Friday, November 18, 2005
Conversation in Everyday Life...
We read "The Internet in Everyday Life" (Ed. by Wellman & Haythornthwaite) and the interesting thing is that we could exchange the word "conversation" for "internet" in the title of the book. This would be the thesis of the Cluetrain Manifesto--the internet is speeding up the rate that markets are having the conversations they are apt to have, whether corporations are involved or not, and those conversations are not distinct from the rest of our life, but are intertwined into the fabric of our daily life.
Important points in this book:
1) Researchers and businesses need to understand what happens in all aspects of a consumer's life, not just their on-line life. When you read Dave Johnson's blog to learn about the blog software Roller, you know he is a serious geek (I mean that in the most respectful way!), but you also know that he is a father because he either blogs about his children or has pictures of them on his blog. In other words, the man "has a life!"
In "Smart Mobs", Howard Rheingold (2003) observes that "The virtual, social, and physical worlds are colliding, merging, and coordinating (p.xviii)."
I wish that Harris Teeter would understand this better--when we lived in Winston-Salem, I could do my grocery-shopping on-line, but now that we've moved to Durham, this Harris Teeter does not offer this service and I have to actually go into the store to shop. The mantra at my house is "mom, we are out of food again." There is a good reason: I hate to go grocery shopping. I want my Harris Teeter on-line shopping! The Winston-Salem store has emailed me many times asking why I stopped shopping there (you can guess I was one of their favorite shoppers!), but they don't seem to be listening to the answer: I moved. Guess I'll have to find someone else to have that conversation with.
2) We need to understand that internet savvy people are chronic communicators. Howard Rheingold (2003) calls this group "smart mobs" or "people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other (p.xii)." What does this mean for a company? For Sun, it means that they encourage chronic communicating. Just look at how many blogs they have and how much activity is going on. How can companies take advantage of these chronic communicators? Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell, authors of "Creating Customer Evangelists" and the blog Church of the Customer call these people Customer Evangelists. If they are loyal to you and your product, harnessing this energy and enthusiasm, this authentic voice, can be very powerful.
This can also work in reverse, by encouraging employee evangelism. In the Cluetrain Manifesto, they remark that "Companies can't stop customers from sepaking up, and can't stop employees from talking to customers. Their only choice is to start encouraging employees to talk to customers--and empowering them to act on what they hear. Workers can generate enormous goodwill as everyday evangelists for products and services they've crafted themselves, and thus take genuine pride in (p. 72)."
As Tom Hespos comments in a recent MediaPost column called Online Spin,
If, on the other hand, the marketer invests what it might put into a buzz marketing campaign into an online program, where paid employees of the company could monitor and participate in online conversations with potential customers, wouldn't that result in better relationships?
3) TV vs. On-line
Their research has found that people view tv activity different than on-line activity, which may be true, but the point that I think is lost on most folks is that chronic communicators are probably doing both--at the same time, as well as talking on cell phones and IMing their friends. If they are talking about you and your company, don't you want them to be saying good things in all of those places? A recent survey found that most execs are still wed to traditional advertising and are hesitant to jump into the new media fray. This is too bad--their customers are already there. Even six years ago, the Cluetrain observes that "Your effectiveness depends on how networked you are, how hyperlinked you are (p. 128). Hyperlinks are created by people finding other people they trust, enjoy and yes, in some ways love (p. 131)."
Important points in this book:
1) Researchers and businesses need to understand what happens in all aspects of a consumer's life, not just their on-line life. When you read Dave Johnson's blog to learn about the blog software Roller, you know he is a serious geek (I mean that in the most respectful way!), but you also know that he is a father because he either blogs about his children or has pictures of them on his blog. In other words, the man "has a life!"
In "Smart Mobs", Howard Rheingold (2003) observes that "The virtual, social, and physical worlds are colliding, merging, and coordinating (p.xviii)."
I wish that Harris Teeter would understand this better--when we lived in Winston-Salem, I could do my grocery-shopping on-line, but now that we've moved to Durham, this Harris Teeter does not offer this service and I have to actually go into the store to shop. The mantra at my house is "mom, we are out of food again." There is a good reason: I hate to go grocery shopping. I want my Harris Teeter on-line shopping! The Winston-Salem store has emailed me many times asking why I stopped shopping there (you can guess I was one of their favorite shoppers!), but they don't seem to be listening to the answer: I moved. Guess I'll have to find someone else to have that conversation with.
2) We need to understand that internet savvy people are chronic communicators. Howard Rheingold (2003) calls this group "smart mobs" or "people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other (p.xii)." What does this mean for a company? For Sun, it means that they encourage chronic communicating. Just look at how many blogs they have and how much activity is going on. How can companies take advantage of these chronic communicators? Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell, authors of "Creating Customer Evangelists" and the blog Church of the Customer call these people Customer Evangelists. If they are loyal to you and your product, harnessing this energy and enthusiasm, this authentic voice, can be very powerful.
This can also work in reverse, by encouraging employee evangelism. In the Cluetrain Manifesto, they remark that "Companies can't stop customers from sepaking up, and can't stop employees from talking to customers. Their only choice is to start encouraging employees to talk to customers--and empowering them to act on what they hear. Workers can generate enormous goodwill as everyday evangelists for products and services they've crafted themselves, and thus take genuine pride in (p. 72)."
As Tom Hespos comments in a recent MediaPost column called Online Spin,
If, on the other hand, the marketer invests what it might put into a buzz marketing campaign into an online program, where paid employees of the company could monitor and participate in online conversations with potential customers, wouldn't that result in better relationships?
3) TV vs. On-line
Their research has found that people view tv activity different than on-line activity, which may be true, but the point that I think is lost on most folks is that chronic communicators are probably doing both--at the same time, as well as talking on cell phones and IMing their friends. If they are talking about you and your company, don't you want them to be saying good things in all of those places? A recent survey found that most execs are still wed to traditional advertising and are hesitant to jump into the new media fray. This is too bad--their customers are already there. Even six years ago, the Cluetrain observes that "Your effectiveness depends on how networked you are, how hyperlinked you are (p. 128). Hyperlinks are created by people finding other people they trust, enjoy and yes, in some ways love (p. 131)."
# posted by Karen Mishra @ 3:38 PM 
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Your comment about businesses needing to understand all aspects of a consumer's life (not just their online activity) was particularly interesting to me. I run www.thecareerbreaksite.com which generates revenue from advertising. It's hard to get people to understand that the people using our site aren't just going to book a 3-month volunteering project in Africa in the same way they buy a book on Amazon! People using our site are making massive, life-changing decisions - and these take time to implement. But in our instant, online world, advertisers often want instant results.
Thanks for your comment. You are correct about all advertisers, though--they want to see immediate results and forget that loyalty is about building long-term relationships. That takes patience.
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