Building Winning Businesses With Tech | Glen Gilmore | Engati Engage

Glen Gilmore, mayor emeritus of the city of Hamilton and the founder of Travel Esquire sat down to have a conversation with Engati Engage on building winning businesses with tech.

Glen is the author of the books ‘Social Media Law for Business’ and ‘Strategic Digital Marketing’. He’s has been ranked in the Top .01 of Travel Influencers. While the Washington Post called him a ‘high-energy mayor’, the New York Times lauded him as a national hero.

Glen is an instructor of Digital Marketing, Crisis Communications and Social Media Law at Rutgers University and has helped develop and deliver Crisis Management Training at Texas A&M.

He has also served as an Infantry Platoon Leader, NJ National Guard, Paratrooper and has been awarded the ARCOM Medal.

Video of interview on building winning businesses with tech with Glen Gilmore.

Summary of our interview on building winning businesses with tech.

This section of the article contains a summary of our interview with Glen on building winning businesses with tech.

But, if you’d rather hear him speak, the podcast is embedded right below this section.

You’ve been referred to as the ‘Man of Action’ by Time Magazine. What instances in your journey do you think has contributed to this title being conferred upon you?

When America was going through the anthrax crisis, it was discovered that the letters containing the anthrax power originated from post offices in Glen’s city. Post offices across the country became a place of fear.

Glen said that he then approached the federal government and state government to ask about their plans to make sure that the people who worked in those post offices weren’t going to die. But there was no plan in place.

So, as the Mayor of Hamilton, he reached out to area hospitals and requested their assistance. When the federal and state governments were not in a position to respond, Glen’s government set up health centers providing the antidote to anthrax around the clock.

It was about the entire team working together and not just him. He reached out to the team and got them organized, but he says that in the end, it was all about the team working together to make things happen and save a lot of lives.

The biggest projects require teamwork and a diverse team to make things happen right.

– Glen Gilmore

Times magazine had written an article about their efforts and called him a Man of Action because of these efforts.

Being a top influencer in the travel industry, what role do you think AI and conversational agents are playing in changing the way the travel industry facilitates customer service?

AI has the ability to deeply understand our preferences and make travel a joyful process. When we receive marketing messages and advertisements that you tailor to our preferences, that don’t really count as intrusions. Including a chatbot in the process can make it a more pleasurable experience from the start to the finish.

(Ps. Make your customer journey a pleasurable experience with an Engati Chatbot today)

It’s good for tourism and good for the economic value that tourism brings to communities and countries as a whole.

Voice technology makes it even easier for people to interact with a chatbot. People don’t want to take the effort to search for information about their travel plans manually. Calling a travel agent up is even more painful. Texting a Chabot definitely makes it easier. But true convenience comes into play when voice technology is adopted. Now people don’t even need to make the effort to type their query out. All they have to do is speak and their queries will be instantly answered. There’s less time and effort involved.

In a world full of noise, how should businesses leverage AI to make sure that their marketing message is heard?

Businesses like Netflix, Spotify and Amazon leverage AI to understand customers’ behavior and personalize their marketing message.

All businesses can use it to listen deeply to what customers want. Customers want information relevant to them. AI will help businesses craft experiences that better suit their customers. It will help them in both acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers.

These personalized messages will help businesses make sure that their marketing message gets heard, in spite of all the noise in the environment.

It’s a matter of AI having access to Big Data, understanding trends in the industry and interpreting enormous amounts of data. It makes it much easier than making a human spend tons of energy try to handle that data. The humans now just have to take that data and those interpretations and make them actionable.

How can businesses leverage social media in the time of the on-going pandemic to sustain and build a concrete presence in the long run?

Social media has the power to do a lot of good right now. It’s all about carefully looking at the data you have access to, noticing what your customers care about and sharing information on social media that’s helpful and provides value to them.

Put it in a way that’s useful, fun and ultimately helpful as well.

People are insisting that companies act like responsible members of the community and be part of the solution. So companies should also relate social causes with a purpose of their business on their social media.

We have a lot of choices and social good becomes something need to consider. Businesses need to pause and see what that customers truly care about and then engage with them in a way that resonates with those causes.

Social media is essentially all about knowing your customers and then sending them the right message.

What advice would you give someone on the leverage of technology at the startup level to build a winning business?

At a startup level…or really at any level, it’s all about building a talented team. You need to make sure that you have diversity in your team so that you relate to and reflect the community that you’re looking to become a part of with your startup.

It’s important to understand what your limitations are and figure out the ways in which you’re going to overcome them.

You need to have talent on your team that understands the new technologies that you’re considering adopting. If you’re talking about using AI and Big Data, you should have someone on your team that’s an expert on AI and Big Data. And if you don’t have that talent, you need to find a way to outsource it.

For example, Netflix and Spotify have an uncanny ability to use AI to analyse data and make predictions that are pretty much on the mark. They recommend movies, songs and podcasts that may never have even heard of, but when we play them, we usually like them.

So they’re using AI really well and what startups need to think about is ‘Do we have the talent to deal with AI and new technologies already or should we be looking for that kind of talent’.

You’re an advocate, you’ve been a mayor of a city, you’re a social media expert, a travel influencer and even an IoT influencer. What’s the common thread between all these things?

It’s all about connecting with people. That’s the common thread, the common denominator. It’s a passion for people. Even when it comes to technology, I have a passion for how technology impacts people.

Social media, AI, 5G they’re all changing our world dramatically. They all have the ability to bring about change. Because of them, we get better connectivity, better healthcare, better sustainability.

So, the one thread that ties them all together is that it’s all about connecting with people.

Are there any other soundbytes you’d like to leave our audience with?

I’d encourage them to share their passion. Realize that you’re no different from anyone else, so share your passion. And reach out to people across the globe. You never who might be able to help you out.

Connect better, share better

Glen Gilmore says it’s all about connecting and sharing. Connect with your audience better for free with an Engati Chatbot today. No credit card needed.

Spotify Podcast of the interview on building winning businesses with Tech with Glen Gilmore

Engati Engage

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Find Glen Gilmore

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