Gennefer Snowfield (@Gennefer), a self described Writer, brand conductor, web strategist mining the intersection of advertising, tech, entertainment tweeted a while back that she is, "all for fun promos, but brands need to separate buzz from substance. Viral gimmicks may get social web play but never convert consumers."

Which got me thinking that as the noise to signal ratio shifts into over drive that companies are forced to differentiate themselves but perhaps the are not choosing the best way to do so.

Geoff Livingston in his blog The Buzz Bin notes in this post that "Reputations are always grounded in results, good or bad." While Geoff is pointing out issues more specific to personal branding, I think one must be very aware that personal or corporate buzz without performance will not win the day.

So what is it about buzz that is of vital importance to a product, company or organization? David Murray says the answer is nothing and that further one must engage ones customers and audience in bi-directional communication.

This theme was echoed at the recent Real-Time Stream Crunchup and while much of the discussion, which is well reported by Brian Solis here, centered on real-time streams it was also clear that once again performance and engagement trumps hype.

While companies seem to find it easier to hype and stunt rather then engage and listen, many simply do not feel they can risk participating in an open and bi-directional conversation. Ultimately they can only control the conversation through their company or products performance and in a world where there is no perfect product or service one must risk exposing ones potential customers to those dissatisfied customers.

Brand management and controlling brand perception can back fire quickly if not backed up by a sincere result driven product offering.

Porter Gale of Virgin America (@virginamerica) pointed out during the Real-Time Stream Crunchup that for her company social media is representative of not only a listening system, but also a complete engagement channel. The word “marketing” doesn’t even enter the mix.

Companies can no longer afford to stick their head in the sand (or perhaps better said in the clouds) and broadcast their chosen message oblivious to the conversations that exist. One can no longer buy off the disgruntled customer with a coupon for free product in hopes of band-aiding ones product failures. Customer are connected and they can and will share information and respond in a collective angry mob manner if provoked and ignored. One need not simply get caught out by a bad customer service event that is recorded and made famous on Youtube.

Today more then ever there is collective knowledge and any brand would be wise to step beyond entertaining their customer base and stick to the basics of listening and engaging in an effort to improve their measured performance.

So join us as we engage each other in a discussion of how we all must change both our own brand management as well as that of our companies if we are to thrive and not just survive in a world where simply put there is no amount of fluff that will hide ones true performance.

As always, there is no better way to meet and connect with other executives then over dinner and conversation. $21 in advance via PayPal or $25 at the event gets you a full dinner, drink and the best networking around.