This conversation is driven by [>>]]]> Gone are the days when marketers could produce slick creative campaigns, then sit back and control a brand message through one-way mediums such as TV, radio, and print. The advent of new communication platforms and applications has created the opportunity for conversation between consumers and the brands and products they purchase.

This conversation is driven by content. And “content marketing” has rewritten the rules for engaging prospects and promoting products. Content marketing is all about nurturing a relationship with prospects and customers, enabling a dynamic two-way dialogue that isn’t possible with old media.

The explosion of mobile devices, led by the iPhone, netbooks, and Apple’s new iPad tablet, and social media sites, such as Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, and Twitter, have redefined the rules by which marketers should plan, produce, and serve content. Because nearly all of the platforms are optimized for peer-to-peer communication and publishing user-generated content, it helps to look at how these content dialogues play into the consumer experience—especially for big-ticket items.

For example, according to Forrester Research, more than 25 percent of U.S. online consumers who expect to purchase a new or used vehicle in the next year have viewed or listened to user-generated content about vehicles. That’s almost as many online consumers who got vehicle information from magazines, newspapers, and TV—combined— the last time they purchased a new vehicle.

These new platforms are rich in functionality and can enable content marketing in a variety of ways. But with new devices and applications hitting the street every day, staying on top of it all is difficult. When it comes to planning a content marketing strategy for emerging platforms, it helps to keep three things in mind: immediate, interactive, and in control.

Immediate
The next time you’re in a public place, look around. How many people are reading, texting, and scrolling away on mobile devices? People are accessing and interacting with media everywhere they go.

As marketers, you have to plan content accordingly. Is your content enabled for mobile devices? Is it optimized for a small screen? Are you taking advantage of the spontaneity that mobile devices afford?

It used to be that only exceptionally good or exceptionally bad experiences found their way online as reviews, complaints, or discussion points. Opinions that reflected the average consumer’s experience often weren’t published because the moment had passed by the time the consumer got to a computer.

Now, with the proliferation of 3G-enabled smartphones, anyone can voice an opinion or post a comment within minutes—or seconds—of an experience. The upside of this is that consumers’ ability to comment anywhere, anytime results in a more representative experience of your company’s products or services, not just the very good or very bad instances.

Interactive
Mobile applications have opened new doors for marketers to engage customers in meaningful ways. A branded interactive application that performs a useful task can do a lot to build loyalty. I can’t tell you how many times the Epi app from Epicurious has reduced my time in the supermarket when I’m stymied by dinner.

These days, brands build trust and rapport well outside product or service attributes. It wasn’t long ago that consumers purchased a particular brand of gasoline because they trusted that the product delivered reliable performance. In the future, consumers might choose a gas station because it has the best travel app for road trips.      

In control
For better or for worse, consumers have more control over brands than ever—a direct result of the Internet and its many emerging platforms. Not only can people publish blogs and broadcast their opinions to the world, but they also can comment on, rate, and review brands and companies almost the instant an opinion comes to mind.

Much of this newfound consumer power is made possible by the mobile applications and devices that make up today’s emerging platforms. The growing presence of peer-to-peer discussion as a key component of the consumer experience is compelling proof that consumers, not brand managers, are having the final say in defining a company’s brand.

Think about these three key things as you craft your content marketing strategy. With them, you have a pretty good shot at success. Without them, you may just be talking to yourself.

As [>>]]]> The birth of Google Buzz into the grand cacophony of social updates that is the modern-day Web is nothing special—not unless you want it to be. And you should want it to be.  There’s a special place in Internet Hell reserved for those who connect their social networks together in one almighty amalgam of real-time updates.

As a marketer, I respect and appreciate the need to stay on message and deliver viewpoints across all the places an audience lurks. And as a Tendo editor (and Web site admin), I realize that we do this very thing on our own platform—anything that gets posted to the Tendo View gets automatically updated to our respective Twitter feed. So am I just as guilty of feeding the flames of social media as my online friends, who have managed to port everything they do across every Web platform they subscribe to?

Not really.

The difference here is that I’ve recognized the value of Twitter as its own communications platform—essentially, its own entity. Think of the service as a little lemonade stand and Tendo’s updates as the fresh, yellow ingredients. Increasing the amount of available lemons doesn’t hurt the stand. In fact, it might even help the fledgling business attract some new customers.  That’s the business of social media—a network of portals that receive content that others can use to connect and form relationships, both with you and amongst themselves.

Would I want my lemonade stand to suddenly partner up with the lemonade stand on the other side of the street? No. I wouldn’t call them the enemy per se, nor even the competition. Even though we have the same ingredients, it’s apples and oranges. Perhaps I’m fueling up the schoolchildren who exit the nearby elementary school, whereas the other lemonade stand is offering double-sized portions for the firefighters who wash their trucks every day at 4 p.m. I could get into this huge capitalistic description of why it would be excellent for one lemonade stand to rethink its business strategy to attract new customers and such, but this is a metaphor and these are lemonade stands: They are independent, period.

Lemonade, the Social Web, and You

It’s long-winded, but my little simulated scenario (likely brought on from playing too much Lemonade Tycoon on my iPhone) is an accurate description of the Web’s  current social offerings. For simplicity’s sake, let’s consider the Big Three: Facebook, Twitter, and the upstart Google Buzz. Post whatever you want to each source—that’s not the issue here. The problem arises for users who blindly post the exact same content on each platform or, worse, link the three such that anything posted to one gets automatically duplicated to all.

Here’s why. Each platform caters to a different audience—one that subscribes to a particular interest based on a given need. My Facebook friends are just that: my friends. I list enough personal details to make me a bit loathe to allow random strangers into this personal hub of my life. By the same token, I extend these friends the same courtesy of not having to read through all the different articles I’ve written and subsequently promoted on other social platforms. I don’t post very frequently on Facebook to avoid burdening my friends with inane details that they probably don’t want to hear about; Twitter, however, obviously gets these updates, and I’ll friend anyone with a pulse in a vain attempt to increase my own social standing on the Internet.

Buzz, the ugly duckling, is a strange beast. Ignoring for a moment the launch-day privacy issues that allowed anyone under the sun to follow what I said (hello, work contacts!), there’s nothing that irritates me more than having a Buzz feed that’s been overpopulated with the exact same information that’s already available on other platforms. No, I do not need Buzz Tweets; no, I do not want Buzz Facebook updates. It’s a different medium, a different playing field, and those running around on it should realize the value it brings rather than trying to mindlessly transform it into yet-another-[social network of your choice]-clone.

This is the real gist of conversational marketing: Identifying when and where the very act of conversation can and should take place. Marketing can’t be a carpet-bomb that relies on the copied content to blast an audience into submission. Though they might appear similar at first glance, each online platform embodies real strengths in its  setup and the psychographic profiles of its users. Get this one wrong at the expense of annoying your audience with improper messaging for their online lifestyles. Or, in layman’s terms, don’t turn your conversations into a total buzz-kill.

When I’m not creating content for one [>>]]]> You’re regularly (read: frequently) monitoring blogs, social networks, and websites for coverage of your industry and mentions of your company’s brand. And you’ve even created a database of influencers for your industry based on this regular trolling. But how well do you know your audience? Probably not well enough.

When I’m not creating content for one of Tendo’s clients by day, I pen a food blog. Just before Valentine’s Day, I received an email from Duncan Hines. I assumed the email was pitching some promotion for the holiday. Having been in the food business for a number of years and a food enthusiast for even longer than that, I get a lot of food-related newsletters and promotions—most of which I delete without reading because I can’t keep up with the glut. Uncharacteristically, I opened the Duncan Hines email.

It wasn’t what I expected.  Duncan Hines (or rather the agency the company hired for this effort) had identified me as an influencer—or at least someone who writes a food blog. And, I mean the very least.

“We know that some of the most interesting baking content and discussions are happening online, in blogs just like yours. We came across your site and think that we have some fun baking recipes and ideas that your readers might like.”

“To start, we thought you might like a simple and fun baking idea for Valentine’s Day—Duncan Hines® Conversation Heart Brownies. All you need is Duncan Hines® brownie mix …”

No offense

It’s not that I have anything against using box mixes as a base for grander baked goods. In fact, a couple of my favorite cakes from childhood are souped-up versions of packaged mixes (semi-homemade, a la Sandra Lee, so to speak). However, I have never made brownies from a package.

How could Duncan Hines possibly know that, you ask? By reading my blog, which this person clearly had not. Had she dug into my blog, she would have likely looked at baking recipes and stumbled across my Kahlua Fudge Brownies post, where I say, “… I have NEVER made brownies from a box mix.”

I wasn’t at all offended by the email, but some food bloggers, depending on their focus, would have been insulted at best and outraged at worse. However, it was painfully obvious that Duncan Hines’s agency hadn’t done its homework before launching this marketing effort. Compiling a list of food blogs is the easy part and only the first step in creating a successful campaign of this nature. Unfortunately, Duncan Hines stopped at this point.

Do your homework

If you’re going to try to engage influencers in your industry, you better get to know them—and know them well. At a minimum, you should know:

Who they are. Spend some time researching them and reading their bios to understand their background, training, and experience.

What they cover. Get to know their areas of interest and understand what topics they cover.

What category they fall into. You should segment influencers into categories based on your industry. For example, I consider myself a casual foodie who focuses primarily on recipes but also writes the occasional review and offers some educational information. I wouldn’t fall into the expert, celebrity, or natural food categories.

The bottom line is this: Know who you’re talking to and only engage those influencers when it makes sense. Targeting me for a recipe based on boxed brownie mix was a miss. However, Duncan Hines could—and should—email me with cake mix-based recipes, because I have, in fact, posted such a recipe.

Just remember, if you’re selective in what you pitch to whom, you’ll likely get the outcome you desire and create a fruitful new relationship.

Do you track influencers? If so, how?

Just minutes after the U.S. launch of the Smart car was announced on automotive blogs, my [>>]]]> Relationship marketing done well should build brand affinity. The goal is to facilitate both word-of-mouth evangelism and a propensity for repurchase. But like Maui’s scenic Road to Hana, the journey is often more interesting than the destination. Take the Smart car, for example.

Just minutes after the U.S. launch of the Smart car was announced on automotive blogs, my wife and I placed our deposit through Daimler’s U.S. distribution arm, Penske Automotive Group. This was a unique product offering by a new brand, offered in strategic geographic markets. We would be among the first dozen proud owners to take delivery in the San Francisco Bay Area on a car sight unseen, without the benefit of kicking its tires, much less taking a test drive. As financing had yet to be established for the U.S. market, we would have to pay cash in full upon delivery. Not a single ad had run, and not a single dealership had opened its doors when we placed our deposit. If ever there was a definition of  an “early adopter” purchase scenario, this was it.

The Daimler/Penske/Smart trio ran into their share of potholes along the way. Supplies were short, and the first shipment of cars was delayed; when they finally arrived stateside, disorganized dealerships scrambled to release inventory to anxious customers. On top of all that, initial reviews from the automotive press were lukewarm at best. It was an imperfect car, released to market imperfectly. C’est la vie.

That said,  Smart played it, well, smart. They avoided the single biggest mistake that could have derailed their U.S. launch: ignoring their first round of customers in the interest of cultivating new sales prospects. I have bought new cars along the high end (Lexus) and the low end (Nissan) of the automotive spectrum, but Smart outsmarted them all.

Unlike Lexus or Nissan, Smart made a point of getting online and helping enthusiasts organize get-togethers. Whether this meant providing T-shirts and swag to a handful of Smart owners for a picnic at the beach or helping gather up a couple hundred Smart cars to fill San Francisco’s twisty Lombard Street from end to end, Smart USA made a point of finding out about, supporting, and attending owner events.

Smart also realized that without the benefit of traditional advertising, the single best way for the company to spread the gospel was an informed and enthusiastic owner base. Shortly after taking delivery of the cars, Smart owners received an “Emergency Roadside Kit” consisting of gift cards to Starbucks, ExxonMobil, and Barnes & Noble with interesting facts for us to use in conversation about our unique little cars. Whether it was the fact that our dashboards were made of flax rather than plastic or that our cars were powder coated using a solvent-free process, Smart armed us with the information we needed to be experts in all things Smart.

When we brought our cars in for service, we were provided with handy cards to keep in our glove box to help answer the most common questions from curious onlookers: is it safe (yes); can you drive it on the freeway (most definitely); is it electric (no, not yet); and so on. Smart took the time to educate, entertain, and reward its owners without asking (at least overtly) for anything in return.

Lexus, by contrast, had the slick dealership experience and impressive owner magazine brimming with shallow assumptions about what someone in my (presumed) demographic must be interested in: golf, luxury vacations, fine wines, cigars, etc.

Nissan acknowledged my purchase with a cheap brochure highlighting other Nissans I might be interested in (hey, didn’t I just buy one?) and some great financing terms for new buyers, a deal that would have been great to know about at the time of purchase but no longer applied to me as a new owner.

In short, Smart took the opportunity to get to know me and to help me get to know the company, while Lexus welcomed me into an exclusive lifestyle that I’m not sure I wanted to be part of and Nissan thanked me for my purchase by offering me a great deal on another Nissan.

Smart doesn’t have another car to sell me (yet), but I can honestly say I have done my part to turn more people on to Smart than either Lexus or Nissan. When the time comes, I’ll gladly consider purchasing whatever novel car Smart next offers to U.S. buyers.

It’s a fundamental question of both marketing and geek, and it’s not getting any easier to answer. If anything, we’re on a technological overload right now. You and I can connect on a multitude of levels: We can be [>>]]]> Does technology serve as the means for new relationships, or do new relationships generate the need for more technology?

It’s a fundamental question of both marketing and geek, and it’s not getting any easier to answer. If anything, we’re on a technological overload right now. You and I can connect on a multitude of levels: We can be friends on social platforms; we can send each other files through a variety of protocols and interfaces; we can share links, thoughts, pictures, online achievements, and resumes; we can support each other’s needs through an established, updated corporate presence.

In short, we can talk in many different ways.

That’s what makes the hubbub surrounding the launch of Apple’s iPad device so interesting, and I mean that in the nebulous way one can use the word. It’s a neat product. But here’s the thing—tablet PCs have existed for quite some time. Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices are a little different from the norm, but their oversized bigger brother isn’t as groundbreaking for its technology as it is for its potential. And I’m not even talking about the hardware itself: To paraphrase the famous line from Frank Herbert’s Dune,  the store—like the spice—is the key.

It’s Not Just Books

Think about it.  All Apple needs to do is open up the App Store to e-book-like creations of all kinds, regardless of the strength or size of the supplier. It needs to allow a publisher—amateur or otherwise—to be able to deliver content in an easily digestible, highly customizable, potentially updatable fashion. I won’t bore you with the technical details, but I envision a future where a consumer would be able to buy inexpensive access to an HTML5 and JavaScript-based “book” of sorts, a combination of text, multimedia, and whiz-bang that can be updated by the supplier without Apple’s direct involvement.

And who would sign on to make these books?  In short, anyone—anyone and everyone. But I’m not so much interested in a future of the “David Murphy’s Guide to Life” novels as I am intrigued by the potential of a widely used, accessible digital platform for corporate America. Think about it: Instead of print manuals to accompany products, a company could include a link to a discounted (or free) version of a digital user’s guide. No longer would customers be faced with a droll manual that lists out the features of their favorite products or devices in a painstakingly boring fashion. A branded e-book could serve as a much better how-to guide and introduction for a product’s features. Videos and interaction could accompany designed text to create a presentation, not just a product manual.

Cementing the Relationship

Of course, the implications this could have  on the actual relationship between a brand and its loyal customers is, in a word, staggering. Print manuals are one-shot items. They’re costly. They can’t be changed once they’re put into place. They’re bound by the dimensions of the packaging and, if not done well, can be as helpful to educate a customer as  it is to give them the product and say, “here you go!”  Nor can you personalize a product manual based on one’s interests, desired color patterns, or technical abilities.

Digital e-books as manuals present a wave of possibilities, the least of which being that they’re roughly 3.5 thousand times more portable than carrying around a stack of manuals or stuffing papers in the glove compartment of a car. Something happen with one of your headlights? Pull out your iPad and look up the accompanying text, infographics, and video to figure out what to do. Rate the solution on its effectiveness by touching your finger to the screen or, better yet, ask for help from a connected forum of users, experts, or representatives from the manufacturer itself.

So, why Apple? Is every consumer in the world going to go out and pick up an iPad on launch day? No. But Apple has the clout, the mystique, and the App Store powerhouse to really make a lot of push in the handheld market—or the oversize handheld market, mind you. It would take some negotiation and a willingness to do things differently, but it would be awesome to watch a device manufacturer really turn the notion of customer service on its head via digital distribution of help products. Would you pay an extra $5 for such a slick, comprehensive, updated guide to your product?  I would.