Should Marketing change “Communications” to “Conversations”?

Change the Focus

There are so many people in marketing departments right now who are trying to figure out the future of public relations and advertising. Are they dead because of Social Media? Not in the near future is my guess. Are the efforts of PR and Advertising being reviewed in many organizations? Yes. Although Marketing Communications which usually includes these two practices should be two-way, there are times it feels like a one-way propaganda machine. Add to this that even when you receive a response as a provider, it might be delayed by weeks. The most valuable of all communication to me is an actual conversation and to get the Marketing Communications team out of “message artillery mode”, it may be time to change their mission and daily habits.

Social Media enables Dynamic and Scalable Conversations

With the advent and rapid adoption of Social Media tools and platforms, dynamic and scalable conversation is enabled. This presents an overarching opportunity to recognize that some communication may be one-way from the provider in regard to messaging, but that a multi-person dialogue has higher value. The side benefit of these conversations is getting some qualitative market research from relevant parties. By interacting with more potential buyers, journalists, blog writers, analysts and consultants, the conversations can influence overall corporate messaging and even understanding markets. By those outside players participating in the Social Media conversations, they are now “invested” by using their irreplaceable time. That’s a good move toward creating a community of people interested in the vision and success of the provider.

Conversations turn into Coral Reefs of Content

Social Media conversations can be referenced, atomized for convenience, be seen by millions, influence thousands and can be forwarded. When those conversations are at their best, they turn into valuable content for the provider. The provider has the increased probability that outside parties will add content that gives the provider credibility as a solution. Conversations become coral reefs of user-generated content which is much more credible, powerful and scalable than corporate messaging. Think about what conversations themselves communicate vs. what communications communicate.

Words Matter to get Teams to Focus

If we work for a large corporation, we may feel that there is always money available to do what we want. Many people in some very powerful organizations found out in the last six months that this is simply not true. All of us work with limited resources. By focusing on Marketing Conversations, we are saying that we want to be in the conversation. We want to be in all dialogue that involves our industry, category or offerings. It means we will protect our reputation in those conversations and steer them back to our good standing in the overall community. A conversation says the weight of importance is tipped toward the voice of the collective community, not the provider's message. From the revenue standpoint, it gives the marketing team more validation as participants in the provider’s revenue engine. The only thing holding back the chance to move focus from communications to conversations was the limitation of scale. That was so yesterday.