Web Ink Now

World Wide Rave! vs. Unscrupulous and Illegal Viral Marketing Techniques

World Wide Rave: People talking about you and your company and your products.

World Wide Rave: When a community is eager to link to your stuff on the Web.

World Wide Rave: Tons of people visit your Web site and check out your blog and watch your YouTube videos because they want to (and without being coerced).

World Wide Rave: The online buzz that drives people to you, generating interest in your products and services.

For decades, the only way to spread ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now we have a tremendous opportunity to create a World Wide Rave, generate stuff on the Web that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues. A World Wide Rave sells an idea or a product by virtue of its educational or entertainment value.

But David (you might say) it sounds like a World Wide Rave is the same thing as "Viral Marketing"? No.

What is viral marketing?

Many of you have read my recent ebook The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free (published January 2008). Thanks to people sharing it on their blogs and a version that appeared on ChangeThis, the ebook has been downloaded over 125,000 times in three months. Thank you.

Since I wrote and published the ebook, more than one hundred of you have sent examples of viral marketing initiatives to me. I will include the best in a new hardcover book to be published by Wiley in early 2009 called World Wide Rave: Creating triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and share your stories.

Unfortunately, in the past few months I've come to realize that viral marketing has a significant dark side - quite a bit more extensive than I had been aware of…

Unscrupulous Marketing Techniques

Many viral marketing examples that people send me are nothing more than traditional advertising techniques that rely on interruption, bait-and-switch gimmicks, inane games, and frivolous contests. It's the old rules of marketing transferred to the Web. These are not examples of a World Wide Rave. Instead, this is trickery and coercion in an attempt to sell products. Frankly, this stuff gives all of viral marketing a bad name.

I've also noticed that a cadre of viral marketing "experts" happily take large amounts of money from naive and unsuspecting companies to create viral marketing "campaigns". Typically, advertising agency-developed viral campaigns involve buying access in the same old ways, such as purchasing an email list to spam people or launching a microsite with a pricey print or TV ad.

Worse, some dodgy agencies set up fake viral campaigns where people who are employed or in some way compensated by the agency create videos or blog posts purported to be from a customer.

Misleading viral marketing techniques have become so widespread that the European Union enacted Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations to protect the public from the most deceitful activities. The Regulations become UK law on May 26, 2008 and The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the industry body and professional institute for leading advertising, media and marketing communications agencies in the UK, is helping its members come to grips with what this means.

"If advertisers and their agencies ignore the ethics of responsible advertising, the damage to the advertising and marketing industry generally will be considerable, undermining all commercial messages, their effectiveness and the self regulatory systems," says Marina Palomba, IPA Legal Director.

According to The IPA one particular clause in the Regulations will make the following activities a criminal offence:
- Seeding positive messages about a brand in a blog without making it clear that the message has been created by, or on behalf of, the brand.
- Using "buzz marketing" specialists to communicate with potential consumers in social situations without disclosing that they are acting as brand ambassadors.
- Seeding viral ads on the internet in a manner that implies you are a simple member of the public.

Because th term "viral marketing" has taken on dirty and sleazy connotations by many organizations causing marketers and executives to become increasingly skeptical, I've started using the phrase "World Wide Rave" instead. I want to draw a clear distinction between the amazing ways that millions of people spread ideas and share stories online and the bogus crap that people are resorting to.

A World Wide Rave is valuable content that spreads because people want to share. Not because of some silly contest or dishonest activity.

A World Wide Rave—having others tell and spread your story for you—is one of the most exciting and powerful ways to reach your audiences. Anyone with thoughtful ideas to share—and clever ways to create interest in them—can become famous and find success on the Web.

The Milken Institute Global Conference: My brain's gonna hurt

I speak at a lot of conferences and events (about one per week on average). It's a cool job because every few days I meet a fresh set of interesting people in a fun setting and learn something new.

This week I'm leading a panel discussion at The Milken Institute Global Conference. Holy cow what a lineup of presenters! I think my brain's gonna hurt.

How about this panel discussion for cool factor!

Decision '08: What Awaits the Next President?
- John Cleese, Comedian, Writer, Actor and Producer
- Frank Luntz, Founder and CEO, Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research
- William Bennett, Former U.S. Secretary of Education
- Jerry Brown, Attorney General of California
- Richard Schiff, Actor (Toby on The West Wing)
- Moderator: Bill Schneider, Senior Political Analyst, CNN

I will send updates as much as possible via twitter if you want to follow it.

The Milken Institute Global Conference, April 28-30 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, brings together some of the most extraordinary people in the world - from scientists, business executives and philanthropists to journalists, academics and Nobel laureates - to discuss, debate and deliberate today's most pressing social, political and economic challenges.

Some other A-list discussions that sound interesting: Tennis great Andre Agassi on "Taking the 'Risk' Out of At-Risk Youth," Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation on "Pursuing Your Passion," There's a Conversation With T. Boone Pickens. One I'm eager to hear is "Business Innovations That Are Changing the World" with Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. Or maybe just pop over to hear His Royal Highness Michael of Kent participating in a one-on-one interview.

These are other panels I hope to attend:

Paying the Piper: How Can Music Keep Its Revenues and Its Customers?
- Quincy Jones, Producer; Composer; CEO, Quincy Jones Music Publishing
- Andrew Lack, Chairman, Sony BMG Music Entertainment
- Justin Goldberg, Founder and CEO, Indie911
- Moderator: Larry Carroll, News Anchor, KFWB News 980

A Discussion With Nobel Laureates in Economics
- Gary Becker, Nobel Laureate, 1992; University of Chicago
- Edmund Phelps, Nobel Laureate, 2006; Columbia University
- Myron Scholes, Nobel Laureate, 1997; Platinum Grove Asset Management
- A. Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate, 2001; Stanford University

I'm leading a killer panel called The Changing Rules of PR and Corporate Influence in the Digital Age
- Jason Calacanis, Founder and CEO, Mahalo.com
- Robert Dilenschneider, Founder and Principal, The Dilenschneider Group
- Steven Rubenstein, President, Rubenstein Communications Inc.
Moderator: David Meerman Scott (that would be me)

Follow my thoughts on twitter.

Parents against reprehensible metal music

I was just on Technorati and saw a banner ad that caught my. They almost never do. I probably click on one banner a month.

I was attracted first to the Flying Vee with the universal symbol for "no". Then the headline "Parents against reprehensible metal music."

"Cool," I thought. Tipper Gore wannabes on the rampage. This will be fun. So I clicked.

As the father of a 15-year old daughter who likes obscure metal sub-genres and songs with "explicit" lyrics, I couldn't wait to share this with her so we could both get a chuckle. One of the questions in the banner is: "Does your teen show any of the following signs: Wears excessive amounts of black."

Um, yup. Lots of black clothing in my house. But on dad as well.

Imagine my surprise when the banner linked to a site for Toyota Matrix. At first I thought that The Double Click ad server was on the fritz. But then I realized, holy cow, it's a bait and switch banner!

I was immediately incensed. It reminded me of those annoying "You are the 1,000,000th visitor! You won! Click here!" ads.

But then after a moment, I decided it was pretty cool. I Googled the phrase and found a nifty little site ParentsForPARMM.com "Our censor sensor is always on high alert!"

So here I am writing about it - promoting the site and no doubt sending them a few thousand more clicks. I guess that's what they wanted, right? Well, then it worked.

So what do you think? Is this a reprehensible bait and switch? Or just plain fun? What would the transparency police say?

Sex, shaving, and your oral health

Please forgive the gratuitous headline but I couldn’t resist. Two new free ebooks have been sent to me recently and both of them involve sex. Well, sort of.

Dianna Huff points us to Dr. Helaine Smith, a Boston, Massachusetts cosmetic dentist. Dr. Smith asks the question: "When was the last time you thought about your teeth? That's like asking when you last thought about your femur or your elbow."

In her new e-book, Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex! Dr. Smith explains the connection between oral health and sexual well-being: "a topic not too many people talk about."

She says: “What many people don't understand -- or even consider -- is that the health of our teeth and mouths has a huge connection with our overall physical health -- and our sex lives!

Luke Faccini points us to an ebook that his agency The Sponge created called The 6 Essential Elements to an Exceptional Shave!

The ebook asks: "Were you taught how to shave by a pro? More likely you've unknowingly taken on the bad habits of your father, or even worse, you've taught yourself to shave from what you've seen on television commercials. If you ever get razor burn, ingrown hairs, redness or irritation then you have to read on!"

The ebook includes six reasons why you should pay attention to your daily routine with number 6 being: "The amount of sex you get is in direct proportion to how well you shave!"

The sex angle, while just a teeny bit gimmicky, does spark some interest because the authors are linking sex to unexpected things like shaving and dentistry.

I really like these ebooks. If a dentist and an Australian company producing "male grooming products that were created to increase the appeal of the uncompromising man" can find topics to write an ebook about, it shows that virtually any company, product, or organization can use an ebook to tell a story.

You can too!

Disclosure: Both of these ebooks kindly mention me in the acknowledgments and I thank the authors for that. I had nothing to do with the development of either ebook. However, both authors were in some way inspired by the information about creating ebooks that I included in this blog and in my latest free ebook The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free.

What the heck is Web 2.0 / social media / social networking and how do these concepts relate to the new rules of marketing & pr?

Recently I've noticed that many people have been using a bunch of definitions, including "New Rules of Marketing", "Web 2.0 marketing", "social media marketing", and "social network marketing" interchangeably. (Feel free to substitute "PR" for "marketing" if that’s appropriate for you.)

I don't think these concepts are the same at all, and I think that using them interchangeably creates problems for all of us.

Here's a summary from my perspective: "social media marketing" and "social network marketing" are two different things. From the marketing & PR perspective, both are subsets of "the new rules of marketing & PR". On the other hand "Web 2.0 marketing" is essentially a meaningless phrase. See below for details of where I'm coming from.

I wanted to spark some dialog about this as I think that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about what some of the various phrases mean. Additionally, the tools and techniques vary.

Please jump in with your thoughts.

Here are mine:

The new rules of marketing (and the new rules of PR).
These phrases were not used prior to me introducing them in 2006. If you Google either phrase today, you'll see that links to my site, blog, and work dominate the top results.

I say that the old rules of marketing & PR were that you either had to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write about you. Prior to the Web, there weren't other significant ways to get noticed. The Web has changed the rules. The new rules of marketing & PR are that you can bypass the gatekeepers and publish your own content online in the form of content-rich Web sites, blogs, YouTube videos, photos, ebooks and the like and reach buyers directly.

Web 2.0 marketing (and Web 2.0 PR)
The term Web 2.0 is credited to Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly media.
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Many people have taken the "Web 2.0" phrase and slapped "marketing" or "PR" on the end to designate something new. My opinion is that the term Web 2.0 (as coined by O'Reilly) was meant to describe how people use the Web and how software companies are creating applications that are Web-based instead of requiring downloading to your PC or delivered via a client-server environment.

I'd say that people who use the terms "Web 2.0 marketing" and "Web 2.0 PR" (or the related "marketing 2.0" and "PR 2.0") are using those phrases as a catch-all to describe "new" and most can't really define exactly what they mean except to say that "it includes blogs and YouTube and Facebook and other stuff like that."

Personally, I steer clear of using Web 2.0 when describing marketing and PR because it is imprecise and confusing.

Further reading – the Web 2.0 Wikipedia entry.

Social media marketing (and social media PR)
I'd suggest that the term social media describes online media with a participatory or interactive component.

A news story that is delivered online becomes social media if there is a place for readers to comment on the news story. Blogs, forums, Wikis, and chat rooms are all social media in my opinion because they include an interactive component.

Marketing and PR using social media involves creating social media content (starting a blog perhaps) and participating in social media (by leaving appropriate comments other people’s blogs or forums).

Further reading – the Social Media Wikipedia entry.

Social network marketing (and social network PR)
I'd suggest that the term social networking describes online networking tools and the ways they are used to connect groups of people on the Web.

By my definition, social networking sites include Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, SecondLife, Bebo, and others similar to these. People use these sites to network and stay connected with friends and colleagues and to meet other like-minded people.

Marketing and PR using social networking involves creating personal profiles, creating and joining groups, and building applications for others to use. It involves participating in social networking sites.

Further reading – the Social Network Wikipedia entry.

Here's something important.

By my definitions, "social media marketing & PR" as well as "social network marketing & PR" are two different things and both are subsets of the "new rules of marketing & PR."

The way I see the world, as marketing and PR people we need to think about the new rules as including lots of tools and techniques and social media and social networking are two of those. But there are many others.

What are your thoughts?

Show, Don't Tell: the SAP Marketing Community Meeting

Imagine that you are a senior executive at a large enterprise, one with over 2,000 people who work in global marketing. What would you do if you wanted to provide them with ideas about online marketing, social media, viral marketing, and other so-called "Web 2.0 marketing" concepts?

Well, you could bring everyone from far-flung corners of the globe to some hotel ballroom somewhere and talk to them.

That's not what SAP is doing.

On April 8, 9 & 10, SAP is bringing all 2,000 marketers in the company together for a virtual event - SAP Marketing Community Meeting. How cool is it that SAP is using the tools of social media to educate people about social media. "Show, don't tell" in action!

SAP invited external bloggers and speakers (virtual, of course) to help drive knowledge transfer to the SAP Marketing Community.

I am pleased to be a guest blogger at the SAP Marketing Community Meeting together with:

Seth Godin

Ze Frank

Dennis Howlett

Zoli Erdos

Ross Mayfield

David Armano

Laura "Pistachio" Fitton

At this stage, the community is open to SAP marketers only. However, some of the discussions may be shared in the future.

As SAP knows, the best way to understand social media and the new rules of marketing & PR is to jump in. Don't just talk about it. Do it.