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“Own the conversation by improving the conversation” | gapingvoid

This long (8,000 words) but incredibly worthwhile post from Hugh a few days ago is a classic.  It expounds on the marketing and what it means in todays environment.  I will resist the temptation to call it new marketing or any other buzz word.  Its just a worthwhile read, and essential reading for bankers if they want to get inside the head of new marketing (oops .. I said it)

He speaks of the shift from the old way of marketing and why it no longer applies.  There are two core drivers, although one might argue they are related – the inverse of each other to a certain extent, but anyway:

  1. the invention of the internet
  2. the demise of what Seth Godin calls the "TV-Industrial Complex

The central premise is that of the “social object”. Don’t get hung up on the Blue Monster thing – its just an example.  Also i suggest you don’t read into this that it does not apply to banking, at least until you have assessed all the implications.

BLUE MONSTER: WHY SOCIAL OBJECTS ARE THE FUTURE OF MARKETING

How does one build a useful service around social objects? Five key principles.

  1. You should be able to define the social object your service is built around.
  2. Define your verbs that your users perform on the objects. For instance, eBay has buy and sell buttons. It’s clear what the site is for.
  3. How can people share the objects?
  4. Turn invitations into gifts.
  5. Charge the publishers, not the spectators. He learned this from Joi Ito. There will be a day when people don’t pay to download or consume music but the opportunity to publish their playlists online.

Here are some examples of social objects:

  • iphone
  • Nike running shoes
  • starbucks cup
  • gmail invites (during the early days)
  • bottle of wine

But lets step back to why the social object is necessary and in the context of the shifts relative to internet and TV.

The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else. Human beings are social animals. We like to socialize. But if think about it, there needs to be a reason for it to happen in the first place. That reason, that "node" in the social network, is what we call the Social Object.

Hugh says “In terms of communication, the company no longer has first-mover advantage.”  Traditional marketing wants to control the message, walk the customer through the “marketing funnel” and get them to select the optimum and hopefully most expensive product.

Traditional marketing is taking the same behaviours into the new internet space.  They have discovered bloggers.  I get emails all the time from PR folks, or from companies direct.  There are two types:

  • those trying to get to know me, and the blog purpose.  They have studied the blog, the comments and have a sense of the blog purpose.  I listen to them – don’t always agree, but I listen.
  • those that send me something that has obviously been sent to a gazillion other blogs, without context, and often not on my radar.  I ignore, and if they do it more than twice, they get ‘report spam’.  Sorry but welcome to new marketing.

Lets go to the title.  What a power statement

"Own the conversation by improving the conversation."

Is your bank having conversations with customers online?  Ask to read the email responses from your call centre.  Are they:

  1. scripted
  2. spontaneous

Read those emails as a customer – how do you react to them?

The first question you should REALLY ask yourself is:

"How do I want to change the way I talk to people?"

 

The definition of a social object.

The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else. Human beings are social animals. We like to socialize. But if think about it, there needs to be a reason for it to happen in the first place. That reason, that "node" in the social network, is what we call the Social Object.

Now that its defined lets not forget that its not that important in and of itself.

The final thing to remember is that, Social Objects by themselves don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it’s nice hanging out with Lee talking about Star Wars. But if Star Wars had never existed, you’d probably still enjoy each other’s company for other reasons, if they happened to present themselves. Human beings matter. Being with other human beings matter. And since the dawn of time until the end of time, we use whatever tools we have at hand to make it happen.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

I think at its basic form, the idea of the social object is to provide context for a conversation – context that works for both parties to the conversation.