – impressive given that there are only a small number of people on the team. They also ask for genuine, constructive (negative) feedback so that they can make their product better at every turn.

What About When Your FOMO Has No (Immediate) Solution?

Facebook recently rolled out Mentions for livestreaming within the Facebook feed. But it was only made available to certain users with celebrity caliber followings. Based on this, Brian questions the long term goal for the tool. I liken this elitism to when Google Plus first came out. Only certain people received early access. Others had to ask for invitation from others. I feel the beta testing pool should be a bit more diverse in terms of experience and backgrounds of the participants.

Beta testing can’t be open to everyone but it’s frustrating and disappointing when those who aren’t celebrities are excluded on that basis alone. Facebook, in particular, is built on everyday people sharing with one another. We think perhaps it would be better if their products and testing reflected that.

Why Does FOMO Matter?

“FOMO really matters if you have access to a tool that can improve the experiences of your employees, your community, your customers and the people that ultimately allow this to be possible,” I say. We don’t talk “at” or “to” our community. We talk with them. These are the people who read and listen to our content, they interact with and mention us on social media and they enable us to reach sponsors to who support us in continuing these efforts.

Today’s sale is about education and that’s a two way street. We’re offering a learning experience to our community but they’re also providing that for us.

Brian jokes that “the only guarantee about Google Hangouts is that something will go wrong.” But his point is that in the past six years there hasn’t been an improvement to the technology. Things do actually go wrong frequently with Hangouts. Perhaps a bit of FOMO and curiosity can help us find better tools or can help our existing resources stay thirsty for improvement. In the end, the community and the customers will see benefits.

“Agile is the new launch,” if you ask me. There’s really no such thing as a traditional website or product or app launch these days. You push it live and then begin tweaking and making adjustments. FOMO for a developer or publisher or anyone creating something for community is an asset that will keep them asking how they can make the experience better for the customer.

We did an episode of #CloudTalk earlier today using Blab instead of Google Hangouts for the first time. During the hour we trended on Twitter and we generated more tweets in one hour than we have previously. The engagement level was higher and more enthusiastic. Had we been sticklers about using our previous tools, this might not have happened. FOMO in this case (wanting to take a risk and try something new) really paid off.

FOMO Can Help, But Shouldn’t Detract From Productivity.

Brian refuses to use new tools and technology that don’t save him time or improve his workflow or processes. If a new tool or app takes more time rather than helping him be more efficient, he simply won’t use it.

Almost all of our shows circle back to trust and data. While there’s an endless supply of “shiny objects” in the form of emerging tools and applications to choose from, decisions should always be rooted in research and analysis. We took a bit of a risk with this episode by changing our platform but it did pay off. If our experiment showed that the new way was less efficient or effective than what we’ve done in the past, we’d have to consider that and possibly go back to the old way because it made more sense.

We recommend being flexible and curious. It might pay off to take some small risks along the way. Just be sure to analyze how things are working and adjust your plans accordingly. Never deploy technology just for the technology’s sake. Stay focused on your customer or your community’s experience.

We’d love to get your feedback on the sound quality for this episode. If you have comments we’d love to share them with the Blab team. We also hope you have FOMO for our SMACTalk podcast! Follow Brian and me on Twitter and look for our hashtag #SMACTalk.

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Technology often fails when we need it most. What should companies and brands do to be prepared before a technology failure?

There are really two areas where technology failures adversely impact business. There’s the public relations (customer facing) side of things and then there’s the technical side (internal processes). An example of the technical side of this would be when a failure led to United Airlines flights being grounded recently. That resulted in a PR crisis for the airline when customers took to their mobile devices to share the news on social media. So how should they best respond to this?

Be Transparent.

I say, “People want to be leveled with. People are looking for some level of honesty.”

It’s about transparency. Say right away that you have a problem and that you’ll keep customers posted with updates as it is resolved. Put the messages out on all available channels and keep people informed.

Brian points out that because of how connected people are via social media, a problem that might have been relatively contained from a PR standpoint in the past is not something that can be swept under the rug today. In this day and age, “It’s being done for you. If you ignore it, you let everybody else control the story. You let everybody else control the voice of what happens,” he says.

Keep Customers Informed.

One of the biggest mistakes brands make is failure to provide updates. They make the initial disclosure that there’s a problem but they don’t follow up on what they’re doing and how things are being resolved. This can stir the pot and make things worse. In a case like the United flights being grounded, they did a lot of the right things. But there have been other situations where other people’s lives were really being affected and brands failed to provide timely updates.

Efforts to respond should correlate with how big of an impact the failure could have on customers. There are various levels of severity as they relate to disruption of people’s lives. The more severe the problem is, the more important a timely and thorough response is provided. A failure with the New York Stock Exchange that affects people’s money, for instance, is more urgent than an article on a website being temporarily unavailable. Companies need to be fully aware of how any failures on their part can negatively impact people and their businesses.

“When it comes to businesses dealing with technology failures, they have to not only be prepared for them but they also have to take enough precaution….” Brian says. Plan B can even have variables so a Plan C and Plan D and so on might be necessary.

Have Good Internal Communication.

Imagine what would happen if there was not only a public relations crisis but at the same time, internal parties couldn’t effectively communicate to resolve the underlying issue? That would only compound the problem for any business. Backup and emergency communication strategies are a must in order to prevent further damage.

Brian points out that it’s a mistake for brands to keep their social communicators (customer service, community managers, etc.) out of the loop with what’s happening inside the organization. This undermines their efforts to communicate with customers and can make the brand look even worse. Emergency communication plans should also include these key players who are relaying information in real time. They don’t have to be involved in the decision making process but they should be well informed about what’s going on.

Have Processes In Place.

When a failure happens, have a planned response in order to save time and get credible information out to customers sooner. For example, if your website goes down and that’s going to negatively impact customers, have a plan in place for how you will verify the information internally and externally. Cover all necessary bases but don’t include extra steps that will cause delays in responding to customers.

“Zero downtime is acceptable anymore.” I say that people will not come back if they have a bad experience. But we are in a world where people will accept your apology. The key is to be prepared enough to respond and not leave them guessing. Internal processes are essential.

Training is of the utmost importance. A company can’t respond to a problem in a timely fashion if its employees haven’t been shown what to do and how to do it. And with so much technology driving business today, it’s critically important that departments work together to understand the tools and each other’s roles. Training needs to be thorough, real time and ongoing. All of this is just as critical for small businesses as for larger ones so efforts should be scaled accordingly.

What do you think companies should do to be prepared for technology failures? Have you experienced a failure of your own? We’d love to hear from you. Follow Brian and me on Twitter and check us out on Meerkat. We stream our SMACTalk recording sessions live there and tweet using the hashtag #SMACTalk.

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SMACTalk Episode # 32 - Employee Advocacy: You Have a Branding Problem!

What is employee advocacy? Is it social employees or perhaps employee engagement? And what should brands and companies be doing with employee advocacy? A lot of leaders wonder what employee advocacy is and employees ask themselves, “Who am I advocating for?”

Often the response to discussions and events around employee advocacy is fractional compared to other topics like social selling. For instance, Brian were part of aSocial Selling Summit and the response was tremendous because the topic is widely understood. On the other hand, we havean employee advocacy webinar coming up with panelists that are possibly more impressive than the social selling webinar, yet it’s a harder sell. I’ve concluded that this is because many people don’t understand what employee advocacy is.

A lot of employees aren’t motivated to talk about their companies on social platforms but business leaders are starting to ask them to do this.

How Can We Get Employees to See Value and Management to Have a Better Approach?

Brian says, “If your brand is hiring and firing for culture fit today, the idea of a social employee makes sense. Why would you not want to brag that you want to work [or did work] somewhere?” Part of the problem is that we’re trying to put people into little buckets where they don’t fit. Instead we should ask, “What does success look like for an employee who builds their personal brand and for a brand that empowers that employee to do things with that personal brand?” We need to take a step back and look at what success looks like for the individual and how business leaders can help them succeed.

When companies put employees into buckets, it’s often met with resistance from employees. This is compounded when company content limited or scripted. The employee is more likely to feel as though his/her audience will lack interest or connection with what’s being shared. This can also result in the company’s efforts seeming canned – as in numerous individuals sharing carbon copied material.

Brian often talks about “tools, trust and training.” What I’m seeing right now is a heavy emphasis on tools with very little dedication to trust and training. Brian says that these three things really need to be in the right order. It should start with trust, followed by training and lastly tools. Tools are there to amplify and scale great things. If you’re not great, why scale? The loyalty and enthusiasm really need to be there first.

The Future of Business is Community.

Community starts internally and then moves to customers. Leaders need to trust their employees and invest in training continually – not as a one-time effort. Too many companies offer training at onboarding and stop there. But Brian says the onus is on the employee to own and cultivate their own brands and personal education.

There’s an intersecting point between the employer and employee that I believe is what will make this work. The CEO is the purveyor of a business’ brand yet we see organizations with CEOs who have little experience and training with social media trying to fill the role. But each person who becomes a social employee becomes like a miniature CEO for your brand. Employees can reach new audiences that the business itself can’t reach. There’s no longer a hard demarcation between work and life. Each time an employee advocates online for his/her organization, those tweets and posts become part of shared presence. With this in mind, when businesses fail to provide training to employees, they’re risking employees portraying the business in a way that may be unfavorable (whether intentionally or not).

Brian points out that startups have an advantage because the relative distance between the CEO and the employee is shorter. Many larger companies don’t realize that their employees don’t even understand the brand story and message. Leaders need to simplify their stories and trust their employees.

Businesses Are Great When They Have Great Employees

Companies should support and promote their standout talent. This shouldn’t be forced it should happen naturally. But talented employees are not only attractive representation of the brand story but they’re one of the best recruiting tools in existence. When a company truly drives collaboration and makes its employees feel as though their voices matter, employees will be excited and want to take ownership. They’ll list their employer in their social bios and talk about their employer in a way that shows they are invested.

Leaders shouldn’t ask their employees to talk about content that doesn’t interest them or their audiences. But a good education on hashtags and how to use social platforms can be very helpful. Company culture needs to support everyone’s understanding of the “why” in addition to the “how.” This should all be collaborative. Brian pointed out a failure in his past where he got buy in from employees for a change but he forgot to get management buy in. He says this was a critical mistake. Everything needs to line up.

Without Trust, The Tools Will Never Work.

Brands can train their employees on how to use each social network and tools. Not everyone truly understands how Twitter works or what Periscope and Meerkat are. Education can start here.

“If you claim to have a great culture and your culture is great because of your employees, why are you not empowering them?” Brian asks. Empowered employees are much more likely to advocate for a business.

Revisiting the topic of buckets, Brian says it would be a mistake to assess a CEO, a social media staffer and a coder using the same criteria as social employees. Their stories will likely be very different and the company shouldn’t try to force them otherwise.

I believe that you can’t really force things in business and that when you do, you’ll see short term results with long term collateral damage. It can take years to rebuild trust when this happens. With the speed of technology, social is at the center. It’s the way that humans collaborate by choice. A social interaction is no less a business interaction than a phone call is. If we don’t start embracing this interaction, we’ll never get to the second phase. If we try to do this by demand or edict, the results will be paltry at best.

It’s a Philosophy Change.

Change your philosophy to create a new experience. Today’s employee wants to work for a company that cares about quality of life and about them as an individual. People not only want to make a difference but they want to be a part of something good that is bigger than themselves. When a company is genuinely on board with this, transparency can amplify it. On the other hand, when the culture is bad or the underlying cause or product isn’t good, transparency reveals it. Being scared of transparency might be an indicator that your business is lacking in one or more important qualities.

Think about what your message is and how you’re getting it out there.

We’re doinga webinar on July 9th with Charlene Li of Altimeter Group and An Le of Dynamic signal that will dive into some best practices for employee advocacy.

Sign up for the webinar and make sure to check us out onMeerkat and Periscope. We stream our SMACTalk recording sessions live there and tweet using the hashtag #SMACTalk.

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For this episode, Brian and I partnered up with F-Secure, inventors of software that enables users to keep themselves private while connected to the web via mobile. They reached out via Twitter so I researched the product and the topic, finding it intriguing enough to discuss further.

Are people really aware of how secure they are (or are not) on mobile devices?

Brian says there are two types of users:

[if !supportLists]• [endif]Users that don’t really care about the security issue and/or assume they have privacy.

[if !supportLists]• [endif]Users who are overly concerned and implement the highest security settings possible just to be on the safe side.

Per Brian, mobile holds just about every piece of important information we want to have access to these days.

I did a trial with F-Secure and within the first three days there were 867 tracking attempts blocked by the solution. There were also multiple harmful sites blocked, as well as approximately two gigabytes of traffic from which the tool shielded my devices.

We know that often our activities are tracked for marketing purposes –but what about the times when we aren’t aware that we’re being tracked?

I think people just need to understand that everything starts with information. People are very trusting with the internet. In particular, we trust our internet connections to be relatively secure and my trial of F-Secure revealed that to be a mistaken assumption.

Brian points out that people seem to understand public internet access exposes them to hacking, but that in many cases, they don’t understand exactly what is vulnerable. He mentions the fact that people think of their laptops as being open to exploitations but not so much their cell phones, which is incorrect.

“It’s always best to know, and then you can make the right decision,”says Brian. He suggests starting with the highest security settings on devices (“everything off”) and then turning things on individually as warranted, rather than the other way around. Only enable access for apps and software that truly need it. In other words, weigh the risk versus reward.

Everything people do when they surf the internet is trackable. But it is possible to mask your IP address. There are tools that can help you manage that.

How do you weigh the experience of the internet versus the importance of being private?

Brian points out that many people have high privacy settings on their mobile devices for shopping sites like Amazon, but that when they visit the same sites from their computers they don’t take the same security measures. He suggests that by allowing access to some but not all of one’s data, there’s full risk with no or only partial reward.

I wanted to know what Brian thought about the security of public Wi-Fi? Is the risk worth the reward? Because public Wi-Fi is relatively unsecure, tools like F-Secure can have a big impact on that decision.

Brian says that some of his former colleagues at the Department of Defense have asked him, “Brian, who’s going to hack me? There’s nothing on my device that someone would want…”And his answer was typically something like, “There’s nothing that you think that they want… And at this exact moment it might not be something that they want.”

While Brian emphasizes the importance of taking security measures, I mention that some people shy away from tools and software that slow them down in the process. There are far fewer lightweight security options for mobile devices than for computers.

“Just because it’s your mobile device…doesn’t mean you know where all of your data is going,”Brian says. He notes that information like contacts and your location history may be accessible to others.

We’re in a world where data will set you free and it will also incriminate the heck out of you.

Everything we do can be captured. Choosing well in deciding what we opt in for is critical and it can be a daunting process. F-Secure removes some of the labor and guesswork from mobile security by having a one-click on/off setting. If you’re in a public place and don’t want to be tracked, you can quickly turn F-Secure on and be safe. On the other hand, if you’re in your own home where you’re comfortable the risk is low, you can quickly turn it off.

Brian recommends denying mobile apps’access to things like your location, camera, microphone, etc. Then, if an app requires access based on something you’re trying to do, you can go in and enable it. Look at the security settings case by case and only enable what’s necessary.

“No tool can help you fix stupid…but it can help you stop making stupid mistakes,”says Brian.

In this day and age, our mobile devices are more important to us than things like car keys. We simply can’t function without them.

An airline recently required a birth certificate for one of Brian’s daughters while his wife was traveling with the children. Neither the birth certificate nor Brian was on hand. The only way to provide this document under the circumstances was for him to take a photo of it with his mobile device and send it to his wife at the airport. This met the need—but imagine how that might have turned out without the capabilities of mobile?

Would you like to learn more or discuss this topic or this product? Brian and I would love to hear from you! Chat with us on Twitter or use the hashtag #SMACTalk to see the latest in Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud.

Also, if you’re interested in experiencing mobile freedom, follow this link and use offer code qhh42f for a free, three month trial of F-Secure Freedom!

Our compliments to F-Secure not only on their product but on their influencer marketing outreach. Their team did a great job in identifying interested parties who’d like to learn more and talk about their brand.

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Tech and Tools Dominate The Future of Marketing - #SMACTALK Episode

In this week’s episode of SMACTalk (Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud), Brian Fanzo and I discuss the growing importance that tools and technology are playing in the world of marketing. With Brian heading off to Social Shake Up, the annual Social Media Today event in Atlanta, we started pondering the biggest challenges that enterprises and business are having with marketing and as it turns out we firmly believe it comes down to this one thing:

Marketing historically has been a very unscientific profession. There certainly is science behind the subject as a whole, but for many companies marketing came down to a lot of trial and error. This was certainly the case before social media, digital and data became so prevalent. However, with this emergence of information and data, marketers can no longer get away with just operating on feel. We have hit a point where marketing has to be done with proper tools AND proper goals.

In this podcast we discuss how the hospitality industry has done a great job of leading this trend with their use of social data. Brands like Marriott now use social listening to make sure that brand sentiment is positive, complaints are responded to and VIP’s are given memorable experiences that they can choose to share with their communities. Brian even shares an anecdotal experience of his arrival in Atlanta…

“After showing up first thing in the morning, hours before the hotel was supposed to give me a room, I was outside Periscoping and I mentioned that the hotel didn’t have a room ready (not complaining). During my live stream the hotel entered into the conversation and thanked me for my patience and it wasn’t long after that the room was ready.”

Brian’s story was a great example of how social listening and engagement can be used as a tool to create better marketing and better customer experiences. Just consider how we are now sharing this story as earned media and how it may positively impact the brand?

However, this goes far beyond just hospitality. The need to use data and information to create better programs for marketing between brands and their consumers is critical in every industry. In the future companies aren’t going to invest in anything they cannot measure. So for marketing technologists it comes down to using tools and technology to build trust and results in their marketing efforts.

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On this week’s episode of SMACTalk, I was live from IBM Amplify 2015 in beautiful San Diego California. It was my first solo episode as my co-host was amazing the crowd on Buffer Chat, but the topic no less was a fun and exciting one as I had the opportunity to interview the Chief Revenue Officer of Exchange Solutions, Bob Jewell about the impact cloud has had on their business, their clients’ business and I even managed to throw a couple of curveballs at him where we talked about employee advocacy, cloud adoption in the enterprise and then the emerging role of the Chief Revenue Officer.

For those less familiar, Exchange Solutions has built a cloud based on demand platform that allows companies to design, implement and measure loyalty programs that drive increased sales for companies around the globe. With their flexible platform they have recently migrated from a company who offered this as an end to end service, to an organization that is allowing their customers the flexibility of leveraging their platform to build their own solutions or partnering with Exchange Solutions to do the work in harmony.

Early on in the conversation I asked Mr. Jewell about how cloud has impacted their business and it was really interesting to find out that their company has been leveraging some iteration of the cloud to do their work for nearly 18 years. What made this so profound is that most consumers have no idea that cloud has been around for so long. Surprise, it has!

As we dug deeper into the conversation, it was really interesting to find out that a lot of the growth of the company has come from being able to build on the cloud giving them much more agility in their product development.

As the company moved from almost a design/build partner to a more “Self-Service” model the cloud has continued to play a key role. The Exchange Solutions platform has become something that the partners can utilize on demand to build, test, deploy and measure their programs. This is key not only to growth for them, but also their partners, which is key to sustaining their growth in the space.

As we turned off of the topic of cloud design and impact on the business, I asked Bob about his title and the role of the Chief Revenue Officer. Over the past few years we have seen Chief Data, Digital, Customer and other “C” officers emerge and the revenue officer is one of many. My question really came down to where the CRO fit in with the CMO and how they were dividing and conquering. His response was that it’s a partnership with the CRO really leading the Sales and Business Development functions and the CMO tying in the digital, social and traditional marketing roles to drive more visibility to the company. Of course, these driving forces can almost happen in either order, but in any case, I found the discussion quite interesting.

With "Customer at the Center” really at the core of the IBM Amplify event, this episode of SMACTalk was a lot of fun and other than missing the energy of Brian, we had a ton of fun discussing customer loyalty, the cloud and what the future of the customer journey may look like.

Now, tune in here to listen to the entire episode!

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Brian and Dan attempt to change the current technology discussion from what’s the best technology solutions available to, what technology is my company using today and what solutions best fit in my company culture. The goal for businesses embracing technology must be around implementing the best tools and solutions to empower our employees to be most productive when solving business problems.

Brian explains his background and experiences as a technology evangelist and why he believes the focus on culture and people training and change focused him to changed his focus to teaching change more so than teaching the technology.

Culture, Processes and People often overlooked as a major factor in what technology and tools would be the best fit for a company.

Daniel discusses the mistakes many make when focusing only on the popular technology or software rather than diving in and truly understanding what’s the best solution for the business.

Using technology to match step by step offline procedures is often a problem that doesn’t allow technology to increase productivity and scale rather just doing things offline online.

Honest monday morning quarterbacking failed technology solutions reveals the root of a solutions failure which is often the software selected was wrong or the company culture wasn’t designed to leverage that solution.

Stop blaming the technology or tool for failing before you identify how the tool was trained, implemented and designed and if it would have ever been successful within the company culture.

Fear of missing out (F.O.M.O.) is something that scares many brands and yet overly excites others that causes mistakes in both cases. Brian explains why brands should let influencers or analysts like himself to test and embrace FOMO so that a brand can make the best decision.

Brian’s approach to technology is different than Daniels but they discuss why in their business it’s the perfect fit and both roles are required.

Discussion about technology like Meerkat & Periscope on how brands are adopting it and comparing it to change in software such as Microsoft Office to Google Docs and how not every brand or company can adopt all of these solutions equally.

Broadsuite Media Group leverages @SlackHQ software, Daniel and Brian explain why and how they implemented this collaboration software and it’s increased productivity and collaboration.

Other Takeaways:

Technology is never an all or nothing solution.
Understanding business needs and workflow is required to truly embrace and implement new technologies.
Do brands or companies truly understand the features and benefits of new technologies today?
Understanding what the best solution for a business problem is often times a solution that isn’t allowed or enabled within businesses today.
Would adoption of Google Docs been hurt or limited if the requirement was every person must have a google+ account vs having a gmail email account. Understanding the value proposition and how to best tap into existing workflows is often what makes tools like Google Docs successful.
What’s the role of “Open API’s & API Friendly Software”
Why don’t all companies embrace Single Sign-on like Buffer & Meerkat that leverages Twitter sign-on for all users, eliminating the need for new accounts and/or passwords.
Why don’t companies today ask employees or internal haters for feedback on what technology and tools they would like to leverage?
Why is it acceptable for companies to settle for products and technology that are poorly designed because it’s an internal tool not customer facing?
Are companies finally looking at features available with cloud and new technology solutions and weighing them against the legacy software that they already purchased and don’t want to throw away because the money was already spent.
What are companies willing to give up to embrace new technology and tools?
What does the future of dynamic or automated data integration into productivity and collaboration tools we’re leveraging today?

Companies that have strong cultures, empower their employees to leverage the technology that allows them to best solve the business needs while investing in training and procedures to eliminate risk and better embrace change!

This episode is sponsored by IBM to help companies envision a #NewWayToWork.

IBM Verse, their new revolutionary social & email solution, you can free up time for you to focus on this by calming your email. Sign Up Today at: IBM.com/Verse

As always we are grateful to be able to share our insights and views with you the listener, and welcome feedback, suggestions and open conversation at all times using the hashtag#SMACtalk.

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Brian and Dan welcome special guest co-host Bryan Kramer, CEO of PureMatter Social Agency and author of “Human to Human: #H2H” as they discuss the mobile impact on the concept of “Human to Human” in business relationships and social marketing.

In this episode, Brian and Daniel along with guest co-host Bryan Kramer get into multiple topics including:

Concept of “Shareology”
Rise of mobile and the impact on human relations
With 71 percent of the world on mobile, everyone becomes the media
Legal concerns may affect the rise of live video streaming apps
Citizen journalism’s effect on traditional news coverage
How mobile apps like Snapchat is moving digital communication beyond traditional email
Is Mobile technology too distracting?
Managing an ever-increasing volume of mobile notifications to best serve you
Importance of personalizing your online social communication
The value of sharing quality content via mobile

This episode is sponsored by IBM to help companies envision a #NewWayToWork. IBM Verse, their new revolutionary social & email solution, can free up time for you to focus on this by calming your email. Sign Up Today at: IBM.com/Verse

As always we are grateful to be able to share our insights and views with you the listener, and welcome feedback, suggestions and open conversation at all times using the hashtag #SMACtalk.

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We all know that Big Data is a hot topic. As businesses and consumers we are constantly witnessing how data can be used to better understand our customers, our operations and of course our own buying behavior.

However, big data in all of its glory isn't always so perfect. What happens when we let data become a mere support structure for proving our own bias? With so much data out there, do we fall susceptible to data skew?

While some point out that big data alone is rarely the answer (http://bloomreach.com/2014/04/we-get-it-big-data-alone-is-rarely-the-complete-answer/), the bigger question with so much data, especially unstructured data (meaning not numerical but other types of content), we may tend to use data to prove what we already believe rather than what the data is actually telling us.

In this episode of SMACtalk, Brian and I dive into this topic and discuss how data, especially unstructured data can often drive us to our preconceived notions rather than to the best answer. Further, we discuss how important it is that we consider that data may wind up telling us something different than what we thought and we need to be open to that if we truly want to achieve the benefits of big data.

Some of the examples given include how data can be misconstrued in…

Social Media Analysis: Determining a hashtag is useful because of activity even if relevancy isn't consistent or aligned with its use.
Hiring Decisions: using only positive data to determine that a candidate is a good one.
Comparative Analysis: comparing two data points from different time periods to come to the conclusion of one data point being superior to another even though they aren't truly comparable.

Brian reiterates how important integrating data scientists can be into businesses that are seeking to use big data in their operations because we need those that are truly trained in how to interpret data for best outcomes and not just to prove our beliefs.

Of course just because data is available it doesn't mean our intuition isn't relevant. But what data can and should be used for is to enhance decision making, and when it is slanted to support what we want to believe, then data can become the cause of a much bigger problem.

As always we are grateful to be able to share our insights and views with you the listener, and welcome feedback, suggestions and open conversation at all times using the hashtag #SMACtalk.

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