Conversation Marketing

Here is a summary of my presentation I gave yesterday at the Pittsburgh Technology Council.

1. Marketing is conversations.

2. The consumers have shifted from tv/print to web and are now increasingly mobile. Marketers better move too, if they want to connect with their audience.

3. Consumer psyche has changed. They expect conversations. They reject authority. They want transparency. They love stories. They are both content consumers and content producers.

4. Great websites are conversation starters. Conversations begin by great storytelling at the site blogs+communities, and buzzworthy linkbaits.

5. Emarketing tools carry the conversation starters outside the organization. Email marketing, event marketing and sweepstakes are examples of these.

6. Social Media sites are conversation hubs.

7. PR2.0 aims at influencing conversations.

8. Search Engines are conversation finders.

9. A whole breed of conversation listening tools have emerged, such as Google Alerts, Blog Pulse, Tweetdeck, Ennect Survey, and the major search engines.

I wrapped the presentation with a couple of real world case studies. If you want a copy of my presentation, let me know.