The New Rules of Marketing and PR

(Don't miss the giveaway at the bottom of this post!)

Marketing, advertising, PR have all been irreversibly impacted by the rise of user generated content, social media, social networks and blogs. Chances are, as a TypePad blogger, you are already well aware of this. Chances are that you're already making the most of this shift in communications - in fact you're probably leading the way among your friends.

You are probably explaining to your friends the opportunity blogs offer to engage with people you never would have otherwise around your topic of interest. You might be explaining how, by linking your blog to social networks like Twitter and Facebook, you can increase the amount of traffic to your blog. You have told them how building relationships with your blog visitors makes your blog more engaging and encourages them not only to come back but tell their friends too.

Most companies have been pretty slow to catch on to the phenomenon of online citizen media and networked transfer of information between peers. Slowly but surely some companies are learning how to become part of the conversations that are happening everyday around the web. The biggest challenge for major corporations is to do something genuinely interesting that's worth talking about!

Take the recent example of John Deere. John Deere are huge traditional advertisers who recently managed to capture the imaginations of their fan base with a radical overhaul of the 4020 model. They Commissioned Chip Foose, the stars of TV show Overhaulin', to remodel and customize the John Deere classic. By revealing the human side of John Deere and the passion of the people who work there and combining that with a more widely appealing concept  they were able to drum up interest in their brand among new customer groups. They got everyone talking. That's worth a 10,000 newspaper or banner ads with a straight sell message.

This fine example and many others, with excellent analysis can be found on Web Ink Now,  the TypePad blog of David Merrman Scott.

Few people are able to synthesize the cacophony of social media babble into something resembling a harmonious set of rules or practices for businesses. But David has managed it. His best selling book, the New Rules of Marketing and PR, published by Wiley, is now in its second edition and is the must-have guide for any marketer or small business owner. It's also available in 24 different languages. David's stories offer clear and concise do's and don'ts on marketing to the social web and has been an invaluable resource to the TypePad Team. So next time you are helping a friend navigate the social media waters you'll find David's book is an excellent aid

I discussed the book with David recently and jumped at the chance of some FREE SIGNED COPIES TO GIVE AWAY! So if you would like a copy of this book share your most creative marketing initiative, the one that really got people talking - and the results - in the comments below. Even better you can blog about it and drop a link in the comments.

Comments

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks so much to the TypePad team for this post. I have been blogging using TypePad since 2004 and my blog is the most important marketing tool that I have!

Best, David

[Account Deleted]

I was truly inspired by David Meerman Scott's book on the New Rules of PR and Marketing.

I had browsed through it once before from my local British Council Library but I never really thought about it until I was about to sign a contract with a UK PR agency for 7,000 pounds a month plus expenses !!!

I borrowed a copy of David's book which I read cover to cover 3 times. I shifted my entire website to my blog and it has had amazing results.

In the past I used to spend large amounts of Google Adwords but I now find that I get an amazing amount of free traffic by blogging about interesting topics related to my Goa Hotel or Goa in general.

My blog has also generated great amount of interest from the press (just like David said it would) and now I have reporters running after me instead of the other way around.

My Mitaroy Goa Hotel Website was also adjuged one of the 15 Best Designed Hotel Websites by Hotel Marketing Strategies Blog !!! http://bit.ly/9YZL99

I would really appreciate a signed copy of David Meerman Scott's book. Unfortunately, I had to return my copy to the British Council Library and now I don't have a copy to refer to. Having a signed copy by David himself makes it all the more special!

Cheers!

Mihir Nayak
Mitaroy Goa Hotel

[Clay Morgan]

Beyond any shadow of a doubt, a blog is a powerful marketing tool. I've recently started using Typepad for my blog.

The key with blogging and other aspects of social media, along with the utilization of traditional media, is to understand how its role can impact your marketing goals, as well as to understand how social media - which in reality is a conversation, not a hard sell - differs from traditional marketing.

[John Deere Tara]

Wow! Thanks for the post, Typepad. You really touched on what social media can do when you mentioned passion. In the years that I've worked at John Deere, I've met so many employees who love really tractors (and combines and skid steers and mowers and dozers.) Blogs, Twitter and Facebook give us a chance to share our stories.

[Claire Alcock]

I love that you found this post Tara! John Deere clearly know how to interact with conversations around its brand. I could get excited about tractors too if they all looked like this 4020! Great job!

[Jonathan]

I don't want these posts automatically added to my dashboard. How do I stop them?

[Kimberly]

Combining social networking and our blogs has been huge for us. But, on the smaller side, doing the legwork, meeting people in our area of interest face to face, has made a huge impact because they add us to many other's radar through their social media accounts.

[Alex Beattie]

Great book by a great author. If you don't understand blogging, social media and the like, it could be troubled waters ahead. But the fact is, they younger generation are rewriting the rules as we speak.

[CeCeBROWN]

Great book! I learned about it, as a required text book, during my Internet Marketing degree plan at Full Sail University. Awesome!

[GraemeThickins]

David is not only a great writer, but a top-notch speaker, in demand worldwide. I was lucky enough to get him to speak to our Twin Cities Social Media Breakfast group ("SMBmsp") in October 2008, and he was a huge hit. I arranged a sponsor so we could give away copies of his "New Rules" book (first edition), and we had record attendance. We're now the largest such group in the U.S., with 26 consecutive monthly events, and regularly sell out all of them, with 300+ at each meeting. I've been following David since 2005, when I launched my Typepad blog. He is an inspiration!

[A Twitter User]

Here is one creative marketing initiative I use.

Identify a person who you want to be aware of your blog. It should be a two way benefit - they should find something useful on your blog and you should benefit from them being aware of your blog.

In the old days, you would have contacted this person directly and hoped that they read your correspondence and were intrigued enough to follow-up. In this day and age, if you do that, it’ll probably be treated as spam and ignored.

So how do you get the attention of someone who is unapproachable?
In my example below, let’s call this unapproachable person Joe.
Study Joe. Read their blog and their tweets. You're trying to learn three things – first, does Joe ever promote other people or blogs or is Joe completely stuck on Joe. If Joe is stuck on Joe, move on because you’re wasting your time. Second, what interests Joe? Remember, you’re not stalking Joe. :) You’re trying to build a mutual relationship with Joe that’ll benefit both of you. Does your business line up with Joe’s interests? If not, move on because you’re wasting your time and Joe’s time. Third, figure out who Joe reads. Look at what blogs Joe promotes. Look at who Joe follows on Twitter. Let’s say that one of the people Joe follows is Sue.

Since Joe is unapproachable, you should see if Sue is more approachable. How many people does Sue follow in Twitter? Some people actually follow everyone who follows them. If Sue’s number of following and followers are close to each other, then see if she ever retweet other people’s tweets or if she ever post tweets spotlighting other people or blogs. If she does, follow her on Twitter. Read Sue’s tweets for a few days and read any tweets that people send to Sue. See how to approach Sue. Is the best way to get Sue’s attention to send a tweet to her or to use a hashtag that Sue follows? Try one tweet and see if that get’s Sue’s attention. If it doesn’t, follow Sue for another week and then try to get her attention again. It may take two or three tries or you may fail completely, but every once in a while you’ll succeed. Now that you’ve got Sue’s attention, try to build a mutually beneficial relation with her. Remember, when Sue talks about you. Joe (who is our real target) reads about you.

If you can’t approach Sue via Twitter, see if you can approach her through her blog. Study her blog and see if Sue ever spotlights other people or blogs. If so, try to approach Sue. Send her something useful. It can be good feedback or it can be a great link to something she could use in a future post. The cool thing is that the great link doesn’t have to point at your blog. Once you’ve got Sue’s attention, try to build a mutually beneficial relation with her. When you’ve developed that relationship, Sue will be more open to promoting your blog.

Lastly, treat Sue just like you’d treat Joe. You may find that your relationship with Sue brings you more attention that you expected or you may find that Fred (who is even more important and unapproachable than Joe) hears about you from Sue or from one of Sue’s followers.

I call this starting downstream and as long as you treat everyone involved with respect it works wonders.

[Claire Alcock]

Great point Clay - establishing your goals and metrics for success is an important starting point in any campaign. Social media is notoriously difficult to measure in terms of reach - what do you use to measure success? Are you after comments, leads, shares on social networks?

[Claire Alcock]

Jonathan - if you go to the TypePad Team profile and hit either Follow or Unfollow under the user pic you will be prompted to unfollow. Once you have done this the updates will remain in your dashboard until others you are following have updated.
http://profile.typepad.com/typepad

[Claire Alcock]

Great point Kimberley - an offline encounter can be hugely powerful. Do you hold events/parties in order to meet more folks?

[Kimberly]

We are a part of our local independent music scene and attend as many shows and gatherings as possible.

[Account Deleted]

thanks for this great information it really helps a lot for me as a newbies in online marketing world. keep up the good work and more power to the site.

[Adam Turinas]

Mine is more of a personal story. As a marketer I ahve always been fascinated by the power of social media. I started a blog on my other passion sailing in 2006 to explore and understand this phenomenon better.

In 2009 I had the opportunity I had the opportunity to put what I learned to work for a good cause. Last April was the 40th Anniversary of one of the greatest nautical feats, Robin Knox-Johnston's non-stop solo circumnavigation (trying saying that after a few beers).

You can read more about it here:
http://messingaboutinboats.typepad.com/sailing/2009/03/robin-knoxjohnston-day.html

I felt that nothing was being done to commemorate this amazing accomplishment so I started a movement to make April 22nd Robin Knox-Johnston Day of the web. (I neglected to realize that this was also Earth Day so I had some competition).

I reached out to other bloggers, started a Facebook group which I advertised, started a Twitter program. The results blew me away. 37 bloggers blogged about it and over 150 joined the group. It was tweeted up a storm. It was picked up by the sailing press in the UK and mos importantly RKJ heard about it.

Not quite Writethefuture but I helped an old sailor feel recognized.

[Mie]

Hi everyone,
Great stories and comments. Thank you very much!! I will contact those directly who will be receiving the giveaway. We hope you will enjoy it!

[Account Deleted]

Wow great story i m interested plsss contact me soon :)

"Online Jobs": http://www.onlineworkindia.com

[Tomretterbush]

David Meerman Scott is a revolutionary, literaly having changed the rules of marketing almost by himself, almost overnight. I created a blogpost on my http://assetebooks.com website that is focused on him and his ideas, as well as your above post. I am offering 3 of his ebooks as free downloads from my blog. You can check it out at http://assetebooks.com/marketing/how-to-get-others-to-spread-your-ideas

[lynnerienstra]

Giveaways, giveaways, giveaways. I create buzz by giving readers a free download of information they are hungry for -- but doesn't "cost" me much to give them. It's a win-win situation for all. I create traffic and buzz, and readers (and their friends) walk away happy.

[Account Deleted]

hi David Meerman Scott, Your book has provided very useful information especially for advertising with a target online citizen media and networked,and I agree with Marketing, advertising, PR have all been irreversibly impacted by the rise of user generated content, social media, social networks and blogs. thanks for all

by izoel
http://www.asianbrain.com

[Geneva Chapin]

is it too late to say I'd be interested in getting a copy of this?

[Account Deleted]

Christie offices provides office rental and leasing services. http://www.christieoffices.com.au

[Account Deleted]

Typepad sites are very interesting and they are useful too. I have been using typepad's for a long time.

http://www.lowcostroutes.com/

[Account Deleted]

We admit that by integrating social media in SEO is a very useful step towards highly targeted traffic for every websites. In fact as part f marketing scheme in timeshare we are using social media for best PR. http://timeshare-relief360.blogspot.com

[Account Deleted]

Nice collection of funny .Well, then I will just have to check them all out :)

thanks again, keep going

http://theonlinestuff.com

[Katherine Lia]

Thank you so much. I love to learn more ways to reach people and connect to them so it is a win win situation.

[Suse]

To be honest, I don't really fathom how social media and the like really increase business unless you already have connections that generate more connections. So, while I don't have a marketing campaign idea that worked well, I really could USE a book like that to learn how to make this work for me. :-)

[Account Deleted]

I've used Typepad for our high school reunion page for years and when my software company started discussing utilizing social media, I immediately jumped at the chance of helming the company blog. We use our blog to publish articles of interest to our customers and company news.

But the initiative I'm most proud of is our Customer Spotlights - this is a win-win proposition for our company and our partners because it gives them publicity (and allows them to be found more easily on the web) and gives potential customers an insight into the customers we serve. Working with customers in writing the articles also promotes communication between us and facilitates a better relationship. Check it out - http://blog.tribute.com/tribute-customer-spotlight/

Nina Baker
Sales & Marketing Coordinator
Tribute, Inc.

[Account Deleted]

Wooo how come you are here ?

[Julie]

Created a blog called The Fairfax Walker, inspired by a gentleman who walked every inch of San Francisco. I am using my idea to generate interest in my real estate business...feel I am giving clients and friends something of value as the "tour" will incorporate information about the market and will link great sources and information for local homeowners as well as provide a simple unfolding of my life and my town. I have a Facebook and Twitter link. So far first blog published yesterday 7/15 and I have subscribers to my typeface page!

[Berit]

Hi I just started a blog and it won't change designs. Do you know how to help me? I'm really stuck.

[Tahoe News]

I came to the bottom and don´t see how to get the copy free..
ok well I just signed up for typepad and learning how to get
around...