Too often, social media warp the notion of customers, markets and conversations. Social media simply advance the original social medium: conversation. That’s all. Conversation comes first.

Everyone on the Cluetrain knows that markets are conversations. Customers are conversations. Innovations are conversations and so forth and so on.

Social media, surveys, metrics, and the vast panoply of marketing tools, methods and techniques are very effective so long as they advance the key conversations of customers. To grow, to prosper, try to keep the Cluetrain on its tracks.

Many reflect on Apple, today’s most valuable tech company. What Steve Jobs had was an 'insanely great' customer focus. Devoted customers created the 'insanely great' products. Jobs mastered the customer conversation. His innovations were in CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES. They were not in technology, features, functions. Remember, all of Apple’s principal technology existed decades before.

What Jobs did was translate technology, via incredibly devoted CUSTOMER conversations, into entirely new experiences and outcomes! The insanely devoted Apple community and customers are equally, if not more responsible for ALL the APPL innovations. Without them nothing sticks, nothing maters, no one cares!

For example, many, many MP3 players existed well before the iPod. They emphasized memory, battery life, durability. The nerds and geeks were satisfied. Meanwhile, Jobs listened to CUSTOMERS and introduced a stripped down one that was for people experiencing music. (gasp!)

Wow! What a concept! Instead of technical features, Jobs/Apple listened to his community, devoted the ENTIRE firm to its customers, conducted the key conversations, et Voilà! the iPod was born.

Meanwhile, every geek at the time knew they could download music easily from many sources. It totally pissed off the recording establishment and artists. Nobody would budge. Hence, Napster suits. Anger. Metallica. Fear. Loathing.

Enter Jobs, customers, the Apple community. They conducted the customer conversations. Outcome? iTunes. Ta-da! Both the suppliers and consumers were delighted. All from listening to the customer. All from very mature EXISTING technologies. All from the customer conversation. All before all the social media hype and hubris.

Furthermore, portable telephony had been around for a half century. Electronic tablets originated in the middle of the 19th Century. (Look it up.)

Fact is, the iPhone and iPad are customer-led, lifestyle products. Customers and their experiences are what make products great and successful. Period.

The message? It is NOT innovation! It is about creating great customer experience and customer outcomes – something ONLY the customer knows. They are willing to tell you if your listen carefully and diligently. Start with customers. End with customers. That’s the Jobs mantra. It infuriated the corporate types.

Some dim-wits think customers don’t know what they want AND it for business to tell them. Poppycock! That is utter nonsense. Remember, we are talking about authentic listening, It’s proximate, genuine. Sometimes it involves ‘listening to the listening’ or striving to hear what customers are hearing. 

Apple learned the non-customer led ‘innovation’ lesson the hard way. It tried the arrogant notion of innovation w/o customers. They produced loser products like Newton and Lisa. End of story. Really.

Please remember, Jobs threw out the corporate book on building great companies. He was summarily fired from his own company. Jobs’ clinical focus on customer experience and outcome made executives very uncomfortable.

Most importantly, Jobs famously used LSD and other entheogens to develop and advance his Zen concept of Shoshin or the ‘beginner’s mind.’

Shoshin is developing a profound thinking style of openness, eagerness and lack of preconceptions. This led to many Apple breakthroughs. It aided Jobs’ unmatched customer focus. Shoshin directly advanced the customer experience and positive outcomes. 

Meanwhile, John Scully led Apple right into the tank with the traditional, dopey corporate framework that ‘we know better than the customer.’ It was the height of arrogance. Steve clawed his way back, had an ‘insane’ customer focus, and the rest is history. A history, BTW, created well before soaring farce of social media or worse social business. Moral of the story? listen to the customer, advance the conversation.