Why is the Beast so hungry?

It is astonishing just how hungry people are for conversation.  Human beings are social creatures, so much so that we organize ourselves in groups, live in massive cities, form families and clubs and work mostly in groups.  For most people, if they are alone too long, they become depressed, and even physically ill.  Human civilization has worked to make sure that even when we are alone, we are connected.  Books and periodicals allow us to connect through the written word.  Most people carry a phone of some kind with them throughout their day, and spend hours talking on it.  Radio and television provides voices, stories and ideas available at any time.  (According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend an average of 2.8 hours every day just watching television.) The Internet allows for connections with people all over the world to hear, see, read and respond to their thoughts and ideas at any time.  The modern urbane adult spends more time and money watching television, talking on the phone, reading books and working on the Internet than eating, drinking or sleeping, (and we tend to eat, drink and sleep with company).  Most of our dreams are made up of conversations as well.

Today, there are plenty of conversations available to everyone.  Supplementing our ability to socialize in person, our medias allow us to have a conversation every moment of our waking day.  But just as someone in no danger of starving starts to become particular about the quality of their food, a plethora of actual and virtual human interaction makes the quality of those interactions more important.  Conversing with anyone that comes along might do for a while, but we would much rather talk with a friend, or better yet, an interesting friend if given the choice.  We don’t just want any old crust of bread; we need to have the freshest most flavorful and delicate bread possible.  If this metaphor holds true, it would explain why self-absorbed blogs and Twitter posts about the minutiae of a person’s day, once the dominant form of social media a couple of years ago, are attracting less and less attention every day.  In their stead, articles, videos and postings that offer new insight and perspective, which entertain and charm, and that welcome participation are sought out and ravenously consumed by a global population.

Civilization is a tremendous Beast, endlessly hungry for a good conversation.

In recent articles, I’ve discussed the challenges of feeding the Beast a regular, nutritious and provocative diet of high value content, (see Junk Food or Health Food and Feed the Beast: The Social Media Marketer’s Challenge), to creating an environment of trust where a relationship can grow and sales occur, (See Trust and the Beast:  How to Sell with Social Media), and to serving the needs of the Beast, (See Serve the Beast). And although the question of why the Beast is hungry for conversation is probably best left to sociologists, psychologists and cultural anthropologists, it is helpful to explore just how that demand can be understood and applied to social media marketing strategies.

One of the central challenges of marketing has always been just to get people to pay attention. Before media was so ubiquitous, it didn’t take much to get people to listen.  A catchy tune, a humorous pitch, or a dramatic demonstration were just interesting enough to sell millions on the need to purchase antiperspirant, go to hamburger restaurants, take pharmaceuticals or buy another car.  But with thousands of catchy tunes and humorous pitches asking for attention throughout the day, they are becoming less and less viewed, less valued and less acted upon.

In some ways, advertising has never been more sophisticated, better written, and more finely produced than it is today.  It is often funny, visually stimulating, and usually (but not always) manages to make clear the value proposition, features and benefits of a particular product or service in less than 30 seconds.  Advertising is now so brilliantly produced that more people watch the Superbowl commercials than the Superbowl itself.  And yet, according to asurvey conducted by Forrester Research and the Association of National Advertisers in 2008, despite their high quality, commercials are only becoming less effective – not more.  Why is that?

I suspect it has much to do with what is still missing from an advertisement:  conversation.  It approximates key attributes of a conversation:  it tells stories, it entertains, it shows pictures – and therefore in the absence of alternatives, it helps to temporarily satiate the Beast’s desire for conversation.  But if the Beast can’t participate it’s not an actual conversation.   People don’t hate commercials any more than they hate talking about shopping.  Most modern culture is a conversation about buying and selling stuff and the pleasures and problems encountered.  As described by Doc Searls in the Cluetrain Manifesto, “Markets are conversations”.  But a conventional commercial doesn’t allow any room for a conversation – if anything, it is designed to stop conversation from happening.

Consider how in-person conversations usually work.  Rarely do people start a conversation with a finished idea.  Instead, someone asserts an idea, a notion or offers an observation.  Other participants then refine that idea with their comments, questions, thoughts, or even alternatives.  Through an interactive process, a more finished, more complete and nuanced understanding is achieved.  At heart, a conversation is a collaboration more than a fixed and polished communication.  If something is polished, there is less room for someone to collaborate in the finishing of it.  It’s complete, and needs no help from others to become any better.

Imagine someone starting a personal conversation over dinner by giving guests a rehearsed and polished rendition of a story.  It might entertain the guests for a while, but unless they are invited to participate in the telling of the story, they will quickly move on to another topic once your rehearsed story is complete.  If instead, one starts with a half-polished version of a story and guests are encouraged to interject, ask questions, or correct a half-remembered punch line, then a real conversation gets started.  Conversation happens when there is room for others to participate.

Consider the word, “communicate”.  Most approach the act of communication as the presentation of a thesis or information that can be delivered to others.  But the heart of the word looks suspiciously like the word “commune” – an act where individuals work together and share thoughts, feelings, and stories.  Communication and conversations are about talking together – not delivering final copy.

As unsatisfying as a conventional advertising can be that only offers half of a conversation and allows no dialogue, the opposite holds true for social media.  It is able to offer a complete conversation experience, and therefore, can besurprisingly effective at selling. Social media is a conversation. This may explain why new social media platforms have taken hold so quickly, the most notable, of course, being Facebook’s rise in five years to over 550 Million users. Blogs, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and other platforms – now considered an established part of the media landscape – were also non-existent only 5 to 10 years ago.  After decades of being offered a steady diet of entertaining anecdotes, the Beast has been given an invitation to a conversation.  It needed little persuasion, because a conversation is what it wanted all along.

The Beast is willing to buy your products and services, but it demands a good conversation.  How can it be satisfied?  Instead of supplying complete and polished, try to leave room for a conversation.  Instead of a complete argument, invite a discussion by floating straw-man concepts, share thoughts or concerns about the direction of a market, something that you have recently learned or something that you are trying to figure out.  If all else fails, ask a question and listen to the answer.

Imagine that you have set a dinner table and have invited the Beast as your guests.  Be a good host and satisfy their desire to converse.