PCB2 - Session #3 - The New Rules of PR - David Meerman Scott

Opens with quote…

Robert Scoble - It’s a new world you’re about to enter… If you understand how to use it you can drive buzz, new product feedback, sales, and more.  (Love Scoble)

PRSA - “public relations is the professional discipline that ethically fosters mutually beneficial relationships among social entities”.  Note there is no mention of media or SPAM.  Today it seems pr=media relations.  Unfortunately the pr business is associated with spam. 

How many PRSA individuals does it take to screw in a light bulb?  what’s your budget (LOL)

Old Rules: 

1.  You can buy your way into advertising

2.  Beg your way into media.

New Rule:

1.  Publish your way in.  via google, facebook, yahoo news, blogs, podcast, etc.

- On the web the lines separating pr and marketing don’t exist, unlearn everything you’ve learned. 

PR to the long tail rather then the head (he had a cute diagram I obviously can’t post here - but the gist is the head is mainstream media with the long tail being the Internet - niche markets)

Find your buyer personas.  What do you want your buyers to believe?

What does this company do? (he throws a long winded company bio up on the board - that couldn’t be understood if you were paid to translate it).  They obviously don’t know what their buyer persona is. 

Speak to personas in their language not theirs!!!

E-Books = The hip and stylish younger sister to the nerdy white paper. 

1.  Marketing Apple - first week 17k downloads

2.  The Gobbledygook Manifesto - 200k downloads so far, won a viral marketing award

3.  The New Rules of PR - 300k downloads, generated half a million dollars and cost nothing to produce

Check out Landing manifestos - sends out e-books to their readers for free if you’re accepted. 

The evolution of the press release

Media  - newspapers, magazines, trade publications, tv, and radio

financial - dowjones, reuters, bloomberg 

corporate - Lexus, factiva, thomas dialog

consumer - google, yahoo news, topic.net, technorati 

With the old rules - the only way you know someone read it was if it hit the paper.  New rules have actual trackable proof of consumers.  You dictate the content the consumer reads rather then being media dictated. 

You don’t have to bed the media to write about you - the media finds the cool things going on.  If you publish interesting consumer information - they will find you.  Use a press release distribution service (marketwire, business wire, etc.)

Simultaneously publish the news release to your own site.  After 28 days it is no longer indexed to the distribution sites.  Keywords with links to landing pages.  Point/anchor those keywords to your site - backdoor search engine marketing. 

Develop an editorial calendar. 

On the web you are what you PUBLISH.  

Try new things - you can add content at any time.

Constantly improve - don’t try to make things perfect

Taking Questions….

How did you work with bloggers for the book? 

“Actually it was pretty cool - no author has done this before.  For a year before publishing the book I kept a running list of bloggers who I was interested in and quite literally helped me write my book.  I did a post linking to everyone on the list, thanking them, and sent them a free book.  120 of 163 I wrote to sent back for a book and 100 posted on their blog.”

Is the E-book as long as the physical book

“The E-book is about 23 pages vs. the actual book is over 200 pages”

20 press releases a month? How you afford doing that?

“In some cases it’s a company who has a budget, in other cases there are free distribution companies.  Either way you can get your news out there.”

Is there a difference between how well the release will be picked up depending on the service you use (paid or free)?

“Google picks them all up - it may differ with the niche industry portals.  So you kinda get what you pay for, but getting it out there is better then nothing.”

If I do a bunch of news releases, is it going to be like spamming the market?

“I have never once in 5 years written about an unsolicited spam release sent to me.  But I go out to look for those I’m interested in directly.  Reporters will go out and find what they want.  i got a call from a big reporter doing a cover story on viral marketing who found me through google - how cool is it I don’t have to pitch for that sorta stuff.”

How do you now incorporate myspace and facebook?

“Raise your hand if you’re on facebook. (about half the room) That’s the biggest number I’ve seen yet.  Every time I ask that question it gets bigger.  Facebook has taken off like crazy.  So I did a blog post recently…Forester misleads professionals by confusing advertising with marketing.  Forester is saying facebook is a good advertising tool, but it’s really a cool way to market through groups etc.”

*note I don’t have time for serious editing before posting and moving to the next room*