It's the Conversation Economy, Stupid

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Armano created this series of images to illustrate his thesis of "conversation architecture". Click the thumbnail to view the full image.

A Dell representative responded to a post about the company Armano had written on his blog. Is this marketing? Armano asks. "If you think of marketing as facilitation as opposed to communication, it is".

"Conversation leads to relationships and relationships lead to affinity," Armano continues. Affinity, in turn, results in communities. "This is why anyone who plays a role in growing brands needs to become a conversation architect," he concludes.

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Conversation Ecosystem

Twitter allows users to send and receive abbreviated communications or "digital shorthand" from a computer or mobile device. These are called "Tweets." The open-source nature of the application has spawned countless "mash-ups" where Twitter technology merges seamlessly with other open-source technologies such as Google (GOOG) Maps. Widgets and desktop applications such as Twitteroo and Twitterific take you outside of the browser and act as a sort of social instant messenger, sending and receiving rapid bursts of text and links.

Twitter can send and receive feeds. I now receive my news headlines from the service, getting up to speed from media sources such as CNN and The New York Times. That's why I call Twitter a conversation ecosystem—it supports multiple touch points of content and dialogue.

Think about the implications here. Just as YouTube changed how we watch and share videos, some emerging media applications are changing how we interact with each other and with brands. Does this sound like marketing? Well, it is. It's how we market to each other. Yes, that's right—we market to each other. We always have, in fact, but now we're doing it in a more digitally connected way. When we find our friends on any social network (pick one) we swap stories about products and services we like or dislike. We share knowledge and expertise. We define a new kind of currency fueled by conversation and founded in meaningful relationships.

Don't Communicate—Facilitate

Conversation architects move marketing beyond the idea of one-way messaging. Traditional marketing efforts were founded on this tried-and-true format and are still prevalent within the industry. Consider the example of a typical creative brief template, which usually says something like, "What are we trying to communicate?" Can you see the old-world residue in the word "communicate"? It lacks the dimensions of experiencing something and having an ongoing two-way dialogue. "What are we trying to communicate?" implies a one-way conversation. Maybe we should ask ourselves: "How can we facilitate?"

Even media outlets such as USA Today have recently revamped their sites to support reader feedback in the form of comments. Users can also upload photos to the site (though I'm not sure why this is useful). As I write this, journalist and influential blogger Jeff Jarvis, who once flamed Dell in the famed "Dell Hell," now blogs about his positive interactions with Dell (DELL) representatives as they engage him and invite him to their digs in Texas.

Jarvis says this of Dell's practices: "This isn't just crowdsourcing. This is crowdmanaging." Dell has overhauled its culture since Dell Hell. It currently has several sites that support user-generated content and give its customers and community a voice.

Information Interchange

I've personally witnessed Dell's change of heart in the form of an unsolicited comment on my blog from a Dell employee in regard to a post I had written about my experience talking at Loyola University. I had asked the graduate students there whether they had heard of Dell Hell (approximately 90% of them had not). But that didn't stop Dell from hearing what I said. With the use of Technorati, Dell can easily search for phrases such as Dell Hell and decide whether they want to engage consumers.

Since my blog has high traffic it would have been a missed opportunity if they hadn't. So, not only did the Dell representative take the time to read my content and refer to it, he addressed how Dell is changing. And even here you can see the power of conversation, as I'm calling out the positive interaction I had with Dell—even though it occurred on my blog.

But is engaging people on their own blogs marketing? If you think of marketing as facilitation as opposed to communication, it is. My background is in design, and I like to think that at the core, design is about facilitation. We designers should stop talking and start designing conversations. We should convert from marketers and information architects to conversation architects. Information is a one-way street, conversation isn't.

The same goes for businesspeople—the new consumer class that can be anything and everything at once is looking for meaningful dialogue. Some brands and businesses are going out of their way to provide this. Some are going through the motions. And some are doing business as usual. Which camp do you fall in?

David Armano has over 14 years experience in the creative field and has worked with clients including Allstate, HP, Grainger, Con Agra Foods and Bally Total Fitness. He spends the majority of his time working in interactive marketing and digital experience design. An active thought leader in the industry, David blogs at Logic + Emotion.