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Media Guerilla’s got an interesting post about the perceived/real value of conversation marketing.

The challenge many marketers struggle with today…is how best to filter, weigh and prioritize conversations. To the extent that it maximizes your efforts and returns. Put another way:

How do you separate the purposeless conversation from the purposeful one?

I think there’s a tendency among some marketers right now to consider all conversations, particularly online ones, as inherently good and valuable, and such, a justified use of time and resources. It’s just not true and it’s certainly not practical. Listening is important, no doubt, but when it comes to response and engagement, you really need to pick and choose which conversation will have the best returns and outcomes

Well said. When we started our company, we were focused on creating useful conversations above all else. And while I still think that’s right, we didn’t think much about what qualified as useful for the people were creating conversations with. We mostly just thought about how to do provocative stuff that got people talking. But that talk (think empty buzz on Word of Mouth Marketing) isn’t an ongoing conversation that elevates the understandings of all participants. It’s gossip. And it works for a moment, but it’s not sustainable. To really create good, sustainable conversation you have to ask: how does this help the people I’m talking with?

And you have to keep asking it at every turn in the conversation. That’s what keeps conversations going. And, as cheesy as it sounds, giving people help also gives them hope. So if you can build a reputation as someone who gives help and hope (and inspiration, as such) people will keep coming back to talk with you.

03/07/07 by josh kamler

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 11:03 am and is filed under Thinking, Rebels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.