We’re listening in on a Vocus webinar starring David Meerman Scott, “Creating an Effective Social Media Strategy Using the News Rules of Marketing & PR.” Lani’s live-tweeting it, and I’m following up with some blog notes here, top-level items that captured my attention.
Vocus has been providing great content recently, and they use the content to attract sales leads by asking for complete contact information in exchange for access. We’ve had at least a half-dozen sales calls to our office number, which may be the cost of great “free” content. DMS, though, spent time advocating the idea of giving content away without requiring the exchange of information.
Personally, we require email addresses for some of our content, and we’ve gone back and forth internally about whether we should continue that practice. What’s your experience/thought on the subject? Drop us a comment below…
Cindy Gordon,VP New Media Marketing at Universal Orlando Resort. She told seven influential people, inviting them to a midnight event where the set designer for the Harry Potter movies talked about “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” they were building at the resort. Those seven influential people blogged about it and spread the word of mouth to their audiences, and ultimately Cindy estimates they reached about 350 MILLION people, just by creating an exclusive interview event for just 7 people.
And DMS says that Cindy was afraid she was going to get fired for doing this, even though she knew it was the right thing to do!
The idea that doing the things you know are right, but which are scary to the people you work for, is one of the major driving tensions in social media for business today.
Buyer persona…who are they? Talk directly to them!
What do you want them to believe?
Earn attention through:
- Buy it
- “Beg” for it with PR
- “Bug” your way in by selling 1-to-1
- Earn it by publishing your way in
Encourage sharing – he calls it “word of mouse.”
No marketing coercion.
Lose control. (You never had it!)
Manage your fear – of the unknown, of trying something new, of going against the way you’ve done things in the past.
