How not to interview Forbes’ Youngest Billionaire – Mark Zuckerberg – itsReal

BusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy at the South by Southwest Interactive conference was panned by the audience here — and in near-real time in the blogosphere.

Mark Zuckerberg

That the social-media circus turned against its reigning ringmaster had more to with Ms. Lacy’s meandering questions and diversions into anecdotal tales of her previous interviews with Mr. Zuckerberg than it did with the Facebook CEO’s answers. Indeed, at one point he even suggested to her that she ought to ask questions — as opposed to sharing her thoughts — prompting the restless SXSW crowd to burst into applause.

Strange interview technique
Early in the interview when Mr. Zuckerberg started talking about Facebook’s Spanish-language expansion, Ms. Lacy interrupted to talk about her enthusiasm for Spain; when Mr. Zuckerberg got the floor back he explained that the expansion was more about his site’s popularity in Colombia. At another point she told a story about a previous interview she had done with the 23-year-old billionaire at Facebook’s office, relating that when the session had ended, Mr. Zuckerberg was drenched in sweat, and that he had a prevalent facial tick “like a little bird.”

Read more: Advertising Age

Let’s have a Conversation – Conversational Marketing – itsReal

Spending on social media and “conversational marketing” – albeit still in their nascent stage – will surpass traditional marketing spend by the end of 2012, according to a study conducted by TWI Surveys, Inc., the New Communications Review writes.

The survey of 260 senior PR and marcomms professionals was conducted on behalf of the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) and Joseph Jaffe for his book Join the Conversation.

Although social-media adoption has just begun – 70% of respondents are spending 2.5% or less of their communications budgets on conversational marketing – those surveyed foresee significant adoption and spending within five years: Some 81% of survey respondents said they will spend at least as much on conversational marketing as traditional marketing by 2012.

Among other findings of the study:

• Two-thirds of respondents plan to increase their spending on coversational marketing in the next 12 months.
• 57% say they think that in five years they will be spending more on conversational marketing than traditional marketing
• Nearly 24% say they think conversational marketing spend will equal traditional marketing spend in five years

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