Define: Conversation Marketing

WOM (word of mouth), people-powered, social media ... these are all words we use to talk about internet marketing strategies for talking to our customers.

The word of the day is now Conversation Marketing.

Conversation Marketing builds on the idea that we, as businesses, need to talk to our customers in a human voice. We need to move away from the corporate PR voice and adopt a friendly, more transparent approach to the sales and marketing of our products and services.

Conversation is a natural human behaviour. We talk. We talk to each other about the things we like, don’t like, the services that were good, the ones that were bad. We act as a filter for each other, and we build up or tear down the reputation of companies through our daily comments.

As an internet marketers, we have to be conversationalists. We build relationships through conversation. And in order to market products and services, we need to be good at constructing conversations. It’s like being good at small talk. Are you able to listen and create something interesting and engaging out of what’s going on around you?

And for marketers, the small talk is important because the big brand messages aren’t sinking in the way they were in those wonder days that are glorified by MadMen. Plus the small talk is the marketing glue. Blog posts, customer reviews, feedback emails, these are all larger conversations happening about companies, products and services. In addition, we also live in a world of text messages, StumbleUpon thumbs up or down, TinyURL and Twitter. A world of small talk: 140 characters.

Your marketing messages are still important. But the storytelling that happens around those messages is much more interesting: the small talk, the glue, the conversation.

Define: Digital Native

What is a digital native?

“A digital native is essentially anyone who was born and raised in a household where there was always a computer.“—Mitch Joel

Anyone who has grown up with digital technology, rather than adopting it later: digital cameras, MP3 players, mobile phones ...

Wordle: Boxcar Marketing

This is a wordle of the Boxcar Markting blog. The words that describe the content here.

July: Underwire Newsletter

Tech 101: Books to Read
Some people learn by doing, some learn by watching, some learn via tutorials, some via videos, some via books. For those of you who like a good book and like to learn, here are a couple of books that I recommend. Each gives a different perspective on online markets, web 2.0, and that thing we call the internet. See the book list.

Word for the Day: Brightcove
PC Magazine has an article on video sites that gives a good introduction to the benefits of the various sites. YouTube is the most common, but if you’re looking to upload videos online you should also know about Brightcove and Blip.tv. Find out more about videos.

Ask for Support
Is some piece of technology driving you mad? Are you a non-techie in need of support? Email me your questions for next month’s newsletter.

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See Also:
Underwire Newsletter for June
Work Industries Blog
Monique’s Personal Blog

Monique’s Upcoming Events:
July 17:
SFU Summer Workshops: Book Marketing Online

July 27:
SFU Summer Workshops: Magazine Marketing Online

Not a subscriber? Sign-up here for the free montly newsletter.

Word for the Day: Brightcove

If you’re interested in posting videos online, you should know that YouTube is not the only game in town, and not even the best (depending on what your needs are).

PC Magazine has an article on video sites that gives a good introduction to the benefits of the various sites.

Brightcove is where we host our Think Salmon video channel. We chose Brightcove because it had the most professional look. We wanted the videos to be crisp and not as pixellated as they appear on YouTube.

Compare the quality of my Brightcove videos to the quality of my YouTube videos. (Yes, the quality will be slightly different because we used different cameras. This isn’t a perfect science experiment.)

Blip.tv is my other favourite video site. It is much better than YouTube and I haven’t decided yet whether it’s better than Brightcove.

Let me know what you think. Which do you like better?

What site are you using to watch videos? What site are you using to upload videos?

What Is RSS?

My friend Lee Lefever over at Common Craft has created a short video explaining the power of RSS.

RSS is a way to subscribe to your favourite blogs and news sites, or any site that offers RSS subscription. RSS is similiar to subscribing to an email alert or newsletter. It’s easy and you’ll love how efficiently you can keep up with what’s going on online.

Watch the video: RSS in Plain English

What is Ning?

Ning is a service that let’s people easily create their own online social network.

Ning.com relaunched their services in Feb 2007. The service allows creators to customize the appearance and features of their website. The user interface is easy to understand.

Creators
1. decide on a web address, i.e., mysite.ning.com
2. drag-and-drop elements—such as text boxes, photos, blogs, video—into a template
3. launch their website and invite people to join

I created workindustries.ning.com in a couple of minutes and I can change the appearance at any time.

Also of note, Ning’s chief technology officer is Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape.

For more:
Read the CBC.ca article on Ning (Feb 28, 2007)

Check out Ning.com