Session Notes: How Online Conversations Change Markets

My notes from Paul Gillin’s session at BlogWorld Expo.

One link from one blogger can drive more traffic than an email sent to 30,000 people.

Example: the Vincent Ferrari AOL cancellation video. In the old days this would have been an anecdote over dinner, but since he was a blogger, he posted it to YouTube, his blog and to Consumerist. It went viral and Ferrari went on Today, Nightline, and got a ton of coverage in the media.

Example: the Dell exploding laptop batteries. Less than 2 months from first photos published online to a 4,000,000+ battery recall.

Who are the New Influencers?

Examples – Google Blogscoped, AdRants, Fark, Craigslist(?), MommyCast
What makes these guys influencers? Quality content, unique voice. They tell stories and have passion for their subject. It’s about being specific.

[me: Craigslist isn’t a blog, though.]

New media model: immediacy. Getting new info up fast! It redefines a paradigm that had previously been set by the long lead times of print.

The nature of high-growth markets is a lot of churn. It makes it hard for marketers to place bets & know where to put their money. Last year it was MySpace, this year it’s Facebook. Next year, something else.

It’s traffic and it is very sticky.

“Newspapers aren’t dying, our readers are” [lol]

Change point: fast networks, cheap technology (both hardware & software). Allows new types of services to emerge. Also Google and how they figured out how to monetize sites of all sizes. Software is mostly free, means you don’t need to spend half a mil on Oracle when MySQL is free. Makes startups much cheaper.

Seth Godin = “Small is the new big.”

Smaller, focused sites with an engaged customer base are better than big sites. New media model is emerging –smaller markets, larger margins, low fixed costs, but no barrier to entry and lots of choices. Thus – very competitive and quality is the differentiator.

This compares to old media – big budgets, big markets, high barrier to entry, but also high margins.

New journalism – customers are also participants. Editors still necessary.

The new marketing – Influence points are proliferating. Harder to figure out your focus, because you probably don’t have the time to have conversations with them all.
Influencer’s motives are different from the MSM. You cannot control the message the way you used to.
Conversation is key.

Old tactics do not work anymore.

Example: Dell. “22 Confession”. BAD idea to turn it over to the legal department and to send a takedown notice. Just made things worse. The old threat tactics do not work.

The good news: the blogosphere is forgiving – IF you’re willing to step up and admit it when you’re in the wrong.

Joining the conversation:
This is the good news. You can get involved.
If you do get involved, you can have some real success in reaching your customers directly, without media filters.
Content and credibility are king.

Segmentation is not going away. Get used to it.
Leadership will emerge but will change over time.