Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

This panel will be interesting for anyone that is looking to validate their approach to building relationships with clients. It includes a couple of case studies by interesting people.

'Conversation' & 'community', yes, yes. Of course. Given. But how, exactly? Do you want people to find out about and play with your awesome Web stuff without being skeevy about it? Serious about including your users in the long-term creation and evolution of your products? Together, we'll divine the best ways to unmarket and create self-replicating awesomeness.

Chris Heuer Partner, The Conversation Group
Tara Hunt Co-Founder, Citizen Agency
Jeremiah Owyang Forrester
Deborah Schultz Founder/Chief Catalyst, deborahschultz.com
David Parmet Owner, Marketing Begins At Home LLC
Hugh MacLeod Grand Pooh-Bah, gapingvoid.com

This panel had nerd humor. Lots of it. :)

Good marketing doesn't even feel like marketing. It's all about product development, customer service and marketing together. You have to get in the trenches to understand it. Some of the panelists feel marketing was created for mediocre projects.

Online community best practices: Panelists feel online embassies with brand ambassadors are the best way of approaching (YAY, Scandinavian Child!!!). With these communities, you are valuing the participants and sharing information with them that you are not sharing with the general public.

One panelist, who is selling her intellectual property, mentioned that the more insight she gave away, the more she was sought after.

When engaging bloggers to blog about wine they sent them the product. These users were selected because they seemed like they may be interested. They told the bloggers they could say the product was crap if they wanted. If they wanted to mention it, they could, but they didn't have to. They told the bloggers it was fine if they didn't care, The started noticing impromtu geek dinners, They started sending the wine to the parties. The conversations that were sparked were more interesting than the wine, but it was still interesting.

They started noticing that conversations were starting around the social objects. Networks evolve around those objects (like iPhones). People start making social gestures, they beget social objects, beget social markers. Phone geeks will have to start with the iPhone conversation for reference and credibility. As a marketer, you have to remember that you don't own the community.

The future of the economy is free. Giving away something for free helps make relationships. Get out of the ivory tower stop pushing stuff at people. Attend conferences and start network-weaving. Cool stuff happens when community A and B meet.

(Lots of talks about start-ups this year.) When you are a small or midsize company, dont put up a FAQ. Instead, bring in people to ask questions and then answer them online. Bring in customers. This can come out of your marketing or customer service budget. Start with the people that love you to find ambassadors.

They stated that really great brands don't have big ideas. they have lots of little small ones (Starbucks, NetFlix, etc.).