Spreading the Faith

Laurie Sefton has a consulting company called Plaidworks (partners with Chuq!). She writes a great little blog.

She recently wrote a post called Not What I Expected...: Doing the "Sally Rand" with Longhorn, where she wondered how Microsoft (and other companies) are using technology to talk to customers, and find out more about competitors:

"I do read Robert Scoble's and John Porcaro's blogs on a pretty regular basis. Now, both are paid by Microsoft to "spread the faith", as it were, and sometimes the amp needs to be cranked down from 11. But the sheer joy they have in talking about Microsoft products is apparent. ...

And the question I have--why aren't more companies getting on board with this? There are people at every company--sales, marketing, evangelism, and a bunch of engineers--who are wired to do this sort of thing. Not that Microsoft is overtly telling their staff "go forth, and blog!", but I feel that there are corporations that either actively discourage staff from identifying, or are completely unaware of what's going on "out there".

The flip side also appears to be missing--where are the pointers to the user group blogs, and the blogs of people who are talking about they use your company's products? You can't buy that sort of stuff. Relationship marketing, anyone?"

She's totally right. Relationships are going to start when marketers begin listening to their customers. It's going to be a lot easier when everyone can publish their thoughts easily and instantly. Those with needs will find those that can fill them. And marketing as a discipline will change dramatically.

And by the way, I am paid by Microsoft to help "market" our products, but that's not why I blog. The answer to that question is a blog for another day...