The Conversologist

When a thriving tech startup company decided to drop the word ‘chatbot’ from its lexicon, you know there’s something wrong. ‘Negative connotations,’ according to this developer. Chatbots were predicted to be the hype of the coming decade. So why the push-back, why the hate - or is it fear? Is it user ignorance, bad experiences, or something else? In this episode, Jam Mayer and Rew Shearer try to u...

Episode 6: From neuroscience to chatbots: an interview with the Cortex Copywriter Sydney-based Nathan Mudaliar is a trained neuroscientist who has followed his creative heart into copywriting, screenwriting and yes, chatbots. In Nathan’s world, copywriting actually is a science. From the effects of words on the dopamine reward centres, to the psychology of tone and nuance, his work is the future o...

Episode 5: The Personality in Chatbot Marketing Chatbots are commonplace in business and marketing, covering everything from brand awareness, to customer service, to online sales. Most chatbot conversation designers will agree an effective chatbot needs a personality. But nearly always, ‘personality’ means a name, a face, and not much else.  This week we talk chatbot personalities, skeuomorph...

  Episode 4: Questions from Hootsuite: Building A Social Organisation: Jam’s Social Media Brand and Marketing Tips How do I identify my target audience? Should we get a chatbot? How do I convince my client that conversational marketing is the way to go? When Hootsuite came to Auckland on May 20th Jam Mayer was invited to speak in the panel discussion. There were many questions, and not everyt...

Social Media is changing.  (Again.)  As users push back on privacy and the perceived invasion of their personal space, Facebook is leading the shift towards private spaces via messaging, groups and communities.  What does this mean for the big social networks? For the users? For the businesses and marketers? Chief Conversologist Jam Mayer and Senior Content Conversologist Rew Shearer discuss the c...

Like many new technologies, the chatbot industry is in full growth mode. But what about the ethical considerations - what information should they gather? Should they declare themselves as chatbots or can they pretend to be human? How manipulative should they be allowed to get in the name of profits? Host Jam Mayer and Senior Content Conversologist Rew Shearer discuss some top level thoughts around...

Why a Conversologist? In this episode, I share my story that gave birth to the title.