John Porcaro: mktg@msft: My Marketing "Community of Practice"
... I read a lot of blogs (and very few email newsletters, by the way), and I'm drawn towards things I care about as a marketer. One of them is research. I'm fascinated by anything that has to do with consumer research, and getting to know consumer behavior better. It's why I read Dina Mehta, Denise Klarquist, Rick Bruner, and some of the Jupiter Research blogs. If you know of others, let me know!
I'm getting to know these guys, and I'm coming to trust them. I was anxious to meet Denise since I was coming to San Francisco. And the more I get to know her, her company, and her work, the more I'm prone to take my business to her. In fact, I hadn't heard of Cheskin two months ago when we were selecting a firm to work with (the research we're doing now is with a competing company), but I would certainly have at least sent an RFP to Cheskin if we were choosing a firm today. (Remember, too, I hadn't heard of a blog five months ago!)
The main reason I blog is to build my own "community of practice" around marketing, management, leadership, and "fast" thinking. Blogs help me do that, and I'll send my business (or Microsoft's business) to people I know and trust (starting with members of my community).
John makes some very good points here about keeping on top of knowledge by making use of a community of practice and because of trust he wants to do the networking thing and put business their way.
Trust is so important in any relationship, and especially given the kind of world we are living in perhaps never more so.
And if no one else says it, I think the same could be said of John - I know I trust him because of what I read and know of him, despite never having met.
I can't offer him any business but I can offer him a cup of tea.
Oh, and I love the new typepad blog - have I said that already?
Posted by Paul Goodison at August 13, 2003 09:06 AM | TrackBack