Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

This week, I’m headed to Baltimore for the 2011 Vocus user summit. I’ll be speaking alongside Scott Stratten, David Meerman Scott, Gini Dietrich, Ann Handley, Joe Chernov, Valeria Maltoni and my previous CEO Lee Odden among others. Quite the lineup for a user summit, even better than most conferences.

Recently my friend John Boitnott (who we’ve interviewed here at The Future Buzz) and I were discussing why so much digital marketing we see is painful to watch.

There is not a doubt in my mind Best Buy wants to be social. Strategically, they have been a regular case study for holistic use of the web. Their tactical execution is usually pretty good (ex: check out their Twelpforce account on Twitter).

2005 called. They want their “internet marketing expert” posts back. The social web as a whole is clearly as susceptible to linkbait as it always was. We know this. But the reason this specific discussion spread so far is simple: there are more people here now who weren’t the first time and have no idea the thread is a repost.

The constant, tireless battle between record labels, artists and consumers is one I’ve somewhat documented over the last few years. But nowhere near the extent sites like Techdirt have. If you’ve been reading the coverage like I have, it has pretty much started to feel like a broken record.

Many continue an unhealthy obsession with influence. Except the web isn’t really about influence. It never was. The mere fact so many use influence as jargon of choice to define their web startups which tout ability to show “how important” someone is shows a lack of comprehension of the nature of web communities.