There’s a trend towards new companies becoming more involved with their customers. Scoble’s example: Web 2.0 companies who have blogs with comments enabled.

Levitt notes that people would rather see a video than a press release. Scoble notes that before they announced Windows Vista there were 12,000 blog posts on it already.

Samuel: The shift is not in technology itself but how conventional companies use marketing channels to have conversations with their customers.

Scobel: Companies are still scared of this new small world. They feel they can still reach their customers better with a big ad placement (Bill Gates himself, apparently).

As a marketing officer, what do I need to know?

Scoble: How to use Technorati!
Levitt: Those in positions of influence – think of any database stored in your company. Maybe you sell clothing and you have statistics on your customers. Think about how that data might be valuable to your outside world. Not giving away personal information, but look at what Amazon, Google and eBay are doing.

What skills do you need for business convergence?

Scoble: What I did, I did by accident. I started a blog and that started relationships. Imagine if I was in GM or P&G. I know people who wanted to start a blog like me, but they can’t do it!
Sanuel: Learn about RSS feeds. Make tools usable. Put them in people’s hands. You still need a human being behind the wheel, reminding people that, “Hey, it’s been a while since you last logged in.”
Scoble: Get on the first page of search results. Most people only read the first 10 results.
Levitt: Isn’t there a separate panel on Search engine optimization? [Vanessa’s note: Cross-reference to this other podcast when it’s out]

One guy asks a question which baffled me (and thus, it isn’t even worth encasing in a h4 tag). He asks if APIs are going to be redundant as it’s a closed form of access to a company’s service. Scoble disagrees – he says DRM is a better example of how companies restrict access to their services. Samuel: The easier it is to remix different tools, the more compelling the setup. Levitt: We shouldn’t judge things based on a particular file format. APIs and web services are successful

How do you feel about having your company’s stuff remixed? Some companies may feel weird about it (“That was my idea/tagline. I don’t want somebody else taking it.”). What are your thoughts on it?

Steurer: You can search CC. Every CC licence requires that you credit the originator. [That only partly addresses the question, from his point of view]

Levitt: See Gallery.yahoo.com. You can put things in the Application Gallery, eg Flickr APIs, del.ic.ious, and get your ideas there. [Again, a specific example that doesn’t totally address the question]

Samuel: The irony of creative commons and making content accessible, is that nonprofits stand to gain the most because it’s free. But nonprofits themselves are wary of sharing their own content! They don’t want their content to be taken, out of their control.

How do you see large brands managing the new environment?

Scoble: There’s still the old school way of pushing messages, without listening. We published a book and let people improve on it. We found out which of our chapters people didn’t like, through Google. [ie, it’s better when a product has been improved through customer feedback] It’s selling better because people know their input made a difference.

Samuel: People want to know that they’ve been listened to. But people expect that their feedback will be taken. It would be ideal if you could tell them “Thanks for your feedback, our engineers are going to decide which suggestions are feasible and may implement them in the next version…”

Overall: 3.5/5. Maybe I should have checked out the Cluetrain panel instead.