Are you ready?

March 29 has always been an important date: Cy Young and John Tyler were born. The last US soldiers leave South Vietnam in 1973. And the War of the Roses basically ends in 1461.

But March 29, 2008 will be even more monumental. Actually, it's your job to make it monumental:

Just like Joseph Jaffe a few months ago, The Age of Conversation will bumrush the Amazon charts on tomorrow.

If you don't know about 'The Age of Conversation', get all the details here and find more about the Bumrush on Drew's blog.

And, please help the bumrush by checking out this Fresh Peel Post.

Most importantly, buy the book tomorrow.

March 29 - Mark the date!

March 29 has always been an important date: Cy Young and John Tyler were born. The last US soldiers leave South Vietnam in 1973. And the War of the Roses basically ends in 1461.

But March 29, 2008 will be even more monumental. Actually, it's your job to make it monumental:

Just like Joseph Jaffe a few months ago, The Age of Conversation will bumrush the Amazon charts on March 29.

If you don't know about 'The Age of Conversation', get all the details here and find more about the Bumrush on Drew's blog.

Stay tuned and tell your friends.

Join the Age of Conversation

What began as a dare between two bloggers, turned into one of the most interesting blogosphere stories of 2007: The Age of Conversation.

Much has been written about this book, Advertising Age listed it among the 'Books You Should Have Read in 2007" and more than $10,000 were raised for Variety the Children's Charity.

How do you follow up this successful, social project? You create an even bigger, better, baddder and more daring book.

In the spirit of collaboration, the sequel begins with a call-out to the community to determine this year's theme. You can choose between Marketing Manifesto, Why They Don't Get It and My Marketing Tragedy). Weigh in now and vote.



Get the official announcement here.

And if you feel ready to join the conversation with your own voice, email Drew and become part of the gang.

And, did I mention, vote now?

Hat tip to Greg Verdino for the top graphic.

Transactions vs actions

Everybody is talking about Conversational Marketing. Not many brands have done anything about it.

Why?

Marketing values transactions. They are the holy grail of each marketing plan. How many products are you going to sell because of your marketing? What's the ROI of each marketing tactic? Business Schools train future marketers to focus on transactions.

In the last few years we've started to learn that relevant engagement can be as valuable as transactions. Engagement allows for a more holistic understanding of actions people take. Relevant engagement is as valuable as transactions because engagement allows for influencing others.

Conversational Marketing in itself might not be the easiest sell to clients. Relevant engagement is the first step to a real conversational campaign.

Clearly, there's always a place for transactional marketing. Doubleclick/Google and aQuantive/Microsoft point into the future of advertising based on algorithms.
But the other half of the marketing pie will be reserved for conversational marketing. We just have to understand that this form of marketing can't be bought. It has to be earned.

Conversations happen with or without you

Humans are communicative, generous and lonely. That hasn't changed in 4,000,000 years, since our brains were wired.

Many people have conversations about your brand. You can be involved. Or stay on the sidelines.

Conversations are at the heart of marketing. How can you get to know your customers if you don't have conversations? This can be done in person, on social networks, through sophisticated email campaigns.

Imagine launching a new car. The old way of marketing to people would mean mass reach for 3 months and then hoping for the best. Creative wouldn't change because you made the decision to launch the car in a certain way more than 6 months ago.
Now, imagine launching a car, listening to the conversation for a few weeks and then completely adjusting your campaign, based on these conversations?

Customers will understand, appreciate your reaction and this could be the start of a beautiful relationship. What are you waiting for?

Get back to the sandbox

We all heard of the Cluetrain Manifesto. If you haven't, please leave this blog immediately and read it. The main thesis of the groundbreaking book, authored by Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, was that in the Information Age 'Markets are conversations.'

8 years later, Doc Searls, Peter Hirshberg, Technorati's chairman and Steve Hayden, Vice-Chairman of Ogilvy& Mather Worldwide, extended the Cluetrain concepts to the office with a paper titled "The Manifesto on Monday Morning: How to put the wisdom of Cluetrain into action when you get to your office." It was presented at the Conversational Marketing Summit in San Francisco last week.

As I haven't had a chance to read it, I quote the ZDNet blog:

"The Cluetrain Manifesto was ahead of its time–before the “Live Web” of blogs, wikis, RSS and the high-velocity, real-time information flow–and business practices are just beginning to catch up. The paper offers guidelines for applying conversational marketing for business and real world examples, and deals with the fundamental concerns marketers have entering the new terrain, e.g., How do brands enter a conversation? How do they syndicate conversations? How do you make advertising include your customer? How do marketers deal with an audience of thousands or millions of Web publishers?

The authors also include a “Conversational Advertising Code of Conduct,” and are solicitating comments in true conversational marketing fashion. Among the “codes” are the four areas where transparency is required: Use of a publisher’s content, the editorial process, attributing advertising and influencing content creators.

“Conversational advertising will fail if it is exploited as a means to cover-up sponsored blogging, pay-per-posting, or any other publishing that is supported and influenced by a brand without being represented as such,” the authors wrote regarding a blurring line between advertising and content.

Doc Searls offers his rules of the road for conversational marketing road, such as:

The purpose of conversation is to create and improve understanding, not for one party to “deliver messages” to the other. That would be rude.
People in productive conversation don’t repeat what they’re saying over and over. They learn from each other and move topics forward.
Conversational marketing is carried out by human beings, writing and speaking in their own voices, for themselves—not just for their employers.
Conversational marketing’s heartbeat is the human one, not some media schedule. Brands need to work incessantly to be understood within the context of the market conversation and to earn and keep the respect of their conversational partners.
From a monetary standpoint, authenticity and credibility come into play for the most savvy buyers. According to the paper, click-through rates on ads featuring conversations are often much higher than conventional ads.

Hence, conversational marketing will graduate from conceptual framework to a path to profits, and products, brands and services will be better informed via the conversation."

We see some brands embracing this concept. However, most brands are still on the sideline, waiting to see if this is just another fad or a real change in people behavior.

The most fundamental paradigm shift for sideliners is to transfrom from teacher to student. Brands used to teach consumers what to do, how to behave, gave them positive reinforcement for good behavior ('You purchased this product - Good Boy.') and bad behavior ('You don't want this product - Let's switch to the Noriega torture and continue to bombard you with irrelevant, loud and annoying messages.')

The switch from teacher to student is tough. But everyboy who's a parent knows that you can be a teacher while learning at the same time. You will widen your horizon and learn fascinating things about your kid and, most often than none, about yourself when you have the willingness and openess to learn. From your kid. And your customers.

The best place to develop campaigns is in the sandbox. Don't bring your best clothes, expect to get dirty and enjoy yourself.

P.S.: Get cutting-edge ideas and observations about the Age of Conversation here.

Let's talk

The Age of Conversation continues to make waves in the marketing community.

Steve Woodruff gives you now a taste of the whole book by offering you a small bite of what each and everyone of the authors has written. Check it out

A Taste from A-D

A Taste from E-J

A Taste from K-R

A Taste from S-Z

Amazing read. Buy the book here.

Finally!

Can you feel the excitement in the air?

It took just a few short months but finally the 'Age of Conversation' hits the bookstore and you can order it here

As a recap, that's how it all started:

"Drew posted about a project called We Are Smarter than Me which gives people a chance to help author a guest book.

In the comments of that post Gavin Heaton said "Great concept! And it sounds like it could be fun ... but you know what, Drew? I reckon between a few of us we could knock out a short book...All we need is a theme and a charity ..."

To which Drew said..."You are very right. Let's do it. Watch for an e-mail from me!"

Two weeks later -- here we are. And we'd like you to consider joining us.

And out of that blogging conversation and a few e-mails, Gavin & Drew concocted the idea for an e-book about this new era of communications we've all entered together. But not just any book. It has to be a quick book. Exciting. Sharp. Inclusive. It had to be a book about community and conversation that came from that community and spoke the same vernacular. The title -- The Conversation Age.

And that is why we are talking to you. Our idea:

100 authors. We're a few but need more.
The overriding topic is "The Conversation Age" -- where you take it is up to you.
The items are short - one 8.5" x 11" page -- it can be words, diagrams, photos (again up to you) If it is words - about 400, give or take a couple.
We write it quickly and get it out there. We publish electronically.
We make it available online for a small fee and we donate 100% of the proceeds to Variety the Children's Charity -- which serves children across the entire globe."

That was a months ago. And here we are. The book is printed, ready to be downloaded or shipped to you.

I'm very honored to be part of this prestigious group of bloggers:
Please explore all the contributors and pay a visit to their blogs

A Google Map of all the authors. Created by Matt Dickman.

The first reviews/mentions are in:

AdAge

Social Computing


And, in case you forgot, all proceeds go to Variety, a charity dedicated to improve the lives of children around the world.

What are you waiting for? Order now.