Tuesday, November 08, 2005
There will be talking on the train...
One of the first things we talked about in class was to look for a virtual community that encouraged 2-way communication, or dialogue, between its participants and/or the organization that might be involved. As you can see from the blog list, the list of Sun bloggers is enormous. Those with the most recent posts are listed, as well as their technorati rating. There are blogs listed in japanese, chinese, and from all over the world. It's "a small world after all". As Dan Gilmor says in Chapter 2, "blogs are about voice and human passion."
The Cluetrain Manifesto describes communication on the web the same way...
"Compared to this personal, intimate, knowledgeable, and highly engaged voice, which is emerging bottom-up on the Internet today, top-down corporate communications come across as statel and stentorian (p.x)."
The web is not to "gather eyeballs" but "a global set of conversations--people talking together, in their own voices, about what they care about (p. xi)."
Doc Searls' philosophy of marketing (p. xiv) sums it up:
* Markets are conversations; and
* Conversation is fire. Therefore
* Marketing is arson
In class, we discussed the word Kairos, which means "an opportune occasion for speech". Using blogs to communicate with customers is a very powerful way to allow human passion to come through, unfiltered by a marketing or public relations department, allowing those with the most specialized knowledge to share their expertise with customers who are deeply interested.
The intersection of passion, expertise, and interest should make for some very interesting conversations on the train. There are too many organizations that don't take advantage of those opportunities to let their employees shine, instead, transferring an inquiring customer to investor relations for more information. You can bet that the curiousity and conversation end there. That is like sending people to the library, where talking is not allowed (with apologies to Michael). As Dan Gillmor cautions in Chapter 4, "Businesses need to engage in the conversations that are already occurring about their products and practices." Instead of practicing crisis management, companies can be participating up-front in creating the excitement and setting the record straight about their products and services.
As the Cluetrain Manifesto observes, "Natural, human conversation is the true language of commerce." (p. xvii)
A recent survey by IntelliSeek found that "Consumers are 50 percent more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads." This study also found that employee credibility is higher than corporate marketing campaigns. If it is Word-of-mouth, there will be talking on the train.
The Cluetrain Manifesto describes communication on the web the same way...
"Compared to this personal, intimate, knowledgeable, and highly engaged voice, which is emerging bottom-up on the Internet today, top-down corporate communications come across as statel and stentorian (p.x)."
The web is not to "gather eyeballs" but "a global set of conversations--people talking together, in their own voices, about what they care about (p. xi)."
Doc Searls' philosophy of marketing (p. xiv) sums it up:
* Markets are conversations; and
* Conversation is fire. Therefore
* Marketing is arson
In class, we discussed the word Kairos, which means "an opportune occasion for speech". Using blogs to communicate with customers is a very powerful way to allow human passion to come through, unfiltered by a marketing or public relations department, allowing those with the most specialized knowledge to share their expertise with customers who are deeply interested.
The intersection of passion, expertise, and interest should make for some very interesting conversations on the train. There are too many organizations that don't take advantage of those opportunities to let their employees shine, instead, transferring an inquiring customer to investor relations for more information. You can bet that the curiousity and conversation end there. That is like sending people to the library, where talking is not allowed (with apologies to Michael). As Dan Gillmor cautions in Chapter 4, "Businesses need to engage in the conversations that are already occurring about their products and practices." Instead of practicing crisis management, companies can be participating up-front in creating the excitement and setting the record straight about their products and services.
As the Cluetrain Manifesto observes, "Natural, human conversation is the true language of commerce." (p. xvii)
A recent survey by IntelliSeek found that "Consumers are 50 percent more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads." This study also found that employee credibility is higher than corporate marketing campaigns. If it is Word-of-mouth, there will be talking on the train.
# posted by Karen Mishra @ 6:15 AM 
