The overarching theme of the first day has been how brands should go about building relationships with their customers. This does not come as a big surprise considering I am at a “Conversational Marketing” summit. The big surprise was how clueless many people seem on the subject.
I would expect that veterans of the marketing world would understand how to engage their customers. But the shift from the carpet bombing method of advertising to engagement and conversation has left many questioning what it is they are supposed to be doing.
Many of their questions could be solved by utilizing the existing performance metrics in creative ways, but this is a controversial subject for many. Two of the panels today were about what metrics are available to marketers. Though neither of the panels explained how the metrics should be used, instead they just resorted to an all out brawl for who will become the champion of what I am dubbing “The Metrics Cold War.”
Marketers need to take the approach of combining different metrics to build out a complete view of their brands ecosystem. Utilizing only one methodology will leave you with a sheltered view of the supposed ecosystem make up, but throw another into the mix and it will get you closer to the bigger picture.
For me this reassures Spiral16′s position in the marketplace, because we are a software company that takes the hybrid data set approach to discovering what is going on. Our software does not rely on one lone metric or data set, instead it takes all of the major engines and combines them into an easy to use platform. We then take that data set and mine the hell out of it for the relevant content, network topology, and deeper analytics than other toolsets provide.
I hope that day two goes beyond the above topic.
