The mainsteam starts to hear about web 2.0

Bugger – now they are letting the CEO’s know about the Web 2.0 marketing techniques. The WSJ has published The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World,  which has the not so SEO friendly url of http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122884677205091919.html, but contains plenty of Web 2.0 buzzwords in it’s  text.

The article is from MT Sloan review, which the WSJ appears to publish in their Business Insight section. They have plenty of other articles of interest, as well as  discussions for each.

It’s yet another sign of the changes the WSJ is making – becoming more and more useful every time I go there. It is certainly gaining on the NYTimes. Do red the article, or if you are lazy, then the headlines below. Read it and think Vodafone & Telecom:

For marketers, Web 2.0 offers a remarkable new opportunity to engage consumers.

If only they knew how to do it

Don’t just talk at consumers
work with them throughout the marketing process.
The conversations consumers have with each other, he adds, result in “some of the most interesting insights,” including gift ideas for specific occasions, such as a college graduation, and the prices consumers are willing to pay for different gifts.

Give consumers a reason to participate.
The moderator can also see to it that consumer input is seen and responded to by the right people within the company.

Listen to — and join — the conversation outside your site.
In one case, a company found a popular blogger who had spoken highly of the company’s brand. Just prior to launching a new product, the company sent the blogger a free sample, inviting him to review it with no strings attached. The end result: The blogger wrote a favourable review and generated a flood of comments

Resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell.
“not to do anything about marketing, because we weren’t about selling; we were about conversing.”

Don’t control, let it go.
“You have to let the members drive. When community members feel controlled, told how to respond and how to act, the community shuts down.”

Find a ‘marketing technopologist.’
“I’d want to see someone with the usual M.B.A. consultant’s background, strong interest in psychology and sociology, and good social-networking skills throughout the organisation.”

Embrace experimentation.
One Web 2.0 strategy does not fit all, and sometimes the best way to find out what’s best for a given company is to try some things out and see what happens.

I wrote a response in the forum.

Great article

However  don’t keep it within the marketing department, but unleash all of your weapons – your employees. Let them  blog, twitter, talk on facebook, myspace, orkut and bebo about what they do, the company they work for and the products they sell. And as the article says, take the negative stuff on the chin and use all of the feedback, positive and negative, to improve your products.

Your newer employees are used to exposing their lives online for all to see – winning friends as a result. The web 2.0 challenge is how to open up your company in the same way.

Oh – and the technology moves so fast that you won’t keep up with it. Are you Twittering yet? Your employees are, and if you let them they’ll do the twittering or you