While everybody is seemingly going ga-ga over the GooTube thing today, I've been thinking about something else.
I've been pitching a lot of clients lately on the notion of adjusting their thinking from top-down (broadcast) to bottom-up (conversational). There's another wrinkle once you get past that, though.
Just like they tend to have problems with the notion of releasing their perceived control of the message, marketing folks tend to have problems with control of the venue. That is, marketers want things to happen on their own websites and not elsewhere on the Internet.
A conversation has less perceived value to many marketers if it transpires on Bob's Blog as opposed to the blog they set up for the purpose of hosting said conversations. For some reason, many marketers are having difficulty moving from aggregated to distributed in how they think about the marketplace.
Yes, we like it when client blogs become the focal point for a conversation. But that doesn't mean that a discussion on a message board or on an independent blog is less valuable in some way.
Maybe this has something to do with the idea that marketers crave control, and if they do come to terms with not being able to control the message, maybe they still can't come to terms with control of the venue.
Posted by THespos at October 10, 2006 03:21 PM | TrackBackTom,
A few years ago, I was President of the Student Government at my college. At that time, the administration loved to let students 'think' they were in control of our student newspaper - but every once in a while they would step in and make a 'last minute edit.'
I argued for the entire year with the student editor that ultimately this meant he & the students didn't ultimately have control. The administration did & he should push back...
Anyway, it seems like the scenario you describe is really because they flat out still haven't come to terms with the concept. If you really were comfortable giving up control of the message - why would you want to control venue? The only reason I can think of is wanting to have the chance to delete that one really negative comment or turn comments off on that one controversial post.
Don't you agree?
Posted by: Sean Ammirati at October 10, 2006 04:40 PM
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