Live from #IBMPWLC 2015 is the Year of the Cloud w/ @Sandy_Carter #SMACtalk Ep 15
Enabling A Cloud Ecosystem Through Social Business and Customer Centrism!
Call it fate, call it Kismet, but as Brian and I sat and watched Sandy Carter deliver her keynote at IBM Partner World 2014, we found ourselves saying, “We need her on the Podcast.”
So we tried, but as one of the leaders of this conference it was apparent that Sandy’s schedule wasn’t going to have a lot of time for extra appearances so the real chance of this happening was slim at best. But as we have found out in the world, you can’t get a yes to a question you don’t ask.
Following a brief meeting, Brian and I stayed back and decided to wait as we planned our day and out of no where who came strolling by? It was Sandy, and as soon as we saw her we decided we had to bring her on to SMACtalk…and by some crazy circumstance, she obliged.
Once you nail down the guest, the next thing is figuring out what you are going to speak about. In her keynote Sandy had so many great sound bytes; if you haven’t seen her present, it is worthwhile! So as we planned the show we had to nail down a couple of key topics so we could make the most of the 30 minutes that we spent together. So we focused on 3 areas that are a passion for ourselves, Sandy, and our community:
Social Business: At the center of everything Sandy does, she focuses on how being social can move any business. Not so much about social media or the specific channels, but about being giving, caring, using tools to build community and educate your customers, partners and employees.
Cloud Evolution: "2015 is the year of Cloud” is a sound byte that came directly from her keynote. But cloud for the sake of technology isn’t the key; it is about cloud that drives better business outcomes.
Customer Centered Leadership: In a channel that often has several layers from top to bottom, Sandy did a terrific job of reiterating how focusing on the customer from top to bottom of the channel allows for strong partnerships and more robust ecosystems. But again, it is about customers and business outcomes, not about widgets and buzzwords. So True!
Brian shared after our podcast a little story about how Sandy Carter played an instrumental role in his growth in social business. His story goes back a few years, but his explanation of how she contributed to his success provided tremendous perspective to me as to just how meaningful it can be to have the influences in our lives and in our businesses.
Sandy’s perspective in this episode of SMACtalk brought together the insights of technology, business and leadership showing through example how a better product coupled with a better story can make for one truly compelling conversation.
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
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Brian Talked about Sandy’s dedication to Video and New Media. Visit her YouTube page to see some of the great videos and you must follow her on all the social channels! https://www.youtube.com/user/SOASandy/
More about Sandy Carter
“They can copy a best practice but they cannot copy your best people. Find & keep best people, then develop best practices” - Sandy Carter
Ms. Carter is the best selling author of two books, "The New Language of Business: SOA & Web 2.0", which won the Platinum MarCom Award in 2008, and "The New Language of Marketing 2.0: Social Media", which won the Silver MarketingSherpa award in 2009. She is an avid social media evangelist leading an award winning marketing team to over 24 awards, and is one of the top Bloggers and Twitter-ers in IBM. Ms. Carter received a MarCom award for her blogger and Twitter communities.
MUST Follow on Twitter: @Sandy_Carter
http://socialbusinesssandy.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/sandyacarter
