Caroline’s Blog

I have reached the end of David Meerman Scott’s book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” and realized that I learned more than I expected. I have also realized and learned that I can talk about the new rules when the situation arises.

Just last night, I was on a flight from Atlanta to Dallas to visit my family for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I was reading Scott’s book. I put the book down as the beverage cart approached, and my neighbor to my right began to look at the front cover.

As it turns out, my flight 114 neighbor, is a marketer for a realty company in Atlanta that tries to get doctors to leave their current practice location and move into a new building near a hospital in the Atlanta area. He began to question me what are the new rules of marketing, and our discussion began from there.

I was honestly amazed how little he knew, and it was interesting to bounce off different ideas and concepts from each other. But the most important thing we discussed, is that no matter what happens to our technology, we must continue to build genuine relationships. And that is what I believe David Meerman Scott has done in his book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR.” He has built a relationship with his readers, and he has inspired me to step outside my comfort zone and explore the foreign world that exists online.

If I were to count how many times a day I use the search engine Google, I would be extremely embarrassed. If someone asks me a question, and I do not know the answer, I turn to Google. When I am looking for information on a certain new product, and I do not know the product’s Website, I turn to Google. I could compare Google to a genie in a lamp, granting my every wish, with an informative answer.

It’s funny to me that I even used Google to find information about the history of Google. I came to find out that Google began as a research project in January 1996 by Larry Page, a Ph.D. student at Stanford. This led me to wonder what people did before 1996 to find answers, Websites and any other useless information. But I have come to realize that through search engines like Google, marketers and advertisers have a completely new means of reaching the consumer.

In chapter 20 of David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, he states, “Search engine marketing means using search engines to reach your buyers directly.”

Marketers and advertisers now have a more direct means of reaching the consumer that doesn’t interrupt anything, because the consumer actually chose to search and learn more about the product. Consumers get to choose what information they want to know, and not be bombarded by random advertisements.

I wonder if Larry page knew in 1996 that he would transform the world of marketing and public relations?

I probably watch three or more videos on YouTube each week. I love to log on and see what the new “it” video is of the week. My friends are also always recommending new videos to watch, and I love to be the first one to see a new innovative video online.

Podcasts and online videos are truly changing the way our society views entertainment. People are watching less and less television and more and more online media. And as society makes this change to more online media approach, advertisers and public relations professionals should make this change as well.

In chapter 18 of David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, he discusses the change to more podcasting and online videos. Scott states,
“Audio and video content on the Web are still very new for marketers and communicators. But the potential to deliver information to buyers in new and surprising ways is greater when you use a new medium.”

As our world continues to move faster, I believe that podcasting and online videos will become the ultimate means of marketing a product to consumers. People take less time to read about a product, and watching a quick descriptive video is more time appropriate. I just hope that YouTube does not become flooded with videos about new toaster ovens.

When I was younger, I used to think reporters and journalists were much like fictional cartoon super heroes.  They would be out late at night fighting crime and finding the most recent news stories first hand. They would then report immediately on air in order to keep the community safe from danger.  Such characters Lois Lane from Superman and April from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles helped me to develop this crime fighting journalist image as a youngster.

Now that I am older, I know that journalist do not fight crime to find good news stories.  According to chapter 16 in David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, one of the new rules of media relations is, “If you blog, reporters who cover the space will find you.”

This means that if I make my product information consumer friendly and readily available on the Web, reporters will find my information.  Yes, it can be more complicated than that, and Scott offers much advice on the subject in the remainder of the chapter.

Reporters and journalist might not be super heroes, but I believe the news has the power to affect change in a community that needs someone to save the day.

In chapter 14, of David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, he discusses “How to use news Releases to Reach Buyers Directly.” Thus far in the book, I have learned that the main focus of your news release should be to target your buyers. So as I read chapter 14, Scott begins by recalling some of the new rules of news releases he discussed a couple chapters ago in chapter 5.

The first rule he mentions is, “Don’t just send news releases when “big news” is happening; find good reasons to send them all the time.” I believe there is much work involved in this rule because if nothing newsworthy is happening at the time, you are forced to “make news.” This can result in an awkward news release.

Last fall, I took the class Introduction to Public Relations along with many other new PR students. I had a graduate student as my professor, and I enjoyed her lectures tremendulously. She was very genuine and honestly taught material she believed to be helpful in the long run.

One certain lecture I will always remember was about an experience she had writing press releases as an intern for an orange juice producer. My professor said that her supervisor wanted her to write and get published one press release a week about the orange juice they produced. She said it was one of the most difficult tasks she had to do because orange juice is not exciting. Therefore she basically had to write obscure articles about orange juice with “made up” news.

I don’t think this is what Scott had in mind when he advised “to find good reasons to send news releases all the time.” I believe Scott means to keep the buyer in mind and send helpful news releases, not just “made up” news. Plus, who really cares if orange juice can be used as finger paint anyways?

Currently I am reading David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, and am about half way through it. I most recently finished chapter 12, which explains how to write for your buyers. Prior to chapter 12, Scott advices that to effectively target buyers, I need to use the new rules of PR and marketing, and develop buyer personas. Scott explains that, “If we break the buyers into distinct groups and then catalog everything we know about each one, we make it easier to create content targeted to each important demographic.”

After reflecting upon these discussions, I began to think, “What organizations or businesses are trying to write for me? Who is trying to develop a buyer persona for me and then target me as their buyer?”

I finally conclude that whoever is developing a buyer persona for me has gone about it completely wrong. I believe this because every time I turn on the television, read a magazine, or visit different Web sites, the message I see is sex sells or being happy is being unhealthily skinny. Most advertisements include models that look strung out on drugs or are half naked. I wish these businesses would have read chapter 10 in Scott’s book before they chose their marketing plan.

In the future, I plan on supporting businesses that I feel have tried to target me, the buyer. I know that after reading the past few chapters in Scott’s book, I will look for more businesses that have developed buyer personas similar to my individual interests.

During the summer of 2006, I can remember seeing two guys on Late Night with David Letterman, and thinking they were insane. Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz had set up 200 liters of Diet Coke and decided to combine 500 Mentos mints into the liters. The result was an insane experiment that had more impact than I knew could result from a wacky science experiment on late night television.

The result, as David Meerman Scott describes in his book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, was a viral eruption. In chapter 8, Scott discusses viral eruptions, buzz, or word of blog marketing. Scotts describes a viral eruption as when “somebody creates something – a funny video clip, a cartoon, or story – to amuse friends, and one person sends it to another and that person sends it to yet another, on and on.”

Grobe and Voltz had unknowingly created a viral eruption on the Web and Mentos was the center of attention. Grobe and Voltz had no intention of helping Mentos gain a mass amount of publicity, but due to their experiment, they had done just that.

But Web buzz is a tricky thing. People have tried to create their own viral eruption, in hopes of generaing publicity for a certain product. They often times fail. Consumers are smart and can tell the difference between two guys in a garage playing with Diet Coke and Mentos and a team of marketers attempting to make a “home made” video to release on the Web.

In the future, I look forward to seeing more viral eruptions, because who knows what will happen next. It is amazing to me the depths that marketing can travel, and that two guys with a random idea could really impact an industry driven by strategy.

After reading the first few chapters in David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, I began to lose hope. It seemed that each chapter I read was about the importance of blogging or why I should be using the Web more often. These topics are completely unfamiliar to me. Yes, I have realized that to be a successful PR professional I will have to adapt to online media, but when do things begin to become familiar again?

So as I began to read chapter five, my bitter attitude remained intact. The chapter is titled The New Rules of News Releases, and began by discussing the differences between a press release and a news release. Naturally I enjoy writing so I was curious to read what Scott had to say about writing a news release.

As I continued reading the chapter, I realized that I liked Scott’s recommendations for writing a news release. Scott advised to write directly to your consumers, stating, “Millions of people read press releases directly, unfiltered by the media. You need to be speaking directly to them!”

The idea of writing a news release directed to the consumer is a familiar idea to me. The concept of creating news releases that appeal to the buyers, not just a handful of journalists, inspires me to write genuinely and honestly. Suddenly I am reminded again why I want to pursue a career in public relations. I want to be honest with my public, providing them with genuine information, which leads to a positive relationship. It is ironic to me how if I don’t take the time to examine something further, it can seem unfamiliar. I guess I am learning to find the familiar in the unfamiliar.

In the fourth chapter of David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, he discusses what blogging is and the numerous benefits of blogging. The chapter is titled, Blogs: Taping Millions of Evangelists to Tell Your Story and begins with Scott explaining that his blog is where he has posted his ideas since 2004. Scott even credits his blog as the “most important marketing and PR tool” he has as a marketing and PR speaker, writer and consultant.

He also says that blogs are independent, Web-based journals containing opinions about anything and everything. After reading this chapter and experiencing critique on my first blog in my college PR Writing course, I am a little confused about the writing style I should use in my own blog.

I had no idea of the correct style that one is to use when blogging, but apparently I had gone about it the wrong way. In class, I was criticized for poor grammar and too much expression. I had assumed that keeping a blog was similar to keeping a journal, like Scott mentions in chapter four. That was my past assumption of how to blog correctly.

I had the wrong impression of blogging, and thought it would be similar to creative writing, something I enjoy. Now I know that blogging is a tool, and can be used any way you please. But like all tools, it must be used correctly to work right, or it will not work at all.

As I began to read the second chapter in David Meerman Scott’s book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”, I became a little nervous. The chapter is entitled How the Web Has Changed the Rules of Marketing and PR, and it intimidates me. First, I am intimated by the Web and honestly any form of technology. Secondly, I am intimated by the notion that technology has the power to constantly change and alter the public relations industry.

But Scott is right and it is undeniably true that technology is changing public relations. Fearfully I am learning to adapt to a foreign world of websites, podcasts, and blogging. Even as I type this entry, my computer underlines the word “blog” with a red line, contributing to my fear of the unknown world I am entering.

Yet later in the chapter Scott states,” Marketers must shift their thinking from the short head of mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of targeting vast numbers of underserved audiences via the Web.”

This statement further supports the theory that for me to be a successful public relations professional, I must make a shift and begin to embrace technology with open arms. But there is light at the end of my dark technology tunnel.
Scott continues the chapter and slowly I become motivated to adapt. It probably was after I read one of Scott’s new rules for marketing and PR where he states, “ The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media.”

Suddenly I think, I like that! I like the idea of not having to depend on one medium for an organization to receive press. I like this idea probably because I hate the idea of trying to write a catchy news release that an editor publishes because I was able to spin a story and make it appealing. I like that I am entering an industry where I can publish my own information, when I want, and not have to give it any false shine. And as I finish the chapter, I am not completely intimidated anymore, just open minded.