ChasNote

In my first column as guest blogger for Alan Graham’s “Tales from the Web 2.0 Frontier (ZDNet), I talk about two case studies of “conversational marketing” in which brands managed to to stay on-message while also creating campaigns that achieved PR and viral success — Cisco’s “Welcome to the Human Network” and Dice’s “Rant Banner”:

“Every marketer these days wants the kids at My Space befriending their corporate mascots, producing fun-yet-favorable YouTube videos that feature their products and writing blog posts on that fresh, revitalized feeling that comes from using their brand of soap. But here’s the catch. Most of us – the My Space kids included – don’t want to talk about most companies’ products. We want to talk about ourselves! So what’s an aspiring “conversational marketer” to do?

Find a way to associate your brand and products with a conversation that your customers are already having or would like to have.”

Check out the full piece at ZDNet.