Following up on yesterday's post below, I came away quite pleased with the AMA Forward 08 Conference. As billed, the event centered on social networking, by way of Web 2.0 tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, et al. A good portion of the underlying tone of the conference hinted around the discipline necessary to manage one's personal, professional and corporate identities, but the speakers flat-out confirmed that tools are just that; tools.
Mr. Sernovitz opened the event and was, as usual, entertaining and informative. Now I hope you'll understand that it's not that what he's talking about these days is particularly groundbreaking. That's his point. Marketing (and its cousin, branding) is about keeping people talking and it's about employing common sense while continually striving to earn trust. It's always been that way and yet clients often believe that we can make the customer believe. The rational approach suggests that the customer has likely already made up her mind about the product, or in our case, service. According to Mr. Sernovitz, it's up to the marketer to concentrate on the following:
In every case, the tools available today (blogging, reviews, commenting, etc.) make this simultaneously easier and considerably more challenging.
I found the pre-lunch panel to be a bit long-winded. Sheila Hamilton's questions may have been a bit pedestrian for a good portion of the attendees, but I do commend her. Moderation is not a simple task and having sat in both the moderator and panelist positions, I can attest that neither role is particularly easy.
As hoped, Mrinal Desai's keynote was especially edifying. I find that there are times where I wish every client with whom I've worked was sitting with me as some sort of support for our counsel. This was one of those times. (I'd guess that certain clients have wished for the same of me, as well. Chalk it up to always finding room to improve.) Mrinal discussed his approach to planting the seeds of what is becoming an interesting offering from his company, CrossLoop. At its core, the product is about help, which is really all we ever need. As humans, I mean. He is building his organization with little more than determination, a growing network of champions (and a few critics), a humble set of social tools, and, get this; by being nice. The primary differentiator for Mr. Desai has been attention; to the requests, needs, complaints and challenges by those interested in his (free) offering. It's about customer service at the deepest level, about being helpful in the business of providing help. I must admit that I am a bit disappointed that his screen-sharing environment is currently limited to the Windows platform, but it's not lost on me. I certainly realize that entire industries, no, governments, have sprung up to help clarify the Microsoft space, but even we Mac folks would like to be in on the help game. For now, we will hope.
Obligatory shouts-out: Always enjoyable to share another lunch with Anvil's Kent Lewis. Enjoyed bumping into Steve Gehlen of the Inverge and Portland Creative Conference(s); our client and friend, Christine Llobregat of City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development; Orit Kramer of InHouse Graphic Design (and dedicated AIGA event helper); and to reconnect with Doug Cooke of Matter. Hat is off to AMA President Eric Gregg and everyone at AMA Oregon for pulling off a successful gathering. Well played.