Brian Solis - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Brian Solis is an American marketing executive, currently principal at Altimeter, author, entrepreneur, speaker, and host of Revolution, a webshow. He is known for his research, writings, and speaking engagements about the convergence between traditional media

Mass media

Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

and social media

Social media

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...

on business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

, marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

, publishing

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

, and culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

. In March 2010, www.briansolis.com was rated the world's #9 marketing blog by Advertising Age

Advertising Age

Advertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...

's "Power 150". Prior to joining Altimeter, he was founder and principal of FutureWorks, a creative agency and business consultancy for new media.

Life and early career

Solis entered the technology public relations

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

field in 1991, working for the Dodge and Mansfield agency in Ventura, California

Ventura, California

Ventura is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States, incorporated in 1866. The population was 106,433 at the 2010 census, up from 100,916 at the 2000 census. Ventura is accessible via U.S...

. Solis also held the position of Director at The Benjamin Group, a Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

agency later acquired by Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick is a public relations firm.-History:Weber Shandwick is a formation of three previous companies:*The Weber Group - Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1987, leveraging emerging technologies such as the mobile phone and the internet into the world of communications, which made the company a...

. In the 1990s, he began to engage with message boards

Internet forum

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...

, communities and early blogs.

Solis resides in Redwood City, CA and travels often, giving keynotes on social media

Social media

, business

Business

, marketing

Marketing

, publishing

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

, and culture

Culture

FutureWorks (1999-Present)

Solis founded FutureWorks in 1999, specializing in new media marketing

New Media Marketing

New media marketing is a relatively new concept used by businesses in developing an online community, which allows satisfied customers to congregate and extol the virtues of a particular brand...

, branding

Brand

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...

, and business strategy. Solis led interactive and social

Social Web

The social Web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The Social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction. These online social interactions form the basis of much online activity...

programs for Fortune 500

Fortune 500

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...

companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0

Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...

startups

Startup company

A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...

. He was principal until 2011 and currently serves as an advisor.

Altimeter (2011-Present)

In March 2011, Solis became principal at Altimeter. Solis works with businesses on new media

New media

New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...

strategies and frameworks to connect companies and customers, employees, and other stakeholders. He specializes in change management

Change management

Change management is a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organizational process aimed at helping employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment....

to help businesses and leadership teams introduce new media resources, systems and processes, and management layers to connect with customers.

Publications

Books

Brian Solis' latest book, The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution was published by Wiley

John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...

in October 2011 with a foreword written by Katie Couric

Katie Couric

Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric is an American journalist and author. She serves as Special Correspondent for ABC News, contributing to ABC World News, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, This Week and primetime news specials...

. In March 2010, Wiley

John Wiley & Sons

published Solis' Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web, with an introduction written by Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher

Christopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...

. Previously, Solis co-wrote Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR with Deirdre Breakenridge. Together with primary author Geoff Livingston, Solis was also a co-writer on the book Now is Gone, which won an Axiom Business Book Award. Solis has also contributed many forewords including PR 2.0 by Deirdre Breakenridge and MySpace Marketing by Sean Percival, Twittfaced by Jacob Morgan, among others. Bibliography

Blogs

In March 2010, www.briansolis.com was rated the world's #9 marketing blog by Advertising Age

Advertising Age

Advertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...

's "Power 150". Solis is also co-founder of social media blog Bub.blicio.us. He contributes articles to TechCrunch

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....

, Mashable

Mashable

Mashable is an American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The website's primary focus is social media news, but also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets...

, Technorati

Technorati

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...

, Bloomberg Businessweek and Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...

. Solis is also an author, co-author and collaborator involved in several Twitter-related projects. With developer Christopher Peri, he released the FriendFilter Twitter application in March 2009. Solis is also the co-founder of Web 2.0 firm BuzzGain.

Photography

Solis is known in the Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

for his photography of business events and figures, including the unveiling of the Dell Adamo

Dell adamo

Adamo is a Dell subnotebook focused on design and mobility. A notebook prototype was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 9, 2009. Dell also claimed it is the "world's thinnest laptop", at 0.65 inches thick...

and photographs of Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington

J. Michael Arrington is the founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in USA and elsewhere...

and Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban is an American business magnate and investor. He is the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet....

for the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

Television and Film

Solis hosts an interview series called Revolution. Guests include Katie Couric

Katie Couric

, Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, bestselling author, and Apple Fellow. He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984. He is currently a Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, and has been involved in the rumor reporting...

, and Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett is a British television producer and executive producer, based in the United States. He currently is the executive producer of five network television series with seven hours of network programming. Works with which Burnett is associated have won multiple awards and recognition...

, among others. In 2010, Solis was featured in Melissa Pierce's film, Life In Perpetual Beta.
In November 2010, Solis was a featured in Darkcasting, a web series produced by Lexus

Lexus

is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. First introduced in 1989 in the United States, Lexus is now sold globally and has become Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. The Lexus marque is marketed in over 70 countries and territories worldwide, and has...

and hosted by comedian Whitney Cummings

Whitney Cummings

Whitney Cummings is an American comedian and actress. She was formerly a cast member of the MTV television show Punk'd and currently stars in the NBC sitcom Whitney.-Early life:...

. During the same year, Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

released a video titled A Special Ford Invitation for Brian Solis to promote a new Ford Focus

Ford Focus

The Ford Focus is a compact car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company since 1998. Ford began sales of the Focus to Europe in July 1998 and in North America during 1999 for the 2000 model year....

model.

Speaking engagements

In 2008, Solis spoke at the O'Reilly Media

O'Reilly Media

O'Reilly Media is an American media company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books and Web sites and produces conferences on computer technology topics...

Web 2.0 Expo on the rise of micro-blogging

Micro-blogging

Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...

services, such as Twitter. In 2010, he spoke at over 100 worldwide events and is currently ranked a leading influential public speaker.
Brian Solis Upcoming Appearances

Organizations

Solis is a co-founder of the Social Media Club, a national organization which convenes events for the purpose of sharing best practices, establishing standards and promoting social media literacy. He is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup, and also contributes to the Social Media Collective. He is an organizer of Social Media Week San Francisco.

Pivot Conference

In addition to his speaking engagements, Solis is the producer, editorial director and host for The Pivot Conference.

Contributions to Social Media

P.R. 2.0

Solis coined the phrase "PR 2.0", and is described in the 2008 book PR 2.0 as "a founding father of the PR 2.0 concept" who "realized early on how PR, multimedia and the Web would intersect and create a new breed of PR/Web marketers."

Infographics

In 2008, Solis created The Conversation Prism

The Conversation Prism

The Conversation Prism is a graphic that helps chart online conversations between people and communities, as well as the networks that connect the Social Web. It was created by Brian Solis, a blogger at PR 2.0, author, and principal of FutureWorks, and Jesse Thomas of JESS3...

, a widely-distributed infographic depicting the different types of social media categories and the companies which represent them. In 2011, Solis created The Brandsphere, an infographic depicting how brands propagate through digital media, which he refers to as the "transmedia" landscape. Solis is the creator of several other infographics, including The Twitterverse, Social Compass, and Behaviorgraphics. Artwork is created by JESS3

JESS3

JESS3 is a creative interactive agency based in the Washington, D.C. area, specializing in web design, branding, social media marketing, infographics and data visualization...

, an interactive agency

Advertising agency

An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...

specializing in data visualization

Data visualization

Data visualization is the study of the visual representation of data, meaning "information that has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information"....

Social Media Recognition

In Solis' essays, e-books and speaking engagements, he has made a project of defining social media as a definitive media category.

Awards and Honors

2010 - Influential Leaders - CRM Magazine
2009 - 40 Under 40 - PR Week
2009 - PR Blogger of the Year - PR News Online
2008 - Advertising/Marketing/PR/Event Planning, Now Is Gone - Axiom Business Book Awards
2008 - 40 Under 40 - San Jose Business Journal.

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