Hugh MacLeod employs an interesting analogy for contrasting the traditional control-the-one-way-message marketing with the growing uncontrolled market discussion…

A traditional marketing “message” acts like a wave. In the future, I believe marketing messages will behave more like particles…A wave stays connected to its source, a particle does not. Once the particle leaves you, it is no longer yours. You no longer control it, anymore than a dandelion spore controls the wind.

…and gives these particles a name:

What is an Object of Sociability [OoS, or “Ooze” for short]? “Ooze” is simply something that allows you to engage with another person. It could be anything. It could a party. It could be a bottle of wine. It could be a hyperlink. It could be a social gesture…A blog post is an Ooze.

I propose a new metric (I’m a statistician — I can’t help it): Oozes per month. (I’m not kidding.) As the saying goes, what gets measured gets done. Tracking your production of Oozes will increase the likelihood that you’ll actually create and release them.

Days/Weeks/Months later (depending on your industry), start correlating your monthly Oozes data — categorized by type, of course — with your meaningful outcomes data (e.g. sales, profit, customer satisfaction) . Tweak your Oozes strategy as required. Repeat.

If (or when?) you take your firm to great heights, you write a book about it. Make tens of thousands in fees at speaking gigs. Become a rock star. Write your autobiography.

Just remember that it all started from Ooze. Thanks for the new acronym, Hugh.