Paying Attention To Pragmatic Needs
John Hagel on paying attention points to discussion in the blogosphere, precipitated by comments by Esther Dyson in a debate with Vint Cerf in the WSJ Online. Attention scarcity is continuing to grow and will be of concern to all marketers. As Michael argues, the foundation of the attention economy is the exchange that results from giving and receiving attention.
John points to comments from Andrew Keen who amplified on Esther’s comments:
Dyson says that the Internet in 2016 will come to reflect our hunger for attention. It will be electronic proof of our existence. To misquote Descartes, “I can be googled, therefore I am.” The future of media, therefore, for Dyson, is partly a Darwinian struggle to rank higher than others, and partly an existential struggle to prove one’s own identity. This vision is not dissimilar to my own theory of digital narcissism.
And, Scott Karp suggests that this holds the key to a transformation of media economics, radically undermining traditional revenue sources for the creation of content, especially advertising.
For marketers to succeed, we now need to be clear on not just what motivates a buyer to buy – the compelling need – but also what is behind the desire to receive attention. I don’t want to just receive attention because I have primal human needs – what Nick gets at. There are times when I need attention because I have a compelling reason to buy.
How do marketers identify that point of pragmatic need? Monitoring blogs and conversations is one way. But it is a reaction. The simple answer is by building relationships online. By enabling conversations.
Let me illustrate this point. I have a very pragmatic need. Four new tires. The Continental tires on my Audi – even with diligence, have a habit of exploding on road trips. I want the three good ones left off my car. The Audi dealership doesn’t want to have a conversation about this. It’s Continental, or, Michelin. I don’t particularly trust them – a cornerstone of any conversation.
So where can I have a conversation online – how can I post to a site my desire to have a conversation on a topic and attract businesses willing to share a point of view? In the attention economy it strikes me that there will be room for attention brokers to meet pragmatic needs. Just as there are all kinds of tools willing to satisfy our emotional needs with stats.
Positioning Matters…
Awhile back Yahoo! positioned itself as a “life engine” – it was a nice way of saying “we’re a portal”. I really liked the notion given all they do and the fact I rarely used them for search but did use them for email, finance, news and all kinds of other things.
Google, for me, equals search – something they seem to agree with. And therein is the problem as they launch all kinds of other services. I like Gmail for random storage of all kinds of things. But as far as email goes I have my own address and prefer the interface of the new Yahoo mail. I use Spotlight and MS Search on my respective notebooks for finding addresses and long-filed-away emails in a rush and deleted Google desktop sometime ago. Where Google wins is on stuff like Maps – but only due to the fact I really understand their maps – there is no stickiness for me.
All this points to the positioning challenge Google faces as it tries to become more things to more people. Nicholas Carr gets at this in a recent post.
Google has us trained to think of it as synonymous with “search.” That’s been good for the company up to now, but such a narrowly drawn identity may well be a hindrance as Google moves into ever more lines of business. Yahoo’s less well-defined identity has hurt it in competing for search traffic with Google, but it helps it in promoting a range of other services… You can’t be more than Mr. Spock if Mr. Spock is all you really want to be.
Ten Blogs | PR & Marketing
I’m frequently asked what blogs I follow regularly. The simple answer would be to direct people to my blogroll – but I haven’t updated that in ages. Another item for the “to-do on a rainy day” list. So, I’m going to start a short series of posts with my top ten blogs in different categories.
My blog reader is a bit like the New York Times Sunday edition – very diverse. I enjoy the serendipity of stumbling across all kinds of relevant content. So I’m going to start with the practical – the marketing and PR blogs I scan daily.
I keep my hundreds of feeds in different folders – these are pulled from my “Read Today” folder and are the ones I spend time on most.
- Micro Persuasion: I look at Steve’s blog mainly for breaking Web2.0 and PR news. I’d say I read it less as a blog and more as a source of news. I also like what Jeremy as to say over at PopPR and also Johnnie Moore.
- Richard Edelman – 6 A.M: Great views and opinions. I like Richard’s perspective on the industry. His postings aren’t that frequent but I also enjoy reading Harold Burson.
- KDPaine’s PR Measurement Blog: Katie is the pioneer of so much of what we see today in measurement. If you are into accountable communications and marketing, you should start here.
- Keith O’Brien: I like his writing in PRWeek and like the blog.
- Holmes Blog: I breathed a sigh of relief when PRWeek launched in the US – it just seemed so wrong that all the US PR Industry had was a facsimile newsletter. Saying that, Paul’s writing on PR issues and trends is unmatched – the .pdf Holmes Report is a must to subscribe to.
- Armadgeddon: AR is the least appreciated element of the communications and marketing mix – yet the analysts are as, if not more, influential than the media. The dialogue is good and the observations relevant – if not a tad AR-biased. Some of the posts on transparency and the relationship between Analysts and paying companies are off the mark in my mind.
- James Governor: Not a marketing or PR blog but James’ observations on AR and marketing are very thoughtful.
- The 463: A tech policy blog. We need more of them. Also read Tim Dyson’s blog – leader of Next Fifteen, the mother ship for brands like Bite and Outcast.
- The Long Tail & Gladwell: Again, not strictly marketing blogs but that is the lens through which I look at them.
- Marketing Headhunter: Lots of good thoughts from Harry.
OK – so there is more than ten… Ooops, forgot one for all PR and media types. Read Jay Rosen whenever he posts.
Shai on Community…
Great quote (thanks for the pointer Ross!) on the power of community – not just to build momentum but also lower operating costs and improve customer experience. Shai is talking about their Software Developer Network:
“…500,000 visitors per month. Aggregation of knowledge that is second to none. slashdot for SAP. SIs in India are hiring them 500 people at a time and saying for their first three months they are supposed to participate in SDN. Aggregation and knowledge and self-categorization has created an environment where you know the guy who is giving advice may have a point ranking that shows they don’t have a life, but a lot of knowledge. We are contributing perhaps 20% of the content. Average time from Q&A is less than 30 minutes, I wish our support channels were that effective.”
Two Fave Web 2.0 Apps of The Moment…
It seems a new Web2.0 thingey is launched every day – at least Google takes a shot at it. The two I keep coming back to most are Pageflakes and PopURLs. Give them a try.