My contributions to amazing series of crowd sourced books "The Age of Conversation 1. 2 and 3." Social Media Marketing Over 100 bloggers in 9 countries collaborated on a book about social media marketing. Funds were given to nonprofits. Edited by Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan.

1. Technology Is Recreating Business Intimacies
Reprinted From the Age of Conversation 1
By Toby Bloomberg – Diva Marketing
C ustomers from India, Canada, New Zealand and Europe.
Technology swings open the doors to a global marketplace. Our cyberspace offices and
storefronts keep the lights on 24/7/365 allowing us to conduct business with a mere
click and an internet connection. Life is good. Or is it?
In their rush to enter this new environment companies often sacrificed personal
connections with their customers and other stakeholders. Understanding the individual
needs of a growing and often geographically dispersed customer based is not an easy or
inexpensive undertaking.
Attempting to service and engage customers, some organizations turned to non
traditional solutions including: out sourced online service “chat reps” who often had
limited understanding of the business’s culture; interactive websites that flashed
messages that were pretty but of little value; and email tactics where questions were
gobbled up by cyberspace gremlins who of course never responded back.
Misunderstanding and brand devaluation were frequently outcomes of non relationship
service. Customers wanted high touch along with convenience of immediate access to
information. Even businesses with only a local focus were being challenged with how to
stay connected to their clients.
About this time a strange dichotomy began to occur in the world of virtual business. The
technology, that fostered impersonalization, was being used to create “corner grocery
store relationships.” Through funny little websites called blogs companies began to
engage with their customers in people-to-people conversations. Those conversations
occurred not with the marketing, PR, tech support “departments” but with people
within those departments who shared common interests and passions. The exchange
was richer, deeper and more satisfying relationships for both customer and company.
1 Age of Conversation Book
Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing
eMail Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest
DivaMarketing |AllTheSingleGirlfriends

2. When we get to know people more than product information is usually exchanged.
That’s exactly what happened online. Stories about personal interest from wine to
family vacation were “blogged.” Photos were shared. Relationships that were as
intimate and important as those created by neighborhood green grocers were being
formed.
Through social media marketing initiatives: blogs, podcasts, vlogs, mash-up
communities, social book marking and photo sharing organizations were rediscovering
that the corner grocery store relation was attainable in an online environment and more
important than ever before to foster and maintain.
“It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business,” said Michael Corleone to his brother.
However, the son of the Godfather was wrong. Dead wrong. Business is personal.
Technology is fueling the emotional engagement that leads to long-term customer
interactions.
2 Age of Conversation Book
Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing
eMail Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest
DivaMarketing |AllTheSingleGirlfriends

3. Answers To The Questions You Didn’t Ask
Reprinted From the Age of Conversation 2
By Toby Bloomberg – Diva Marketing
W hen was the last time you talked, listened, laughed and
learned with .. not From .. but With your customers or clients? Marketing teaches us the
more we know about our target audience the better we can service them.
"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the
product or service fits him and sells itself." - Peter Drucker.
When Peter Drucker wrote that statement, over fifty years ago, formal market research
was how most marketers obtained insights about their customers. Marketers asked the
questions and customers gave their opinions. Marketers listened and learned.
Flash into the 21st century … technology has changed global communication and that
influenced business communications. An internet playground developed that toppled
the walls of culture and geographical distance. Conversations exploded.
Social media people-to-people talk often includes discussions about experiences with
specific brands. In unfiltered, non-directed discussions on blogs, in communities, on
review sites, in videos and through photos the good, bad and ugly are now in full Google
view for all. An informal consumer review network is being created that often
influences, not only brand perception, but purchase decisions.
For the first time, our customers are providing answers to questions that were never
asked in formal research studies. We now have additional, valuable insights that can
supplement traditional research. However, some marketers dismiss this online chat as
irrelevant. Others listen in frozen fascination. A few companies are doing something
radical that marketers never had the opportunity to do before: talking with their
customers in their worlds.
3 Age of Conversation Book
Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing
eMail Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest
DivaMarketing |AllTheSingleGirlfriends

4. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, is active on Twitter - a micro blogging community. His advice
to CEOs who want to bring social media to their companies - “I think if the CEO starts
using Twitter on his/her own and is actually passionate about it, then that passion will
eventually rub off on the rest of the organization.”
Dell is also changing its business model by engaging with its customers. According to
Richard Binhammer, “Social media helps us: learn from conversations with customers
every day. That has influenced internal processes as we have identified issues sooner
than we might otherwise have, learned to respond faster and generally listen and be in
touch.”
Understanding your customer and knowing what she wants is like finding the holy grail
of marketing. Adopting your business model to include engaging with your customers
can help make that happen.
The Age of Conversation 2 book brought together nearly 300 of the world’s leading
marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators for a global collaboration where the
impact of digital conversations was explored.
4 Age of Conversation Book
Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing
eMail Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest
DivaMarketing |AllTheSingleGirlfriends

5. Building The Social Enterprise
A Business Story
Reprinted From the Age of Conversation 3
By Toby Bloomberg – Diva Marketing
O nce upon a time there was a CEO who worked diligently
for many years building a successful company. One day she (or perhaps it was he)
realized the business model she had carefully crafted was no longer valid. She
found that her customers and prospects were not waiting for her website to be
updated, new ads to launch, sales calls returned or direct mail pieces received in
order to make purchase decisions. She discovered that customers were not in
company service queues waiting for answers to their questions.
Something called the “social web” had created a world where people exchanged
ideas, information and opinions as easily as if they were chatting over a cup of
coffee at their favorite café. So she did what any savvy CEO would do. She
began to exploring the conversations. She was surprised to learn many were not
only about her company’s brands but its service, employees the enterprise and
even her.
“How interesting.” she thought. It was almost like listening to focus group
conversations but without a moderator leading the discussion. Of course it wasn’t
statistically valid as her VP of Consumer Insights pointed out. However, might
this information serve as valuable research to learn about more her customers?
Our CEO was one smart lady. Although, the idea of customers engaging in the
digital world about her brands intrigued her she did not want to replace her
traditional strategy with a shiny new toy. Before she invested in a new set of
tactics in digital venues, she set out to understand how social media might impact
5 Age of Conversation Book
Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing
eMail Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest
DivaMarketing |AllTheSingleGirlfriends

6. not only customers, prospects and stakeholders but employees and current
business processes.
Getting The Enterprise Social Media Ready
She convened a cross functional task force that included people from digital,
marketing, consumer insights, HR, customer care, IT, operations, PR, legal, sales
and accounting. Creating an environment where people could safely discuss their
concerns she encouraged them to look at challenges/fears and opportunities that
social media could bring to the enterprise.
Team members were charged with researching and reporting about social media
through the lens of: competition, industry trends, customer participation and
expectation and company culture. In addition, each team member was asked to
actively experience and participate in at least one new social media tool.
With the company’s business objectives in clear sight, subsequent sessions
focused on the impact of social media on each department. In addition, impact on
the company culture was explored. It became obvious new processes would have
to be developed and integrated throughout the enterprise including cross
functional communication systems and even hiring qualifications. Our CEO
wanted to ensure that all new hires could work in a cross functional team
environment and had a customer focused attitude. .
The CEO sighed. Becoming a Social Enterprise wouldn’t happen overnight but
she knew that building a stronger organization with better brands always took
time.
6 Age of Conversation Book
Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing
eMail Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest
DivaMarketing |AllTheSingleGirlfriends