The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly »

DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT is an award-winning marketing strategist, conference speaker, and seminar leader. He is the author of World Wide Rave and the editor of The New Rules of Social Media series, also from Wiley.

Market to win with this new edition of the bestseller!

The first edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR presented readers with a unique playbook to navigate marketing in the Internet Age. Now, in this fully revised and updated edition, author David Meerman Scott gives you all the hottest insider tips on the very latest winning tools and techniques so you can confidently market any product, service, or idea. With The New Rules of Marketing & PR, Second Edition, you'll soon be publishing powerful and effective information on the Web, reaching your buyers directly, and saving big on your budget.

Praise for The New Rules of Marketing & PR

"This excellent look at the basics of new-millennial marketing should find use in the hands of any serious PR professional making the transition."

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[Scott] goes far beyond technology and explores the ramifications of the Web as it pertains to people. He sets down a body of rules that shows you how to negotiate those ramifications with maximum effectiveness. And he does it with real-life histories and an engaging style."

—Jay Conrad Levinson, "The Father of Guerrilla Marketing" and author of the Guerrilla Marketing series of books

"The New Rules of Marketing & PR teaches readers how to launch a thought leadership campaign by using the far-reaching, long-lasting tools of social media. It is an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to make a name for themselves, their ideas, and their organization."

—Mark Levy, coauthor of How to Persuade People Who Don't Want to Be Persuaded and founder of Levy Innovation, a marketing strategy company

"I've relied on The New Rules of Marketing & PR as a core text for my New Media and Public Relations course at Boston University for the past six semesters. David's book is a bold, crystal clear, and practical guide toward a new (and better) future for the profession."

—Stephen Quigley, Boston University

Foreword Robert Scoble xvii

Welcome to the Second Edition of the New Rules xxi

Second Edition xxiii

Introduction xxv

The New Rules xxvii

Trying to Write Like a Blog, But in a Book xxvii

Showcasing Innovative Marketer xxix

I How the Web Has Changed the Rules of Marketing and PR 1

1 The Old Rules of Marketing and PR Are Ineffective in an Online World 3

Advertising: A Money Pit of Wasted Resources 6

One-Way Interruption Marketing Is Yesterday's Message 7

The Old Rules of Marketing 8

Public Relations Used to Be Exclusively about the Media 8

Public Relations and Third-Pony Ink 9

Yes, the Media Are Still Important 10

Press Releases and the Journalistic Black Hole 11

The Old Rules of PR 11

Learn to Ignore the Old Rules 13

2 The New Rules of Marketing and PR 15

The Long Tail of Marketing 17

Tell Me Something I Don't Know, Please 18

Bricks-and-Mortar News 19

Advice from the Company President 21

The Long Tail of PR 22

The New Rules of Marketing and PR 23

The Convergence of Marketing and PR on the Web 24

3 Reaching Your Buyers Directly 25

The Right Marketing in a Wired World 26

Let the World Know about Your Expertise 27

Develop Information Your Buyers Want to Consume 28

Buyer Personas: The Basics 29

Think Like a Publisher 31

Tell Your Organization's Story Directly 32

Know the Goals and Let Content Drive Action 33

Content and Thought Leadership 34

II Web-Based Communications to Reach Buyers Directly 35

4 Social Media and Your Targeted Audience 37

What Is Social Media, Anyway? 38

Social Media Is a Cocktail Party 39

Facebook Croup Drives 15,000 People to Singapore Tattoo Show 40

The New Rules of Job Search42

How David Murray Found a New Job via Twitter 43

Insignificant Backwaters or Valuable Places to Connect? 44

Your Best Customers Participate in Online Forums-So Should You 47

Your Space in the Forums 51

Wikis, Listservs, and Your Audience 52

Creating Your Own Wiki 54

5 Blogs: Tapping Millions of Evangelists to Tell Your Story 57

Blogs, Blogging, and Bloggers 59

Understanding Blogs in the World of the Web 60

The Four Uses of Blogs for Marketing and PR 63

Monitor Blogs-Your Organization's Reputation Depends on It 64

Comment on Blogs to Get Your Viewpoint Out There 65

Work with the Bloggers Who Talk about You 66

How to Reach Bloggers Around the World 68

Do You Allow Employees to Send E-Mail? How about Letting Them Blog? 69

Breaking Boundaries: Blogging at McDonald's 71

The Power of Blogs 72

Get Started Today 72

6 Audio and Video Drive Action 75

Digging Digg Video 75

What University Should I Attend 76

The Best Job in the World 77

Audio Content Delivery Through Podcasting 79

Putting Marketing Back in Musicians' Control 80

Podcasting: More Than Just Music 82

Grammar Girl Podcast 83

7 The New Rules of News Releases 85

News Releases in a Web World 87

The New Rules of News Releases 87

If They Find You, They Will Come 88

Driving Buyers into the Sales Process 90

Reach Your Buyers Directly 91

8 Going Viral: The Web Helps Audiences Catch the Fever 93

Minty-Fresh Explosive Marketing 93

Monitoring the Blogosphere for Viral Eruptions 95

Creating a World Wide Rove 97

Rules of the Rave 98

Film Producer Creates a World Wide Rave by Making Soundtrack Free for Download 99

Viral Buzz for Fun and Profit 101

The Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Jerry Garcia's Toilet 101

Clip This Coupon for $ 1 Million Off Ft. Myers, FL Home 102

When You Have Explosive News, Make It Go Viral 103

9 The Content-Rich Web Site 107

Political Advocacy on the Web 108

Content: The Focus of Successful Web Sites 110

Reaching a Global Marketplace 111

Putting It All Together with Content 112

Great Web Sites: More Art Than Science 114

III Action Plan for Harnessing the Power of the New Rules 117

10 You Are What You Publish: Building Your Marketing and PR Plan 119

What Are Your Organization's Goals? 120

Buyer Personas and Your Organization 122

The Buyer Persona Profile 123

Reaching Senior Executives 126

The Importance of Buyer Personas in Web Marketing 127

In Your Buyers' Own Words 128

What Do You Want Your Buyers to Believe? 130

Developing Content to Reach Buyers 132

Obama for America 135

Stick to Your Plan 139

11 Online Thought Leadership to Brand Your Organization as a Trusted Resource 141

Developing Thought Leadership Content 141

Forms of Thought Leadership Content 142

How to Create Thoughtful Content 146

Write What You Know 147

Leveraging Thought Leaders Outside of Your Organization 148

How Much Money Does Your Buyer Make? 149

12 How to Write for Your Buyers 151

An Analysis of Gobbledygook 152

Poor Writing: How Did We Get Here? 153

Effective Writing for Marketing and PR 155

The Power of Writing Feedback (from Your Blog) 156

13 How Web Content Influences the Buying Process 159

Segmenting Your Buyers 160

Elements of a Buyer-Centric Web Site 162

Using RSS to Deliver Your Web Content to Targeted Niches 166

Link Content Directly into the Sales Cycle 168

A Friendly Nudge 169

Close the Sale and Continue the Conversation 169

An Open-Source Marketing Model 170

14 Social Networking Sites and Marketing 173

Television's Eugene Mirman is Very Nice and Likes Seafood 174

Facebook: Not Just for Students 175

Check Me Out on MySpace 179

Tweet Your Thoughts to the World 180

Social Networking and Personal Branding 182

Connecting with Fans 185

How Amanda Palmer Made $ 1,000 on Twitter in Two Hours 186

Which Social Networking Site is Right for You? 187

You Can't Go to Every Party, So Why Even Try? 189

Optimizing Social Networking Pages 190

Stan a Movement 191

15 Blogging to Reach Your Buyers 193

What Should You Blog About? 194

Blogging Ethics and Employee Blogging Guidelines 195

Blogging Basics- What You Need to Know to Get Started 197

Pimp Out Your Blog 199

Building an Audience for Your New Blog 201

Tag, and Your Buyer Is It 202

Fun with Sharpies (and Sharpie Fans) 203

Blogging Outside of North America 204

What Are You Waiting For? 205

16 Video and Podcasting Made, Well, as Easy as Possible 207

Video and Your Buyers 207

A Flip Video Camera in Every Pocket 208

Getting Started with Video 209

Knifing the Competition ... and It's All Caught on Video 211

Podcasting 101 212

My Audio Is Your Podcast 214

17 How to Use News Releases to Reach Buyers Directly 217

Developing Your News Release Strategy 218

Publishing News Releases through a Distribution Service 219

Reaching Even More Interested Buyers with RSS Feeds 220

Simultaneously Publishing Your News Releases to Your Web Site 220

The Importance of Links in Your News Releases 221

Focus on the Keywords and Phrases Your Buyers Use 221

Include Appropriate Social Media Tags 223

If It's Important Enough to Tell the Media, Tell Your Clients and Prospects, Too! 224

18 The Online Media Room: Your Front Door for Much More Than the Media 227

Your Online Media Room as (Free) Search Engine Optimization 228

Best Practices for Online Media Rooms 229

An Online Media Room to Reach Journalists, Customers, Bloggers, and Employees 236

Really Simple Marketing: The importance of RSS Feeds in Your Online Media Room 238

19 The New Rules for Reaching the Media 239

Nontargeted, Broadcast Pitches Are Spam 240

The New Rules of Media Relations 240

Blogs and Media Relations 241

Launching ideas with the U.S. Air Force 242

How to Pitch the Media 244

20 Search Engine Marketing 249

Making the First Page on Google 250

Search Engine Optimization 252

The Long Tail of Search 253

Carve Out Your Own Search Engine Real Estate 254

Web Landing Pages to Drive Action 255

Search Engine Marketing in o Fragmented Business 257

21 Make It Happen 261

Getting the Help you Need (and Rejecting What You Don't) 263

Great for Any Organization 267

Now It's Your Turn 269

Acknowledgments for the Second Edition 271

Index 272

About the Author 280

Preview: World Wide Rave 281

Preview: The New Rules of Social Media book series 287