Broadcast Tactics in Conversational Environments

My friend Shel Holtz has a good post about the difficulty corporate communications people have breaking one-directional broadcast habits as they enter the conversational environment of social media, particularly social networks such like Facebook. He serves up a great Jonathan Crow’s experiment that many people will find useful.

He also surprised me  by reporting on a study from the American Marketing Association that suggests a lot of people like ads and apps in social networks, particularly instore promotions and discount coupons. If this is true, there is a thread of hope that somehow as agencies and social networks like the current kicking puppy Facebook who is struggling to figure out revenue strategies that won't have users leaving in droves.

The trick for Facebook and others I think is to have ongoing conversations with customers. People are not insensitive to the need for monetization. They just don't want new media to keep dropping trash in front of their eyes the way the old media does.