"Fish Where the Fish Are" No Longer Applies - Stay N Alive

"Fish Where the Fish Are" No Longer Applies

big_fishMy good friend, Jeremiah Owyang had a great quote he liked to share in his presentations, stating that the days of old-style marketing, forcing your customers to your site, no longer applied. He stated that we must “Fish Where the Fish Are“, and right he was. With the advent of Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, YouTube, MySpace, etc. it was now possible for companies to get into the conversations of their customers, where they were conversing rather than trying to get them back to their own site to encourage that. I’d like to suggest that even that philosophy’s evolving though, and like with the previous philosophy, Facebook’s leading the way.  Now, instead of “Fishing where the Fish are”, you can bring the entire lake to your website and again, those conversations are again all happening under your own brand. Now you get to fish in your own backyard.

Last year Facebook introduced Facebook Connect to developers to enable developers to integrate the Facebook Platform right on their own websites. I’m not sure developers or businesses fully knew what was coming at the time, but it sounded good.  Mark Zuckerberg talked about expanding the ability to share on Facebook to the web, and keeping the fine-grained privacy controls Facebook is known for along with that.  I believe a new way of marketing may have begun with that launch.

If you get a chance, go sign into HuffingtonPost.com through your Facebook login. Look – all your friends from Facebook just automatically got imported onto HuffingtonPost.com with just one click! And you never left the site.  Huffington Post gets this concept – their readers’ conversations on Facebook are all happening through their own website, and they’re enabling new conversations from that!  Their users never have to go back to Facebook to converse the news they’re reading with their friends.

Another great example is Digg.com. If you log in through Facebook there you’ll notice with no effort your friends all get imported as friends on Digg.  Now, every new friend that logs into Digg via those means also gets added, automatically, as a friend on the site. Digg has brought Facebook back to their own brand.

Soon you’ll start to see the same for microblogging. Whether it happens via Facebook, or via open source platforms such as Laconi.ca or WordPress, brands will begin to bring ways for you to bring short-form conversations to their sites as well, enabling you to post out to Twitter, Facebook, and others and bring those conversations back into the site. This is the way it all started, and now we’re able to merge the old marketing and new marketing into a more complete solution that brings the brand back into the equation.

There are many tools available now, and many being developed right now that are bringing that “sea of fish” back onto your own property.  Tools like Facebook Connect are teaching you how to fish in that backyard pond so you can feed a multitude.  Now you can swim with the best of them in your own swimming pool!


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18 thoughts on “"Fish Where the Fish Are" No Longer Applies

  1. An example of this I've seen is Coles Supermarkets' online shopping service has set up a Twitter account, @ColesOnline, and they seem to be latching on to conversations on Twitter about Coles' service/online shopping and offering help and incentives to choose their service.

    (Disclaimer: I am an employee of Coles Supermarkets)

  2. Actually, I don't think that was the point of your post. I read it again and realised you were talking about bringing the Twitter/Facebook conversations into your site.

  3. Bryce, correct. I think we are beyond that now. Now, using tools like
    Facebook Connect, the Twitter APIs and other tools you can easily bring the
    entire pool back to your own site and fish right there without ever having
    to leave your backyard. Now that the tools are there you don't have to go
    anywhere because the fish are right there with you.

  4. With all the great tools being developed for better fishing, it is amazing how full the tackle box is getting.
    Some of the best fishermen I know have the ability to use the right lures, reels and poles to succeed pulling fish out of their favorite fishing holes.

  5. While tools like Facebook Connect make companies' sites more social and connected with visitors' other social media networks, they still require people to go elsewhere. That takes education and effort. It's still easier to engage people where they are. If that's on Facebook, great. If Myspace, go there. If SecondLife, fine.

    You can still incorporate these things into your site, but you'd better still go where your customers are — and talk with them on their turf, or rather, in their pond.
    -Mike

  6. Mike, I think you misunderstand what these tools can do. Yes, they allow you
    to further community on your site, under your own brand, but these tools
    also enable those that don't want to go elsewhere to interact on their
    preferred network as well. The advantage is it gives them even greater
    benefit when they come back to your brand and interact there, and users have
    a greater chance of doing so by integrating these tools. It also enables
    those that *are* interacting on your own brand's turf to share what they're
    doing there with their friends on other social networks. So you're
    basically fishing on your own turf, and the fish are going out and doing
    more fishing for you – the “teach a man to fish” saying goes even further
    when you teach a man to teach others to fish. These tools enable your users
    to do the fishing, instead of you having to do it yourself.
    With tools like this, brands no longer have to be fishers and hunters, but
    farmers. Now they can nurture community everywhere without ever having to
    leave the comfort of their brand itself.

  7. Mike, I think you misunderstand what these tools can do. Yes, they allow you
    to further community on your site, under your own brand, but these tools
    also enable those that don't want to go elsewhere to interact on their
    preferred network as well. The advantage is it gives them even greater
    benefit when they come back to your brand and interact there, and users have
    a greater chance of doing so by integrating these tools. It also enables
    those that *are* interacting on your own brand's turf to share what they're
    doing there with their friends on other social networks. So you're
    basically fishing on your own turf, and the fish are going out and doing
    more fishing for you – the “teach a man to fish” saying goes even further
    when you teach a man to teach others to fish. These tools enable your users
    to do the fishing, instead of you having to do it yourself.
    With tools like this, brands no longer have to be fishers and hunters, but
    farmers. Now they can nurture community everywhere without ever having to
    leave the comfort of their brand itself.

  8. Jesse,
    I'll um, “digg” into FB Connect a bit more. I can see value in being able to segment one's network into common groups. Though, there's little brand interaction off the co's site, other than seeing what others are doing. There's value there, but it's nothing more than another app. Thanks for the reply and clarification — will definitely look into it more.
    -Mike

  9. While tools like Facebook Connect make companies' sites more social and connected with visitors' other social media networks, they still require people to go elsewhere. That takes education and effort. It's still easier to engage people where they are. If that's on Facebook, great. If Myspace, go there. If SecondLife, fine.

    You can still incorporate these things into your site, but you'd better still go where your customers are — and talk with them on their turf, or rather, in their pond.
    -Mike

  10. Mike, I think you misunderstand what these tools can do. Yes, they allow you
    to further community on your site, under your own brand, but these tools
    also enable those that don't want to go elsewhere to interact on their
    preferred network as well. The advantage is it gives them even greater
    benefit when they come back to your brand and interact there, and users have
    a greater chance of doing so by integrating these tools. It also enables
    those that *are* interacting on your own brand's turf to share what they're
    doing there with their friends on other social networks. So you're
    basically fishing on your own turf, and the fish are going out and doing
    more fishing for you – the “teach a man to fish” saying goes even further
    when you teach a man to teach others to fish. These tools enable your users
    to do the fishing, instead of you having to do it yourself.
    With tools like this, brands no longer have to be fishers and hunters, but
    farmers. Now they can nurture community everywhere without ever having to
    leave the comfort of their brand itself.

  11. Mike, I think you misunderstand what these tools can do. Yes, they allow you
    to further community on your site, under your own brand, but these tools
    also enable those that don't want to go elsewhere to interact on their
    preferred network as well. The advantage is it gives them even greater
    benefit when they come back to your brand and interact there, and users have
    a greater chance of doing so by integrating these tools. It also enables
    those that *are* interacting on your own brand's turf to share what they're
    doing there with their friends on other social networks. So you're
    basically fishing on your own turf, and the fish are going out and doing
    more fishing for you – the “teach a man to fish” saying goes even further
    when you teach a man to teach others to fish. These tools enable your users
    to do the fishing, instead of you having to do it yourself.
    With tools like this, brands no longer have to be fishers and hunters, but
    farmers. Now they can nurture community everywhere without ever having to
    leave the comfort of their brand itself.

  12. Jesse,
    I'll um, “digg” into FB Connect a bit more. I can see value in being able to segment one's network into common groups. Though, there's little brand interaction off the co's site, other than seeing what others are doing. There's value there, but it's nothing more than another app. Thanks for the reply and clarification — will definitely look into it more.
    -Mike

  13. Mike, I think you misunderstand what these tools can do. Yes, they allow you
    to further community on your site, under your own brand, but these tools
    also enable those that don't want to go elsewhere to interact on their
    preferred network as well. The advantage is it gives them even greater
    benefit when they come back to your brand and interact there, and users have
    a greater chance of doing so by integrating these tools. It also enables
    those that *are* interacting on your own brand's turf to share what they're
    doing there with their friends on other social networks. So you're
    basically fishing on your own turf, and the fish are going out and doing
    more fishing for you – the “teach a man to fish” saying goes even further
    when you teach a man to teach others to fish. These tools enable your users
    to do the fishing, instead of you having to do it yourself.
    With tools like this, brands no longer have to be fishers and hunters, but
    farmers. Now they can nurture community everywhere without ever having to
    leave the comfort of their brand itself.

  14. Mike, I think you misunderstand what these tools can do. Yes, they allow you
    to further community on your site, under your own brand, but these tools
    also enable those that don't want to go elsewhere to interact on their
    preferred network as well. The advantage is it gives them even greater
    benefit when they come back to your brand and interact there, and users have
    a greater chance of doing so by integrating these tools. It also enables
    those that *are* interacting on your own brand's turf to share what they're
    doing there with their friends on other social networks. So you're
    basically fishing on your own turf, and the fish are going out and doing
    more fishing for you – the “teach a man to fish” saying goes even further
    when you teach a man to teach others to fish. These tools enable your users
    to do the fishing, instead of you having to do it yourself.
    With tools like this, brands no longer have to be fishers and hunters, but
    farmers. Now they can nurture community everywhere without ever having to
    leave the comfort of their brand itself.

  15. Actually, I don't think that was the point of your post. I read it again and realised you were talking about bringing the Twitter/Facebook conversations into your site.

  16. Bryce, correct. I think we are beyond that now. Now, using tools like
    Facebook Connect, the Twitter APIs and other tools you can easily bring the
    entire pool back to your own site and fish right there without ever having
    to leave your backyard. Now that the tools are there you don't have to go
    anywhere because the fish are right there with you.

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