I believe that the time is now to lead a media revolution based on insight, intelligence and experience. I think the minute you hold this book, its intentions are clear. The impact of new media is only just beginning and the road to where we’re going is, to channel the Beatles, long and winding. I believe that the destination is less important nowadays and it is this journey that we each embrace, that defines our experiences and teachings.

As in many books and blogs on the subject of social media, theory plays a role of course, however, new media isn’t as “new” as we might think. There are lessons and applied learning that we must embrace in order to effectively change, not merely for the sake of change, but for the betterment of the tattered relations between businesses, customers, and the influencers and peers who connect them. The shift of balance skewed towards those who believe they held the power and in many cases, businesses invested profits into distancing the nodes that connect us to our networks of relevance in order to reduce the cost of actually “managing” customers. When we lost the universal ability to hit “0″ and connect with a live human being, regardless of medium, it was the final insult that sparked a social uprising.

Social media is the democratization of information and the equalization of influence. Monologue gave way to dialogue and we the people ensured that our voices were not only heard, but felt.

Now that we, as consumers, have the ability to vocalize sentiment and in doing so, cause meaningful and reverberating action, companies have no choice but to pay attention. They must respond. And, they’re not even close to doing so in a scalable nor efficient manner. Brands were blindsided because their focus was on distancing connections instead of embracing them.

Social Media is our industrial revolution, and as sensational as it sounds, we have yet to fully realize its potential and promise.

More of the interview can be found here:

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/03/qa-culture-shock-how-social-media-is-changi…