Joining the Conversation

Throughout the BlogWorld Expo, we heard the phrase “join the conversation.” I want to share what I learned with all of you, because it’s important to understand this when you’re developing your marketing strategy.

Marketing is no longer about one source (a phone book ad, a commercial, etc) broadcasting to many. You know this as well as I do. You HATE when advertisers push their products at you. So why use that method?

Now it’s about an engaged, interactive conversation. Between you and me about the amazing restaurant at the Las Vegas airport. Between your customers about a particularly good (or bad) experience they’ve had with your product. So there’s conversation taking place regarding your business…why wouldn’t you want to join in?

I’ve been really on the fence about Twitter as a tool, but after BlogWorld (you feel like you’re in every session even if you’re not if you’re following the people who are there) and after meeting).

Jessica Smith, fellow Sparkplugger and Twitterer extraordinaire, I now get it. It’s a network of conversations. And not all about what people are doing. There’s a lot of great stuff about blog posts worth reading, new businesses, news, you name it. And that’s just one channel.

I also learned a lot about Facebook from Shama Hyder. While I’ve had a profile that I have used to connect to old friends, I’m now looking at it in a new light. One problem I have is understanding who my audience is. With tools like Facebook and Twitter, I will be interacting with them so directly, I’ll know what they ate for breakfast.

So I’m so excited about what I learned at the conference, and I plan on sharing it with you over the next few days/weeks (I have a lot of posts to churn out while they’re still rattling around in my head).

But what I want you to think about is:

• Are you throwing your marketing message at people? Are they receptive to it?
• Are there ways you can participate in conversations in your industry? If you’re not ready to jump into Facebook or Twitter, consider these baby steps:
  • Joining networking groups within your industry. But you have to PARTICIPATE for this to work.
  • Serving on an advisory board.
  • Proving yourself as an expert that others come to for information.

These are just a few ideas. But once you start one conversation, you’ll find it easier to get involved in more. If you get on Facebook I think you’ll find people encouraging you to get on Twitter (and vice versa).

For people like me who work at home, I think joining the conversation is twice as important. We tend to get disconnected, just by the fact that we don’t have a water cooler to stand around talking. If you don’t get out and go to trade shows or networking events, it’s even more important that you join a conversation online. And I think you’ll be surprised how that develops into new clients.