By Mike Hart, Managing Editor, ViaMetric

Obviously, that title’s a lame play on the old adage that you can’t spell “XYZ” without “X,” but in a world driven more and more by digital information, my new saying has some credence. Way back in the day, marketing meant word-of-mouth. Then it came to mean big media pushing out a message to a big audience. But, increasingly, successful B2C marketing is beginning to mean word-of-mouth again. Today’s consumers love to participate in online communities, and they are learning to look to those communities for reliable messages (news, product reviews, tips, etc).

Some marketers are resistant to the notion of an online marketing community, but they should recognize that there’s a difference between purely user-populated (or “wiki”) environments and – say – blogs. Blogs are written by someone, and while they invite user participation, they don’t necessarily depend on it for content. However, if your blog isn’t inviting users to participate, you’re missing out on a lot of message delivery. Putting it another way, Lorelle VanFossen of The Blog Herald points out that your best friends are usually those that both talk and listen. She explains that blogging should “feature a skill known as active listening, the process of listening and responding to another person to improve mutual understanding.” That increased understanding makes listeners (readers in this case) much more receptive to messaging, as long as the message itself is worthwhile.

It’s also important to recognize that people like to belong to branded communities. For that reason, writes David Armano in his BusinessWeek article “It’s the Conversation Economy, Stupid,” brand identity (and affinity) is often at the heart of communities. He points to brands like Harley-Davidson that have fiercely loyal groups who bond together around the brand and champion its messaging. He sums up his superb article by arguing that

“marketers, businesses, and designers must have an intimate understanding of how these platforms are evolving and influencing human behavior. There has to be an in-depth understanding of why some us of love to incorporate these services in our digital lives.”

The “platforms” he’s talking about include blogs, and that’s why marketing can no longer just be about pushing a message at people and hoping they like it. Current marketing also has to involve the audience in the propagation of message with merit. It has to make them want to spread that message through their community, especially if that community is virtual.

Originally published on April 12, 2007 on 10,000 Marshmallows.