This morning I was lucky enough to listen to the famous(or infamous depending who you ask) Guy Kawasaki at the User Generated Content Expo. I have yet to hear Guy speak and leave unsatisfied, and on top of that Guy is possibly the most relaxed speaker I have ever witnessed. He spoke about everything from Twitter, to Facebook, to the new media and Amazon’s Kindle 2. However, the part of his casual chat that really hit home for me was his take on the new era of marketing. There were really two parts of this segment, his discussion of the old marketing methodology and that of the new.

The Era of Experts, Influencers, and Mavens
Guy noted that the old way to put a product in front of the masses was a trickle down approach. The goal was to suck up to the influencers, experts, and mavens that had an abundance of social capital and a platform to distribute your message to the masses. To make his point, he mentioned about a dozen of these “mavens,” including tech bloggers, popular media personalities and himself.
Bottom Line: Suck up to the important people, and that will effectively trickle down to the masses.

The New Age of the Masses and Crowds
Because of the advent of new technologies like Twitter, Guy argues that the most effective way to connect to users is from the ground up. Connect with users that are relevant within the context you are trying to reach. Influencers and experts will never be as valuable as the users themselves if you can reach them.
Bottom Line: Don’t ignore the experts, but make your audience and your users a source of collective intelligence that drives your business decisions.

Technologies like Twitter and Baynote’s Affinity Engine allows marketers to leverage their users in ways previously impossible. While Twitter allows marketers to speak to and gather feedback directly from their audiences, Baynote allows marketers to poll users through implicit observation. Ultimately, its all about making sure that your audience finds your products in a timely manner. Your audience may be on Twitter, but its definitely on your website and that is where Baynote comes in.