Comments on: Conversation Is Good

By: Is the “social media” really “social” or “media”? | 21st-century PR issues › Paul Seaman's online review

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:14:07 +0000

[...] not a Luddite. However that has not stopped social media commentators such as Danny Brown accusing me of, “discounting one of the most valuable tools in business branding and promotion [...]

By: The Continuum Theory of Social Media | danny brown

The Continuum Theory of Social Media | danny brown — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:27:26 +0000

[...] currency of social media is a human conversation. Those one-on-one conversations don’t scale well. A million very shallow conversations would [...]

By: Emmet Gibney

Emmet Gibney — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:26:54 +0000

The issue I see with twitter for bigger enterprises is that it's difficult to maintain a two way conversation when you have thousand upon thousands of people involved. Once you have several thousand followers, you're eventually going to start slowing the number of people you follow in return, otherwise you're going to have difficulty filtering out the noise, inevitably it becomes a lecture instead of a conversation.

One way I could see twitter being useful for them though would be if they were willing to empower their employees to use twitter to communicate on their behalf, and as a result they could have hundreds or thousands of representatives mingling with their customers, and getting a sense of what they could do to improve their business.

By: Scott Mahler

Scott Mahler — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:51:40 +0000

I beleive social media has, and will continue to, change the landscape of all media because of the interactive nature of it. Everybody wants their voice to be heard. You mention CNN, and while it may be true that their feed streams news, you can also interact during the hour Rick Sanchez is on the air. This is where I see social media making the biggest impact, and I think we will see more and more of this type of interaction being offered by many other companies. The marketing possibilities are amazing. In my mind there is no doubt social media is not only here to stay, but will only get bigger and broader over the next few years. Scott Mahler's Recent post...Content Management for Your Business Website

By: Suzanne Franco

Suzanne Franco — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:37:52 +0000

Well Danny … I'm sorry to read all of this. There are some people who don't understand basic conversation – the kind where you can discuss issues and ideas – even if they're opinions differ – and do it calmly and respectfully of each other. Guess it's no different online for some. Maybe this whole "incident' will help him see that good, healthy conversation is OK to have without arguing. *SmiLes* Suzanne

Suzanne Franco's Recent post…What’s Up on the Blog in 2009?

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:09:29 +0000

How do you figure you can interact with Rick Sanchez? I followed him when he was a novelty, tweeted him several times to no reply, so I unfollowed.

Why limit "interaction" to one hour a day? Where's the value there?

By: The Lovable Rogue

The Lovable Rogue — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:01:18 +0000

Danny, You know that I am a big fan of diversity of opinion, but the comments made by Mr. Paul Seaman seem somewhat backward. Whilst he is certainly entitled to his opinions, I feel that he would find it a considerable task to defend many of his statements to the professionals that engage their efforts into defining and discussing the social media on a daily basis. Whilst there is significant distaste towards the term 'social media', there is little denying the distinction between such platforms and the more traditional media. Whilst traditional media is charactised by the undeniably one directional capacity of its messages, the social media encourages discussion through the provision of an electronic voice. By allowing users the capacity to respond, the media has moved from static information to dynamic conversation. Arguably, the clue is in the name... TLR The Lovable Rogue's Recent post...Keeping the Conversation Alive

By: ariherzog

ariherzog — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:54:45 +0000

Aww, you two are too sweet! This is the first time I've heard of Swiss Paul but perhaps the kicker is in something you already mentioned, Danny: he requires blog commenters to register.

Off the cuff, I've registered to post comments at the Guardian (the London newspaper) and ZDNet's blogs. But a personal blog? No thanks. Closed doors indeed.

If he forces his commenters to leap through hurdles to interact, no wonder he gets defensive. Maybe his way is the only way.

By: Danny Brown

Danny Brown — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:10:59 +0000

Good points and I agree completely, Chris – the two-way communication is the defining difference between where we were and where we are. An example – look at social media press releases, that offer readers the chance to comment and give instant feedback to a particular campaign. This kind of market research would have taken weeks previously – now it's there in front of you, in a hugely cost-effective manner.

As you say, the clue is most definitely in the name.

By: Danny Brown

Danny Brown — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:29:49 +0000

Your example with Ari – who, like you, I've connected with and shared some great conversations – is perfect at showing why open debate and conversation has such an important role to play in any medium, David.

While people will always disagree with each other (it's only human nature), there's a line between disagreement and denial. That's where the trick to good conversation lies (IMO).