Max Kalehoff and Pete Blackshaw are talking about conversation overload. It is true the term is dominating the vocabulary of most savvy marketers. At BuzzLogic, the word is always there. We use, it, our customers use it, our entire business is built on it! So its difficult to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We all have internalized phrases like markets are conversations and dont have a one-way conversation, be a part of it. Sure, the concepts intuitively make sense, but what do they really mean?

Obviously, we have a vested interest in understanding conversations, and figuring out how marketers can make sense of them. A helpful way to distinguish the meaning of the word conversation in a marketing context, is to think of it in two ways (1) a conversation between a brand and its various audiences, and, above that (2) the organic conversations that exist between all web users, including the brands which choose to participate.

Focusing on the latter for a minute, the Internet is a go-to platform for networked interaction, and the technology that enables social media, like blogs, social networks, media sharing sites etc, provides rich fuel for that interaction. The ease with which you can share, extend, build on and syndicate a conversation across the Web is pretty astounding. Our view is that some, not all, of these consumer conversations can be followed and harnessed in real time to inform marketing.

Kind of like what is happening right now. Pete wrote something pretty interesting on his blog, Max took it, and added his own thoughts to it, and now I am responding with my post. The explicit actions we take to link to each other indicates we have begun to engage in a conversation that has left a lasting footprint as proof. Moreover, the relationships between us have very interesting implications for marketers, depending on how much attention this conversation currently attracts and how much influence its participants generate.

Conversations as networked content? That is one way to ground the dialogue in something real.

Agree, disagree? We should continue, for lack of a better word, the conversation.