The New Influencers

Paul Gillin

Description

Exploring how and why online forums such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs have gained such popularity--and credibility--with consumers, this practical guide offers proven strategies for organizations to leverage these new internet-based social media outlets. The differences between traditional and new media are explored, as are simple ways business owners and marketers can use these new resources to communicate with their customers. Practical tips on gaining the attention of and interacting with influential bloggers, the pros and cons of creating a company blog, guerilla marketing on the internet, and restructuring marketing expectations are also discussed.

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610351102
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for The New Influencers
"There are a lot of people who don’t want you to read The New Influencers. Your competition, for starters. And the media rep who sells you TV time for another. Ignore them. This is essential reading for anyone who missed the blogging train when it left the station."
Seth Godin, author of Small Is the New Big, Unleashing the Ideavirus
"How can we understand this new force? How should we engage with it constructively? How can we protect ourselves from its darker side? These are the questions this book seeks to address, and I commend you to it. It is timely indeed, for we are seeing not just marketing campaigns, but political and social ones as well, playing out in this new venue."
Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game
"Instead of another how-to book on blogging, Gillin expertly unwraps the dynamics behind this fast-evolving phenomenon and its profound implications for marketers. Using a large number of case studies, he shows how "influencers" are changing the marketing equation."
Ellis Booker, editor-in-chief, BtoB magazine
"Everything you ever wanted to know about social media rests safely inside the mind of Paul Gillin lucky for us he’s willing to share."
Ragan’s Web Content Report
"The New Influencers…is one of those landmark books that has everyone talking and for good reason. This book is an important contribution to discussions of the change in marketing and public relations techniques. I highly recommend The New Influencers …for anyone who wants to explore the leading edge of the new social media revolution."
Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World
"The New Influencers definitely has the right parts…it positively excels in highlighting the opportunities that open up when the responsible marketer is exposed to social media."
Phil Gomes, iMediaconnection
"By showing what methods work and which ones tank, Gillin tells us how to gain media exposure. Experimenting with novel techniques is a great way to climb toward triumph."
MarketingSherpa
"Paul Gillin goes beyond trends such as blogging, podcasting, or social networks to look at the underlying dynamics of influence and conversation marketing. Marketers need to understand, embrace and participate in this brave new world."
Eric Kintz, vice president, Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence, Hewlett-Packard Company
"As ‘word of mouth’ loses opinion-forming power to ‘word of blog,’ companies are faced with a revolution in how their brands and corporate image will be shaped in the future. Paul Gillin provides a very insightful and well-written guide on how to effectively benefit from these dramatic changes. A must-read!"
Patrick J. McGovern, founder and chairman, International Data Group (IDG)
"I’d suggest this book for any manager or senior executive who doesn’t ‘get’ social media."
Sam Decker, Decker Marketing
"Between consumers transforming into producers, branding occurring not in the boardroom but from the bottom up, and customers, not CMOs, calling the shots, today’s companies are presented with a choice: embrace these tools to improve and innovate or face irrelevance in this evolving landscape."
Christina Kerley, ckEpiphany Marketing

Copyright © 2007 by Paul Gillin. All rights reserved.
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Third printing
ISBN 1-884956-65-3 978-1884956-65-2
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gillin, Paul.
The new influencers : a marketer’s guide to the new social media / by Paul Gillin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-884956-65-3 (978-1884956-65-2)
1. Marketing Blogs. 2. Social media Economic aspects. 3. Customer relations.
4. Interactive marketing. I. Title.
HF5415.G5423 2007
658.8’72 dc22
2007001613
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
How to Use this Book
1. The Origins of Social Media
2. From Chaos, Structure
3. Enthusiasts
Influencer Profile The Gadget King
4. Measures of Influence
5. Corporate Conversations
Influencer Profile The Corporate Renegade
6. Small Is Beautiful
7. Putting "Public" Back Into Public Relations
Influencer Profile The Marketer
8. The Talkers
Influencer Profile The Sound Man
9. Tools of the Trade
Influencer Profile The Toolmaker
10. Going Viral
Influencer Profile The Guerilla
11. Next Steps
Appendix A The Numbers
Appendix B Leveraging Technology
Glossary
Index
About the Author
Please visit NewInfluencers.com for additional, continually updated material.
To Dana, who said, "Go for it!"
Foreword to The New Influencers
W hen I first became involved with the technology sector, there was no such thing as high-tech marketing. Regis McKenna changed all that with a book called The Regis Touch. It explained how, in markets where buying decisions were high-risk and issues were technologically complex, traditional forms of advertising and promotion were ineffective. Instead one had to "influence the influencers," and thus high-tech PR was born.
The high-tech PR model reigned throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Organized around the product launch, it consisted primary of a press tour focused on the technical press (including Computerworld, where Paul Gillin worked). Such a tour was done in conjunction with an analyst tour, with visits to the Gartner Group, Yankee, Forrester, and the like, to brief the industry experts to whom reporters would turn for validation of the company’s claims. Customer references were carefully teed up for these experts to interview, and partners dutifully chimed in. Finally, as the art form continued to mature, business press and financial analysts were added to the mix. But the key principle always remained the same: Orchestrate the influencers in order to communicate marketing messages to the audiences you seek to reach.
Such were the days when media were tightly held, influencers were a recognizable clique, and reporters held sway. Alas, those institutions, if not completely gone, are sliding from the scene at an alarming pace. In their place appears this new phenomenon of social media.
How lasting the impact of social media will have is yet to be determined, but one thing for sure, it has turned the chain of influence upside down. Today the reader, the lowly reader, that presumably passive consumer of all the great insight handed down by the reporter, confirmed by the analyst, attested to by the reference customer this reader, I say, has now become the writer!
Except it is not a reader/writer. It is reader/writers at large, many readers, the wisdom (or madness) of crowds. We have embarked upon the world’s largest and longest cocktail party, and every issue imaginable is up for grabs. The orchestrators of old are valiantly trying to practice their craft in these turbulent waters, but the results are still largely unpredictable. For now there are few rules only risks and opportunities and emerging principles, all swirling in electronic space.
How can we understand this new force? How should we engage with it constructively? How can we protect ourselves from its darker side? These are the questions this book seeks to address, and I commend you to it. It is timely indeed, for we are seeing not just marketing campaigns, but political and social ones as well, playing out in this new venue. And these campaigns are having an impact, and they will become a growing force in our lives. Whether as vendors or consumers, candidates or citizens, we cannot afford to be ignorant of the dynamics of this new world.
Geoffrey Moore Managing Director, The Chasm Group Author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game, Living on the Fault Line, Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution
San Mateo, California November, 2006
Acknowledgments
The New Influencers evolved out of a passion for social media that developed in late 2005 as a result of a career shift. Software legend Dan Bricklin gave me my first exposure to the power of the blogosphere and later conceded to an extended interview and profile. Ellis Booker, editorin-chief of B2B Magazine, indulged me with early assignments that helped develop my knowledge in this area and gave me a standing column that I continue to use as an opportunity to stay engaged.
I am indebted to Quill Driver Books and publisher Steve Mettee, in particular, for taking a chance with a new author and a proposal that other publishers had dismissed as being "another book about bloggi