Toluu : Conversation Agent

Conversation Agent

Connecting ideas and people -- how talk can change our lives.

Aside from the fact that I am a long time reader of Seth Godin - evidence here, here, and here. Why talk about this book now, you may ask? While it published last year and some of the examples may be considered old by those of us who move at the speed of the Internet, let's face it - it's not old because it's still too few who are doing it.

Meatball Sundae is one of the books I bought recently because I am working on several grassroots, community-based initiatives. It's a good way to say that people look to me to help them articulate what they are doing to help customers with new tools, so they can get bandwidth to do more of it (and with it).

The bandwidth is important to consider - social media is a commitment and certainly not one of the many programs that can be run as touch and go. Also very important side note: if your company is not asking constantly "is what I am doing helping customers t

Do CMOs Understand "Brand"?Yesterday

Over the years I have found many an agency that was willing to give companies exactly what they were looking for - to sell Brand as the Holy Grail of marketing, the appropriate packaging and spin included.

This dis-connect comes probably from many of the factors I will point out in a moment. We are looking for science and certainty in the wrong places.

I have been reflecting upon how Mark Earls, a highly respected brand guru, articulated thoughts from his own experience in an interview with Hugh MacLeod at Gapingvoid. The quoted part with a bit of editing (emphasis mine):

Let's start with the good stuff about "Brand": it's clearly a popular idea, it's spread far and wide into politics and self-help books. It's useful, in that it allows us to talk about the cluster of stuff that floats around reputation and perception and so on. It looks like we can measure it because it's something that seems like folk out there in Consumerland can talk about.

So what's wrong with it: well, first of all "Brand" is a metaphor. It's not a thing, even though we talk about it as

What if Customers Were the Service? IIDecember 1

More than one year ago I posed the question to Fast Company readers. It was one of the posts that got some of the more interesting comments. Admittedly, at the time my posts also got some visibility on the site - I cannot remember the last time any of them was linked to from any of the sections of the new "community" site. At this juncture, I am a customer of the magazine who volunteers to give it visibility through this site.

I was revisiting with the comments to that post - all legitimate parts of a larger conversation:

Companies should care about providing support and service to their customers. And we should keep score of who does by voting with our money. No better way to provide feedback than through action. We should also recommend those companies to our family and friends. I have been practicing this for years.

Culture can be the salvation of companies. It's ironic that such an intangible could potentially help turn around a company and the experience you have of it. It starts with being truthful and honest with each other as employees and continues in the conve

Citizens Reporting NewsNovember 30

It was September 11, 2001, I was sitting at my computer in the office when someone said there was a freak accident in New York. We logged online to see the second plane hit the tower in the World Trade Center. Smoke and debris against a clean blue sky. Surely, we were not seeing what was happening. We had people on the ground that day. We lost contact with some staff for one whole day. Later, their reports were horrifying in their concreteness.

We were not removed from the scene anymore. We could see a sea of shoes at the foot of the towers. I could imagine the silliness of wanting to stay in control by going back inside the towers to get some work done for a client. Those who did, were lost forever. We could not get our arms around the scope of what was happening, but because we knew where to go to talk with each other, we could do something immediately.

At the time we had a very active network as part of Fast Company, Company of Friends. When all planes were grounded, people were left stranded in foreign cities for days. We got online and on the listserv started offering help, telling the stories of people who had driven to their local airport to offer support, a place to go. Clothing and food collections were started. In a manner o

Are You Getting Engaged?November 28

When was it not a good idea to talk with your customers as if your business depended on it? How is it ever possible to go a whole day without being of service to someone? Why would you not share tips, advice, and learning with your team? Where exactly was it deemed acceptable to base your conduct on anything but honesty and ethics?

We end up having incredible discussions around tools, with little time left over to talk about the reason why we use them - to connect.

Social media is about building relationships - starting with your customers, business partners, influencers and their networks, communities of practice, fans and critics, etc. It's not like the shotgun approach to marketing, it's like the focused, appropriate conversation with those who wish to talk with you. In some cases they already are telling you what you want to know, if you are listening.

Are you getting engaged? In this sense, we give what we get, and we get what we give.

[image of the blogosphere circa 2007, courtesy of Matthew Hurst]