• 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 consumers.

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.

A key to securing and sustaining user attention in a cluttered, multi-tasking cyberplace is becoming an individual consumer's must-have, bookmarked place to be.

Researching and tracking collective consumer behavior is not enough. The science of individual relevance also must be part of the process of creating and maintaining successful content, services and brand campaigns. It begins by forging meaningful interactive relationships, one consumer at a time.

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

It is one place to start.