The HubSpot presentation’s opening thoughts echo Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing treatise. The New Rules of PR and Marketing (David Meerman Scott) and core principles of old school PR (be the authority) join in current time to give us what we have now, the conversation age. If you have not read either of these books, I highly recommend them.

Enjoy these great slides. Good solid information that is right on point.

Someone asked me, “Are bloggers important?” My reply, “Yes.” Sharing your news directly with those who start conversation is the best way to reach targeted persuaders.

Many old school types can’t see the power of blogging, they don’t read blogs or use them as a forum and there is not a really good way, yet, to measure the power of a blog. (If you know of one, do tell me!) Oldies know blogs exist, but it’s like the feelings that advertisers had ten years ago about the Hispanic and Latino market, “why bother?” And now that the other shoe has dropped on that market, we clearly understand the importance of the Hispanic and Latino markets.

Here’s why bother, about blogs that is. Bloggers and their readers are conversationalists who are sharing, posting, inquiring and recommending on a daily basis. Not only that, they are Twittering, FaceBooking, and, yes, even MySpacing to their contacts. Not only are bloggers opinions real, they are searchable.

Google is caching pages with your company’s name, your products and your press releases.

This isn’t just my opinion, but is the reality of the merged world of marketing and PR.

I’ve been reading, How the Web Has Changed the Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott and I am especially impressed with his statement about the change.

“With blogs, we communicate directly with our audience, bypassing the media filter completely. We have the power to create our own media branding the niche of our own choosing. It’s about being found on Google and Yahoo! and vertical sites and RSS feeds.”

So, if you have not started a blog, not read a blog, or don’t have one on your company site, today’s the day.