“Conversation: the informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; talk; colloquy.”

But notice that the dictionary hasn’t caught up with the times. It’s 2010, Dictionary People! This definition specifically says “spoken” and “oral” and leaves out all other forms of communication available for the 2010s and beyond. With all the killer Web2.0 and social media networks, apps and tools, the “interchange of thoughts, information, etc.” can now be done via typed discussions (Twitter and forums for example), imagery (Flickr comes to mind) and multi-media (such as videos on YouTube with spoken and written words paired with music, graphics and other imagery.)

What is poignant in this definition is “the information interchange of thoughts, information, etc. … between persons.” A blogger and Tweeter I regularly follow, John Cass, wrote a post today titled Is Content Taking Marketers Down The Wrong Rabbit Hole? This struck a chord with me because I’d planned on writing about Making Conversation 2010 Style today. As John points out, companies need to consider the “social element” of social media rather than using it as just another outlet for their self-serving content.

Their are practically endless options now for where to converse with your target audiences, but the point is to have a two-way conversation that helps you build relationships with those individuals. Social media platforms, networks and tools are brilliant for this. They give your company the ability to listen (and then internalize) what people are saying not only about your products, but about their wants and needs. And you can respond to those individuals in a public forum so that others can read and benefit from the conversation (most people are Listeners–they don’t participate in the conversation but they listen and hear what others say.)

Also, these social media tools currently out, and coming soon, can help you be more efficient in conversing so that you aren’t trying to talk to all 1 million (or more) of your target audience by phone or in person. 2010 conversation style allows you to be much more efficient while reaching many more people. Sure, use these tools to tell people about your great content you’ve created, but also use the tools to get to know people and listen to what they want and need. We all know that the point of business is to sell your products, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be pals with your customers too. You listen to them, you help them fulfill their wants and needs with free, helpful advice, as well as with your products, and they’ll be more likely to buy from you and influence others to buy from you too.

Happy New Year and happy conversing!

1) Conversation Marketing is Comprehensive, Social Media Marketing is Not

If you’re new to the blog you’re probably wondering why the quotes appear around “social media marketing.” It’s because we (my partners and I at Idiom Strategies and more marketing thought leaders every day) consider social media technologies/sites/outlets to be tools and/or conversation locations. Noise is noise no matter where you have it. The main goal of conversation marketing is to stop creating noise and start interacting in the market conversation with quality content. Here’s a BtoB Magazine article with some great advice for Conversation Marketing (not just social media as the article title suggests): 5 tips for b-to-b social media marketing.

2) Not Every Company Needs Every Conversation Tool or Location

Just because it is there does not mean your company needs to do it. Another BtoB Magazine article that caught my attention is B-to-B followers flock to Twitter. This article is one of the better pieces I’ve seen about using social media tools/locations, and it’s helpful whether your are BtoB or BtoC. The article mentions how some companies are using the social media tool Twitter to converse with current customers AND watch what is being said about them in the market conversation (or at least in the Twitter feeds.)

“Twitter is just another tool we have in our marketing toolbox to create another way for us to communicate with our customers,” said Scott Townsend, United Linen’s marketing director. “I am careful to use the word “with’ because social media is fantastic for giving us the opportunity to not only send information but, more important, receive information from our customers and employees.”
“Businesses need to be careful when using social media outlets such as Twitter because they tend to want to start selling stuff now,” Townsend said.
“But Twitter is more about creating and furthering a relationship with a customer, becoming a resource to them and showing yourself [to be] available to provide solutions.”

This guy get’s it. Interacting with the market conversation means actually having a conversation with them that is mutually beneficial. Don’t market AT people, talk with them and they’ll be far more likely to listen to you and be interested in what you offer.

The thing this article is missing is that companies should look beyond just searching Twitter and the entire Internet for mentions of their company or products. If you define your market conversation space well enough, you’ll be able to extract conversation content that can be used as vendor-neutral proof points for your sales team to use. Also, your R&D department can get a big boost by understanding what is at the heart of the market conversation ecosystems needs and wants–valuable insight into further product developments.

3) Identifying the Right Influencers to Interact with is Key

The idea of targeting certain demographics groups was revolutionary in it’s time and with it came the flood of ways to identify your perfect audience and serve them your marketing bullet points. But with so much noise out there, even if you hit a location that attracts your perfect audience, they’re ignoring your marketing fluff. As technologies move forward and people weed through the noise, the better approach is to identify the Influencers who are driving your market conversation. In the article Making Social Networks Pay Part 1, writer Ned Madden discusses the challenges of social media networks and tools developing “sustainable and scalable business model that can satisfactorily monetize the vast ecosystem of the social networks.”

Madden mentions profile data extraction and mapping services, brand monitoring and network analysis tools and marketing automation options. Companies offering these things are popping up like mad, right now, and many of them are really terrific for gathering info, but simple demographics don’t work anymore. People don’t care about products, they care about their wants and needs–that is what they want addressed regardless of where they go to listen to the market conversation. So the prudent thing is for companies to spend the effort to Identify the Influencers who are driving the market conversation around fulfilling ecosystems wants and needs. Interact with those individuals in the conversation locations they use and build a relationship with them through the conversation tools they choose to use. By doing this, companies will be seen by the other conversation Participants and the vast number of Listeners who look to those influencers for purchase advice.