Hi all. I’m looking forward
to my guest blogging gig this week on the theme of conversational marketing.
First, what the heck is “conversational marketing”?
To me it’s about every day
people being able to connect directly with other people, sharing ideas,
responding, having a voice and being social. For companies, this means being open to having conversations directly with people and having
interesting ideas to add to the conversation. “Talk with” vs. the old way of
“talking at.” Conversational marketing isn’t the be all and end all. It’s small “m” marketing although there's plenty of science to it, while Big M Marketing
like pricing, product development, targeting and segmentation remain
“musts.”
With that out of the way, I’d
like to share ideas on these topics during the week. If you’d like to vote some
off the island, and have me cover others, let me know!
- Why how
we say things matters more than what we say: this “science behind communications” raises interesting questions about what
writing says about a person, about who in leadership positions should blog
(does their writing expose them?), what new skills to coach people on (and
learn ourselves) and a very cool tool to use.
- The
Jerk-O-Meter factor: MIT researchers have found that people
make decisions in minutes based on a person’s social signals. I see two
routes to avoid failing the jerk-o-meter test when communicating. Are
there others?
- Creating
an environment for conversations: What does it take to get people to
participate and share –vs. simply lurk?
Here’s a metaphor that may help.
- Good
questions: As podcasts, video interviews and live
conference webinars become more popular we all need to become better
interviewers. This post will share interviewing tips from some of the best
of the best.
- Remember
the 5 year-old. Harvard educational psychologist
Howard Gardner suggests leaders tap into the 5-year-old mind when communicating, as that
is the mind most of us make meaning with. This post will highlight the 4
ingredients to making meaning, and how to get to that 5 year-old mind.