Managing the Gray – Positive Advice That Everyone Can Use to Succeed

Seems like a re-run of David Meerman Scott’s book, New Rules of Marketing and PR… right down to the title.

[...] video apology. I encourage you to view it and consider the power of social media, both positive New Rules of Marketing – managingthegray.com 04/16/2009 Once again, Advertising Age gives me something to talk about on [...]

[...] Managing the Gray #76 – focusing on Ad Age’s “five new rules of marketing” [...]

Conversations are happening everywhere – online (forums, social networks, etc.) and offline (tradeshows, conferences, events, etc). Companies need to address not only the tools, but also WHO is driving those conversations and WHERE those conversations are occurring.

Here are some quick additions to the New Rules of Marketing:

# Identify who the conversation ‘influencers’ (’key opinion formers’) are, where they converse online and offline (e.g. events, conferences), and develop a relationship with them by joining their conversation.

# Join the conversation by addressing the Listeners needs, motivating Participants and enhancing the Influencers conversation topics.

# Don’t be afraid to share your experiences—positive and negative—and your insights as you grow your company and evolve your product lines.

“Conversation Marketing” is a new way of looking at the market conversation universe. It addresses the ways a business can become a qualified participant in those conversations that drive their business and create relationships with key influencers.

Businesses that don’t apply this type of approach risk losing their voice in the conversations that drive their business…

[...] Chairman Talks Up Public Relations in AdAge C.C. Chapman played up the “Five New rules of Marketing” laid out by Simon Clift in this article, but of particular interest to me as a PR flack is this [...]

While “listening to consumers” may be on the list of the New Rules, I think many organizations are realizing they should have been doing that all along. Nice to know they’re finally accepting that as a priority now.

Suzette

Amen to all, especially the last one. I am running up against the clients who “need to do social media,” but don’t really know why or how. So we sit and talk about what their current strategy is, who they are listening to now, where their customers are, how to listen to their needs first.

And THEN we craft a strategy that happens to use some social media tools. Because “listen first, start conversations and ask questions” is a strategy. “Get on Twitter” isn’t!

I see their first point (listening to consumers is more important than talking to them) as directly related to their fifth point (social media isn’t a strategy). I agree 100%: social media isn’t a strategy, it’s a tactic.

But as AdAge points out in their first (and therefore most important?) point, it is now necessary for every organization to at least be monitoring, if not engaging in, conversations about their company, brand and/or product, and social media provide cost-effective ways of doing just that.

[...] New Rules of Marketing: Learn about cause marketing, basic PR and social media marketing in this podcast. [...]

Interesting stuff, I like the first tip. Listening to the consumer is very important. They will tell you how to improve and that’s the best way to make a business thrive. I would go one step further with that, not only listen to your customers, but meet with them face to face. This is a great way to get feedback and shows the consumer that you truly care about their opinion.