It’s the Blogs, Stupid : great post from lawyer Jill Fallon

Jill Fallon, lawyer, entrepreneur and passionate communicator as well as publisher of the Estate Legacy Vaults, has a wonderful post called ‘It’s the Blog’s Stupid.’

Jill says “Like it or not, we are living in the next generation of marketing characterized by networked connectivity, easily available tools, swarm attacks and guerillas.” Rather than paraphrase the highlights of her post, just read and heed her words:

If you use Technorati to follow blogs,  employ search feeds and allow corporate blogging, you’ve got your human intelligence.  When you comment on other blogs, you’re playing court to and building relationships with other bloggers, each of whom is the tribal chieftan of its own audience.  You also have the tools to deal with blog swarms or a corporate attack.  While you have to get used to a lack of control, you get a much better grip on reality and what’s happening on the ground. 

There has been an astonishing collapse of trust by Americans in traditional sources of authority.  People are placing more trust in people like themselves according to Dick Edelman and are creating their own Personal Web of Trust.  The only way to get into anyone’s personal web of trust is listen, to be real and honest, sometimes fallable, and always learning.  Most importantly, it’s being their on their side, not just your side.  It’s being their advocates, putting their interests above yours.  It’s doing well by doing good.

So get out in the countryside, listen and serve to win over the hearts and minds of the people.  They are not just wallets.  They who want to be known and dealt with as the complex people they are, not just as consumers who buy products.  The reward is much bigger.  When you align with your customers, understanding where they are and what they need, and then giving them solutions to problems they have, making their lives easier, you’ve created customer evangelists who will do your marketing for you, just by word of mouth. 

This new generation of networked marketing is collaborative, It’s Blog or Die.

Man, are you right about being a passionate communicator Jill. Perhaps next time I am back on the East Coast we’ll get that chance to meet.