I had a great time presenting at the International Association of Business Communicators' Silicon Valley chapter… what a smart, engaged audience! You can check out my slides here:

I presented with Chris Boudreaux of Socialmediagovernance.com and Accenture. Chris focused on the tension between empowerment and control that companies confront as they try to organize and manage social media. Many want to empower employees but they also have to put rules and policies around these new social spaces.

I focused on a related, but largely ignored tension within the brand itself. How much do companies keep of their traditional brand? How much needs to be replaced or expanded, to accommodate this new more social age?

I really think we're seeing the end of the classic brand era, which we've been living with in some form since the concept of brand really hit in the 1950s. The classic marketing mission used to be:

• Find your customer
• Tell them about your brand
• Build brand equity through constant repetition.

The problem is that customers are no longer listening to marketers. They are listening to each other, and tuning out the two-dimensional brand messages thrown their way. As a customer with so many options for information, why should I care what a brand has to say? Particularly when it is simply repeating the same old narrow, one-way messages?

Brands have become boring and closed-off, so tightly controlled by their owners that they invite no human interest or interaction. In my talk, I explore why brands are in this situation, and how they can:

• Move away from their emphasis on brand control
• Embrace the people, ideas and causes behind their companies and brands
• Find new ways to interact in social spaces that fit their target audiences and brand personality.

Thoughts? Comments?

Krim