Have you ever seen a presentation that is just too slick?
The presenter is just too oily smooth? Kind of scary in an inhuman sort of way
but you know you’re going to buy, because what choice do you have when you’ve
fallen into the dark side?

Tara’s jet-lagged talk (I empathize having once presented
toa  boardroom full of investors while
suffering a full-blown attack of the flu, yikes!) at e-day 2007 adds to the human quality of the
subject matter, which is How
to Make a Gabillion Dollars with Social Marketing .
. . or something to that effect.

For those too busy to watch the 30-minute video, or go
through the 178 video slide presentation, I’ve summed up the key points here if
the topic comes up when you’re offline.

• …this
  year Forrester Research
  found that only 13% of consumers say they buy products because of their
  ads. Contrast that to 60% of small business owners in North America that
  say they use peer recommendations to make their buying decisions and over
  70% of 18-35 year olds who report the same for their media purchases.

• Companies
  like Pay-Per-Post, who cater to clients who want to tap into Social
  Networks and the power of blogging, think they will influence others
  through word of mouth, but they have it dead wrong.

• New
  studies on Social
  Intelligence shows scientific evidence that we are fundamentally wired to
  connect.

• Whuffie? Whuffie is a
  concept invented by Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing fame. In his futuristic
  Science Fiction novel, Down
  and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory uses whuffie to describe the
  capital of the future …Social Capital.

That’s the gist of her presentation, but you also need these
5 sure-fire steps to transform yourself from a … spammer into a connector:

1.  Turn
   that bullhorn inwards. Stop
   talking and start listening!
2. Become
   part of the community you serve. Figure out whom it is you are serving.
   It isn’t everyone. Then get out of your office and into the community.
   
   
3. Create
   amazing experiences for your customers. Design for maximum
   connectedness, happiness and joy. Empower and elate.
   
   
4. Embrace
   the chaos. Don’t over plan. Learn to be more agile and recognize
   everyday magic. (She offers 7 very Zen steps on how to embrace chaos which
   I’ve distilled down to enjoy this moment now as everything is out of your
   control anyway. Ommmm. . . . )
   
   
5. Find
   your higher purpose. Social Capital only gains in value as you
   give it away. Figure out how you are going to give back to the community
   and do it…often. 

The Bottom Line: Tara Hunt is one of many avatars of the new
consciousness that is awakening. Whether it’s a product of the social
connectedness of the Internet or vice versa remains a “chicken or the egg”
dilemma.  Namaste