Conversational marketing and social network: the new frontier

Increasing number of media channels available for communication between customers amplifies and reverberates word-of-mouth marketing. In the past, companies that sold disreputable products or had poor after sales service lost customers one at a time; at times, single exasperated ex-customers can convince a few friends to stop buying from the company.

Now, the Internet provides global reach for the disgruntled. Web sites, forums, blogs, are the ideal place for prospective customers to verify company's claims, and to find out if a company has mistreated former customers. Customers can avoid a company's marketing efforts made with old-fashioned marketing push and pull. Consumers have more control over the flow of marketing messages into their living rooms, cars, pc's and mobile phones.

A company can respond to customers' new power embracing a product, service and communication strategy based on a mutual dialogue and a partnership that assumes that if the company speaks for its customers, those customers will match with trust, recurring purchases, and loyalty. That is respect and love. Companies that share the same perspective of their customers enjoy more opportunities to sell a broader range of products to more people. This can lead to growth in sales because customers and their friends choose the company's products based on the respect, trust and love that they have earned on the virtual streets.

TamTamy: the ideal platform for conversational marketing

TamTamy is the ideal base to start a path of perspective-sharing and conversational marketing with the customers. TamTamy can host communities of consumers focused on defining and refining the needs future products will have to respond to. Evaluation and criticism to its products and services may be posted directly on the boards, with a fair and professional moderated interaction.

Events involving the brand or the products, on line or in the cities' streets may be announced and managed through the on-line service in TamTamy. So product preview, anticipations, virtual simulations, video content may find there its prime location, available to the whole community or to groups. Each content and initiative could have from the community its measure of feedbacks, suggestions, contribution and sharing to people outside the community.

All the press coverage on brand and products, buzz, blog posts and comments on the Web may be linked in TamTamy pages. Customers and fans may customize their "personal page" in TamTamy with applications (Widgets), Content Subcription (from company sources and from others sources such as other social networks, on-line media, foums etc) and a public personal profile. Customers may get in touch with each other and form groups based on interests. All this can be configured, monitored and analyzed from company's marketing staff to get flavors of "Web Sentiment".