David Meerman Scott is a best-selling author and popular keynote speaker on the topics of viral and online marketing as well as the convergence of web marketing, digital media and online PR. One of his most popular books, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to use news releases, blogs, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly , was a real eye opener for a lot of companies trying to make sense of where blogs, press releases and search marketing fit together. The second edition of The New Rules has recently been published and David will be keynoting the upcoming Search Engine Strategies conference in New York. I caught up with him just before SES and did a phone interview to get more insight into the new book, his insights into the emerging social media world including Twitter, Foursquare, Blogging and Content Marketing. I also asked him to share some practical advice for time management and how he stays current. The first edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR was a real groundbreaking book for many marketers, bringing together web marketing and public relations strategies and tactics together. What’s new about the second edition? First of all Lee, you were among the very first people in the world to to read the book and identify that it had something interesting to say and help talk it up. I appreciate that. There were a handful of people really early on in June 2007 who discovered the book, picked it up, read it and said wow, there’s something going on here. The first edition came out June 2007 but I wrote it throughout 2006. If you remember in 2006, Twitter didn’t exist. Facebook was only for students, you had to have a .edu email address. Second Life was really being hyped. After the book was published for a few years, I’ve been getting emails nearly every day from people asking if I’d heard of a cool new service called Twitter that’s not in the book. I had to update services and take a hard look at each of the examples in the book. I kicked out about 15 of them and added 25 – 30 new examples, so the new book grew a little bit in the number of pages. The examples are really interesting and really current. One of the challenges of writing a book is when you submit a manuscript, the book doesn’t come out for 6 months. Now, I wish I’d written about Foursquare, since that’s not in this new edition. What is one of the biggest myths you’re seeing perpetuated about marketing on the web? About social media? It’s not what I’d call a myth, but what I hear a lot are people who mistake these ideas that we’ve been talking about for 3-4 years with just being about Twitter and Facebook. People say, “I’m doing this Online Marketing thing, I’m on Twitter”. Or the opposite. They’ll say, “What are you talking about? This isn’t a form of marketing, it’s just a toy. Who cares what you had for lunch today.” I see this everywhere, all over the world as I go on the speaking circuit. People confuse the broad ideas that we’ve been talking about, on how to reach people on the web in all of its forms with the “latest fad”. One of the fads out there is the phrase, “social media”. We didn’t use that untill recently. That fadish sort of phrase does a disservice to us getting the word out about the big picture of what you can do on the web. I continue to call it “the new rules of marketing and PR”. It’s just allowing us to create and publish content and get it out there. There’s lots of ways to do that. The labels and attempts to box it in can be limiting. Let’s try some word association. I’ll mention a word or phrase and you tell me what comes to mind. “Foursquare”: Newest hottest thing, I’m obsessed. Really interesting, fascinating. Foursquare was huge at SXSW. “Twitter”: Twitter. Twitter. I think Twitter is with us for the long haul. I think Twitter is a real and valuable form of communication. “Content Marketing”: People don’t know what the word “content” means. I wrote a book in 2005: Cashing in with Content . That book is just as well written and groundbreaking as The New Rules of Marketing and PR , but it suffers from a horrendous title. Because nobody associates content with marketing despite many people trying to make that association, including me. I am trying not to use phrase “content marketing” because many people don’t know what “conten”t means. I often use “information”. I learned my lesson. I wrote a really good book on the topic but no one has ever heard of it and followed it up with an international best seller in 24 languages. The major difference was use of “content” in the first book. “Blogs”: A lot of people are saying blogs are dead. I don’t beleive that in the least. I think it’s the best way for people that are passionate about a subject to share that passion with the world. Have you heard some of this “Blogs are dead stuff?” Lee: Yeah, I think of it this way. If you haven’t had the opportunity to learn how to use a tool in a way that results in positive outcomes, you can either decide to quit and call it dead or you can figure it out. I say that from a position of feeling very satisfied with our own blogging effort. Recently I had the opportunity to interview Tom Peters, who said his best marketing is his blog. For many of us it’s huge. I interviewed Seth Godin as well and I’d guess that he would say a blog is a big part of his success. If you don’t do a very good job with blogging, it’s easy to dismiss. Many people are doing quite well. Social media and blogging is not an issue of either or. They work together. “Viral Marketing”: I love the concept of viral marketing. The idea of people spreading ideas for you. There’s nothing better than people talking you up. “Social Media Expert” : Ha ha. Snake Oil Salesmen. There are plenty of people that are very skilled at different aspects of social media and provide value in education and some execution. I just have to think there’s other people out there who really are just jumping on the latest bandwagon and don’t really have the skills that companies are looking for and may be doing a disservice to their clients. Some of these people, were the same person in the 1970’s who opened a video center then a tanning salon in the 80’s then in 90’s web sites and then the late 90’s offered email and SEO and are now doing social media. It feels like whatever the hot topic is, there are peoples coming out of the woodwork claiming themselves as experts. Don’t get me wrong, there are many talented people out there, but it can be hard to tell who’s real. It can be hard for companies to tell because they don’t have the skills to see the difference. Please share a few tips on how companies can decide where to start on the social web: I think the best thing is to start where you’re comfortable. Decide what media you’re most comfortable with. Not everyone can write for example, so a blog might not be a good idea for them. Maybe photos or video is a better match or if you’re analytical, create charts & graphics that help people visualize critical concepts. Forget about your own company and products. No one cares. Try to understand the people you’re trying to reach: the buyer persona. What problems can you solve for them? Then create content that helps them. People coming into online marketing from an advertising agency or PR firm or even direct marketing all bring a different bias. You’re like the energizer bunny, doing an amazing amount of work. What insights do you have for companies or individuals at companies on managing time and being efficient with social participation? First, I would like to tell everybody: You have permission to say no. You have permission not to respond. A lot of people treat social sites like email – there’s an expectation that when you get a message you have to respond. You can do your best to be responsive, but there’s only so much time. I have a blog, I do videos, Twitter and FourSquare. However, I’m not on LinkedIn, not on MySpace and I don’t do a podcast. You have to pick and choose. We all have pockets of downtime. Maybe you can take 5 minutes every 3 hours or so and take a quick look in the morning. Then again maybe after lunch. When you’re feeling productive, and this is very true in my case, you can really crank it out. That’s when it’s a good time to shut off access to other distractions. Today’s a great example. I just spent 5 days at SXSW and I’m so tired. It’s a perfect day to have a conversation with you. I couldn’t do a blog post today. There’s a right time and place. The social web is still new to many companies and as a result, opportunists who are at best, “familiar users” of social apps, come across as “experts” without having actually implemented paid consulting for companies. The same has happened with web design and SEO. How much of a problem is this? Is it a problem at all? There are a number of people that say because they have 10k followers they’re a Twitter expert. They actually do provide a lot of value because they can teach you to be a better user of the service. However, that’s very different than helping you to create a strategy in a company to grow a business. How do you stay current and informed? Events, people, blogs/feeds, social tools, testing, magic 8 ball? The main thing is that I’m so lucky to speak around the world and give presentations. Of course when I do that I get to meet lots of people that share their stories. Some are of success and some are about wanting to do more. I use those as my way of staying current. I first heard of Foursquare at a conference. In early February I was speaking at an event in Amsterdam. Some people were talking about Layar and how cool it was. I started using it and blogged about it. If I hadn’t been at that conference in Amsterdam I wouldn’t have heard about Layar. It’s really about getting out there, talking to lots of different people, listening and asking questions. I live in fear of being a gray haired consultant that people look at and say, “He was really smart 10 years ago, but now he’s lost it”. What are your thoughts on the future of the social web in 2-3 years? We’re experiencing a revolution akin to when the telephone was invented or when the television was invented. There’s a new and fantastic way that we’re communicating today. Literally 100s of millions of people are communicating in new ways and the numbers of people and companies using social media are all growing. Some tools might not be growing like Second Life, but overall it is. We’re in the middle of a revolution. It’s important for people to recognize that this stuff is really growing. What question should I be asking you? (And the answer of course) One of the things I pay very close attention to is what’s going on outside of North America. New Rules of Marketing and PR is published in 24 languages: From Vietnamese to Turkish to Bulgarian. It’s proof these ideas are working all over the world. I’ve been fortunate to deliver presentations in over 20 countries in the last 2 years. There are so many companies doing interesting things worldwide. There are so many social networks that are popular that we don’t know about. It’s a global phenomenon. That’s fantastic, thank you for your time. You can get more information about the various books written by David Meerman Scott here along with his blog . You can also see David presenting a keynote presentation at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies New York conference. For readers that are attending SES, I also invite you to attend the Digital Asset Optimization panel right after David’s keynote. Hope to see you there. For even more of David’s insights, watch this video interview we shot at a past Minneapolis St. Paul Social Media Breakfast.
Posts Tagged: people
17
Mar 10
Do social networks share a “social contract” with users?
Early notions of modern democracy leaned heavily on the notion of a “social contract” — the idea that there’s a relationship between the governed and government, in which the people cede some rights in exchange for certain benefits. You give up the right to kill whomever you please and the government grants you a measure of security — that kind of thing. Both sides have a part to play. The deal doesn’t work if only one side lives up to the agreement. In today’s lead story in SmartBrief on Social Media , Christina Gagnier is discussing online privacy standards when she makes a reference to “the evolving ’social contract’ that should just be understood between platforms and their users.” Of course, she notes, there are substantial differences between the constitution of a sovereign state and the terms of service on a Web site. But the idea that we give up something in order to receive a benefit from a collective remains intact. Social networks often feel very democratic — all those people, those conversations, those ideas! But is the comparison really apt? Do you think users and networks share a “social contract”? Does that contract just refer to the terms of service, or is it something more? What are you personally willing to give up to secure the benefits that belonging to a social network confers? At what point do you decide the contract is no longer valid and “revolt” by leaving the network? Image credit, Sergej Khakimullin , via Shutterstock
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Do social networks share a “social contract” with users?
22
Feb 10
3 tools to help optimize your social presence
You have a great product. People love your content, your products or your services. You have even stepped up your game and created a blog, a Facebook page and an active Twitter account. Yet, the results are unspectacular. Enter social-graph optimization. Yet another Social Media Week panel, fittingly titled “ Social Graph Optimization ” featured insights from Seth Sternberg, CEO of Meebo, Mark Ghuneim, CEO and founder of Wiredset and Trendrr, Hashem Bajwa of Droga 5, and Anna O’Brien of Citibank to help attendees grasp the idea. While Social Graph Optimization might be a foreign concept to many marketers, the good news is that it is based on common sense. If search engine optimization is about getting visibility via search, social graph optimization is about getting your messages out there via social media. Whether that is achieved via your audience’s networks or yours, it’s all about increasing your reach. In some ways, this concept is what social media should be in its purest form: optimized word of mouth. These activities seem logical, but they are something we take for granted and often lose sight of. SmartBrief on Social Media Editor at Large and WOM guru Andy Sernovitz reminds us to “ Just ask” often, and every time I hear it I think of more applications. Mark Ghuneim of Trendrr sees Social Graph Optimization as significant because with social media, we can now see what people are doing, what they are watching and where they are going. Now, he argues, we can target those spaces rather than just targeting the people. This represents a critical shift in thinking for many marketers currently “engaging” in social media. Optimizing social media is not about finding new ways to DM people on Twitter, it’s about leveraging your audience to help them spread your message for you. To build on these opportunities, we can use data. Anna O’Brien of Citibank underscored the importance of analytics in optimization. Once we’re looking at data indicating what’s being shared and what users are reacting to, she pointed out, we can use this data to shape our products. What does your customer want more of? Create more of that and feed the hunger. Seth Sternberg of Meebo mentioned that two years ago, Google was probably the most significant traffic driver for branded sites. While the big 10 blue links are probably still a big piece of that share, social channels are now a major player. He believes that providing current customers with smart and integrated sharing technologies is key to successful social media optimization. “After all,” he pointed out, “My pictures didn’t get any better when I bought an iPhone, but I certainly share them a lot more now.” Now let’s get tactical and figure out what businesses can do today to optimize their social graph. Here are three tools to help you get started. 1. Retweet buttons . Many sites now use TweetMeme buttons effectively, and Guy Kawasaki has showed the impact they can have . They serve as a subtle, yet useful, reminder for your audience to share via Twitter. 2. Widgets and plugin and apps, oh my! Does your blog feature a Twitter feed? Not just of what you’re saying, but what others are saying (see: sharing) about you in real-time? Check out Collecta . Does your Facebook fan page reference your blog or your Twitter updates? There are plenty of apps for that . While it’s important that each of these channels remains distinct, taking advantages of the qualities of each space, we have to remember to use them to feed one another. Your blog should be able to stand alone — but your readers should know that they can follow you on Twitter and fan you on Facebook for further engagement. 3. Web site/blog toolbar . I’m not going to shamelessly plug Meebo because they sponsored the event, took care of lunch or because CEO Seth Sternberg had some great things to say. However, the Meebo toolbar (and Wibiya , used on this blog) is a very tactical and smart way to get started integrating your social graph. The first step in social graph optimization is making it easy for your customers and readers to share your content, offers or information. These bars are a constant reminder to your audience, and according to Sternberg, if 1% of your daily unique visitors share your content, you’re doing pretty well. If you have great content, don’t let it languish. The first step is integrating your business’ social profiles — but the real jump will happen when you give your audience the tools they need to make it easy to share with their networks. Image credit, mipan , via iStock
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3 tools to help optimize your social presence
17
Feb 10
5 tips for promoting your book with social media
In the age of the Kindle and the iPhone, text is more ubiquitous than ever, but that doesn’t mean users are lining up to pay for content. Readers often need a push, in the form of a strong personal brand, to get them to open their wallets. Social networks can provide an ideal platform for budding authors looking to bring their brand to the masses. A recent Social Media Week panel brought together a best-selling author, a literary blogger and a pair of publicists to discuss how social networks are changing the way authors promote their work — and how writers of all stripes can use social tools to get ahead. Make connections before you need them. You can’t start a Twitter account the day your book launches and expect to be an instant success, said Natalie Lin , online publicist at John Wiley & Sons. You need to start developing your audience long before you have something to market to them, she said. New writers have the most to gain from social networks, said literary blogger Levi Asher , since a social presence can help an up-and-coming author prove to a publisher that their work has an audience. Asher cited author Tao Lin as a rising talent who is gaining a cult following through his use of social networks. Join conversations that aren’t about you. You can’t build meaningful connections with fans by just talking about yourself all the time, Lin said. If you want to make authentic relationships, trying joining in conversations about other topics that interest you, she suggested. Lin also suggested using your social presence to reach out to bloggers and other influencers that you respect. Asher agreed, noting that when an author approaches him about reviewing their book, he’s more likely to consider the request when the author can send him a personal note and demonstrate a little familiarity with his work. Use social media to feed your work. Your Twitter account isn’t just a promotional vehicle, said A.J. Jacobs , author of “The Year of Living Biblically” and other memoirs. Your social-networking experiences can actually help you develop ideas. Jacobs recently tweeted about his wife waking up in a bad mood after she had a dream about him flirting with another woman. Jacobs told the panel that after he sent this message, several of his followers responded that they’d had similar experiences with their spouses. What seemed like a freak occurrence at first might actually be a common problem that Jacobs could explore in an article. Use your social presence to support other promotions. Asher said he doesn’t see social media as a platform for driving direct sales so much as for building buzz and promoting events. The publishing business is changing, and part of that transformation may mean that Web events and nonbook merchandise may become a larger part of an author’s income, he noted. Publicist Meryl L. Moss said having a strong social presence can make it easier for an author to score a guest appearance on a TV or radio program. Moss pointed out that when new authors have a strong YouTube video under their belt, it can go a long way toward allaying a television producer’s fears that they won’t be able to hold up their end of an interview. Several panelists pointed out that many of the bulwarks of traditional publishing — media appearances, live events and even books themselves — are in a state of flux or even decline. Having a healthy personal brand online may a vital part of surviving and adapting in this new publishing environment, they said. Stick with it. Shifting from the private process of writing a book to the public process of promoting it can be a jarring experience for a writer, said Asher. Many writers become frustrated when they don’t develop an online following right away, he noted — or worse yet, when the people they connect with first aren’t fans, but harsh critics. Developing a real following takes time, and even then, your fans may still be critical of your work. Jacobs said he routinely received notes from fans alerting him to factual errors in his books. Authors need to be willing to open themselves up to critics and trust that their fans will take care of them in the long haul, Lin noted. “You need real stamina to make it work,” she said. Image credit, tiridifilm via iStock
12
Feb 10
Why getting attention is never enough
Not too long ago, I was at a networking event where someone came up to me and said, in an almost confidential tone, “I really hate these things. I hate these people. I’m just here to promote my business.” Then he gave me his elevator pitch, handed me his card and walked away. I wasn’t surprised. I meet at least one of these people at every event I go to, even at events that are supposed to be about social media. They say things like, “I want bloggers to promote my product, but I don’t want to have to talk to them,” or, “My customers aren’t smart enough to speak for my brand.” I always hope these people have the decency to fail quickly so that everyone else involved in their venture can move on with their lives. Brian Solis argues that businesses need to create content so that they can build engagement and eventually develop influence. That might not seem like a terribly radical statement — until you stop to consider that so many social strategies end with simply getting people’s attention. We put so much thought into casting the line that actually reeling in the fish sometimes takes a back seat. Today I realized that these poor souls that I meet at conventions probably don’t hate the people they’re pitching to — they’re just frustrated because they’re mastered the art of attracting attention without the ability to convert it into influence. They’re missing out on the middle step: Building engagement. You can’t forbid a person from saying no to you. You can only ever give them reasons to say yes. The best reason to say yes to a person is because you trust them to take care of you. Whether your social-media platform is out there to make sales or provide customer service, you need to take the time to establish that trust. Even if you’re really just trying to “get the word out” about you product, make sure that word feels authentic and trustworthy. Otherwise, you might just find yourself at a bar down the line, horrifying some social-media blogger with stories about how your customers are the stupid ones. How can businesses make the leap from attracting attention to building trust? Anyone else met a misanthropic salesmen at a social-media event?
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Why getting attention is never enough