Yesterday, Business Development Institute held a seminar entitled, “Blogging Goes Mainstream: Is Your Company Ready?“, which examined how weblogs can benefit marketers. The largest theme at the seminar was that weblogs create conversations and, to take advantage of these conversations, marketers should join the conversation rather than try to manage it. In a world increasingly filled with consumer created content, created outside the control of big media companies, marketers must subdue their desire to launch the typical top-down, scream from the rooftops marketing campaign. Rather, marketers can leverage consumer created content to listen to what’s being said about their brand and join the conversation, just as one would at a cocktail party, rather than attempt to control it.
Certainly, these conversations can be influenced but it must be done in a way that is polite and inclusive of the ongoing conversational topic. One of the best ways a marketer can join and influence these brand conversations is to launch a weblog. A weblog, far better than a static website with its continually changing content yielding search engine love, enables the brand to take on a less monolithic personality. A great example of this is GM’s blog written by Chairman Bob Lutz. He speaks in a personal tone about what GM is doing, the cars it is developing and its opinion on the automotive industry. It’s doing wonders to bring GM “to the people” as it were.
Speaking at the conference were Microsoft’s Robert Scoble, CooperKatz VP Steve Rubel with panelists including DiamlerChrysler Director of Interactive Communications Bonita Stewart, Cymfony CEO Andrew Bernstein, PM Forum’s Larry Bodine, Corante President Stowe Boyd and Adrants Publisher Steve Hall (hey, who the hell is that?)
