The New Rules of Marketing and PR

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

What did all that knowledge of me turn into? Credibility and

authority. Translation: People knew me, knew where I was coming

from, knew I was passionate and authoritative about technology,

and came to trust me where they wouldn’t trust most corporate

authorities.

By reading this book you’ll understand how to gain the credibility

you need to build your business. Enjoy!

OBERT SCOBLE

Vice President Media Development, PodTech.net

Co-author, Naked Conversations

Scobleizer.com

Foreword

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xx

Introduction

t the height of the dot-com boom, I was vice president of mar-

keting at NewsEdge Corporation, a NASDAQ-traded online

news distributor with more than $70 million in annual revenue. My

multimillion-dollar marketing budget included tens of thousands of

dollars per month for a public relations agency, hundreds of thou-

sands per year for print advertising and glossy collateral materials,

and expensive participation at a dozen trade shows a year. My team

put these things on our marketing to-do list, worked like hell to exe-

cute, and paid the big bucks because that’s what marketing and PR

people did. These efforts made us feel good because we were doing

something, but the programs were not producing signiﬁcant, measur-

able results.

At the same time, drawing on experience I had gained in my pre-

vious position as Asia marketing director for the online division of

Knight-Ridder, then one of the largest newspaper companies in the

world, my team and I quietly created content-based, “thought lead-

ership” marketing and PR programs on the Web. Against the advice

of the PR agency professionals we had on retainer (who insisted that

press releases were only for the press), we wrote and sent dozens of

releases ourselves. Each time we sent a release, it appeared on online

services such as Yahoo!, resulting in sales leads. Even though our ad-

vertising agency told us not to put the valuable information “some-

where where competitors could steal it,” we created a monthly

newsletter called TheEdge about the exploding world of digital news

and made it freely available on the homepage of our Web site because

it generated interest from buyers, the media, and analysts. Way back in

the 1990s, when Web marketing and PR was in its infancy, my team

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xxi

and I ignored the old rules, drawing instead on my experience work-

ing at an online publisher, and created a marketing strategy using

online content to reach buyers directly on the Web. The home-

grown, do-it-yourself programs we created at virtually no cost con-

sistently generated more interest from qualiﬁed buyers, the media,

and analysts—and resulted in more sales—than the big-bucks pro-

grams that the “professionals” were running for us. People we never

heard of were ﬁnding us through search engines. I had stumbled on

a better way to reach buyers.

In 2002, after NewsEdge was sold to The Thomson Corporation, I

started my own business to reﬁne my ideas, work with select clients,

and teach others through writing, speaking at conferences, and con-

ducting seminars for corporate groups. The object of all this work

was reaching buyers directly with Web content. Since then, many

new forms of online media have burst onto the scene, including

blogs, podcasts, video, and virtual communities. But what all the

new Web tools and techniques have in common is that together they

are the best way to communicate directly with your marketplace.

This book actually started as a Web marketing and PR program on

my blog. In January 2006, I published an e-book called The New

Rules of PR,

immediately generating remarkable enthusiasm (and

much controversy) from marketers and businesspeople around the

world. Since the e-book was published, it has been downloaded

more than 200,000 times and commented on by thousands of read-

ers on my blog and those of many other bloggers. To those of you

who have read and shared the e-book, thank you. But this book is

much more than just an expansion of that work, because I have

made its subject marketing and PR instead of just PR and because

I’ve included many different forms of online media and conducted

more than a year of additional research.

This book contains much more than just my own ideas, because I

have blogged the book, section by section, as I have written it. Thou-

xxii

Introduction

http://www.webinknow.com/2006/01/new_complimenta.html

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xxii

sands of you have followed along, and many have contributed to the

writing process by offering suggestions via comments on my blog

and e-mail. Thank you for contributing your ideas. And thank you

for arguing with me when I got off track. Your enthusiasm has made

the book much better than if I had written in isolation.

The Web has changed not only the rules of marketing and PR, but

also the business-book model, and The New Rules of Marketing and

PR is an interesting example. My online content (the e-book and my

blog) led me directly to a print book deal. I was fortunate to meet Joe

Wikert,

vice president and executive publisher in the Profes-

sional/Trade division of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and writer of the

terriﬁc Publishing 2020 blog, at a conference in San Francisco. Joe

and I linked up and commented on each other’s blogs and I thank

him for his help in navigating Wiley, which resulted in the book you

are reading now. I also published early drafts of sections of the

book on my blog. Other publishers would have freaked out if an

author wanted to put parts of his book online (for free!) to solicit

ideas. Wiley encouraged it. In fact, some of my favorite books

evolved on blogs, including Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble

and Shel Israel,

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson,

and Small Is the

New Big by Seth Godin

—great company indeed. Thanks for lead-

ing the way, guys.

The New Rules

One of the more interesting debates about this book has been over

its title. Many people have told me they like the title because they

know what they will be getting. It’s descriptive. But others have

Introduction xxiii

http://jwikert.typepad.com/

http://scobleizer.com/

http://redcouch.typepad.com/

http://thelongtail.com/

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xxiii

fought me, saying that there are all kinds of new rules being touted

in books and elsewhere but that rarely deliver. “New rules” are just

hype, they say. One such comment, on Brian Clark’s terriﬁc Copy-

blogger,

said people who create “new business ideas” only distract

you from the fundamentals of business and communication, which

haven’t changed for hundreds of years. While it’s true that a search

on Amazon for “new rules” brings up thousands of book titles, the

Web truly does offer marketers a new way of doing things. I am con-

ﬁdent in my choice of title, because before the Web the only way you

could get your organization noticed was to buy advertising of some

kind or convince a journalist to write about you. Telling your organi-

zation’s story directly (via the Web) is new, because, until now,

you’ve never been able to reach a potential audience in the millions

without buying expensive advertising or getting media coverage.

Here’s the problem, though: There are many people who still ap-

ply the old rules of advertising and media relations to the new

medium of the Web, and fail miserably as a result. I am ﬁrmly con-

vinced that we’re now in an environment governed by new rules,

and this book is your guide to that (online) world.

Trying to Write Like

a Blog, But in a Book

As the lines between marketing and PR on the Web have blurred so

much as to be virtually unrecognizable, the best media choice is of-

ten not as obvious as in the old days. But I had to organize the book

somehow, and I chose to create chapters for the various online me-

dia, including blogs, podcasts, online forums, social networking, and

so on. But the truth is that all these tools and techniques intersect

and complement one another. Some things were difﬁcult to place

xxiv

Introduction

http://www.copyblogger.com/don’t-take-this-advice-about-online-marketing/#more-205

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xxiv

into a particular chapter, such as the discussion on RSS (Really Sim-

ple Syndication). I moved that section four times before settling on

Chapter 13.

These online media are evolving very rapidly, and by the time you

read these words, I’ll no doubt come across new techniques that I’ll

wish I could have put in the book. At the same time, I agree that the

fundamentals are important, which is why Chapter 10—where you’ll

start to develop your own online marketing and PR plan—is steeped

in practical, commonsense thinking.

The book is organized into three parts. Part I is a rigorous

overview of how the Web has changed the rules of marketing and

PR. Part II introduces and provides details about each of the vari-

ous media, and Part III contains detailed “how-to” information

and an action plan to help you put the new rules to work for your

organization.

While I think this sequence is the most logical way to present

these ideas, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t ﬂip from chapter to

chapter in any order that you please. Unlike a mystery novel, you

won’t get lost in the story if you skip around. And I certainly don’t

want to waste your time. As I was writing, I was wishing that I could

link you (like in a blog) from one chapter to a part of another chap-

ter. Alas, a printed book doesn’t allow that, so instead I have in-

cluded suggestions where you might skip ahead or go back for

review on speciﬁc topics. Similarly, I have included hundreds of

URLs as footnotes so you can choose to visit the blogs, Web sites,

and other online media that I discuss that interest you. You’ll notice

that I write in a familiar and casual tone, rather than the formal and

stilted way of many business books, because I’m using my “blog

voice” to share the new rules with you—I just think it works better

for you, the reader.

When I use the words company and organization throughout this

book, I’m including all types of organizations and individuals. Feel

free to insert nonproﬁt, government agency, political candidate, church,

school, sports team, professional service person, or other entity in place

of company and organization in your mind. Similarly, when I use the

Introduction xxv

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xxv

word buyers, I also mean subscribers, voters, volunteers, applicants,

and donors, because the new rules work for reaching all these

groups. Are you a nonproﬁt organization that needs to increase do-

nations? The new rules apply to you as much as to a corporation.

Ditto for political campaigns looking for votes, schools that want to

increase applicants, consultants searching for business, and churches

hunting for new members.

This book will show you the new rules and how to apply them.

For people all over the world interacting on the Web, the old rules of

marketing and PR just don’t work. Today, all kinds of organizations

communicate directly with their buyers online. According to the

Pew Internet & American Life Project, 73 percent of American

adults (147 million people) say they use the Internet.

In order to

reach the individuals online who would be interested in their organ-

ization, smart marketers everywhere have altered the way they think

about marketing and PR.

Showcasing Innovative Marketers

The most exciting aspect of the book is that, throughout these pages,

I have the honor of showcasing some of the best examples of innova-

tive marketers building successful marketing and PR programs on

the Web. One of the most remarkable is that of Robert Scoble, who

kindly shared his story about Microsoft in the Foreword to the book.

Thank you, Robert. There are nearly 50 other proﬁles throughout

the book, much of them in the marketers’ own words drawn from

my interviews with them that bring the concepts to life. You’ll learn

from people at Fortune 500 companies and at businesses with just a

handful of employees. These companies make products ranging

from racing bicycles to jet helicopters and from computer software

to realistic toy dinosaurs. Some of the organizations are well-known

xxvi

Introduction

http://www.pewinternet.org/

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xxvi

to the public, while others are famous only in their market niche. I

proﬁle nonproﬁt organizations, political advocacy groups, and citi-

zens supporting potential candidates for political ofﬁce. I tell the sto-

ries of independent consultants, churches, rock bands, and lawyers,

all of whom successfully use the Web to reach their target audiences.

I can’t thank enough the people who shared their time with me on

the phone and in person. I’m sure you’ll agree that they are the stars

of the book.

As you read the stories of successful marketers, remember that

you will learn from them even if they come from a very different

market, industry, or type of organization than your own. Nonproﬁts

can learn from the experiences of corporations. Consultants will

gain insight from the success of rock bands. In fact, I’m absolutely

convinced that you will learn more by emulating successful ideas

from outside your industry than by copying what your nearest com-

petitor is doing. Remember, the best thing about new rules is that

your competitors probably don’t know about them yet.

David Meerman Scott

david@davidmeermanscott.com

www.webinknow.com

Introduction xxvii

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xxvii

flast.qxd 5/10/07 4:22 PM Page xxviii

How the Web

Has Changed

the Rules of

Marketing

and PR

ccc_scott_001-002_pt1.qxd 4/11/07 11:47 AM Page 1