We’re all curious about the latest trend, breaking news, new innovations, interesting and unique people or products, and the media is exactly the same way.   Imagine if you can help create a new trend with your book or ideas.  Imagine giving the media a brand new angle for coverage of a saturated topic.

Creativity is key to providing the unique news-hook for your book or your platform so that the media wants to feature you. Authors must think about how their book applies to the hot issues of the day – it’s a constant and ever-changing focus. One of the basic questions to ask is, “Is my story relatable? Does my story tap into something that people are worried about or an issue that might be controversial?”

For instance, some very prevalent issues as I write this column are the environment, the economy, the oil spill, the family crisis in terms of parenting and stresses on family, diets and healthful living. Each day a new opportunity presents itself to pitch your story forward in a meaningful and news-hook fashion.

Think how you can be part of the news discussion almost in real-time, as it is happening. Don’t discount your opinion and how it might be valuable to many other associated topic interviews beyond your book.

Whether it’s hard-hitting news interviews or feature pieces, the key for you is to be able to successfully tie-in these larger issues to your book or your platform, and speak effectively on those when you are tapped by the media.

Reporters and media need credible sources, and you are the best possible source for them as long as you’re well-versed in your topic area and you are armed with verifiable facts.

The media is counting on you to be the expert, to elevate the discussion and help everyone progress to a deeper understanding of the topic or subject manner. If you think of several different angles for the story, this will help you in creating something unique from your expert perspective. Asking questions is key to this practice.

Who is important in this story? How will my interview impact the listeners, and why should they absolutely be listening? How can I effect change in their lives through this interview?

The media aims to establish significance of any story for their listener base, and they rely on their guests to help them do that. The more a news story applies to current events and topics, or is relevant to the listener community at large, the more opportunity and success you’ll have to be a featured expert.

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Promote Your Book With Social Media

Teleclass :: September 28, 2010

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Today I flew out from San Francisco after speaking to the Northern California Book Publicity and Marketing Association luncheon yesterday on ”Online PR and Social Media,” and spent the flight listening to the Dead on my iPhone.

This was shortly after having coffee in Sausilito this morning with my friend Ann Matranga at The Depot. We sat outside and watched the kids play in Lytton Square which Bill Graham helped create and we talked about the Dead.

So it seems synchronistic, speaking of the Dead that David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan today announced, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from The Most Iconic Band in History (Wiley, 2010).

There are so many reasons why this book is cool, but I have to be honest and say I love Chapter 8: Encourage Eccentricity and the whole focus on the fans and marketing.

I love it because it reveals how a company or band or individual can tap into the power of differentiation and eccentricity to make their way in the world.  Not only can this bring you success, but it’s the right thing to do!

To quote from that chapter, “The Grateful Dead teaches us that we are all eccentric in some ways. Smart companies understand eccentricities and create a market from them.”

I also like this from the book,  ”Deadheads are your neighbors, coworkers and friends.” As a dancing bear tattooed Deadhead I’ll have to confess, I know the deadheads, the deadheads are friends of mine, and I am proud to still be one!

As Bill Walton says in the foreword of the book, “Like other daring visionaries The Grateful Dead rejected conventional wisdom.”

That’s why we are still dancing – and that’s really how you can build a fan base that even after all these years is still trading Dead stories, tapes, t-shirts and mementos of their time drifting with the Dead.

So any marketing lesson that Scott and Halligan share in this book you definitely should tune into.

Go see David’s post all about the book tour at his site.

And check out his new tie-dye pic on the site too. Wonderful.

Meanwhile, me and my dancing bear will be digging the marketing nuggets of this extraordinary and timely book on marketing!

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Every once in awhile I’m amazed by how many PR people, who’ve actually never had the experience of being a journalist, write “how-to” articles focused around what you should and should not do in interviews with journalists!

I am a card carrying member of the Internet Press Guild and the Online News Association. Having been a journalist/reporter online since 1996, I can tell you that journalists are people too. They’re just like us. They’re trying to do their job well, get paid and stay alive in what has become an increasingly competitive and low pay market.

The majority of journalists write because they love to write. They want to create good stories – they’re not out to get trap you in an interview or take things out of context. I’m speaking primarily in terms of major offline and online publications, not tabloids.

Journalists are not out to get you, they are out to get the story. The story includes your personality so the best thing you can do is be yourself. Don’t be a robot, be a real person. Stop listening to PR flaks who tell you that you have to ONLY talk about your brand or in polished soundbites.

Good content comes from good conversations, real conversations where you present the full picture of your life. Good reporters create amazing stories by making authentic connections with their interviewees.

When I was a full-time dot com journalist you would be amazed at how many CXO level interviews I did where it was heartening to find out the CEO or business leader had a life outside of just their job and their title. In fact, I always tried to share a little bit about my life (stay-at-home Mom wearing journalist cape by day and night between storytime, naps and Cheerios on the floor), and what that did is help my interviewees feel comfortable to share their real lives as well.

Putting the heart first in connecting with journalists who interview you will keep you in their hearts, and more importantly their contact Rolodex, much longer than if you simply choose to not interact with them on a real human level.

Oftentimes the most interesting part of a story comes from you and the journalist realizing you have more in common than just the story. What some PR flaks consider small talk is actually gem talk. These little beautiful gems that come through connecting on a real level with one another.

As a bonus, if you become a source of bigger insight than just your brand, it will help the journalist depend on you for other stories long-term.

Reporters are generous, smart, hard-working writers and their goal is to create valuable content, help them do that by being a valuable human first, and brand spokesperson second.

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So grateful to be included in the “Age of Conversation 3: It’s Time To Get Busy” book.

This book is an incredible tome of leading marketers, writers, PR folks and others on the Web. Hope you’ll take time to check it out. And below are all the fantastic folks who contributed to the book itself.

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While many of you might not have the time or inclination to reach out to bloggers, and will want to hire a publicist to help you, keep in mind that you still need to participate as much as you can in terms of blogging, building good content to repurpose as guest bylined articles, and pro-actively thanking (via commenting) bloggers for featuring the book.

The best authors are those who are willing to take that extra step toward connecting with the bloggers whether they have a publicist or not.  Take time to thank and give link love to bloggers who have featured your book.

Put Google blog alerts on books in your vertical and make sure your publicist is reaching out to those books too.

If your publicist is returning results to you that include blogs with just one or two readers, ask how that benefits the book. Part of understanding the blog world is getting your book to blogs that have a strong reader community. It’s not always about numbers – it’s also about quality – but you still need to shoot for blogs with a larger community of readers.

If you have a smart, savvy publicist then you should expect them to build and refine a very strong list of blog, website and online potential reviewers. You also want to look for blogs where the community is active in terms of posting comments to reviews. Also look for blogs that offer book giveaways. There are many of those and they’re very good about considering a book for giveaway.

Always keep in mind that bloggers want good content to give to their readership. Don’t blog-blast pitches that don’t fit the blog’s focus. Don’t rely on traditional PR methods to garner coverage. Don’t just send press releases. Send short pitches that evoke immediate reaction.

SAMPLE:

Dear NAME OF BLOGGER:

I’m writing to you in the hope that you might be interested in reviewing this book, “TITLE OF BOOK.” Here is the book’s website – www.WEBSITE.com . I know that you review leadership books – SAMPLE LINK OF REVIEW THEY”VE DONE RECENTLY , and would love for you to consider this book as well.

Here is a brief bio of the author and a link to the book information online.

Thank you in advance for your consideration!

Best,

YOUR NAME

Remember, your book can be evergreen on the Web. What that means is that long after you’ve engaged or not engaged a publicist you still have the potential for garnering new readers and reviews for the book.

Keep going!

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It’s astounding to me how long the “long tail” has really grown on the Web and what a short amount of time it’s taken to get to where it is now. I was lucky enough as an online journalist to have worked prior to the dotcom burst and after it, and I’ve witnessed astounding changes in that time.

I’m also spending more time thinking about how social media has impacted the Web and what it can and cannot do for you. My focus is how it can help individual platforms. I do think that if you’re not participating on some level using Web 2.0 tools you are missing a conduit for real engagement and outreach.

I also think we should be wise and wary and careful about drinking all the Web 2.0 kool-aid and going full force without really understanding which tools will work best for us.

I came across this recent Business Week article titled, “Beware of Social Media Snake Oil” and I think it makes some very good points. If you read through the whole article, you’ll find a reference to “The Cluetrain Manifesto” which has influenced many Web marketing consultants and is still an extremely valuable book.

With that in mind, I thought I would post this interview I did with David Weinberger, one of the authors of the book. This is the first of a series of interviews I will post occasionally under the Classic Interview headline and most of them were conducted from 2000 to 2002.

The timeframe was one of the most interesting in Web history and marked both the best and the worst of the dotcom frenzy.

2001 – Classic Interview: David Weinberger

by Nettie Hartsock, February 2001 (Ibiz)

Part 1: “The Cluetrain Manifesto” and conversations

Nettie: Do you still play “Quake”?

David: Yes. And as continued practicing improves my skills, the continued aging process removes them.

Nettie: Do you think the presidential websites had an impact on this year’s election and, if so, how?

David: The Republicans were apparently quite successful in raising money on their site. But, at least as important, political websites – like commercial ones – train people to expect to get complete and full information that just a few years ago would have required much more effort. Now, does having more information at your fingertips make you a more informed voter? Judging from the outcome, apparently not.

 Nettie: Tell us how you came to write “The Cluetrain Manifesto” with your other well-known co-authors?

David: The four authors had been talking via email and phone calls about why the media were, in our opinion, so wrong about the Web. We discovered that we agreed with one another in interesting ways, each approaching the issue from a different point of view. So we put up ClueTrain.com hoping to express some of what a lot of people on the Web were feeling.

Nettie: What does it mean that “markets are conversations” and “businesses are conversations”?

David: The old business model says a market is the demographic slices you can reach by broadcasting to it. A market in this view is the lowest common denominator of statistical information. But markets used to be much more than this. They used to be places people went to shop, to talk, to exchange news. And now, thanks to the Web, markets are once again becoming real groups of people with real names and real voices.

We find one another on the Web and talk about the products that matter to us. Likewise, all of the real work of business is accomplished through conversations at meetings, in the hallways, over intranets. Constant talk.

Nettie: Why doesn’t it work on the Web for a business to talk in jingles?

David: Because we’re not sitting there passively, waiting for the next show to come on. We’re not captives.

Nettie: What is the most important issue to consider in marketing to your customers on the Web?

David: Ack. Just one? I’m having trouble deciding among “Tell the truth,” “Let people talk in their own voice,” “Drive out fear,” “You’re not the center of your customers’ universe,” and “Don’t be a jerk.”

Nettie: Why are customers desperate for stories?

David: Because we want to understand, and the richest understanding is through stories. Stories show how events unfold, how the end is contained in the beginning. And stories are always told by a real person in her or his own voice. They’re the opposite of the jingles you just mentioned.

Nettie: How should the conversations that occur between business and customers via e-mail or the customer feedback page be viewed by a company?

David: Customers and their conversations aren’t assets of the company. They’re not owned by the company. But they’re of tremendous value to the company. (These conversations don’t only occur via email or feedback pages.) Customer conversations tell the truth about the company. They’re passionate. And more and more, networked markets know more about the products than the company ever could. So, learning how to participate, as humans, in these conversations is of tremendous importance. The trick is that you have to really do it as a human, and not as a marketing ‘droid dressed up like a human, or like a Marketing Professional out to manipulate the conversation.

Part 2: Stop pretending and talk without fear…

Nettie: Tell us why it’s a good thing that the Web is always going to be “a little broken” as Berners-Lee has said?

David: Because every large structure is. And every human being is. We’re fallible, wee creatures and what we build is always at least a little bit broken. Recognizing and accepting that fallibility is liberating. Yet most companies insist on being “anal-perfective,” pretending that everything they do is perfect.

Nettie: Can “traditional” companies stop pretending and become fearless enough to have “real” conversations with their employees and their customers? Do you think the change will be embraced by the companies ultimately when the bottom line is at stake?

David: Yes and yes. The fact is that businesses are made of people, and people are much more complex than org charts. Without its “social networks,” a business literally can’t move, much less succeed. And you’re right to put this in terms of fear. So much of the structure of business is built around fear of employees and fear of customers.

Nettie: Will universal broadband contribute further to the demand for “real” conversation?

David: We already have “real” conversations every day on the Web, unless by “real” you mean “face-to-face.” I’ve made friends and kept in touch with old friends by email. Those conversations are real. Some people will prefer to use video or voice instead of email, but email will continue to be an important new way people talk with one another. Email is here to stay.

Nettie: What is the role of a CEO or CMO in a hyperlinked organization?

David: To help the company be smart. Companies are smart not because they have lots of data or lots of smart individuals but because they have smart conversations happening all over the place, crossing all the organizational boundaries, including with customers.

Nettie: In three years time, in your opinion,  are companies going to be if they continue to stay in a state of denial about the power of the Internet and the need for “conversations”.

David: If they continue to view the Web as a very slow broadcast medium, they will at best be ignored, and at worst treated with the contempt they’re showing to their customers.

Nettie: Does the book have a large following of established CEO’s who are embracing its ideas?

David: Lots of senior managers, including CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, have read the book, had one or more of the authors in to talk, given out copies of the book to their teams, and so forth. But the book very purposefully stays away from giving lists of things to do or programs that can be “embraced” and that will “work” for a company.

The book says: This is the most exciting and promising time any of us have lived through. Stop reading business books and go out and invent!

 Nettie: Thanks for the conversation, David!

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2. Don’t be chintzy on the decor for the party: Don’t try to get the cheapest website or blog design you can and then hope that people won’t notice they’ve arrived to a dump.

3. Serve fresh, snappy, enticing snacks: Make sure witticisms abound and you’re not grumpy with folks who come to your site or your blog.

4. Don’t stalk your partygoers: If a blogger or reviewer picked up your book at the party, don’t email them incessantly for months afterward asking them when they’re going to post about it.

5. Don’t be the smartest one in the room (even if indeed you are – the only person this rule would not apply to is Stephen Hawking – because he cannot but help be the smartest one in the room. ) If someone is talking about your book and they have a different take on it, unless it’s completely and utterly inaccurate let them have their own opinions. D’OH!

6. Don’t close the party just when it gets going: The only way to successfully work a virtual party is to be in it for the long haul. To that end, don’t just grab a blog, post for three months and then stop after you “feel you’ve done enough.”

7. Don’t be ridiculous: You and your publicist have never done enough, you can always do more. Pick up another tray of your books and start walking the blogosphere party again.

8. Search out the folks in the corners of the room (Web): Don’t just try to pitch to the biggest blogs or online sites, let others be included too. They will feel all the more valued by it. (Plus, the people who are prone to being more shy are always the more interesting ones! Or at least that’s what my husband said when we met and I was the one in the corner.)

9. If you can’t find something nice to say… ok, you know the rest. Just insert the word “post” for the word “say.”

10. Revel in other people, not in front of the mirror, by the door, whilst holding up your book and ignoring your partygoers. Unless there is a fatwa on your head, get over yourself and circulate.

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Here’s an excerpt from the announcement, “AmazonEncore is a new program whereby Amazon will use information such as customer reviews on Amazon.com to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate. Amazon will then partner with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon.com Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers. “

Here is the link for all the information from Amazon.

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Alas, what goes unmentioned is whether or not the new Kindle is waterproof. I’ve found a “trendy waterproof case” for Kindle on Amazon, so I have to assume it’s not.

If you’ve been reading my blog for any long period of time (at least since May 08) you’ll know that I’m still peeved at Amazon for thinking Kindle is just a tech gadget and marketing it for the most part to tech folks. I was in LA at BookExpo when it debuted, and started pondering then why Bezos felt it useful to show a woman using a Kindle in the kitchen to read a recipe for dinner.

I still want them to do a whole marketing campaign to women that would focus around those moments when we sneak into the bathroom, lock the door and do our “Calgon take me away…” bath. If you’re a Mom, you know what I’m talking about when I say sneak – it implies as it should that you have to be sneaky to get a long hour in the bathtub with a thriving family of need.

When I say need, I mean it in the best possible way, like “Mom, I need my socks. Honey, I need you to find my Pilates mat. Mom, the pug ate my mini-Yoda toy from Burger King and I need you to get it back.”

One hour in a bathtub with music, a margarita and double lock on the door does wonders. And if you have a Kindle to read in the bathtub and you know if you drop it (because you will) that it will survive the water immersion, that’s one less worry during the solace of the bath.

I also thought of a new campaign that Amazon could roll out which is completely stolen from the Brooke Shields/Calvin Klein campaign for jeans.

Amazon’s campaign would be a harried Mom, closing the door of her bathroom and as she’s stepping into the bubbly water, holding her Kindle, she would say, “Nothing comes between me and my Kindle, not even water.”

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So what is the news on Beck? He inked a deal with Simon and Schuster as reported by The Wall St. Journal and other outlets, which brings Beck a publishing deal described by the Journal as, “a perk that publisher has traditionally reserved solely for its most important writers, such as Stephen King.”

Beck receives a smaller advance, substantial share of the profits and has secured more creative control over how the books are marketed etc. The deal also extends to different formats including an ebook, an audiobook and a new non-fiction title.

And just in time for XMAS, Beck’s children’s picture book release, The Christmas Sweater. If S&S really wanted to go all out with that children’s book they would include a set of red, white and blue knitting needles and a pattern for creating the most magnificent and patriotic sweater anyone has ever seen, in the tiny size of your child’s Ken or Barbie(TM) dolls.

Humor aside, the deal represents how publishers are trying to stay afloat in the competitive market of publishing. I think actually that the more adaptive publishers can be in terms of these deals, the better off the publishing world is overall. (Whether ye be democrat or republican! We all like to read books and want them to stay around!)

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