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Web 2.0, Marketing, Technology, Design, Rants, Musings

Are Big Brands Ready for Cafe Conversations?November 30 2008

I was inspired to continue the conversation that Chris Brogan started on his blog a couple of days ago. Chris’ post begins:

“Pepsi doesn’t want to talk with a few hundred people at a time, do they? It’s just that all these businesses have built huge platforms, huge sales funnels, huge marketplaces, and I think what social software is setting us up for are cafe-shaped conversations.”

Which is funny, because apparently Pepsi does want to talk to a few hundred people, including Chris Brogan. Why? Because Pepsi knows that cafe conversations are what is driving the social web. And they know that the conversations that Chris Brogan have are with larger groups of people, and that they tend to get repeated in other cafe’s around the social web.

I think it’s clear that many big brands recognize the need to participate in the social web, but are they ready to do so? Do they understand how, and more importantly why it’s important? Some are starting to, and many clearly do not. Most large brands, and the agencies that represent them, are still thinking in what I like to call a “cam

Maximizing Social Discovery Opportunities on the Social WebNovember 28 2008

Social media has fundamentally changed the way that people discover products, services and content. It’s no longer simply about the old method of product, price and placement, it’s about relevance, value and virality. As the effectiveness of traditional online marketing continues to decline, how can you be sure that your message is not only absorbed, but embraced, passed along and viewed as valuable? There have already been plenty of studies conducted that show us that word of mouth is the most trusted source of information for internet users. It’s probably fair to say that word of mouth is the most trusted method of discovery and influence in general. I’m much more likely to go see a movie if a good friend tells me I’ll like it versus seeing an ad.

The social web has amplified and magnified word of mouth to increasingly expanding prop

The Anthropology of the Social WebAugust 3 2008

Brands are accepted in online cultures when they stop thinking in terms of campaigns and start thinking in terms of becoming part of a community.

When looking at the success and failure of brands in integrating themselves into the social web, one thing becomes clear: it’s more about anthropology, and sociology than anything else. I’ve blogged about this topic before from a slightly different angle. People often refer to their “digital lives” and this term is not to be taken lightly. The social web is where people hang out online. There are tribes, cultures, languages, mores and milieus. These digital cultures are as unique and varied as the cultures that exist in the “real world.” Facebook for example has a different set of mores than MySpace. And within MySpace exist many cultures and tribes, all with their own unique set of accepted behavior. Many failed attempts by brands to “crack the social nut” have failed or backfired because they are engineered by people who are foreign to these cultures and who haven’t taken the time to study them properly.

A few years ago Mc

Making the Case for Social CommunicationsJuly 23 2008

There is a lot of buzz these days about social media. Everyone’s trying to figure it out. There are some who understand it, and some who might be missing the mark. The “web” is quickly, and deservedly, becoming a science unto itself. The web is still perceived by the majrity as a platform. A medium. An “it”. When, as I observe it to be, the web is much more, it’s “where,” “when,” “how,” and “why.” And most importantly “who.” My friend Stowe Boyd refers to practitioners of social media as “the people formerly known as the audience” - a term I am quite fond of. In general, this is a concept that the world of marketing communications has yet to catch on to.

In my own business, I find it difficult to describe what we do in a word or two. When my partner and I started the company, we started it based on the idea of creating a two-way communication stream between a brand and it’s audience (the people formerly known as the audience.) That was 7 1/2 years ago. The social web has greatly impacted how we function as a company, and allows us to give new meaning to that original vision.

People in the industry have coined several terms to attempt to suggest the relationship between the social web and the world of marketing. Social Media Marketing is one, Conversational Marketing is another. As Brian Solis

Social Media Club Announces New Interim Board of DirectorsJuly 10 2008

The Social Media Club announced today it’s newly formed interim Board of Directors. The board boasts a roster of highly-regarded industry leaders; a truly amazing group of people that I am honored to be a part of.

As connected as we all are, it’s sometimes a challenge to get organized amidst all of the clutter. I think it’s vital at this juncture to have a central support network for those of us involved in Social Media to share resources and ideas, build community and contribute to establishing best practices and standards in the area. The Social Media Club is a part of this support network, alongside other organizations and standards efforts including Creative Commons, Microformats, Data Portability, OpenID, the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), the International Association for Business Communicators (IABC) and many others.

The new interim board has been charted to address several key organizational and strategic deliverables, including development of membership goals, acceleration of local