Web analytics, web metrics, and how to use them to track and improve conversions

Last session for Tuesday - can we use the blogosphere for buzz marketing?

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Panel: Can Brands Get Away with "Buzz Marketing" in the Blogosphere?
        Moderator: Jeff Jarvis, Blogger, BuzzMachine
        Rich Murray, president, me2revolution
        Gordon Gould, CEO, ThisNext
        Barry Reicherter, SVP, Director of Persuasive Technologies, Porter Novelli
        David Weinberger, co-author, Cluetrain Manifesto

You can't buy Buzz, Buzz is owned by the people.  I wrote a post about a year ago titled "Dell Sucks" - made a big deal.  Jeff met Michael Dell in Davos, btw.

If you got a good product/service you can get "buzz'; but there are a lot of great products that won't get buzz because they're not that interesting. 

You measure Buzz -(no one figured out for sure how to do it) and 5% of the population who are influencer (have 75 or more friends) - go after them.

There is no direct ROI on conversation and are interested as along as the investment is small.  You can't buy your way into a conversation, you have to engage in to a conversation.

Buzz Marketing is all "exceptions"; 99% of what's out there is pure crap.

What should people do who want to brand?  The stuff you do online needs to be tied into what you do offline (Coke/Mentos) - you do an offline "tour".