...with a conversation. Not unlike the one Becki Parkhurst and I just finished with a great guy named Dave Parmet.
Dave is a marketing/PR guru based on the East Coast with some very cool clients including this one, for whom Dave has done some pretty amazing work building its "nontraditional" brand with blogs.
We we rapped over wraps about the state of the PR industry and the traditional media now that everyone has the ability to create content. Since it seems to be the topic of the day(s), we discussed our theories about 'what constitutes an influencer.' Dave's viewpoint is very pragmatic, and I'm paraphrasing: "[clients] can't decide to ignore certain people in favor of trying to influence others. The people you feel who may have nothing to do with your business today may certainly be your target audience tomorrow." Dave's example was more colorful; something about 14 year old girls blogging about kitty cats -- and the companies that ignore them do so at their peril.
Which makes great sense. Any company that wants to stay in business has to keep an eye toward the future for potential customers *slash* content creators.