conversation

Dell Inc. embraced social media in a big way with the launch of Direct2Dell, its customer focused blog. Greeted originally with catcalls by many observers, the blog—under the guidance of Lionel Menchaca and other members of Dell’s communications and customer service team—has been a cornerstone in the computer maker’s reputational turnaround success story.

This session featured Satya Nadella, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Search & Advertising Platform Group, interviewed by Search Engine Land editor-in-chief Danny Sullivan about Nadella’s role and plans for Windows Live Search and Microsoft adCenter.

If you followed the Stowe Boyd kerfuffle a few months ago - the one in which he says, broadly, that PR people don’t “get it” regarding social media - you’ll be interested in listening to Stowe talking to Eric Schwartzman in the latest

John Bell recently explored the topic, "Who 'owns' conversational marketing? PR, Advertising or The People" over at Strumpette - The Naked Journal of the PR Biz.

The con in conversation is that it often means conversion, at least when marketers say it. Conversion of opinion and perception, conversion of loyalty and trust and in many cases, hopefully, conversion of dollars and cents. There's nothing new here really, conversion through conversation has been around for, well, centuries. It's the stuff of philosophy, religion, politics, education, and yes, business too.

I conducted a teleseminar on business blogging for the Public Relations Institute of Australia a few days ago.

4:20: The grand ballroom for the welcome message and a talk by Google CEO Eric Schmidt was packed; I skipped upstairs to a swank overflow room catered by Google. Remember those Google snack rooms? They turned this room into one of them.

The encouragement to engage visitors in conversations with one's blog or website could deliver an embarrassment of riches to the publisher - or a rich embarrassment. Few publishers will shun feedback from their site visitors.