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How do brands deal with conversational marketing?

I read a blog post today and paused for thought. Long thought. The author of this post suggests the following:

“The biggest problem with conversational marketing today is that brands are being led to believe that a conversation is more important than action”

My initial thought was that I agreed with this. Brands do all too often focus on the fact they have created the opportunity for consumers to begin conversation rather than acting on the result of the conversation. But then I thought that this can’t be entirely right. If brands didn’t encourage conversation, then they wouldn’t get such feedback, which wouldn’t allow them to act. So which is the most important? In my opinion... neither.

Each of the points made above are totally valid. The conversation has to be encouraged for brands to learn, so they can act accordingly. There have been many occasions however, where I have seen brands steer conversation, to ensure they are getting the maximum feedback possible out of these threads. Some brands prefer not to steer the communication, and let it flow freely. They believe this to be the best way to get the most accurate feedback. But that’s not the most important area either...

The honest answer (no matter how cheesy it sounds) is that they are all as important as each other. If a brand chooses to steer a conversation however, it should be to get the conversation back on track, rather than to force it down a route they want it to go. If ScreenCat89 and PartyAnimal are having a ding dong battle about who is their favourite South Park character, when the conversation is about consumers feelings on a new product, the brand managers should step in to try and get the commentary back on course. After all its important the brand gets something out of the conversation, and it’s not just a platform for users to abuse.

Labels: brands, conversational marketing, marketing