Anthony Milner

I was at the SEM / SEO conference at CeBIT today. There were a range of both business and technical sessions and an audience who seemed really eager to find some gold SEO nuggets. Question time was fairly active and one keen bean had to have the microphone practically wrestled away from him after asking one question too many. Well done to Fred Schebesta who handled the barrage gracefully. One of the speakers, Anne Costello, talked about business blogging and commented on the concept of trust in marketing…

“Today people build trust in a fundamentally different way. They increasingly distrust institutions and trust people like themselves”

This resonated with me. People are increasingly using the web to educate themselves and others regarding purchasing decisions. Wether its in the form of email, blogs, forums or wikis this sophisticated consumer savvy must be changing the marketing/purchasing landscape. The web consumer knows what works and what doesn’t because they’ve found a reputable and independent voice that has written a review; or it may be the consumer that posts a review after making a bad purchasing decision (taken a hit for the boys as a good friend calls it). This “consumer networking” we are seeing is probably only in its infancy but as this sophistication penetrates the masses surely traditional marketing is set for even more shakeup.

Was marketing 1.0 all about positioning the company and product in a way that made it look and feel great, even if it wasn’t? Marketing today should be about having an honest relationship with the customer and delivering on the promise.  Consumer networking will increasingly push businesses (in some cases kicking and screaming) into dealing with the consumer in a transparent, ethical and “organic” way and that’s a major plus if you’re a consumer.

Is this what the Google guys meant when they said  “don’t be evil”. Technology compelling businesses to educate themselves, improve their offerings and be honest with consumer because the world is reading and posting.