Caught a great podcast recently featuring an interview with author David Meerman Scott. His new book is entitled The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly (whew! Quite a mouthful.)
ANYway, his premise is clear and well-delivered: "You are what you publish." In the old days, if you wanted to get your message out there you had two options: try and convince someone to write about you (and hope for the best), or buy expensive advertising, trade show floor real estate or spend a lot of money in some other way and hope your message sticks.
With the advent of blogging and podcasting, your business can now take control of the conversation and influence people based on your positive content. Think about the people you are trying to reach. Don’t force your corporate message on them. We get enough of that everyday. As we have said before on this blog and in our podcast, it is not about hucksterism. Rather, write about a problem people are having, and then help them solve it. Once you establish that trust, people will stay with you and rely on you as a source.
The rules of marketing are changing for the better. This is allowing MORE people in and is making things LESS exclusionary. Take advantage. The time is now.