“Beyond Buzz” … A New Book to Help Companies Turn the Conversational Corner

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“Beyond Buzz” … A New Book to Help Companies Turn the Conversational Corner

By Brad Shorr | August 7, 2007

Conversational marketing, word-of-mouth marketing … whatever you want to call it, it’s here to stay. This presents a challenge to larger companies, where entrenched ways of thinking in marketing, advertising and public relations can stop conversations cold and drive business away.

For companies to prosper in this new customer environment, they have to adapt, and that’s not easy. Lois Kelly’s new book, “Beyond Buzz–The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing”, explains how a company can reorient and reorganize itself to capitalize on the many opportunities now open in the conversational marketplace.

We’re not talking about a few little tweaks, here. What’s called for is a fundamentally new understanding of what marketing is. Lois sums it up brilliantly–

“Marketing has traditionally been more like a manufacturing operation, producing advertisements, Web sites, brochures, campaigns, and press releases. Reframed as a service, however, marketing gains even more value through the processes of listening, advising, explaining, and teaching.” (p. 155)

Recasting marketing as a service means that–

Companies will have to change reporting structures.
Leaders will have to articulate new visions and goals.
Staffers will have new things to do.
Everyone will have to jump into customer conversations.

These things don’t happen overnight or without help. “Beyond Buzz” gets into the nitty gritty of what it takes to become a conversational company. She discusses–

What conversational marketing is.
Why it matters.
How to start meaningful conversations.
How to speak conversationally (i.e., in plain English).
How to shift to a conversational mind-set.
How to build a conversational culture within your company.

There’s lots written about the theory of conversational marketing, and lots written about specific techniques that savvy conversational marketers use to start, build and sustain meaningful customer dialog. While Lois certainly touches on those things, what makes her book especially useful is that it fills the gap between theory and tactics.

When companies attempt to go directly from theory to action, chaos ensues. Learning and knowledge sharing have to occur first. There has to be a plan. There has to be buy-in. There have to be objectives and mileposts. Lois has studied this process thoroughly and successfully helped companies go through it–her case studies and anecdotes of success and failure are illuminating, and in some cases, alarming.

But the book is far more than a series of suggestions and stories. She beautifully describes what an ideal marketing organization should look like, providing a framework for her recommendations.

Any business leader, and sales, marketing, advertising, customer service or public relations professional will find something of value in “Beyond Buzz”.

Great companies are conversational companies. Where is your company on the conversational curve these days?

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One Response to ““Beyond Buzz” … A New Book to Help Companies Turn the Conversational Corner”

Are You Putting your Blog to Work? | Word Sell, Inc. Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 5:40 am
[…] If a client wants to dig into conversational marketing, I might shoot him a link to this book review post. […]