Digital Transformation and Influencer Marketing – a @Traackr interview

Digital Transformation is buzzword de rigueur. It’s also a very important part of today’s strategy for business as explained by Didier Bonnet who revisited his book Leading Digital with us in a recent interview. Today it’s my turn to share an interview I gave for Traackr, the leading influence management platform and which was published on their blog. The piece was published by Traackr’s Morgane Néret.

Yann and Hervé Kabla’s book Mastering Digital Marketing Like A Boss, brings forth a perspective of digital transformation that delineates its present and future impacts on digital communications across all domains and professions. The book guides an organisation to effectively implement digital techniques into its strategy.

Q1 – How would you define digital transformation? And what is at stake?

First, it is important to distinguish between the concept of a transformation and that of a change: a transformation is a shift towards an unknown state, and as with anything unknown, some may find it unsettling.
If digital doesn’t support the business, then it is pointless. The real challenge lies in learning how to identify and use the right digital tools to transform your business rather than the other way around – transforming your business to make digital work. It’s a question of efficiency rather than modernity.
Amazon’s website for example is not the most glamorous, but I know I’ll find exactly what I need and that the user reviews will help me choose the right product. I know my order will be properly processed and delivered in a flash, and that my data is kept confidential. It’s a fully integrated system that has rendered digital components seamless. Their customer experience is unparalleled, and that goes well beyond the technology used.
In short, transformation isn’t synonymous with change. To transform, you need to add a myriad of change management initiative. Digital transformation in itself doesn’t exist. What exists is a transformation using digital techniques. It’s a subtle distinction, but an important one.

Q2 – The title of your book is ‘Mastering Digital Marketing Like A Boss’, why is convincing and involving management so critical?

Having your boss’s support is always important, but I believe above all in intrapreneurship towards the common good: having people internally who prefer asking for forgiveness rather than permission, and take action for the betterment of the company. What’s important is initiating change. Once you’ve demonstrated what’s possible, you then need support to step things up a gear.
Doing something for a small group is good, doing something for the benefit of the entire company is even better. You then need to find support and encouragement and therefore involving and convincing your boss. And not necessarily by asking a bunch of questions such as: “Boss! Am I allowed to…?” but more by making statements. “Look what we’ve achieved, look at these results. We need to be allocating resources into these areas!”

Read the full article on Traackr’s blog