This week’s top conversational marketing stories:

Marketers are Less Statistical Than, um, Statisticians – on Chief Marketing Technologist

This Chief Marketing Technologist Post targets the data driven direction in which marketing is headed. “The big-data explosion is driving a shift away from gut-based decision making. Marketing in particular is feeling the pressure to embrace new data-driven customer intelligence capabilities. No wonder a strong appetite for data is one of the most sought-after qualities in new marketers. And yet, a recent CEB study of nearly 800 marketers at Fortune 1000 companies found the vast majority of marketers still rely too much on intuition — while the few who do use data aggressively for the most part do it badly.” The marketing world is changing (again). Are you ready for data?

Marketing and Communications Are No Longer Just About Talking Well - on Chris Brogan

“If you are like most every marketing and PR professional in the world, your company (and thus, you) are shifting your efforts to the web. You might not have all your eggs in this basket, but if you just go back a few years on budget allocations, you’ll see it quite clearly: money, and thus you, are moving to the web. Now, how technically proficient are you? If you answer, “I can tweet, and I can update the Facebook page,” and you’re smiling like you’re on top of your game, maybe not so much. You see, that’s typing. Most folks can type. Not well, it turns out, because very few people bothered to take typing lessons (though we all have jobs that require typing), but hey.” This Chris Brogan post with 342 social likes acts like a call to action for marketers. It argues that marketing for the web doesn’t just mean tweet a few things and spit out some Facebook posts. You’ll also need to learn how to analyze and aggregate data, learn some HTML, and overall become much more technical. Are you ready for the new wave of technical marCom?

Marketing is Most Certainly Not Dead - by John Jantsch  on Ducttapemarketing    

This Jon Jantsch post, which garnered over 207 social likes, pertains to the idea that marketing is not dead. The post responds to articles written by both Michael Hyatt and the Harvard Business Review, both of which claim that the age of marketing is coming to an end. “This is the kind of talk that comes from people that have never really understood what marketing is. They find in social networks where they can generate lots of fans or they can build a readership for their blog, but crossing the chasm to where you turn that tribe into paying customers most certainly takes marketing by the boatload.” Jantsch continues to argue that marketing has always been an ever changing landscape and that marketers have always adapted to it. What are your thoughts on this article? Is marketing fading away or simply taking on a different shape?

Let's keep the conversation moving forward! This week is all about the directing marketing is moving. Are you ready to follow the new path that’s being paved? Is it time for you to adopt data or are you ahead of the curve and already bit that bullet? Marketers can’t rely simply on intuition and talking well, do you agree or are you still clinging to old habits? There are even some that argue marketing is dead all together? It completely gone just rerouted its path?