Web Ink Now

Business-to-business ebooks: Spreading your ideas for free

Readers of this blog know that I am a huge fan of ebooks as a way to show the world that you're smart and worthy of doing business with. Ebooks have potential to spread your ideas far and wide. For free. My own most recent ebook, The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free, released in early 2008, has been downloaded a remarkable 250,000 times.

E-books have become a very significant medium, partly because people can instantly see the value of a product that looks like for-purchase content but can actually be downloaded for free. In my opinion, e-books should be material people want to read, compared to the dense and usually boring white paper, which our buyers feel they should read but often don't.

Many of the ebooks I've written about in the past such as Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex are for consumer markets.

For business-to-business companies used to the more traditional white paper, an e-book is a radical departure for one simple yet revolutionary reason: the goal. An e-book is about spreading ideas. But for most companies, a white paper is about generating sales leads.

If you've created and published a white paper for your business before, it's highly likely that you put all sorts of controls over its dissemination. If you offered it online, you probably required readers to fill out a Web form before they could download it. The form required them to supply their name, affiliation, email address, phone number, and perhaps more details like the size of their company. Most companies apply the same "give to get" philosophy to offline white papers, requiring interested readers to supply a business card or fill out a reply form.

An e-book is different, or at least should be. Make the content totally free with no registration requirement at all so people are more likely to download it and share with colleagues.

For example, an e-book called The Taxonomy Folksonomy Cookbook: Finding the Right Recipe for Organizing Enterprise Metadata from Dow Jones Client Solutions, is written for information professionals. It is a creative way to communicate about some complicated concepts like information tagging and metadata use in large organizations.

The ebook has been very popular with the corporate librarian buyer persona - a major target market for Dow Jones Client Solutions - who find the ebook through partner links on Association sites such as the Special Libraries Association, and events such as the Semantic Technology Conference, Taxonomy Boot Camp, Enterprise Search Summit, and KM World.

Disclosure: I've done consulting work for Dow Jones and have spoken at many of their events around the world. However, I did not work on the Taxonomy Folksonomy Cookbook.

Hanging out with Robert Scoble at Tapulous, producers of Tap Tap Revenge, the #1 iPhone game

I am a huge fanboy of Robert Scoble. From his pioneering scobleizer blog (which he started while at Microsoft) to his new gig as Managing Director of FastCompany.TV, Robert is always doing interesting things on the Web.

Robert wrote the terrific forward to my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR. The forward is the perfect way to introduce the new marketing world we’re all living in today. I am so grateful for him doing that for me! (Thanks again).

Remarkably, Robert has produced over 1,000 videos on the Web. I tagged along with him yesterday afternoon and evening to watch him in action. What a pleasure.

First, we visited Tapulous, producers of Tap Tap Revenge, the #1 free game on the iPhone. Tap Tap Revenge was #9 on the overall list of iPhone applications when we visited them last night and they’ve been rising fast.

How about this for a World Wide Rave spreading like wildfire: Tap Tap Revenge was downloaded by 200,000 people in just three days! On the second day of release, 25,000 people entered a tournament. Wow. What an amazing success! How about your product? Do you have people lined up to get it?

Watch Roberts' video here.

In the photo, left to right: Robert Scoble shooting one of his famous videos, Jeff Clavier, investor in Tapulous, Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, and Andrew Lacy, COO of Tapulous. Incidentally, Tapulous is a global company: Lacy is an Australian, Decrem a Belgian, and a lead developer is Canadian. Maybe the global nature of the company helps drive success?

What I found most fascinating is when Andrew Lacy talked about adding exclusive music tracks to the game. The music industry has come a long way. You used to have to go to traditional publishers to get music out there. Then MySpace was a way to self-publish music. Now a game applications (that is downloaded by hundreds of thousands of people in just a few days) is an ideal way for an indie band to get noticed big time.

Robert and I then went over the Future of Media Summit, where he stirred it up with some traditional journalists. I was sending a few live updates via Twitter, but mostly listening.

Scobleizer on Future of Journalism: old school journalists are not innovating because they are not telling stories in real time

Scobleizer on Future of Journalism: If I get a story wrong, I'll know about it immediately through comments, Twitter, etc.

Thanks for the fun afternoon and evening, Robert.

A viral marketing story suitable for bedtime

Perfect for a summer weekend, check out this ebook of Seussian commentary on the difficulties YOBI CIO Jen O'Meara encountered with "new marketing".

Then, watch as Jen uses YouTube to explain what to do when viral marketing just doesn't work.

(She even bangs her head against her desk…again.)

Here is a direct link to the YouTube video

Gobbledygook banned by English and Welsh local authorities

Valerie Conyngham points us to a fascinating story.

The Local Government Association (LGA), an association of English and Welsh local authorities representing over 50 million people, has told local government officials to ditch meaningless jargon.

According to an article in The Telegraph, the LGA has sent a list to Town Halls of 100 words and phrases that should be avoided. The list includes "empowerment," "synergies," "revenue stream," "sustainable communities," and "stakeholders."

Sir Simon Milton, the LGA's chairman, said: "The public sector can not, must not and should not hide behind impenetrable jargon and phrases. Why do we have to have 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?"

Go Sir Simon!

There's more…

"Councils have a duty, not only to provide value for money to local people, but also to tell people what they get for the tax they pay. Without explaining what a council does in proper English then local people will fail to understand its relevance to them or why they should bother to turn out and vote. Unless information is given to people to explain why their council matters then local democracy will be threatened with extinction."

Right on! This is great. And true for all companies, nonprofits, and government agencies.

Eliminate gobbledygook (like the LGA) and your organization will reach more buyers and be more successful.

Facebook and YouTube blocked by paranoid corporations at their own peril

I've had an opportunity to casually explore the attitudes of hundreds of large and small companies whose employees attend my full-day New Rules of Marketing seminar and my keynote speeches. In my very unscientific questioning, my guess is that about 25% of companies block employee access to YouTube, Facebook, and other social networking sites.

Twenty-five percent block access!

That is a huge number of companies that are putting their organizations at a disadvantage.

I can't tell you the names of the nanny-state dinosaurs. But you'd be amazed at some of the big names that are too scared to let people into the world of social media.

One company I can talk about is on the other side. IBM is on the forefront of embracing employee use of social media (more on IBM later in this post).

If I managed a hedge fund, I'd sell short a basket of stocks of companies that block Social Media like YouTube and Facebook and buy stock in the companies (like IBM) that encourage employee use of these new tools. (Seen IBMs stock chart recently?)

Here are some reasons given by people for their companies blocking access to sites like YouTube, Facebook, and other similar sites:

- It is a drain to productivity
- It is a security issue within the company computer systems
- People may harm the company brand should employees reveal too much information
- It is a bandwidth issue

Do you trust your employees?

I think the big thing here is trust. The reasons cited above are just an excuse. If you trust your employees, they might surprise you. But if you don't trust them, over time you end up with only the corporate dregs who don't mind working in an organization that won't let them communicate with others in the ways that people are using today, like Facebook, YouTube and the like.

Ultimately, I think the HR and legal people are naive and scared and since they don't understand social media, they just slap on controls.

My friend Dianna Huff recently conducted a survey How Workers Access YouTube. She learned that two-thirds of people in companies watch YouTube videos while at work. Of those, about 40% watch YouTube videos for both business and personal reasons. However, more than 80% of people watch YouTube videos at home (sometimes that is the only way because they are blocked at work). I've had people tell me that when they find a work-related video, they need to email the link home and watch it there. Read Dianna's blog post and download her research How Workers Access YouTube for details.

Do you allow employees to have email at work?

It's been fascinating to both observe and participate in the debate about social media in the enterprise. Just like the hand-wringing over personal computers entering the workplace in the 1980s, and also echoing the Web and email debates of the 1990s, company executives seem to be getting their collective knickers in a twist about social media now. Remember when executives believed email might expose a corporation to its secrets being revealed to the outside world? Do you remember when only "important employees" were given computers and email addresses? How about when people worried about employees freely using the public Internet and all of its (gasp!) "unverified information"?

It seems silly now to forbid employees to have access to email. Yet is the exact same debate and using exactly the same language as a decade ago.

On one side of the corporate fence, the HR geniuses and the legal eagles are worried about secrets being revealed and time being wasted by their employees while using social media, creating content or commenting on social media sites. Corporate nannies want to make certain that their naive charges don’t get into trouble in the big scary world of information.

Well, duh; we're talking about people here. Employees do silly things. This debate should be centered on people, not technology.

My recommendation to organizations is simple. Have guidelines about what you can and cannot do at work, but don't try to make a specific set of social media guidelines. I'd suggest implementing corporate policies that say (for example) that employees can't sexually harass anyone, that they can't reveal secrets, they can't use inside information to trade stock or influence prices, and they shouldn't talk ill of the competition in any way or via any media. The guidelines should include email, using social media, commenting on online forums and chat rooms, and other forms of communication. Rather than focus on putting guidelines on social media (the technology), it is better to focus on guiding the way people behave.

IBM Social Computing Guidelines

IBM has developed a set of social media guidelines for employee us of blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds and social media that I think are just fantastic.

From the guidelines: "Whether or not an IBMer chooses to create or participate in a blog, wiki, online social network or any other form of online publishing or discussion is his or her own decision. However, emerging online collaboration platforms are fundamentally changing the way IBMers work and engage with each other, clients and partners." GREAT. This is the way of the future. Hat tip to IBM.

My advice for bosses is to follow the IBM example.

Do you work for a company that blocks access?

If you're an employee who works for a company that blocks access, I suggest you send them this blog post and encourage them to read my other posts and my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR.

If they still refuse to open up, I suggest you quit your job and work for a company that embraces the new world. You'll need to find a new job at some point anyway, because your company won't be around in a few years as the smarter competitors take away your business by reaching buyers using social media.

Do you sell camels?

Nearly every time I give a speech someone says: "But my buyers aren't online. My buyers don't use Google to find answers to problems or to research products."

When I hear this question, I immediately think that the questioner is just fearful of social media and is making an excuse so they can stick to the traditional marketing they've done all along like billboards, yellow page ads, and direct mail.

Some excuses (markets purported to not be online) I've heard recently include:
- people who donate money to humanitarian non-profits
- government agency workers
- senior executives at large companies.

I always say: "Nonsense! These days everyone is online. Executives use Google, government workers read blogs, people who donate money watch YouTube videos. And even if they don't go online at work, they do at home. Stop making excuses and reach your buyers in the way they want to be reached."

But I was wrong.

Today I am giving a keynote at a conference sponsored by Gulf Marketing Review Magazine in Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday, in the outskirts of Riyadh, I finally found a market that really isn't online. I shot a short video in the middle of a raging sandstorm to explain. So I apologize and stand corrected. I'll now admit that not all buyers are using the Web.

If you're selling camels at the Riyadh camel market, then keep marketing the same old ways.

But if you're not selling camels in Riyadh, then you need to stop making excuses and implement ways to reach your buyers directly with great online content.

NOTE: Here is a direct link to my video Do You Sell Camels? on YouTube

Search Engine Optimizing a crap-filled site just makes it a little less crappy

People often ask me about search engine optimization. In particular, many ask what search engine marketing techniques they can use on their site to "get high rankings."

Inevitably with most of these requests, I find that the site that they want optimized sucks. It's poorly written. It goes on and on in an egotistical way about what the company's products do. It's filled with gobbledygook.

I tell these people that they need to understand buyers and create some great content that people want to consume. That way, they will get high rankings as the search engine algorithms reward the great content.

Usually I get pushback. People say they just want to an agency to "tweak our existing Web pages."

"Sorry," I say. "Search Engine Optimizing a crap-filled site just makes it less crappy." And I go on to give examples of how valuable Web content drives high rankings.

I’m amazed by how some interesting content (a blog post, an ebook, or a web page) can generate high rankings for a tiny company, way above the big famous organizations.

Consider these examples from my own efforts:

A few months ago, I did a blog post about my participation at the Milken institute global conference. This is a big event (over 3,000 people attend), it has been going on for more than a decade, is covered by the business TV networks like FOX Business and Bloomberg as well as dozens of magazines and newspapers, and speakers include Nobel prize winners. This year Arnold Schwarzenegger and Google CEO Eric Schmidt were some of the speakers. Yet my little blog post is on the top page of the search results for the phrase Milken institute global conference.

Early this year I published The New Rules of Viral Marketing ebook. Prior to putting out the ebook, my site and blog were ranked way down in the results for the phrase viral marketing. Now, because of an ebook that has been downloaded 150,000 times, my site and my blog are ranked numbers 11 & 13 out of 4.8 million hits.

My content is ranked number one for the phrase online media room out of 17 million hits.

High search engine rankings are not a result of manipulation. They are a result of excellent content.

Cisco debuts "Disconnected" Life of Don DeLay Web sitcom

As many readers of this blog know, I am a huge fan of humor in corporate videos and am particularly fascinated with large, well-known technology companies that can poke fun at their business.

So it is with pleasure that I introduce you to a new Web sitcom video series debuting this week from Cisco. I have high hopes for this to be as good as the classics of the genre such as Greg the Architect from Tibco.

Follow Don DeLay, a well-intentioned and affable guy whose basic efforts to communicate are hindered by his misguided technology choices. The knuckleheaded Don selects a cheap internet provider and that may just unwind his marriage. Don and his wife Rhonda really want their marriage to work and are seeking professional help.

Here is the "Disconnected Life" Web Sitcom homepage

Here are some direct YouTube links
Meet Don DeLay
Meet Rhonda DeLay
Webisode #1

Multi-platinum recording artist Meredith Brooks says: Find your authentic voice, become vulnerable, and then put yourself out there

The year since The New Rules of Marketing and PR was first published has been an absolute blast. I spend my time traveling all over the United States and the world speaking to groups about the new rules, spreading the word, opening people’s eyes to the possibilities, and motivating them to change the ways they do marketing and public relations.

The coolest part of my life now that the book is out is that people contact me every day to say that the ideas in the book have transformed their businesses and changed their lives. Really! That's the sort of language people use. They write just to thank me for putting the ideas into a book so that they could be enlightened to the new realities of marketing and PR.

Take Meredith Brooks, a multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter. Meredith has shared the top ten chart with Bono, toured with Mick Jagger, and had a worldwide hit single with "Bitch." Meredith is a songwriter, musician, music producer, and founder of record label Kissing Booth Music.

Meredith says: "The New Rules of Marketing and PR has inspired me to do what I have coached so many young artists to do, 'Find your authentic voice, become vulnerable, and then put yourself out there.' Since reading this book, I have been excited about truly connecting with people without the filter of all the 'old PR' hype. It has been really energizing for me to speak about things that I really care about, using my real voice."

How cool is that?

It’s amazing (and humbling) that my ideas inspire all kinds of people to think big and motivate them to get out there into the world of new media to share their passions with the world. I feel a great sense of responsibility to keep pushing the edge with new hardcover books, keynotes, ebooks, and blog posts and hope that my ideas continue to resonate.

I'm excited that Meredith recently spoke with Marcelo Lewin of Pixel Heads Network "the digital media dude" on his podcast. It's a fascinating discussion about the music industry and what musicians can do to connect directly with fans and well worth a listen no matter what industry you're in.

Meredith Brooks on Pixel Heads Network
Meredith Brooks Kissing Booth Blog
Meredith Brooks site

Meredith says: "Get on the Net and start cruising." She shares her experiences working fan based, age based, and hit based ideas and encourages recording artists to focus on existing fans instead of chasing another number one hit. "Old School is going to deflate," she says. "The wave to catch is new media."

Tuned In - my newest book - in stores early July

My newest book Tuned In: Uncover the extraordinary opportunities that lead to business breakthroughs hits stores in early July.

I wrote Tuned In with two other authors: Phil Myers and Craig Stull from Pragmatic Marketing. It was fun to apply our different (yet complimentary) perspectives to the writing process, creating a book that's much more than any one of us could have written

We came together to create Tuned In because we see a tremendous need in the marketplace for a book dealing with aspects of the marketing process, including:
- how to identify the problems in the market that an organization can solve,
- how to develop products and services that resonate,
- and how to communicate directly to buyers without advertising and without mainstream media.

Ultimately the Tuned In approach leads to products and services that people want to buy, generating much greater success for companies as well as nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and other organizations.

We also wrote the book because we see so many people guessing at what buyers need. Countless organizations fail because they waste time and money building, marketing, and selling products and services the market just doesn’t value.

We've identified the main reasons for failure in the marketplace such as a blind focus on innovation (for innovation's sake) and a reliance on "missionary sales" and expensive advertising to "educate the market." We share our research in the book and debunk the myths around about why these approaches almost always lead to failure.

Tuned In is a departure for me in that I worked with co-authors (a first for me) and because we talk about building products (Craig and Phil specialties). But a major focus is communicating value to buyers once products are built (my specialty).

Just like my most recent book The New Rules of Marketing & PR, we use stories and examples of success throughout to educate and inform readers.

In Tuned In you'll meet people behind such innovative organizations as:
- Zipcar, a membership-based car-sharing company targeted at under-served city-dwellers and college students who drive infrequently but regularly
- GoPro, which developed a camera for surfers that attaches to your wrist
- Boeing, which has just developed a 787 Dreamliner jet with market-driven enhancements that they expect customers will spend much more for
- Dr. Eleanor "Connie" Mariano, who built a successful practice treating every patient like the President of the United States
- Steve Cohen, who went from being a typical magician doing birthday parties to the millionaires' magician commanding huge fees.

Free advance copies of Tuned In for bloggers and podcasters!

[UPDATE (June 4, 2008): The free advance copies are all gone. But you can still pre-order a book on Amazon or BN. Thanks!]

Our publisher, John Wiley & Sons, has provided us with 100 advance copies of Tuned In to send to the first 100 bloggers who request a copy. If you think your audience might be interested in Tuned In, we'd like to send you a copy. Of course, it is totally up to you if you use our stuff. There is absolutely no obligation whatsoever.

If you're a blogger or podcaster, receive your copy before the book is available in stores by following this link to send us your information.

We're available for short interviews as well. Contact us here.

Members of the "mainstream media" can also get copy of Tuned In by using this link.

Tuned In is available for pre-order here.

Phil, Craig and I hope that you enjoy the book!

Grade your press release (for free!)

HubSpot's Press Release Grader is a free application that evaluates your press release and provides a "marketing effectiveness score". The score is based on the language and content of the release, plus advanced factors from Internet marketing experts at HubSpot such as links and search engine optimization characteristics.

Wow. This is such an awesome tool. You’re hearing about it here first, but my guess is that this will become a popular little application in PR circles.

Press Release Grader is totally free. All you do is copy and paste press release text into the tool, add a few other things like your company name and URL and it takes just seconds to produce a score. But you also get detailed suggestions for improvement.

Press Release Grader even checks for the gobbledygook words I identified in my Gobbledygook Manifesto. How cool is that?

You can watch a short video on the site to learn how it works.

I asked two people from HubSpot - Dharmesh Shah, Chief Software Architect & Founder and Mike Volpe, VP Marketing - why they created it.

"It's unclear whether press releases are effective these days. But, if you're going to be creating press releases and putting them on the web, you might as well get the most value you can out of them," says Dharmesh Shah. "Press Release Grader checks to see if you're (generally) doing the right things. It was created with the same general motivation as our popular WebsiteGrader.com tool. Help people get a quick sense for where they're deviating from best practices. Press Release Grader will not make your press releases more interesting -- but it will hopefully give you some quick tips for getting more value out of them."

"The best way to grow your business today is through inbound marketing – creating remarkable content targeted at your buyer personas, and enabling them to share that content with others," says Mike Volpe. "We have no idea if Press Release Grader will be a big hit, but under the new rules of inbound marketing, you act more like a publisher - create lots of content knowing that some smaller portion of it will be a big success."

If you write press releases, you need to check this out.

(Also note what a great viral marketing concept Press Release Grader is for HubSpot).

Disclosure: I am on HubSpot's board of advisors and I am speaking at the HubSpot Inbound Marketing Conference in September.

The future of PR: Should your CEO blog?

Several weeks ago I led a panel discussion at the The 2008 Milken Institute Global Conference. The Milken event "brought together some of the most extraordinary people in the world - from scientists, business executives and philanthropists to journalists, academics and Nobel laureates - for three days of discussions on how to solve some of our most pressing social, political and economic challenges."

My panel was called The Changing Rules of PR and Corporate Influence in the Digital Age and included the following panelists:
- Jason Calacanis, Founder and CEO, Mahalo.com
- Hope Boonshaft, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Hill & Knowlton
- Steven Rubenstein, President, Rubenstein Communications Inc.
Moderator: David Meerman Scott (that would be me)

It was an awesome panel with lots of spirited debate and controversy. You can listen to a recording via a link on the panel page or by going here to get a direct link.

In an article that appeared on CNET called The future of business is social: notes from the Milken Global Conference, Tim Leberecht said panelist Jason Calacanis, was "in-character as enfant terrible, thrived in the devilish charm of the futurist, joyfully exposed the insecurity of his audience."

Some things that were discussed:
- "Is PR dead?"
- "Should our CEO blog?"
- "How do I stay in control of my brand if our CEO gets critical comments to his blog posts?"

My only regret was my role as moderator. In order to let the panelists express their opinions, I focused on being a traffic cop (it was tough at some points with so many strong opinions!) so my own thoughts weren't aired.

If you've got a free hour, this is worth a listen.

New Rules of Marketing & PR and the global market

I'm often asked if the "new rules" I write and talk about apply in other countries, cultures, and languages.

YES!

Based on hundreds of emails I've received from people around the world who tell me that they've implemented the ideas, I can say that the new rules are certainly global. It doesn't matter where you live or what language you're most comfortable with – people find answers to their problems on the web and often turn to a search engine first.

Another piece of evidence for the new rules being applicable globally are the 15 publishers around the world who have acquired the rights to my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Doing a book translation is expensive, so these publishers obviously see a significant market for the new rules.

Over the next year or so, the book will be coming out in these languages (with more likely to come): Bulgarian, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal markets), Chinese (simplified and orthodox), Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Serbian, Turkish, and Italian.

It usually takes more than a year for a book to come out in a new language. It needs to be translated, edited, covers designed, the books printed, and then moved through the distribution channel.

The first out of the gate is Portuguese, published by Porto Editora, Lda., the country's largest publisher. The book's title is As novas regras de Marketing e Relacoes Publicas.

Rui Couceiro and the team at Porto Editora have obviously read the book carefully because they created a great blog to promote the book and even re-worked several of my videos and posted them on the blog. Thanks!

I often get pushback from people who say things like: "This is just a North American thing, the new rules won't work in _____________" (fill in a country name). I don't think so. From what I see, we're witnessing a global phenomenon.

Several weeks ago I received an email from a senior diplomat who is part of the United Nations delegation of an important country. He told me that The New Rules of Marketing & PR has been a great help to him and he requested a signed copy for the President of his country, which he wanted to personally hand deliver to him. How cool is that?

Does Harvard Business School know what a blog is?

UPDATE: On the same day I wrote this post, Paul Michelman, the director of content for Harvard Business Digital commented. If you find this post interesting, please be sure to read Paul's comment and my reply to it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

My friend Ron Miller points me to an open job at Harvard Business School Publishing posted on Craig's List. The part-time job is for a Freelance Blog Editor.

To paraphrase from the about page, Harvard Business School Publishing (HBSP) is s a not-for-profit, wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard University serving as a bridge between academia and enterprises around the globe through its publications such as the Harvard Business Review magazine.

The first paragraph of the job description seems innocent enough: "The blog editor ensures that all content published in the Harvard Business blog network is Web-ready, takes advantage of all available blog functionality, and is error free." OK, I guess I understand most of that. Make sure it looks good. Not sure about the error free part though. Fixing "errors" quickly evolves into control in my experience.

But then, this: "This assistant-editor level role will serve as the principal proofreader of Harvard Business blog content. He or she will also embed appropriate internal and external links, add graphics as appropriate, format blog content for maximum readability, and suggest headlines. The assistant editor will work closely with internal Harvard Business editors and producers and occasionally with authors."

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but I want to shout: Harvard Business School doesn't know what a blog is!

In my opinion, the best blogs are unfiltered opinions of people who are passionate about a topic. As soon as an editor has the role of working on Harvard Business blog content as a "proofreader" and "embedding appropriate links" and "suggesting headlines" we're not talking about blogs. I think when an editor gets in the middle of an author and corporate content, you're talking propaganda. Yes, it's online content and yes it is still valuable, however (in my opinion) it's just not a blog.

By using blogs in this way, HBSP is teaching the large corporations that consume its products (such as Harvard Business Review) to think of blogs as just another tool of control-based, message-driven, nanny-state corporate communications.

What bothers me about this is that smarty-pants Harvard MBA types learn "how to do business" from Harvard Business School and its publishing arm. These people learn from HBSP that blogs are filtered, edited, sanitized propaganda and then when they graduate and become muckety-mucks at companies, they are the ones that put the brakes on corporate bloggers and force content through some centralized editing process within the "Public Relations" department.

And, in my experience, most (but not all) PR people at companies are nothing more than the corporate message control police.

Am I reading too much into this?

Disclosure: In 1989 I applied for admission to Harvard Business School. I was rejected. I consider this one of the most fortunate twists of fate in my career.

The dumbest Public Relations person in the world?

Readers of this blog know that I get hundreds of unsolicited press releases and PR pitches every week. I'm on a bunch of lists because of this blog, my books, and the magazines I write for. Ugh.

I've said before that almost all the crap I get from PR agencies is spam: A broadcast email message sent to a huge number of journalists with the hope that some poor sucker on deadline and will give in and write.

- No, I do not want to buy Viag*ra.

- No, I do not care one bit about the press release announcing version 3.1 (beta) of your flexible, scalable, mission-critical, next generation product.

- No I do not want to share in the $20,000,000 (twenty million US dollars only) that your now dead husband, the former oil minister of Nigeria, had stashed away.

- No, I will not talk to the CEO of your client who has graciously made time next Thursday to speak to reporters about the company’s new initiatives in the dog food business.

[Editorial note: If you have something to say to me personally, great. Please send it. My email is public. You can also reach me on Facebook or Twitter. I do write about things sent to me in my books and on this blog. But it needs to be an idea that you send just to me. Please don’t spam me.]

OK, so let's get to what may be the dumbest PR person in the world...

Yesterday I get a press release sent via email. It's typical – some technology product that is so obscure and inconsequential that nobody, not even Geekster Weekly News would care about.

1. The subject line of the email reads: "News Release: [XYZ Company] enhances line of [blah blah]"

2. The email starts out: "[XYZ Company] is pleased to announce…"

3. Then there is a bunch of jargon-laden, hype-driven nonsense.

4. The sender then says: "Feel free to contact me if you would like more information or images to supplement this story."

5. Then the entire poorly written, gobbledygook-filled press release is pasted into the email.

So far, the release follows the standard (but ineffective) old-school PR agency playbook.

But then this is at the end of the email:

"PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL- WITHOUT PREJUDICE. Confidentiality Message. This e-mail message is confidential, may be privileged and is intended for the exclusive use of the addressee. Any other person is strictly prohibited from disclosing, distributing or reproducing it. If the addressee cannot be reached or is unknown to you, please inform the sender by return e-mail immediately and delete this e-mail message and destroy all copies. Thank you."

Holy cow!!

Here's some PR spam that has obviously been sent to thousands of journalists (because I got it and I have never once written about this stuff I know it is spam). But the sender says that the recipient of the spam email cannot disclose it. Huh?

You invade my email box with your crap.

You send an identical message to thousands of others.

You want me to write about your stuff.

Then you say that I cannot disclose the information because it is confidential and sent just to me?

WTF?

The laws of simplicity

One of the best parts of being on the speaking circuit is the opportunity to meet and chat with fascinating people prior to a gig. Sometimes there is a "green room" where speakers congregate, but more often it's just an empty stage before the audience arrives.

Last week I met John Maeda who was on just prior to me at a gig at the Providence Chamber of Commerce. John is a true Renaissance Man. He invented the screen saver; he's an artist, a graphic designer, an author, and a computer programmer. John is the current Associate Director of Research at MIT Media Lab and is the incoming president of the Rhode Island School of Design, a position he assumes in June.

We chatted for a while about such things as teenage daughters, the benefits of an Apple computer for delivering presentations, the importance of water availability while speaking, and flying toasters.

His speech last week was his first public session in RI after the announcement of his new job and the venue was packed and included the governor of Rhode Island. John is an amazing speaker. You can see a great video of him in action at the TED conference here. I learned some things about simplicity of speaking style that I'll be applying to my own presentations.

Here are a few things John said that I really like: "Humans want 'more' (food, storage, stuff). So 'more' is an important marketing concept. But while humans want more, design is about less." And he then related that with this fascinating example: "Yahoo design is about more. Google design is about less."

I ordered John's book The Laws of Simplicity on Amazon even before his speech was done. It is a short book and I read it in one sitting this weekend.

You can check out all of the ten Laws of Simplicity here. My favorite is Law ten: "Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful."

While John writes about simplicity as it relates to design, I am convinced that the same things apply to marketing and PR. For example, marketers love gobbledygook. But simplicity is what sells.

Top ten PR tips for small businesses

Last week I participated on a call with John Jantsch who asked me to share my top ten PR tips for small businesses with his audience. John is the author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide and he writes the very popular Duct Tape Marketing blog.

I had to take the call from my room in the Beverly Hilton because I was speaking at The Milken Institute Global Conference. OK, I'll admit that I didn't prepare for the call (sorry John) and just banged out ten tips a few minutes before we spoke.

After the call, I realized that sometimes there is value to top-of-mind ideas. Nuggets of value may be lost when you obsess over getting every detail perfect. So I thought I'd share the list with you. No, it is not comprehensive - given time I would choose different things for the list and re-order what's here:

1. The old ways to get noticed were to buy expensive advertising and beg the media to write about you and your products. The best way to get noticed today is to publish great content online.

2. Don't talk about what your products and services do. Instead talk about how you solve problems for your customers.

3. Be enthusiastic and have fun. People want to do business with people they like.

4. Don't rely on spamming the media with your press releases and PR pitches.

5. Use press releases to reach buyers directly.

6. Comment on blogs, forums and chat rooms (but don't talk about your products and services).

7. Read the popular books in your market and write a review on Amazon. Use your real name and affiliation.

8. Shoot a short video and put it up onto YouTube

9. Know what search terms people are using to find products and services like yours and create content that search engines will reward with high search engine rankings.

10. Don't be egotistical. Nobody cares about you and your products. Your buyers care about themselves and solving their problems.

World Wide Rave! vs. Unscrupulous and Illegal Viral Marketing Techniques

World Wide Rave: People talking about you and your company and your products.

World Wide Rave: When a community is eager to link to your stuff on the Web.

World Wide Rave: Tons of people visit your Web site and check out your blog and watch your YouTube videos because they want to (and without being coerced).

World Wide Rave: The online buzz that drives people to you, generating interest in your products and services.

For decades, the only way to spread ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now we have a tremendous opportunity to create a World Wide Rave, generate stuff on the Web that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues. A World Wide Rave sells an idea or a product by virtue of its educational or entertainment value.

But David (you might say) it sounds like a World Wide Rave is the same thing as "Viral Marketing"? No.

What is viral marketing?

Many of you have read my recent ebook The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free (published January 2008). Thanks to people sharing it on their blogs and a version that appeared on ChangeThis, the ebook has been downloaded over 125,000 times in three months. Thank you.

Since I wrote and published the ebook, more than one hundred of you have sent examples of viral marketing initiatives to me. I will include the best in a new hardcover book to be published by Wiley in early 2009 called World Wide Rave: Creating triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and share your stories.

Unfortunately, in the past few months I've come to realize that viral marketing has a significant dark side - quite a bit more extensive than I had been aware of…

Unscrupulous Marketing Techniques

Many viral marketing examples that people send me are nothing more than traditional advertising techniques that rely on interruption, bait-and-switch gimmicks, inane games, and frivolous contests. It's the old rules of marketing transferred to the Web. These are not examples of a World Wide Rave. Instead, this is trickery and coercion in an attempt to sell products. Frankly, this stuff gives all of viral marketing a bad name.

I've also noticed that a cadre of viral marketing "experts" happily take large amounts of money from naive and unsuspecting companies to create viral marketing "campaigns". Typically, advertising agency-developed viral campaigns involve buying access in the same old ways, such as purchasing an email list to spam people or launching a microsite with a pricey print or TV ad.

Worse, some dodgy agencies set up fake viral campaigns where people who are employed or in some way compensated by the agency create videos or blog posts purported to be from a customer.

Misleading viral marketing techniques have become so widespread that the European Union enacted Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations to protect the public from the most deceitful activities. The Regulations become UK law on May 26, 2008 and The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the industry body and professional institute for leading advertising, media and marketing communications agencies in the UK, is helping its members come to grips with what this means.

"If advertisers and their agencies ignore the ethics of responsible advertising, the damage to the advertising and marketing industry generally will be considerable, undermining all commercial messages, their effectiveness and the self regulatory systems," says Marina Palomba, IPA Legal Director.

According to The IPA one particular clause in the Regulations will make the following activities a criminal offence:
- Seeding positive messages about a brand in a blog without making it clear that the message has been created by, or on behalf of, the brand.
- Using "buzz marketing" specialists to communicate with potential consumers in social situations without disclosing that they are acting as brand ambassadors.
- Seeding viral ads on the internet in a manner that implies you are a simple member of the public.

Because th term "viral marketing" has taken on dirty and sleazy connotations by many organizations causing marketers and executives to become increasingly skeptical, I've started using the phrase "World Wide Rave" instead. I want to draw a clear distinction between the amazing ways that millions of people spread ideas and share stories online and the bogus crap that people are resorting to.

A World Wide Rave is valuable content that spreads because people want to share. Not because of some silly contest or dishonest activity.

A World Wide Rave—having others tell and spread your story for you—is one of the most exciting and powerful ways to reach your audiences. Anyone with thoughtful ideas to share—and clever ways to create interest in them—can become famous and find success on the Web.

The Milken Institute Global Conference: My brain's gonna hurt

I speak at a lot of conferences and events (about one per week on average). It's a cool job because every few days I meet a fresh set of interesting people in a fun setting and learn something new.

This week I'm leading a panel discussion at The Milken Institute Global Conference. Holy cow what a lineup of presenters! I think my brain's gonna hurt.

How about this panel discussion for cool factor!

Decision '08: What Awaits the Next President?
- John Cleese, Comedian, Writer, Actor and Producer
- Frank Luntz, Founder and CEO, Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research
- William Bennett, Former U.S. Secretary of Education
- Jerry Brown, Attorney General of California
- Richard Schiff, Actor (Toby on The West Wing)
- Moderator: Bill Schneider, Senior Political Analyst, CNN

I will send updates as much as possible via twitter if you want to follow it.

The Milken Institute Global Conference, April 28-30 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, brings together some of the most extraordinary people in the world - from scientists, business executives and philanthropists to journalists, academics and Nobel laureates - to discuss, debate and deliberate today's most pressing social, political and economic challenges.

Some other A-list discussions that sound interesting: Tennis great Andre Agassi on "Taking the 'Risk' Out of At-Risk Youth," Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation on "Pursuing Your Passion," There's a Conversation With T. Boone Pickens. One I'm eager to hear is "Business Innovations That Are Changing the World" with Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. Or maybe just pop over to hear His Royal Highness Michael of Kent participating in a one-on-one interview.

These are other panels I hope to attend:

Paying the Piper: How Can Music Keep Its Revenues and Its Customers?
- Quincy Jones, Producer; Composer; CEO, Quincy Jones Music Publishing
- Andrew Lack, Chairman, Sony BMG Music Entertainment
- Justin Goldberg, Founder and CEO, Indie911
- Moderator: Larry Carroll, News Anchor, KFWB News 980

A Discussion With Nobel Laureates in Economics
- Gary Becker, Nobel Laureate, 1992; University of Chicago
- Edmund Phelps, Nobel Laureate, 2006; Columbia University
- Myron Scholes, Nobel Laureate, 1997; Platinum Grove Asset Management
- A. Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate, 2001; Stanford University

I'm leading a killer panel called The Changing Rules of PR and Corporate Influence in the Digital Age
- Jason Calacanis, Founder and CEO, Mahalo.com
- Robert Dilenschneider, Founder and Principal, The Dilenschneider Group
- Steven Rubenstein, President, Rubenstein Communications Inc.
Moderator: David Meerman Scott (that would be me)

Follow my thoughts on twitter.

Parents against reprehensible metal music

I was just on Technorati and saw a banner ad that caught my. They almost never do. I probably click on one banner a month.

I was attracted first to the Flying Vee with the universal symbol for "no". Then the headline "Parents against reprehensible metal music."

"Cool," I thought. Tipper Gore wannabes on the rampage. This will be fun. So I clicked.

As the father of a 15-year old daughter who likes obscure metal sub-genres and songs with "explicit" lyrics, I couldn't wait to share this with her so we could both get a chuckle. One of the questions in the banner is: "Does your teen show any of the following signs: Wears excessive amounts of black."

Um, yup. Lots of black clothing in my house. But on dad as well.

Imagine my surprise when the banner linked to a site for Toyota Matrix. At first I thought that The Double Click ad server was on the fritz. But then I realized, holy cow, it's a bait and switch banner!

I was immediately incensed. It reminded me of those annoying "You are the 1,000,000th visitor! You won! Click here!" ads.

But then after a moment, I decided it was pretty cool. I Googled the phrase and found a nifty little site ParentsForPARMM.com "Our censor sensor is always on high alert!"

So here I am writing about it - promoting the site and no doubt sending them a few thousand more clicks. I guess that's what they wanted, right? Well, then it worked.

So what do you think? Is this a reprehensible bait and switch? Or just plain fun? What would the transparency police say?

Sex, shaving, and your oral health

Please forgive the gratuitous headline but I couldn’t resist. Two new free ebooks have been sent to me recently and both of them involve sex. Well, sort of.

Dianna Huff points us to Dr. Helaine Smith, a Boston, Massachusetts cosmetic dentist. Dr. Smith asks the question: "When was the last time you thought about your teeth? That's like asking when you last thought about your femur or your elbow."

In her new e-book, Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex! Dr. Smith explains the connection between oral health and sexual well-being: "a topic not too many people talk about."

She says: “What many people don't understand -- or even consider -- is that the health of our teeth and mouths has a huge connection with our overall physical health -- and our sex lives!

Luke Faccini points us to an ebook that his agency The Sponge created called The 6 Essential Elements to an Exceptional Shave!

The ebook asks: "Were you taught how to shave by a pro? More likely you've unknowingly taken on the bad habits of your father, or even worse, you've taught yourself to shave from what you've seen on television commercials. If you ever get razor burn, ingrown hairs, redness or irritation then you have to read on!"

The ebook includes six reasons why you should pay attention to your daily routine with number 6 being: "The amount of sex you get is in direct proportion to how well you shave!"

The sex angle, while just a teeny bit gimmicky, does spark some interest because the authors are linking sex to unexpected things like shaving and dentistry.

I really like these ebooks. If a dentist and an Australian company producing "male grooming products that were created to increase the appeal of the uncompromising man" can find topics to write an ebook about, it shows that virtually any company, product, or organization can use an ebook to tell a story.

You can too!

Disclosure: Both of these ebooks kindly mention me in the acknowledgments and I thank the authors for that. I had nothing to do with the development of either ebook. However, both authors were in some way inspired by the information about creating ebooks that I included in this blog and in my latest free ebook The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free.

What the heck is Web 2.0 / social media / social networking and how do these concepts relate to the new rules of marketing & pr?

Recently I've noticed that many people have been using a bunch of definitions, including "New Rules of Marketing", "Web 2.0 marketing", "social media marketing", and "social network marketing" interchangeably. (Feel free to substitute "PR" for "marketing" if that’s appropriate for you.)

I don't think these concepts are the same at all, and I think that using them interchangeably creates problems for all of us.

Here's a summary from my perspective: "social media marketing" and "social network marketing" are two different things. From the marketing & PR perspective, both are subsets of "the new rules of marketing & PR". On the other hand "Web 2.0 marketing" is essentially a meaningless phrase. See below for details of where I'm coming from.

I wanted to spark some dialog about this as I think that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about what some of the various phrases mean. Additionally, the tools and techniques vary.

Please jump in with your thoughts.

Here are mine:

The new rules of marketing (and the new rules of PR).
These phrases were not used prior to me introducing them in 2006. If you Google either phrase today, you'll see that links to my site, blog, and work dominate the top results.

I say that the old rules of marketing & PR were that you either had to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write about you. Prior to the Web, there weren't other significant ways to get noticed. The Web has changed the rules. The new rules of marketing & PR are that you can bypass the gatekeepers and publish your own content online in the form of content-rich Web sites, blogs, YouTube videos, photos, ebooks and the like and reach buyers directly.

Web 2.0 marketing (and Web 2.0 PR)
The term Web 2.0 is credited to Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly media.
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Many people have taken the "Web 2.0" phrase and slapped "marketing" or "PR" on the end to designate something new. My opinion is that the term Web 2.0 (as coined by O'Reilly) was meant to describe how people use the Web and how software companies are creating applications that are Web-based instead of requiring downloading to your PC or delivered via a client-server environment.

I'd say that people who use the terms "Web 2.0 marketing" and "Web 2.0 PR" (or the related "marketing 2.0" and "PR 2.0") are using those phrases as a catch-all to describe "new" and most can't really define exactly what they mean except to say that "it includes blogs and YouTube and Facebook and other stuff like that."

Personally, I steer clear of using Web 2.0 when describing marketing and PR because it is imprecise and confusing.

Further reading – the Web 2.0 Wikipedia entry.

Social media marketing (and social media PR)
I'd suggest that the term social media describes online media with a participatory or interactive component.

A news story that is delivered online becomes social media if there is a place for readers to comment on the news story. Blogs, forums, Wikis, and chat rooms are all social media in my opinion because they include an interactive component.

Marketing and PR using social media involves creating social media content (starting a blog perhaps) and participating in social media (by leaving appropriate comments other people’s blogs or forums).

Further reading – the Social Media Wikipedia entry.

Social network marketing (and social network PR)
I'd suggest that the term social networking describes online networking tools and the ways they are used to connect groups of people on the Web.

By my definition, social networking sites include Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, SecondLife, Bebo, and others similar to these. People use these sites to network and stay connected with friends and colleagues and to meet other like-minded people.

Marketing and PR using social n