Category Archives: marketing

Recommended reading

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If you visit the Amazon page for The New Influencers, you’ll probably find that the Amazon recommendation engine pairs the book with the latest from David Meerman Scott: The New Rules of Marketing and PR. I’ve just finished David’s book (his third) and highly recommend it.

David’s premise is that marketing and PR have been forever changed by the Internet and that marketers who continue to mine traditional channels of influence are missing the boat. He argues persuasively that the new opportunity is to speak directly to customers – without going through intermediaries – and to engage them in mutually satisfying conversations that lead to long-term relationships.

This is the same basic premise of my book, only I focused exclusively on social media tools. David takes more of a macro approach, incorporating press releases, websites and fundamentals of good marketing. The last third of the book is full of useful how-to information, ranging from basics of tagging and podcasting to some excellent advice on how to write for your customers.

The new world of marketing is scary to a lot of people, but that’s because change is scary. In The New Rules, David Meerman Scott outlines an exciting and opportunity-filled landscape that should energize every marketer. You need to read this book.

Excited to be going to Nantucket Conference

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I’m delighted to have the opportunity to speak at Nantucket Conference, a highly regarded – and very intimate – annual event for top technology executives in New England. I’ll be on an afternoon panel next Thursday, May 3, talking about how social media is changing the practice of marketing. Then I plan to hang out and just listen to the wisdom of some of the smartest tech entrepreneurs in the country.

This is a special conference because the size of the audience is limited and the population of lawyers, accountants and consultants is kept to a minimum. It’s basically an event for business owners, investors and technology wizards. It takes place this year during a mini-boom in venture capital investing. Good timing and always a great program.

BTW, I think they’re accepting applications to attend for a couple of more days. You have to request and invitation on the website.

Why most tech conferences suck

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For a glimpse at what’s wrong with most technology conferences – and why IT managers don’t attend them – you have only to listen to this podcast of a session called The Future of Search from the Supernova 2006 conference.

I don’t mean to pick on this session or this event. I have great respect for Chris Shipley and several of the panelists. It just happens to be one good example of a sin I’ve seen committed repeatedly at scores of conferences over the years.

Here you’ve got a great topic and people who are well-qualified to discuss it. But they ruin the opportunity BECAUSE THEY CAN’T STOP SELLING. In one five-minute segment I chose at random, I counted 26 references to “we,” “our,” the product name or an insult aimed at a competitor. In fact, Technorati’s David Sifry was the only panelist who talked about the future of search outside of the context of his or her product.

It’s ridiculous. Presented with the opportunity to discuss a weighty, important issue and to look smart, informed and visionary in front of an influential group, the panelists do little more that deliver advertisements. They look foolish.

Perhaps this plays well to the audience of investors and journalists who hang out at this type of event, but it’s an example of the reason you never see CIOs in the audience. They know that a panel stocked with vendors is going to be one long sales pitch, and they have entirely too much of that in their lives already.

Marketers, please don’t do this. Don’t force your executives to be “on message” all the time. Give them a chance to show what they know and to enlighten their audience. Let them admit that their competitors have good ideas and build on those ideas. Let the audience trust them. There’s nothing that undermines a speaker’s credibility faster than engaging in the kind of embarrassing behavior that you see in this all-too-typical session.