Continuing our series of podcasts on the seven principles of community engagement uncovered in the book Now Is Gone (only 8 days until it’s released), number two focuses on Participation is Marketing (16 minutes). This was a pretty strong discussion, and my favorite of our first three podcasts.

In Participation Is Marketing Brian Solis and I discuss:

• Most companies make the mistake of just publishing blog posts or content. Commenting and being out in social networks is an important part of participating.
• This requires a shift from organizational-centric based communications to customer or community-centric communications.
• This does not mean get rid of your marketing department, rather create a new department for social media/community engagement to engage. This integrates with the larger marketing effort.
• Participation approach during diacetyl crisis for popcorn manufacturers (see Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni’s Restoring the Faith in Popcorn post)
• The nature of traditional marketing naming conventions and tools are not effective. It’s a different person and approach.
• The need for relationship building skills a la Dale Carnegie. It’s the sociology of social media.
• Chris Heuer and his timeless post, “Participation is Marketing“
• Attraction versus Promotion: Participation attracts people, while promotion sells them

If you prefer to download, visit media.libsyn.com/media/geoliv/participation.wav.




Remember, the book will be released on November 12. Pre-ordering is available on Amazon.We will publish our third Now Is Gone podcast next week, and then take a break until after the Thanksgiving holiday. The first podcast focuses on Audiences versus Communities (12 minutes).

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Brian, Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.