New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapter 21
Chapter 21 of New Media Strategy and Tactics by David Meerman Scott is a the ending thoughts of the book. It discusses two demographics of people reading this book – the kind that are going to go out and make it happen and the others are those that feel overwhelmed by all these new ideas. To both of these demographics David Meerman Scott says “You can do it. It doesn’t matter what line of work you’re in or what group of buyers you’re trying to reach. You can harness the power of the Web to reach your target audience directly.”
I would have to agree with Mr. Scott – this book presents some very effective ways to begin to utilize tools on the Web to reach out to your audience directly, communicate with them and bring success to your area of interest.
We must “Make It Happen”.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapter 16
Chapters 16 of New Media Strategy and Tactics by David Meerman Scott is a helpful chapter for anyone in the PR world looking for coverage by the Media. Unfortunately many reporters are spammed daily with hundreds of e-mails from PR people as well as others trying to get their story covered. In this new day of technology there are rules and regulations that if you follow them, will more than likely lead you to the appropriate media outlets for the story you want to be covered.
Scott presents some crucial rules for media relations. Some of them include, “Non-targeted, broadcast pitches are spam. News releases sent to reporters in subject areas they do not cover are spam. If you blog, reporters who cover the space will find you. Personal relationships with reporters are important. If the reporter has a blog – read it, comment on it and track back to it.” Keeping some of these rules in mind will not only help out reporters who are overwhelmed daily by story pitches, but it will also open an easy door for your story to be made known.
Scott goes on to discuss appropriate ways to pitch to the media. This section has some great ideas that I wish more people would apply. His list includes “Target on reporter at a time. Help the Journalist to understand the big picture. explain how customers use your product or work with your organization. Don’t send e-mail attachments unless asked. Follow up promptly with potential contacts.”
I find this chapter very insightful as well as interesting to read. I think that in our world more people should apply these simple rules and it would lead to more success for their stories as well as to an easier life for many of the reporters.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapter 15
Chapters 15 of New Media Strategy and Tactics by David Meerman Scott sheds an entirely new light on the idea of online media rooms. Towards the beginning of the chapter Scott states, “An online media room is an important part of any organization’s web site and a critical aspect of an effective media relations strategy.”
In order for a company to effectively relate well to their consumers they must have a current and applicable online media room. The types of media within this section of your site can vary from video, photos, news, audio and even news releases. This should be an area on your site where customers feel as though they can obtain the most current information regarding your company.
Some important tips that Scott reminds us of when creating your media room section include starting with an analysis, optimizing your new release for searching and browsing, creating background information that helps journalists write stories as well as including detailed product specs and other usable data.
You want your customers to feel as though they can obtain all their answers from you. You don’t want to make them go search other areas of the web to find answers to their questions. Create and effective media room. Give the consumer information they need to make wise decisions, entertain them, inform them and most of all encourage them to buy into your services.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapters 20&7
Chapters 20 & 7 of New Media Strategy and Tactics by David Meerman Scott are all about Search Engine Marketing as well as utilizing wikis and forums to promote your company image and offerings. I especially enjoyed chapter 20 and would definitely recommend it to any company with a web presence.
One great thing about search engine marketing is that it doesn’t use the “interruption technique” as Scott calls it. It instead is continually present and is waiting for consumers to find it when they’re looking for it. The great idea behind mastering SEM is that you can advertise yourself and your offerings nonchalantly to any customer searching for your services.
In order to successfully market online you must be aware of and actively utilize what is known as “Search Engine Optimization” or SEO. Scott defines SEO as, “the art and science of ensuring that the words and phrases on your site, blog and other online content are found by the search engines and that once found, your site is given the highest ranking possible in the naturally search results.” Just as Scott states, SEO is an art and science, that once perfected can incredibly boost your site views as well as increase sells, etc for your company and what you’re offering online.
Overall Scott sums up the point of this chapter when he states, “The lesson here is that if you want to be found on the web, you need a unique identity for yourself, your product, and your company to stand out from the crowd and rise to prominence on search engines.” Anyone desiring to find success online needs to utilize and execute the ideas of successful SEM and SEO.
In chapter 7 Scott presents the idea of creating a web presence on online forums. Many consumers are flocking like mad to forums. Forum topics are greatly diverse and can cover topics from photography, cooking, auto care and even pet are products. It is ideally a place where consumers can come together and openly discuss their likes and dislikes in regard to a specific service or product. It is crucial for businesses to continually seek out and actively participate in forum discussions of their products or even services similar to what they offer. Not only will it give you more of a web presence, it will also open you up to customers and make your company seem more approachable as well as genuinely interested.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapter 14
Chapter 14 of New Media Strategy and Tactics by David Meerman Scott is overflowing with great ideas of how to change the way you write, execute and utilize a News release.
Right from the get-go Scott reviews important tips for news releases. Some of these tips include finding reasons to send news releases all the time, making them customer specific, fill them with keywords and optimize new release delivery for searching and browsing.
The first step to a successful news release is to develop your strategy and execution of consistent and direct messages that are constantly applicable in various people’s lives. It’s crucial to develop a regular plan for the release of your news releases as well as make them applicable and interesting so that they can appeal to various audiences. As Scott puts it, “you are providing your buyers with information that they need in order to find your organization online and then learn more about you”.
The second majority of this chapter is spent discussing various modes to make your news release present online. Some of the ideas include using RSS feeds, publishing the news releases directly to your site, links as well as applicable driving keywords and phrases. It is key when searching for a successful release of a news release to use various forms of getting the information out there for your potential client to find. People use the internet in different ways, and you want to be sure that your organization is prepared, organized and effectively reaching out to all types of people in order to draw them in.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of New Media Strategy and Tactics David Meerman Scott is all based around the idea of leadership online and developing the appropriate kind of content to draw consumers in to your services through that leadership.
Simply thought leadership is providing powerful information with a clear focus for readers that may come to you and use your services at a point in time. It will be a solution to people’s problems and will not mention your company or products.
For many companies I can see where this may be a hard concept to grasp. Many people think to themselves “why would I want to spend time sending messages that don’t actively convey who my company is”. This question can be easily answered when considering the customers point of view. This content is mainly designed to help them solve problems and then you utilize that chance to convey why you’re the best candidate for the job.
Ultimately if utilized correctly this form of advertising can be incredibly effective in driving traffic and obtaining customers to your company’s offerings. I would definitely recommend this chapter to anyone looking for ways to build customers trust, interest and dependence.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapters 5 & 8
In Chapters 5 & 8 of New Media Strategy and Tactics David Meerman Scott continues to present his thoughts on new techniques and tricks in the marketing and PR world. Chapter 5 is especially important to any PR professional that has ever, will ever or currently does write all sorts of PR releases on a regular basis, in order to attract the public’s attention.
One of the new rules that I think is crucial for PR people when composing their press releases is the idea that they have to speak directly to their clientele. They can no longer hide behind the middle man to communicate their message. They must step up to bat and go charging in swinging, willing to share their message with the public.
Regarding this idea Scott said, “Millions of people read press releases directly, unfiltered by the media. You need to be speaking directly to them!” he later continues, “I think PR professionals have a fear of the unknown. They don’t understand how to communicate directly with consumers and want to live in the past, when there was no choice but to use the media as a mouthpiece. I also think there’s a widely held view about the purity of the press release as a tool for the press.”
I believe that Meerman has a very compelling point when he presents the idea that with the new technology companies should be attempting to directly relate to and communicate with customers.
Chapter 8 addresses the power and effectiveness of viral campaigns. The main idea of this chapter is that as a marketer you want to do all you can to use viral marketing as a benefit to selling your product. In the beginning of the chapter Scott said, “For marketers, one of the coolest things about the Web is that when an idea takes off, it can propel a brand or company to fame and fortune for free. Whatever you call it – viral, buzz, or word-of-blog marketing – having other people tell your story drives action.
In our day and age there are multiple successful examples of viral marketing, which means that all marketers need to even take a greater action to rise to the challenge to make their viral campaign succeed. It’s also important to consider the fact that Scott presents, the idea that you usually can’t successfully force a viral campaign, more often than not it’s one of those great happenstances where your company or product becomes popular and highly marketed without your intent of it doing so.
Both these chapters are crucial for anyone involved in the PR and Marketing worlds. It will not only increase your awareness, but it will also give you some pointers to take advantage of the updated tools that are available to us.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapter 19
In Chapter 19 of New Media Strategy and Tactics David Meerman Scott presents some very valuable information regarding Social Networking Sites and Marketing. As the general trend for successful marketing is veered off into the social networking world there is a great distortion of how to approach different audiences as well as how to meet their needs. This chapter effectively breaks up each of the main social networking services and points out effective ways to use each of them.
The social network facilitators it discusses includes, MySpace, Facebook, Squidoo, Second Life and Twitter. While each of these networks has different perks and audiences, it is crucial for marketers to understand how to utilize what they’re given.
Meerman’s tips for success include: Target a specific audience, Be a thought leader, Be authentic and transparent, Create lots of links, Encourage people to contact you, Participate, Make it easy to find you and Experiment.
This chapter was an interesting and helpful one in that it discusses all the key functions and needs for each of the different networks and addressed ways to make each applicable and valuable to your current practices. This chapter can be helpful to any marketer or PR person. Definitely a beneficial read in this rapidly updating world.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapter 1 & 2
In Chapters 1 & 2 of New Media Strategy and Tactics David Meerman Scott presents some interesting concepts that I believe anyone involved in the Marketing and PR world should be aware of and actively apply to their technique for relating to and attracting consumers. In the Advertising and PR world there are traditional ways of communicating with people, these ways are rapidly becoming ineffective in a great majority of the market. Scott discusses these traditions and why they are no longer effective in today’s market and what we can do to change our approach to be effective in reaching our intended audience.
Scott begins the chapter by relaying an experience he had of researching a new car purchase online. He compares and contrasts his experience with the old approach with the new. Speaking of the old technique first he said, “At each site, I felt as if I was being marketed to with a string of messages that had been developed in a lab or via focus groups. It just didn’t feel authentic…These sites were advertising to me, not building a relationship with me.” After spending fruitless time trying to find information from the dealer he decided to turn to consumer driven social networking and personal page sites for answers. “It was here where I was making my decision, dozen of clicks removed from the big automaker sites.” This idea should scare a lot of car manufacturers. They are in no way influencing their customer through their website, people they have no relation to are swaying their potential market through blogs and consumer-driven sites.
“Prior to the Web, organizations had only two significant choices to attract attention: Buy expensive advertising or get third-party ink from the media. But the Web has changed the rules…Organizations need to understand the New Rules of Marketing and PR develop relationships directly with consumers like you and me.”
In order to be successful in today’s market and business world companies need to constantly be looking for ways to apply and utilize tools made available to them on the web. They need to look for opportunities to cater to the needs of the consumer and make their online domain somewhere their consumers can turn for accurate advice and information not just advertising.
New Rules of Marketing and PR: Chapter 17 & 4
In Chapters 17 & 4 of New Media Strategy and Tactics by David Meerman Scott discusses the purpose of a well designed blog and the strategies to make blogging effective for you and the message you have for the world.
If any of you are like me, you feel like you have nothing to add to the vast amount of content available on the information superhighway. Why should your opinion matter? What do you have to say that others will consider important enough to follow you on a regular basis? Mr. Scott addresses this dilemma, “You need to find a topic that you are passionate about.” he writes, “If you aren’t excited about the topic or if it feels painful to write, you’re unlikely to sustain the effort; and if you do manage to keep going, the writing is likely to be forced” What is this telling us? Write about something you care about and that is actively a part of your life. Write about something you know well and that easily fits as a part of your daily life. People will come to your blog trusting that you know what you’re talking about – and if you don’t have a real interest in what you’re blogging about people will be able to see right through it.
Other topics addressed in this chapter include building an audience for your new blog. Learning how to attract readers to your content is crucial to the success of your efforts. Everyone wants someone to read what they’re writing. One sentence in this section that really stood out to me was when Mr. Scott said, “Smart bloggers understand search engines and use their blogs to reach audiences directly.” to succeed well in the blogging world one must know how to utilize tools available. This in and of itself is one reason why this book is so helpful, it will give you the tips and techniques to take advantage of all the resources at your finger tips.
One of my favorite parts of this reading was in Chapter 4 when David Meerman Scott discussed the fact that there are many popular blogs that have a more devoted readership than most major newspapers. What a power and ability people have to reach others!
One final point I want to touch on the David Meerman Scott discusses is when he brings up the idea of business regularly checking blogs to see what others have to say about them, as well as the idea that many companies don’t allow their employees to blog. In the chapter it reads: “On one side of the corporate fence, the legal eagles are worried about secrets being revealed by their employees while creating content or commenting blogs…Corporate nannies want to make certain that their naive charges don’t get into trouble in the big scary world of information. Well, we’re talking about people here. Employees do silly things. They send inappropriate e-mail (and blog posts)…This debate should be centered on people, not technology. As the examples of previous technology waves should show us, attempting to block the technology isn’t the answer.”
I’ve worked for companies in the past that are nervous to even allow their employees to have access to the internet, let alone to let them actively blog about the company. I find it humorous that so many companies think that by limiting access to technology at work they are fighting the possible “evils” that could serve as a detriment to their companies name and image. News flash technology scaredy pants – whether you allow it or not, it will still happen.
Overall these two chapters are a great aid and help to anyone looking for some basic blogging guidelines, tips as well as some great reading.
