Comments on: Why conversational marketing is the communication of tomorrow

By: Björn Alberts

Björn Alberts — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:49:15 +0000

Alex, I totally agree with you and would like to add something. One thing that differ social communication from traditional communication is that you really have to the change the manners and the way you work inside your company as well. A true communications pro of to day has to be able to also manage changes in organizations. That adds another level complexity and is one the things that make digital communications much more interesting to work with than traditional communication is.

By: Alex Drewniak

Alex Drewniak — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:13:11 +0000

I believe those are custome made using this http://is.gd/beaj PSD.

By: Joan Vasquez

Joan Vasquez — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:33:43 +0000

I gave you the wrong url for Dennis’ blog … it is http://www.dennis-yu.com

forgot the dash

I think twitter is a great venue for conversational marketing if done right. Have you seen the new skins at Twitter?
http://twitter.com/pbSandbox

By: Alex Drewniak

Alex Drewniak — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:14:57 +0000

Excellent advice to Joan, I fully agree. Content is king (in this context the innovation of your brand that makes it worth talking about) and (conversational)Marketing/PR is queen – but we all know who rules the kitchen.

As far as the Forrester report, I strongly believe that the numbers are “scewed” due to the inflation of social tools among “regular” businesses that try to make a seamless transition to the new media and communications landscape but fail miserably due to their own ignorance.

With ignorance I mean that they fail to understand that conversational marketing is a long term effort that takes time, dedication, awareness and money and has to be carefully nurtured. Social media (company blogs for instance) are mediums that are meant to facilitate this. A lot of companies fail to come that realization and choose to go on the easy road, I.E. what’s familar and what they know best; to treat it (social media) like yet another channel to push sales. Epic fail.

In a not too distant future, company blogs and corporate social media profiles will be ranked significantly higher on that list. No doubt in my mind.

By: Joan Vasquez

Joan Vasquez — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:24:30 +0000

Thanks…I am actually an analyst and freelance writer for BlitzLocal which has about 50+ engineers, designers, analysts, etc who work for them. Dennis Yu is the owner and founder. His blog is at http://www.dennisyu.com He worked for Yahoo for several years and managed 80% of their SEM budget for 5 years. He is not only knowledgeable though, he is just a really great person who wants to invest in others. He travels all over the world to conferences. Maybe you can get him in Sweden!

By: ronnestam

ronnestam — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:16:14 +0000

Great! Feel free to feedback more input.
Like your site by the way!

By: Joan Vasquez

Joan Vasquez — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:12:34 +0000

Wow… you have given me a lot to think about. I am trying to get clientele established for my SEO services through BlitzLocal. Actually, I have recruited my sister and husband who will be doing the “leg work” while I teach them and direct them so they can become more informed about the business. BlitzLocal is different in several ways from other SEO companies, but getting that message across to potential clients and interested parties can be difficult at times.

By: ronnestam

ronnestam — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:04:18 +0000

Ah, forgot. I don’t think its about Guerrilla. Its about changing a company from inside and out and implementing creative thinking that focus on generating buzz on all levels. Basically the engineers on a car brand should be directed by a creative director that understands the consumer behavior of tomorrow.

By: ronnestam

ronnestam — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:58:15 +0000

Getting the conversation started is all about adding attributes to every part of your brand and product/service that is worth talking about. For example. If you are selling a luxury watch. It’s not enough to design a beautiful watch.

The watch has to have a certain amount of innovations that target different things that might appeal to watch fans. Something that triggers discussions, visibility and pr.

More advanced clockwork than ever towards engineers and watch fans, a braver design than ever towards design fans, more advanced material than ever towards industrial designers, some sort of innovation that daily media cannot avoid writing about, the packaging has to be more innovative than your competitors, they way you market it has to be new and invite your target group, mash up all the content and distribute it in social media – place nothing on your servers except the code that masters it all. Follow every word online that is spoken about your brand and where possible, get involved. Supply people with as much content as possible. If people are discussing your new material on a forum, reshoot the watch with this in mind, spread the imagery, if someone likes your new design, put your designer online and let him chat with your target. They will go wow when the understand that your brand actually let anyone in the company represent the brand.

Its all about starting fires and then making sure you know where its burning so you can go there and throw on more gasoline. But! You keep that fire burning always. Not only 4 weeks after the launch of a new product. Your budget should reflect this which means there should always be room to create new content that can spice up the conversation.

I could of course go on for quite a while, but that’s another blog post

By: Joan Vasquez

Joan Vasquez — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:38:30 +0000

So? In practical terms how does one get the “conversation” started? How do they keep the “conversation” going? I mean isn’t this a form of guerrilla marketing? Can you offer an example? Interesting concept.

I had not seen the Forrester study either. Very interesting stats to consider for campaign strategies for sure.

Thanks!