• by Diane Mermigas , September 19, 2008

Are too many conference discussions dancing around the salient issue of individual relevance?

Maybe.

A key to making social networking, content and advertising work on interactive platforms is relevance.

That’s relevance as in having significant value to individual consumer.

That notion seems foreign to many advertisers and agencies, content producers and distributors, who continue to view their Web audiences as a collective "we." By and large, how they use the Web is still all about them and their corporate agenda, or what they perceive to be the interests and needs of consumer categories.

The keep to securing and sustaining user attention in a multi-tasking cyber marketplace is becoming their must-have bookmark.

Understanding behavior is not enough. The science of individual relevance must also be part of the process of creating and maintaining meaningful and successful branding campaigns, content and interactive relationships that can ultimely prove very lucrative.

One approach was offered by Bob Strohrer, chie marketing officer of Virgin Mobile during this morning’s Marketers’ Dilemma panel. “Agencies need to help steward that process and be more selfless.”