Conversational Media Marketing

A few months ago in a blog post about Google OpenSocial, Internet pioneer Dave Winer said, "Advertising will get more and more targeted until it disappears, because perfectly targeted advertising is just information."

A few days ago Blog Business Summit blogger Jason Preston echoed Dave's sentiments when he said, "One of the things about advertising on the internet is that it seems to blend more and more with marketing and with content. Good, relevant advertising is content."

Today CMSWire blogger Gerry McGovern said, "Google has become one of the most successful companies in the world by selling lots and lots of these 17 words of text that help us find what we are searching for. In a money-rich, time-poor economy, helping busy people complete their tasks is the new advertising."

What is it that each of these comments have in common?

I've been selected, along with some 274 others, to participate in the sequel to the wildly successful The Age of Conversation, a book about emerging media and marketing, collectively written by more than 100 authors from around the world.

Todd Andrlik calls the sequel "the most massive authorship undertaking in history. We’re talking Guinness Book baby!" It's not often one gets to help make history. Needless to say I'm very honored to take part.

In a subsequent post, I'll explain the purpose of the sequel in further detail. For now, I want to mention that tomorrow, Saturday, March 29, is what's being called Age of Conversation Bum Rush.

The idea is to generate as many touch points around the web as possible so that it will be hard not to spot the Age of Conversation activity.

So, we need you to...

1. Buy the Book & send others to buy the book. This is the #1 call to action, because this is where we want to see the most impact. NOTE: Please buy 1 copy at a time because Amazon counts bulk orders once, and please use this affiliate link, which will help us in tracking sales. Remember, all the proceeds from the book sales and referrals will go to charity. 

2. Blog About It - Make sure you have a prominent link to the Amazon listing so that readers can easily purchase the book. (Remember to use the affiliate link above. All of these earnings will go to charity as well.)

3. Twitter Commentary - You can follow @Freshpeel, @DrewMcLellan, @servantofchaos for tweets on this tomorrow. Also, any tweets you do on the topic, please use code #AOC so that it can be picked up by Twemes.com.

4. Trackback or Comment on the post that Chris Wilson leaves on his Fresh Peel blog March 29, at 12am CST, so that everyone can follow the conversation and help promote exposure on social sites (Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, etc.)

5. Digg the posts listed on Chris' site and send emails and shouts to friends requesting Diggs.

6. Stumble the posts listed & tell friends to do the same.

7. Bookmark your posts on Del.icio.us

8. Add your post to other social media outlets ( Technorati, Ma.gnolia, Furl, BlinkList, Newsvine, Facebook, etc.)

9. Send an email to your friends about the Bum Rush for AoC.

10. Keep talking - Get on ooVoo, iChat, Aim, or where ever you like to talk, and start talking.

It's been nearly a year since Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang penned his seminal post on the irrelevant corporate Web site in which he says, "[W]e’re tired of the corporate website and all its happy marketing speak, stock photos of smart looking dudes or minority women crowded around the computer raving about your product, the positive press release, the happy customer testimonials, the row of executive portraits, the donations your corporate made to disaster relief, the one-sided view never ends."

Jeremiah argues that, in this age of the participatory web, marketing has spread well beyond the corporate domain and into "social networks, rating sites, chat rooms, and even blogs."

The trouble is, many companies, including SMEs, have just such a site and nothing else. What are they to do? Is it possible to make the corporate site more relevant?

In his post, The Changeosphere, Robert Scoble asked the question, "If you are a blogger, or a blog reader are you seeing changes?" (see his post for context)

A change I've noticed more than any other is what appears to be a resurgent emphasis on blogging. For a time, it seemed as if blogging had become old hat and everyone's gaze was fixed upon MySpace, Facebook and other forms of social media.

Assuming my perception is correct, what's responsible for this revival of interest? Personally, I believe Blog World Expo had much to do with it. The conference/tradeshow seemed to serve as a lens refocusing everyone's attention on blogging.

For years I've had a love-hate relationship with my RSS feed readers (first Pluck, then Bloglines, now ). I love them because they bring me all that linky goodness, but hate them for the very same reason as it turns out.

Here's are the issues...

Volume
Though, from time to time, I parse through my list of feeds and delete as many as I can based on whether I'm actually reading them or not, I still find myself bogged down in a mire of content that's too wide in topic and too deep in commentary, opinion and analysis to ever extracate myself from.

Relevance
The main issue is trying to determine what information is most pertinent and which really demands my attention. It's often difficult to tell from the headline just what the content of the post contains. Truly, parsing through a feed reader is, to borrow a phrase from Lee Lefever, the "old, slow way. Boooo!"

It's always nice when a serendipity comes one's way, and such happened today when I was informed my trouble with Facebook groups post was included in the WOMMA blog. It's very much appreciated.

Read/Write Web yesterday asked the question, "Is it time for a blogger's union?" My answer: A union, no; an association, yes!

After being chastised by some readers, the blogger, Josh Catone, remarked...

Union might not be the best term. I think what Mooney (the writer I referenced in this post) was getting as wasn't necessarily a union under the Wagner act, which doesn't cover independent contractors. Rather, he's suggesting some sort of blogger organization that allows bloggers to do things like organize for health care, get easier access to press credentials, get professional advice, etc.

This was an idea I fostered in 2004, which resulted in the formation of what the charter members chose to call the Professional Bloggers Association. It was warmly embraced by many, but never went to market. Personally, I think it was a bit before its time. The trend toward professional blogging was only getting its start then. Nothing compared to what it is today.

Lest I take too much credit, the idea for the PBA grew out of a discussion I and several others had with veteran blogger Wayne Hurlbert, who, in October 2004, suggested the need for a blogging chamber of commerce.  (See here, here and here.) If we're going to get our history straight, the original idea for some type of association (CofC, Guild, Union, whatever) really belongs to him. I just put some feet to it.

Columbia Journalism Review writer Chris Mooney suggests that a blogger's Guild be formed to protect and advance the interests of bloggers economically, legally and otherwise. That's exactly the kind of thing the PBA included in its charter.

I agree with Mooney and Catone, something in the way of an association is needed. Whether that means that the time has come for the PBA to get its sea legs back, I don't know. I do know that the idea Wayne had four years ago was on-target and I'm glad to see the discussion reignite.

I'll never forget the day I attended Dr. Ralph Wilson's seminar on Internet marketing in Atlanta a few years ago. It consisted of a well-planned, logical progression of practical information on how to use the Internet as a marketing vehicle. In all the wealth of knowledge Dr. Wilson shared that day, one thing stood out, an illustration he used of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

Dr. Wilson said that, if you looked closely at the wall, you would notice cracks between the blocks of stone that comprised it. He referred to them as "niches." He said the pilgrims would stuff these niches with slivers of paper, which were their prayers.

Dr. Wilson went on to recommend that we do the same thing in our marketing; rather than trying to scale the entirety of the wall, we should find an unfilled (or partially filled) niche and fill it. Brilliant!

I incorporated both the principle and his illustration into the book Realty Blogging, suggesting that blogs are good niche marketing penetration tools.

Recently, AdAge editor, Jonah Bloom, sent a note to AdAge Power 150 members asking us to share our ideas about what we think would be the "single technology, site or application" most deserving of marketers’ attention in 2008 and why.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to get my name in print (:->), I submitted a comment, which was posted. However, part of it was left off. Just for the record, here's the full comment as it was sent:

Online video/TV is THE technology to watch in 08. There seems to be a seismic shift toward digital distribution of video content, more and more video sites are being created, and there is a small camera revolution going on (which includes webcams) that portends a continued rise in user-generated video content.

YouTube was just the beginning. Now, there’s ooVoo, seesmic, revver, Jumpcut… the list goes on and on. Oh, and FastCompany.TV that Scoble just inaugurated. Add to that the fact that people are scurrying to their computers in droves to watch television programs which, themselves, are being equipped to serve as television monitors. More than any other technology, including social networks, online video is it.

Note the sentence which says, "Add to that the fact that people are scurrying to their computers in droves to watch television programs which, themselves, are being equipped to serve as television monitors." Some bad sentence structure there... should have read something like, "Add to that the fact that people are scurrying to their computers to watch television programs on sites like Hulu, Netflix or DailyMotion." Anyway, you get the point.

Checked Facebook today, something I'm doing less and less (usually only when I get a friend invite), and saw this video...

There is truth to it. We social media types flit around like butterflies in a flower garden searching for nectar. We stick our proboscis down into the app du jour, take a nice, long drink, then wing our way over to the next.

It appears Facebook is the latest to litter the trail. We're currently enraptured with Twitter...or is it ? I forget. What's the app we're all excited about today?