I was catching up on my reading tonight when I got a pleasant surprise, my colleague David Meerman Scott
has just released a new eBook,"The New Rules of Viral Marketing". I had read his New Rules of Marketing and PR shortly before having the opportunity to participate on a panel discussion with him at a conference. I was very excited about the prospect because I think that traditional marketing stinks and he’s got a refreshing view.
You see I am not a big fan of positioning (sorry Trout and Ries) and I am much more in sync with the Cluetrain Manifesto thesis that,"Companies attempting to "position" themselves need to take a position."
David’s eBook is very interesting and I picked up some new ideas including Hubspot’s Website Grader a tool for evaluating your website from a Search Engine Optimization(SEO) perspective.
What’s refreshing about the ebook is that it’s not portraying viral marketing as a silver bullet. His simple description is that viral marketing is:
…having others tell and spread your story for you—is one of the most exciting and powerful ways to reach your audiences. It’s not easy to harness the power of word-of-mouse, but any company with thoughtful ideas to share—and clever ways to create interest in them —can, after some careful preparation, become famous and find success on the Web.
In bold letters there’s even the phrase,"No Gimmicks". Viral marketing is just like traditional marketing in the fact that you can’t get away with being sloppy. You still need to have a valid message. The difference is that in the viral marketing world, attempts to trick your audience won’t be tolerated.
In David’s case he’s effectively using an ebook to help improve his expertise, build his readership, and buy his books. In my world I give away open source software and those people who use it spread my message, evangelize my product and eventually some of those people who hear that message return and buy products and services from my company.
I highly encourage you to download his ebook…it’s very good.
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Hey Mark,
Great to hear from you. Thanks for generating some more pass along for my ebook.
Take care, David
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