 Live from Las Vegas, Nevada, it's theCUBE at IBM Interconnect 2015 brought to you by headline sponsor IBM. And you're watching theCUBE on the ground. I'm here in Las Vegas, Nevada at IBM Interconnect. And here with Ray Wong. Hey Ray, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm good, thanks. So can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing and what you're working on these days? Well, a lot of work's happening in this digital space and digital seems to be very fluffy, right? So people are like, I digitally enabled something by making it mobile, I digitally enabled this by making it the cloud. But what we're actually looking at are business model transformations, like major shifts that are happening. One of the interesting facts that we talk about all the time, 52% of the Fortune 500 have been merged, acquired, gone bankrupt, falling off the list. And that's a huge change, but it wasn't the internet, it wasn't new technologies. People are pumping out brand new business models. You take something like Airbnb. What's cool about Airbnb? It's not the fact that it's got more hotel room nights than Hilton, Starwood, Marriott and Intercontinental combined. It's the fact that I now know who are really good users. So for example, I can rent out a million dollar condo to someone and know that I can trust them. And that's actually what we're getting at. So that hits on social, that's hits on payments, that's hits on networks, trust, collaboration, collaborative economy, all these things are coming together. And the business model happens to be, hey, how do I open up some empty space, let people actually make some extra money and you know what, help people actually get into places they want to be. And that's what we're looking at. It's this kind of digital transformation that's happening. And that's lodging, right? There are other things like aircraft engines, there are things like happening in the oil field services business, there are things happening in retail. All these things are being transformed and we're seeing it happen right now. Awesome, yeah. So are you working on specific things in this digital transformation realm, anything for your company specifically? Well, we're doing a lot of research and Constellation is basically a Silicon Valley based research firm. Our job is to go out and say, you know, where can we find these ideas and take them to other people who are looking at this? And we try not to take an industry focus because what we're learning is that different people are learning things from other industries. Retail is learning from banking, banking is learning from telecom, tech companies are actually learning from startups, right? So we see this kind of like shift happening and everybody's really trying to get to the right business model. Yeah, definitely. There's a lot of interaction, engagement and we see companies collaborating and using that community model. So what other areas do you see that happening in social media and that community engagement? The interesting thing about social media is it's now a channel of choice, right? So customers where they're digital natives, digital immigrants, even digital lawyers are actually looking at it and saying, I might want to try this. I might want to communicate in a different way. I mean, you just scheduled this appointment with me on social media, right? It says, hey, are you available at four? Are you available at three? I mean, that's kind of how we communicate. And you could do a direct message. It would have been fine too, right? But that's the kind of thing that people are expecting is instant communications, short bursts, right? On the content side, people want snackable content, things that they can get to, understand quickly and then move on. And we're basically building for an attention economy, which is actually happening right now. And how do you see social media changing the way you work? Oh, wow. That's a great question. It's everywhere, right? I'm getting, you know, I get more, like a quarter of my business comes from LinkedIn, a quarter of my business comes from Twitter. I would say, you know, a quarter comes from the blog. We get a little bit from email, a little bit from the phone. I mean, just think about that. Channel-wise, we are now hitting, what, six, seven different channels. People expect the same experience. Are they friendly? Can I access them? Is it fun? Is it engaging? Doesn't matter what the channel is. We're actually, the term omni-channel is actually kind of stupid, and I'm going to put it out there. I see what people are looking over are ubiquitous channels, but more important, continuity of experiences, right? Continuity of a process, continuity of data, continuity of, you know, an insight, continuity across the board. You know, they just want to know that it's seamless. Awesome. Yeah, great tips. So you're here at IBM Interconnect, and you're a VIP influencer. Can you tell us a little bit about how you use social media personally, and how you built your brand on social media? You know, I just, I think the most important thing about building your brand in social media is to be authentic to who you are. I love to share, right? And that's what I do. So I'll post things that are happening. Like right now, I'm really craving Rice Krispies. Someone posted Rice Krispies, like, where are these Rice Krispies? I don't know. I'm looking for them. Where are they? I mean, but anyways, the point being is like- Jordan, can you let us know? Yeah, let me know I'm in. But the thing is like, you know, I got like 15 responses like, hey, Rice Krispies are here, great, these are wonderful, where do I get a Rice Krispies? I mean, but that's what it is, right? You got to throw yourself out there, but there's things I'm private about. You'll never see things about my family. You'll never see things about my kids. I mean, I create a wall there. And I think you just have to figure out which medium is for you. Like some of my friends' Facebook is for everyone that they would invite to a wedding, right? That's it, and that's the circle. LinkedIn is anybody they meet in person, and Twitter is, you're just out there, right? I mean, that's kind of how it works. So we're seeing that happen, but we're also seeing like private networks come up, right? People are kind of like support groups working with each other, and I think that's important. Can you actually talk a little bit about the privacy concurrent with social media and the issues and challenges that there exist there? I think the number one issue in social media and collaborative economies is that once you realize that something is free, you're the product, that's the issue. So it might be worth paying for a service where there's a private cloud, there's a service where it protects your privacy and identity, they don't trade your information for something else. I think that's going to be important, and I think once we get used to these paradigms, people are going to start paying for those types of networks. Awesome. Anything else you want to share about yourself and how you use social media? Well, I'm publishing a book. It's coming out, actually I'm not doing the publishing. Harvard Business Review Press is doing the publishing. I've written a book and they're going to publish it, and hopefully comes out May 5th. What's interesting? Disrupting digital business. And we've got tales and conversations about what you can do even if you're not a digital business on how to take advantage and build those digital models, and also looking at companies that have actually done a really good job. So there are five things that are kind of fun ones, thinking about the trust and transparency factor, but more importantly, I think, are you ready to transform your business? Thinking about companies that are authentic, building authentic brands, and then there's this thing about intention driven. We're talking about all analytics and context and sentiment, but it's really, do I know you well enough? Why know that you'll make a decision and how can you use that to be self-learning? And then of course, we're looking at network economies that are out there. So we're bringing all these different concepts together, and I think what's going to be interesting about the book is like it's an easy read. You pick it up and then suddenly you're like, oh wow, this is a great idea. Oh wow, here's another idea. And what we're trying to do is to spark that creativity inside companies, and if we do that, hopefully people actually can get to their next breakthrough innovation. Awesome, sounds like a great book. Gotta check it out. Anything you can recommend for companies just off the top of your head that they can do with social media to help build their brand, build some customers, some tips from your- Well, let's go back to the brand authenticity piece. I think what's really important is once you realize that you're not selling a product or service, but you're basically delivering on experience or outcome, what do you need to do to keep your brand promise? And if you figure out what your brand promise is, then you can be authentic in your communications, you can be authentic how you interact, you can be authentic just all across the board. And I think when there's so much noise, especially social media, we're creating so much content, whether it's a blog, a video, a chat, or tweet, or like, what we really need is people to be authentic, right? And that authenticity stands out despite all the noise that's out there, and there's really no good signals. And what I mean by that is there's not a lot of good content, and when you're authentic, it completely shows, and you stand out. Yeah, well, you've definitely stood out in the conference, we see you trending, you're always on the leaderboard. I know, oh, duck. Awesome, so what's your favorite part of IBM Interconnect? You know, actually what I really liked was the social media lounge. You're sitting in the middle of a place that's designed for people with a conversation. There's a lot of creativity, you got the legas going on, the pads, the paperclips, you know, you got the social media lounge that's just around the corner. And I think when people who've never been to an IBM conference come to one, they'll realize that this is not a stodgy conference, this is not what you would expect. I mean, people are actually being creative, so it's very fun. Awesome, last question. What does join the conversation mean to you? Join the conversation, it means engage, right? I think a lot of people are, I mean, you should listen and see if you fit in the conversation, but figure what it is, actually jump in, participate, and you might be surprised. Awesome, well, thank you so much. It was great to have you on here, Ray. And you're watching theCUBE, I'm Ariana Gratto here in Las Vegas, Nevada.