One Woman’s Wingnut Is Another Man’s Guru

The Alexandria Chamber’s Internet Engagement Forum is a project Joe Shumard and I are leading to see how far we can get Chamber members to take advantage of the Internet.

At our meeting yesterday, there was a lot of interest in moving forward…by extending current practices.

We had several people who were experienced in email broadcast marketing, looking forward to finding better ways to do broadcast email marketing.

I remembered the first time I read Doc Searle’s, “Marketing is a conversation” in The Cluetrain Manifesto. I didn’t get it.

People I respected told me it was important, but it wasn’t until I tried it that I began to understand the incredible power of this new paradigm.

Let’s say I want to get an audience for a show. I can send a bunch of emails (control the message, control the platform) and get a small response. As an alternative, I can send the same message to people and let them comment. What happens?

Turns out the feedback has been a better title, some ideas of who else to approach, some stories that make my point, and finding out I may have forgotten to include price, location, or time.

My readers are improving and expanding my message. Sending a broadcast instead of a conversation means I would miss these valuable tips.

What happens if someone writes something awkward? Well, first everyone else can see it is awkward. Second, I invoke Sturgeon’s Law, “Ninety percent of everything is crud.”

However, I have also seen that people find important revelations in the crud, leading to Dick’s Assertion, “One Woman’s Wingnut is Another Man’s Guru.”

But ah, when a new idea gets up and is adopted by hundreds, when that idea changes some part of society, that’s why we are playing. That’s learning how to play this instrument.

The AlexChamber Internet Engagement Forum meets monthly and is open to all members of the AlexChamber. We are encouraging more participants.

Programming Note - Over the weekend I put up a new page showing some of the best “How To” posts on Through The Browser at http://www.dickdavies.com/blog. Please take a look!

What do you think?