I did not attend this year's Forrester Consumer Forum, in part because I work in the B2B space. David Armano did a good job of providing live coverage from the floor, and a recap. Thanks to Critical Mass web cam, I was able to touch base with Debbie Schultz, Karl Long, and Peter Kim. Jeremy Pepper wrote a couple of solid posts on the sessions, and I learned that my long time friend Heath Row was also in attendance via Twitter.
Although I was not there, I was able to see what was going on and communicate with many of the attendees -- Twitter, email and blogs populated with information in front of my eyes. We can never expect to be everywhere, yet increasingly, especially if we work on the client side of marketing, we should experiment and learn from what we hear and see out there. That means that a greater part of our daily activities should include listening.
That's why live web cams and other collaborative tools are playing an increasingly larger role in helping us have eyes and ears on the ground and tearing down the walls behind which we used to operate -- inclusive has replaced exclusive. Where is the value then?
Definitely in the experience -- ours as well as that of our customers. As I share in my M20 interview with Peter Kim, today we need even bigger ears to navigate the complexities of what is happening in the marketplace. Hearing what others are saying about products and services helps keep us honest vis-a-vis our products and services. In addition, blogging has increased my sense of urgency in putting out the right kind of information -- the one that people actually want to read vs. marketing fluff.
How has blogging changed the way you work?
[with Jim Long at DMAW, courtesy of CC Chapman]