The company must be in the conversation

Here is the first lecture to my Stanford course Company is the Content. The course looks at how social media has impacted the marketing strategies of B2B companies.

This is the second year I’ve taught this course and I really enjoy it. Although I’m no longer in marketing (I’ve moved over to business development and partnerships), I still enjoy dabbling in the discipline.

The focus on B2B is because when I first pitched the course over two years ago, there was very little about how B2B companies can use social media. The focus in everyone’s mind was B2C so I thought the course was an opportunity to contribute to a new area of marketing.

I say this of course despite the fact that Cluetrain Manifesto was written in 1999. This is and remains the seminal work on B2B marketing. It is absolutely brilliant and it anticipated the social media revolution that was to come some ten years later.

The central point to my teaching is that markets are a conversation. If you understand that… if you *really* understand that… then my course if of no use to you. Because that is the single concept I start with, explore, and then end on. So brilliant!

And there’s been a lot of other great thinking that has come along since I first put my course together. This is the second year I use Gillin and Schwartzman’s Social Marketing to the Business Customer as my textbook. It is pretty good.

And, of course, by teaching about B2B marketing, I like to think I make some contribution to the overall marketing discipline, however small. I enjoy teaching and I always get great students at Stanford Continuing Ed.

So here’ the first lecture, thoughts and feedback welcome!