Social media marketing essentially evolved from The Cluetrain Manifesto assertion that markets are conversations. The world of social media then exploded and conversational platforms, tools and networks evolved. Markets are conversations … whatever that means. When you translate it into the practical, not the etherial, you have to try and figure out conversational marketing.

How do you have conversations with people with the intent of promoting a product or service? Or, to borrow Chris Heuer’s seemingly altruistic fantasy of marketing, how do you have conversations with people with the intent of helping them buy a product or service? More specifically, how do you have these conversations in mediums (social platforms) where people’s participation is theoretically predicated on the belief they don’t want to be marketed to?