Building Facilitation Instead of Interruption

I ran across this blog post yesterday
(”APIs are the next marketing platform”), and it’s really resonating
with me. In it, Kipp Bodnar explains that while billboards, and print
ads, and blogs (etc) may have been the “marketing platforms” of the
past, the future of marketing platforms is the API (the application
programming interface).  Quoting:

The future of marketing is about
companies developing useful applications for their customers that
extend web services that the customers are already using. This replaces
the current model which is to use web applications to communication
with customers.  The problem with current social media marketing is the
noise. A company is one of thousands, sometimes millions of users and
it is easy to get lost. Developing applications via API’s provide a way
for companies to break out of the crowd and at the same time create
value for customers…Brands will need to become
conduits that facilitate consumer communications instead or
interrupters that intermittently drop in advertisements.

I think this is right on. And I also think it’s why tech
marketers (or at least their technical counterparts) and companies that
are interacting with publishers NEED to come to Glue.

If you look at the Glue agenda,
you might see it simply as some kind of “web services” conference. But
that really couldn’t be farther from the truth. Glue is exploring the
nuts and bolts that bind together web apps (and, oddly, that now
includes the desktop).

When you begin to think about a world where the web is
the uber-platform, the applications (and their APIs) become the
necessary glue that binds together our web experience. Understanding
the underpinnings is key to understanding how you can leverage a
“sticky universe” — and begin to think about what it means to either A)
build your own “platform” as a marketer or B) build services that
marketers will use as platforms for their applications.

Any way you slice it, you shouldn’t miss Glue if you’re a tech marketer or startup that’s venturing into this new world.

(Editor’s note: CloudAve is Media Sponsor of the Glue Conference and we’re offering $100 off the registration price, bringing it to $395 if you use our discount code spkr09 )