Originally published in 2007 by Mike Adams

You are the person of the year! That’s right. You, meaning all of us, were named TIME Magazine 2006 “Person of the Year.” That’s because we have transformed the media landscape through our influence, community and collaboration. And the impact is seen in the current rise of user-generated content and social media, such as blogs, pod-casts, music, video and social networking.

TIME contributor Lev Grossman says the reason “You” were chosen for this award was, “…for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game…”

Therefore, this award acknowledges that the Internet gives the masses the ability to create mass media. Everyone now has a channel to broadcast his or her thoughts and ideas to the world. The control of media has changed, and this changes the way we see the world.

Building Brands Through Conversation Not Control
As marketers we are trying to understand this new world order — and it has some of us thinking that today’s marketing model is broken. “We’re trying to apply antiquated thinking to a new world of possibilities,” said Jim Stengel, CMO Procter & Gamble. And recently he reinforced this assertion in his speech at the 2007 4A’s Media Conference, “What we really need is a mind-set shift, a mind-set shift that will make us relevant to today’s consumers, a mind-set shift from ‘telling and selling’ to building relationships.”

The Internet and mobile devices have brought a new dynamic into play, changing the way people interact with one another and with brands. Consequently, there needs to be a fundamental shift in our thinking. Empower believes that companies now must engage in a two-way dialogue with their consumers — not a one-way message originating from the marketing department. Participation is the future of marketing. In fact, Peter Kim of the research firm Forrester advocates that “Participation” be added to the well-established Four Ps of Marketing: Produce, Price, Place and Promotion.

For that reason, a new form of marketing has emerged called Conversational Marketing. Conversational Marketing acknowledges the basic rules of human communication. As social creatures, communication facilitates our natural and innate desire to connect with one another, create relationships and maintain and encourage social bonds.

But before we can participate in the conversation as marketers, we must realize that consumers and target audiences are human beings, not demographic segments. Empower has a history of understanding that the people with whom we want to create a relationship are not statistics or stereotypes. And we have to recognize that people are smart and want genuine, authentic and trustworthy relationships — and never attempt to deceive them.

We must also remember that when messages are influential, it is because they are authentic. And messages become more authentic when they are created and delivered beyond the boundaries of corporate marketing mechanisms. A distinct advantage citizen marketers hold over many traditional media is the voice of authenticity otherwise known as “word of mouth.”

While this scares companies witless because no one wants bad word of mouth, they also depend heavily on the Internet to generate and share critical knowledge. Brands need to resist the urge to “improve” or control these networked conversations and instead see the value in consumers talking about their products with others in both positive and negative lights. Only then will they really learn what makes their consumers tick — and what they really want. After all, conversations aren’t just for talking; they’re for listening too.

Empower Guidelines for Starting Conversations

Empower Strategies for Effective Conversation Marketing

Who Is Doing It Well?

Foster Community & Engage in a Dialog: Tampax and Always, both P&G brands, created a cohort web site, beinggirl.com. This ‘”for girls by girls” site is a place where pre-teen and teen girls can come together to learn and share ideas and opinions about topics such as PMS, dating, their changing bodies and even serious subjects like addiction and abuse. www.beinggirl.com

Encourage the Sharing of Ideas: On the John Fluevog Open Source Footwear web site, consumers are encouraged to submit their own shoe designs. The company may use the idea outright or base a design of its own on it. If a consumer’s design is used, the shoe will be named after him or her. www.fluevog.com

Make the World a Better Place: Patagonia has a very loyal brand community because it builds the best products, does no unnecessary harm to the environment and uses business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. To live up to this promise, Patagonia chooses an environmental crisis every one to two years that it devotes most of its energy towards. Patagonia’s 2006–07 environmental campaign investigates the connection between the vitality of human life and the marine environment. Patagonia is able to build a strong connection through a common cause that is meaningful to their loyal consumers. www.patagonia.com

Be Authentic & Personal, Not Corporate: GM’s FastLane blog is a forum for GM executives to talk about GM’s current and future products and services and allows consumers to comment on the posts without being censored. fastlane.gmblogs.com

Who Is Doing It All?
Dove’s global Campaign for Real Beauty aims to change the status quo and offer in its place a broader, healthier, more democratic view of beauty that all women can own and enjoy everyday. www.campaignforrealbeauty.com

In order to achieve this important goal, the Campaign for Real Beauty includes the following initiatives:

At Empower we believe that connecting with people through authentic conversations to build relationships with brands is the future of marketing. Consumers are in control of the messages and the media with which they choose to engage, and this is why we must make a shift in our thinking. People are willing to engage in two-way relationships with companies and brands that stand for something meaningful, rather than those that try to control their actions. People want genuine, authentic and trustworthy brand relationships and they want to be heard, respected and understood.

The managing editor of TIME Magazine said it best: “Individuals are changing the nature of the information age…the creators and consumers of content are transforming art, politics and commerce they are the engaged citizens of a new digital democracy.”

To make this shift it will take confidence and courage on our part. It will require removing the obstacles that keep us from truly connecting with people on their terms. Empower is continually working with clients, media companies and other agencies to impart a human perspective in all communication.