Blog by: Dara Pickering
Paul Gillin's book, "The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media," offers real-life advice for marketers and public relations professionals alike.
“It’s not that the younger generation shuns the media. They just shun the media their parents use.”
Gillin explains the book is solely about influencers, not necessarily the specific channels used to influence the social media market. This is understandable because our generation has seen these channels rise, adapt and fade over the course of just a few years. For example, Myspace used to be a popular social media site, but its influence has decreased as other sites have risen, such as Twitter and Facebook. These newer sites promise instant news and even networking for business purposes, rather than to tally up the friend list.
Gillin focuses on the world of blogs—the blogosphere as he deems fit. He argues that the lack of structure in the blogosphere is actually driving the usage of blogs. Ordinarily, a lack of structure would irrefutably lead to demise of the channel; however, bloggers create their own individual structure as well as determine what they deem fit as news and entertainment. The decentralized structure protects against spam messages and spam blogs, because individuals monitor their own content space. This phenomenon is changing the face of news and social media as we know it.
So, what does this mean for marketers and public relations professionals? This means that professionals can interact with their audience, creating a mutually beneficial relationship, and exchange information and input through what Gillin labels as “conversation marketing.” The market of today means a decentralized message that creates authenticity through information exchange rather than delivering those messages.
Trust has become an important word to professionals alike. In order to get audiences to deem a message as credible or follow information, professionals must first build trust. However, with the rise of the blogosphere, Gillin suggests that the youth of today is influenced by word of mouth (WOM), taking advice from bloggers or strangers rather than professionals.
Gillin created the five following commandments for the blogosphere:
1) Thou shalt Link—Linking is a form of attribution for blogs. Bloggers
should never steal content, so always link to your sources.
2) Thou shalt not diss— Respect the views of others.
3) Thou shalt be transparent— Bloggers must open themselves up either for ridicule or for praise. You have to show your true self and not be afraid of what others may say.
4) Thou shalt comment—Bloggers must interact in the blogosphere. Gillin
claims commenting is protocol for blogging.
5) Thou shalt not blather—Do not post blogs over 500 words because you do
not want to bore your audience.
Finally, Gillin argues that “no profession stands to influence social media like public relations.” This is due to the understanding of relationships to which many PR professionals have become accustomed. PR professionals also know how to use social media to their advantage, reaching and understanding audiences. The new era of blogs, wikis, and tweets will be one in which communications are shaped for the future.
Looking for a blog? Gillin suggests Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com, Disney,and a blog about all things google.
7 comments:
Punch Communications is leading PR Agency for Twitter Public Relations.
Thanks for a great summary! Good luck in that great big, rapidly changing new PR world!
Great post Dara. With the social media craze engulfing the world of PR, it is nice to read a summary about a book that highlights the importance of social media. Great job!!
Very interesting post. It's interesting to see other media such as Twitter develop right before our eyes- I heard a story the other day that doctors are tweeting about surgeries from the OR so that other doctors can follow along and learn! So it's true, these media do have legitimacy and need to be examined as a tool for PR.
Dara,
What a great post, your book must have been very interesting because in our society today it seems like everyone is on some form of social media. I am sure it was interesting to learn more about these social media’s and how they influence and affect our society. I enjoy your point on how influential these social media sites can be. The fact that many people are following advice from strangers, who might have no background in the subject, rather than a professional is shocking. It also shows that more businesses and professionals need to take advantage of these sites. I believe if more business were on these sites it would not only create a better relationship with this customers, but it could also be one way to recruit new employees.
Dara, I thought you did a great job explaining what the book you read entailed. It encouraged me to go out and buy the book to learn more about social medias and the way it is making a mark in the world. I find it interesting the way Gillin came up with five commandments for the blogosphere. I though this was a great way to inform people the basic rules of blogging. It also helped me realize that there is a lot more to blogging than I may have been considering. Blogging has created an atmosphere for anyone who wants to share their opinions for others to read. This book sounds like a good read for anyone who is interested in learning more about the influencers of certain social media. People from our generation are learning quickly how to use these media forms, and it can have great benefits for us in the end.
This sounds like a great read. I agree with being careful to not "pollute" the stream. I'm notorious for unfollowing people on Twitter. I just recently unfollowed Rob Thomas for flooding my TweetDeck on more than one occasion. Twitter has become my new news source and I find it very important, but if you flood my feed with useless information regularly, I will unfollow you.
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