Thoughts from the Social Media 2007 Conference

Maggie Fox, April 7 2007

Just enjoying a couple of days in Chicago with my family following the Social Media 2007 conference, and have had an epiphany of sorts (I love this post-conference period, where you feel energized and full of great content that you can spend the following days and weeks digesting & synthesizing).

1. People don’t really have true relationships with things – only with people (this is not particularly revolutionary).

2. Business knows this, and spends hundreds of millions of dollars giving their company or their specific brands human-like attributes so consumers can, uh, form relationships with them (as anyone who has ever seen a brand brief can attest).

3. Enter social media, which bypasses all the other silliness and allows people to directly relate to an actual human who knows and loves the brand you’re trying to promote. And lets them form a relationship with that person, thereby your brand. Tah -DAH!

I’ll refine this – but I just wanted to get it out. Off to the Chicago Field Museum!