Conversations - Engaging those who Serve Your Brand

When I was a young boy, almost everything we bought for the farm or home came from someone we knew in our local community and experience. Each relationship with these suppliers of goods and services was supported by conversations that flowed naturally from our daily experiences. Gradually, over sixty years we've moved to urban environments, become anonymous and lost the relationships we had with the trusted suppliers of our youth.


In an earlier issue I suggested that we view everyone with a new sense of import as servers of our brand values to the network of people who trust them and their preferences. In this issue I would like to explore conversations as a tool for engaging those mavens (servers) we must have in the online marketplace to be successful.


As we get started, take a moment to make a list of several people in your brand network that you are in conversation with.  Beside each name write an element that you believe drives your conversation together with the outcome(s) that you both desire for this conversation.


It is becoming painfully obvious, that large brand holders cannot achieve loyalty or influence using traditional marketing tools to initiate or maintain conversations with their consumers. However, it is also obvious the internet and social media has capacity to establish and serve these conversations.


How do we engage in conversations with our network?
I am confident you will find there are two ways you engage with people in your network. The first is that you shared an experience or interest that grabbed their attention and the second is that you supported this initial engagement with authentic conversation.  As you think about conversation, there are fundamentals you need to recognize: 

• First, you need to recognize that conversation is a two-way street.  Dialogue, involves participation from both parties, not static content in a brochure or an advertising campaign, even though content like this may enhance the conversation.
• Second, you must acknowledge that people don't often talk with those they don't trust or engage with those who aren't authentic. For this reason, your conversations must be authentic and show that you have a real interest to enrich the life of the other person. See the Apple story
• Finally, the conversations you wish to have, may need to be framed outside of your own sphere of influence. That's why senior management must engage in industry activities and conversations more now than ever before and why online conversations may need to be on industry portals.

So how do you begin and maintain a conversation?  
Bring to mind a recent conversation. It could have been on the phone, in person or online. Very likely what initiated the conversation was something you needed to know, something your contact needed to know or a followup to an experience or interest you both share. This is why real time knowledge and experiences like webinars, summits, surveys, white papers and reports are so important to initiate and maintain online conversations.


A wonderful element of online conversations is that they only arise at the very moment it becomes important for us and our contact to engage. At that moment, they can attend an internet portal, search a topic and enter a conversation that is already underway, review one that is already complete or initiate a new one. Of course, as a brand holder/marketer you have the responsibility to be involved in conversations and you must be open to bringing forward new subject matter that will enrich the lives of those you serve.


For PetLynx, we constructed a Market Services and Intelligence business unit that would create opportunities for conversations through various aspects of the PetLynx Social Comm Platform. This PetLynx business unit is directed to assemble and create knowledge, and to stimulate conversations for the entire industry. In the Know(tm) Briefings, YourSAY(tm) Surveys, Urban Animal Reports(tm), Know Now(tm) White Papers, the Summits for Urban Animal Strategies(tm), the OpenSpace Wiki and the MSI business intelligence data base are all elements of building and supporting conversations for the entire companion animal industry. After three years the industry is beginning to understand it must work collaboratively to gather 'Big Data' and market intelligence and it has begun to value industry wide initiatives like the 2011 Year of the Cat.


Act Willfully and Participate Often
Eventually, successful conversations in the marketplace develop out of having a willful, authentic desire to engage with and enrich the lives of those who use your brand products or services. Upon reaching this conclusion, you can participate in conversations that are already underway or foster a new conversation on one of the industry portals. Those who already know your brand and those who don't will come forward to be involved in these conversations. You will then be engaged with the very people who can be your mavens. They will serve your brand values to their networks as they trust you and value your authenticity.  It is this trust and these conversations that will ultimately position your brand with those you serve in the online marketplace.


If you have questions or ideas to share, please add them to the comment section and WE will have a conversation!