As some of you know already one day, real soon, we're going to get around to relaunching goroam. We're still doing most of the same consulting work we've been doing for a while but we want to focus the site and face of the company more on what we actually do. We're not web-designers, we're not an advertising agency - We develop and research social strategies and products to improve engagement. It sounds like a lot of marketing and buzz word bullshit but it boils down to the fact that people, companies and brands are realising that the web is so much more than a multimedia brochure. The simplistic metaphor you hear all the time is that it's a conversation, it's true. It's just like a conversation. You have to give and take and you have to speak in a way that doesn't make someone just want to walk away and avoid you in the future. Talking at someone doesn't work in real life and it's becoming less and less effective on the Internet. I saw an interesting presentation by @mattseward from Kilo75 last weekend about conversations with customers and more generally how they try to develop relationships between brands and their customers. One of the questions that came out of the audience was whether people wanted to have conversations with all these brands. It's a good question, but one that I think is slightly wide of the mark. The thing is what most brands have to say isn't terribly interesting to me, so I'm just not listening. Some though have a message which I find engaging and I do listen. 37 Signals is a good example - I use their products, I read their blog and I agree with their message and even pass it on. How do you use the Internet to improve engagement? What tools work best and how do you use them? Get in touch, I'll have more to say on this soon as we get closer and actually relaunch. I did it again! I wrote this on the day I wanted to publish is, then just left it as a draft. I need to try harder, it's only Day 7!