Web Ink Now

Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business

Today, Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business by Steve Garfield officially releases. Get Seen is the second book in my New Rules of Social Media book series.

Buy Get Seen here.

For the past year, I've been obsessed with creating videos. I use a Flip video camera, a small and inexpensive digital video recorder that I take with me everywhere. I never know where a great video interview opportunity might present itself. I was certainly glad I had my Flip camera when I interviewed Amanda Palmer, lead singer for the punk band The Dresden Dolls. And when I met Fritz Henderson, CEO of General Motors. And yesterday, when I heard President Obama speak, out came the video camera.

There are also many occasions when I realize an idea will be best expressed on video, as in my short clip Do you sell camels? which I filmed outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“This is Steve Garfield from SteveGarfield.com.”

Each time I hear Steve's signature opening, a smile crosses my face, because I know the video he is introducing will be both interesting and entertaining. Steve is a pioneer. He started combining his blog with video clips way back in early 2004 (before YouTube). At the time his hybrid was a bit strange. But it was something new and revolutionary, and he was among the first to do it.

Some four years later, Steve's citizen journalism during the U.S. presidential election was seen by thousands of people. Then CNN found him. They put his content on television and on the popular CNN.com Web site, and then it was seen by millions. You see, self-publishing your video on the Web is to Get Seen. As Steve shows in this book, quality Web video can earn you a huge audience. Video can tell a story, and it has great potential for applications in citizen journalism, marketing, or simply sharing moments of your life with the circle of people who are important to you.

Steve showed me just how damn easy it is to get going. I freely admit that I'm a technical dummy. I wouldn’t know a line of HTML if it bit me on the butt. But Steve shares how even a technophobe like me can shoot a great video and post it online for the world to see. I now do videos nearly every week. Some have been seen thousands of times. Steve created a monster (a good one) in me, and he’ll do the same for you!

But this book is packed with much more than just basics for beginners. Steve digs into details that will benefit even veteran video experts who want to hone their online video efforts. I’m thinking in particular of his treatment of camera choice, lighting, sound, and distribution platforms, but this list just scratches the surface.

I love that Steve has written the book like a really big blog post. It’s accessible and practical and it reads like something you’d study for fun rather than for work. Steve delivers it all in a blogger style that says: "I gotta keep your interest or I know that you’ll click away to somewhere else."

Buy Get Seen here.

So grab your camera, start recording, and remember to have fun!

Amazon as social networking

With all the buzz in 2009 about the big social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, I'd like to give a plug to one of my favorite social networking sites.

I know, I know. Most people don't consider Amazon to be social networking. It's shopping, right?

Don't overlook the incredible communities that thrive on sites like Amazon, where customer reviews, profiles of those customer reviewers, author profiles and user conversations take place every day.

My book The New Rules of Marketing & PR has 181 reviews as I write this. The book has sold tens of thousands of copies through Amazon since it came out, so imagine how many people have seen the page?

The first review that people see on the page was written by Brad Shorr on May 30, 2007 - the first day that the original hardcover edition of the book was offered for sale.

How about that for social networking? Brad's review along with his name and affiliation is seen be perhaps 100,000 people. All he had to do was read the book and post a short, thoughtful review in real-time when the book was released.

Amazon customers can also link over to Brad's profile and see the other 250 reviews Brad has done too. Or they can see the review by Jill Konrath in the number two position as ranked by reader feedback. Not bad for Brad's and Jill's personal brands, don't you think?

Think about your marketplace. Why not be the first to review a new book on Amazon? If you're a real estate agent and you write a thoughtful review on a new book about real estate investing, it may be seen by tens of thousands of people.

Don't forget that the author and members of the media will likely see your review too. People who then visit your Amazon profile learn about you and your business and some may contact you. Maybe someone looking to buy a home will see your location and contact you. That's what social networking is all about, right?

Other review-based sites to check out include Rotten Tomatoes (movie reviews), Zagats (restaurant reviews), and Yelp (reviews of local businesses). There are many more such sites. Don’t forget to create a useful profile for yourself with contact information.

But it's not just reviewers. Authors also have a page on Amazon. If you're an author, you need to customize your Amazon page like I did – you can even link your blog's RSS feed to your Amazon author profile.

Thank you for reading this far.

As a bonus for careful readers, I'd like to quietly announce that the second edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, completely revised and updated for the new decade, will release in the first week of January 2010. (Note that the nearly 200 Amazon reviews of the first edition will carry over to the second edition upon release.)

You'll find the second edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR available for pre-sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, 800 CEO Read, and other booksellers now.

I'll blog more about the second edition in January. But I wanted you to know first. Thanks for your support.

Terrific Inbound Marketing book shows you how to get found

Today Inbound Marketing is released and I am so excited.

This terrific book is written by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah co-founders of HubSpot. Learn more about Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs here.

We're living a revolution!

We're living a revolution in the way people communicate.

How did a relatively unknown, young, single-term black senator with funny ears and a funnier name get elected President of the United States? Simple: He and his team understood the revolution and harnessed the power of the Web to communicate effectively with the masses. They built an online following of tens of millions and raised half a billion dollars, much of it from small donations on the Web.

While the Obama campaign didn't have people from HubSpot as members of the campaign team, they certainly used the ideas that are found in Inbound Marketing.

We're living a revolution in the way people find products and choose companies to do business with. These days, practically everyone turns to the Web first when researching anything from what's the best baby stroller to buy to which corporate accounting firm to hire for your business.

We start at Google or another search engine and we tap our online network of friends, family members, and colleagues via email, instant messaging, chat rooms, Facebook, and Twitter.

And with revolution comes liberation!

We're liberated from the tyranny of marketing effectiveness being determined by the size of our wallets.

Today, anyone with a story to tell can command an audience—and customers—on the Web. Your potential customers are looking for products and services like yours right now, today, this minute.

Oh and another thing: Now marketing is fun!

When was the last time you got excited about buying yet another contact list of people you could interrupt? Never, right? Inbound Marketing is fun, and with it comes a more rewarding way to live.

In Inbound Marketing, you’ll find marketing strategy and wisdom.

But even more importantly, you’ll find hundreds of practical and accessible ideas, tools, and techniques that you can apply to your business right now.

What are you waiting for?

Disclosures:

While I really do think Inbound Marketing is a great book and I want you to buy it, I am incredibly biased.

Let me explain all of the reasons why I have conflicts of interest with this book.

1. I've been after Brian and Dharmesh to write a book for several years. In fact ever since I first met them in 2007 I've hounded them to get writing and share their ideas. So I really want them to succeed.

2. Soon after we met, Brian and Dharmesh asked me to join the HubSpot Board of Advisors. I have been a member of the HubSpot Board of Advisors for several years.

3. I have spoken at HubSpot events, Webinars, and have appeared on HubSpot TV.

4. Inbound Marketing is the first book in The New Rules of Social Media series of books. The series, which I am editing and which is being published by Wiley, includes titles that expand on the ideas of my BusinessWeek bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR with books that provide valuable insights and detail on different aspects of social media marketing. I chose Brian and Dharmesh, to write the first book in the series because they are social media marketing pioneers and have tons of amazing ideas for companies to get found online.

5. I wrote the foreword to Inbound Marketing.

Biased, right? Sure. Very. But that doesn't make the book any less excellent.

John Hodgman talks nerd with President Obama at RTVC dinner

Last night at the Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner in Washington DC, John Hodgman was the keynote speaker.

Imagine following President Obama at the podium?

Hodgman nailed it big time. Watch this video. Now.

John Hodgman, of course, is a World Wide Rave. He appears on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as the show’s Resident Expert. He is also "PC" in the Apple TV ads.

It was really cool that Hodgman was posting photos to Twitter as he was waiting to go on. Now that's nerd. Well done, sir.

I met John Hodgman at his book launch event in Brookline for his book More Information than you Require. At his event, he kindly signed my poster and let me take his photo.

More Information than you Require is excellent. See my review on Amazon - it is the first one.

Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking

Nick Morgan asks: "Why is most public speaking so awful? Why do we subject our fellow human beings to this form of torture when there are so many better things we could all be doing, like cutting our toenails, baking snickerdoodles, or watching re-runs of The Prisoner?"

Nick is the author of my favorite book on public speaking Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma.

I have worked closely with Nick on improving my speaking skills. He knows what he is talking about!

Nick just released a ChangeThis manifesto called Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking. If you do any public speaking at all, you should read this (totally free) manifesto.

"Why is most public speaking so awful? Beyond soulless venues and Death by Power Point, speakers make the same four mistakes over and over again, continuing the sorry state of the art."

Download Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking and learn what the four mistakes are (and how to avoid them).

Me 2.0 and blogging your brand (especially if you are in your 20s)

I'm now in my 40s. Thinking back to when I was in my 20s, what I recall about personal branding was basically this: Don't get noticeably drunk in public, carry business cards at all times (this was pre-Twitter after all), and wear a suit and tie to work (my first few jobs were on Wall Street).

Man oh man, has personal branding come a long way!

Especially for those of you who are now in your 20s, personal branding is more important than ever. Of course, the tools of personal branding on the Web make things much different than when I was scribbling my 140 characters on the back of a business card.

Brand authenticity and its communication through social media are two of the hottest ideas in business today. In his new book Me 2.0 which officially releases today, my friend Dan Schawbel shows exactly why these important trends apply to the brand called 'you,' and why you need to pay attention to how you market yourself to others. I wish I had access to a book like this when I was in my 20s!

Dan also released a free ebook called Blogging your Brand, which I recommend to anyone who is doing online personal branding (even if you’re not in your 20s).

Besides being a personal branding guru, Dan also works at EMC.

I'm intrigued by what Dan has learned about being a go-getting twenty-something in a large organization. Dan and I have discussed this several times in the past, but this time, I wanted to capture the conversation to share with you:

DMScott: Dan, you're a young person making a big difference at a large corporation. But I hear from so many people in their 20s who tell me that they find it really tough to get noticed. What advice do you have?

Dan Schawbel: "Most people my age are afraid to take risks, we're given the same traditional advice in college that is not as applicable anymore and don't embrace their age in the first place. Being young has a lot of advantages, namely the fact that you have the least amount of responsibilities, the most amount of choices and time to make a lot of mistakes. The sooner young professionals start holding themselves accountable for their career, the better off they will be. In my new book, Me 2.0, the major theme is this idea of "commanding your career," where you take charge, instead of relying on your company, parents or teachers to guide you (although mentorship is important).

Social technologies have enabled us, regardless of age, to position ourselves so that we can get paid for doing something we're passionate about. In order to get noticed, you have to be known for something. To do that, you have to select a niche that aligns both your passion with expertise. Then start actively contributing content, either video or text, over a period of time on that niche topic, while joining social networks and constantly marketing yourself by commenting on blogs."

DMScott: Many large companies ban employees from using social media sites like YouTube and Facebook at work. What would you say to an employee who works for a company that bans social media? And what would you say to the bosses?

Dan Schawbel: "Social media in the workplace is inevitable, especially because 80 million millennials are already communicating with each other using these tools. Large companies, and I know you agree with this, will cease to exist in the future, unless they embrace and encourage these tools today. Many companies have already implemented social networks for their employees, such as my company, EMC, and other large technology companies with global workforces.

It's really hard to tell an employee to quit their job right now because their company bans social media (economic reasons), but I would recommend that they start "exploring other opportunities" or network with other professionals, regardless. How managers behave directly impacts the experience younger workers have with their company. If managers don't allow social networks, then it's very conflicting and young employees will start to lose enthusiasm for working in that corporate environment and leave sooner rather than later."

DMScott: How do you define personal branding and why is it important?

Dan Schawbel: "Personal branding is how we market ourselves to others. Each and every one of us has a brand because we are constantly being judged based on first impressions. Also, we are forced to sell our ideas and unique abilities to all stakeholders inside a company or as an entrepreneur. Personal branding is critical in a world filled with clutter, competition and ambiguity. To be a brand means to use similar branding strategies that corporations and products use to create an experience - a friendship - with an audience. People trust people, and will therefore be more inclined to purchase your product or hire you based on their relationship with you or what they hear about you."

DMScott: Can personal brands lend to the success of companies?

Dan Schawbel: "The necessity for personal brands will always increase, as marketing budgets decrease (in this recession) and the need to spread messages through social media accelerates. Social media is free at the cost of your time and employees with strong personal brands and networks can help you market your ideas, products, service and even executives easily and effectively. It can also create a viral effect. By hiring someone who is already a major influencer in your industry, you're gaining that credibility, following and platform. In return, personal branding must be encouraged and rewarded because it takes a lot of time, energy and care. Personal brands own their reputation, and that reputation is transferable between companies. Companies can use that reputation to close deals, reach the press and become a stronger brand."

DMScott: Thanks Dan. Good luck with the new book!

How Lisa Genova used social media to turn a self-published book into a NY Times bestseller

Lisa Genova created one of the coolest World Wide Raves I've seen. She is the author of Still Alice, a novel about a young woman's descent into dementia due to early-onset Alzheimer's Disease. I met Lisa at Grub Street Writers in Boston where we both lamented the traditional conventions of book marketing and strategized on how we can market our books ourselves using social media.

After she wrote Still Alice and was ready to get it into the market, Lisa spent a year trying to get literary agents and editors at publishing houses to speak with her. The editors all treated her as yet another aspiring writer not worth their time, and the few literary agents she managed to reach thought her novel wouldn’t sell.

Don't take no as your final answer!

Instead of letting "rejection" mean no book, she created a web site with valuable information about Alzheimer's Disease and started a blog. In addition, she worked with the Alzheimer's Association to establish a blog on the association site. Still Alice, although fictional, was still a truthful and respectful depiction of life with the disease and her free Web content resonated with tens of thousands of people who talked about her ideas.

She then decided to self-publish her novel and received a stamp of approval from the Alzheimer's Association. As a result of the valuable information in her blogs and the partnership with the Alzheimer's Association, Lisa developed a huge platform and the book sold briskly.

"I received lots of email from people who thanked me for writing the book," she says. "For someone with Alzheimer's or a caregiver of a loved one with this, to tell me that I got it right, that it’s uncanny how true it all was, that they saw themselves all over the book, well that's the highest compliment I can get."

As a result of Lisa's World Wide Rave plus the measurable sales success on Amazon.com and other online booksellers, Lisa generated buzz in the book world too. "An agent contacted me and I signed with her," she says. "Still Alice sold at auction in June 2008 for just over half a million dollars to Simon & Schuster." The first print run of the new edition of the book was 250,000 copies and translation rights have sold to ten foreign countries so far, with more in the works. In addition, Still Alice won the 2008 Bronte Prize.

The new edition of the book was released in January 2009 and in both of the first two weeks of availability made the New York Times Bestseller list.

Remember, this was a book that the "experts" said wouldn’t sell.

What an amazing success story!

One person with a self-published book who had been ignored by the entire book trade shared her enthusiasm, generating a World Wide Rave within a specific group (people who care about Alzheimer's), and the result is the fulfillment of a dream—the chance to share her passion for the subject with people who care—not to mention a huge book deal from a major publisher.

"Do I think that my Web site, reviews at Amazon, my blog, interviews on podcasts, profiles at MySpace [and sites for book lovers], and reviews of Still Alice at other blogs, links at my Web site to traditional press on the book, all contributed to the bidding publishing houses' ability to see the market potential for Still Alice?" Lisa asks. "I absolutely do!"

Lisa offers this advice:

"It feels like I'm been trying to storm the castle of traditional publishing for more than two years. I'm bloody and sweaty. But they finally let me in, and now they are welcoming me. I know so many aspiring writers who are sitting in a holding pattern, with a work completed, waiting to find a literary agent. They're stuck, unable to give themselves permission to write the next book because they’re waiting to find out if their work is 'good enough'—waiting to find out if they're a 'real writer.' This state of waiting, of not writing and self-doubt, is the worst state any writer can be in. My advice is this: If you don't find a literary agent falling into your lap quickly enough, if you feel like your work is done and is ready to be shared with the world, self-publish. Give your work to the world. Let it go.

You absolutely have to have a Web site. Get a profile up on Facebook and MySpace right away. When you get press, people will immediately want to go to your site. And link to the amazing reviews and news that comes out. Your site is your business card; it is how you show the world what you’re doing. A site facilitates everything you’re trying to do, and you don't need to spend thousands of dollars. You can do it yourself."

Thank you Lisa for this inspiring story. A longer version of the story of Still Alice is in my new book World Wide Rave along with stories from over 30 other successful people.

Announcing the winners of The Cool Factor challenge

Last week, in partnership with Del Breckenfeld, author of The Cool Factor: Building Your Brands Image through Partnership Marketing, I announced a challenge on my blog: Define "cool" in two sentences or less. Many thanks to all of you who entered. There were some great entries.

The winner receives an amazing Fender® Classic 72 Telecaster® Deluxe guitar that was used in a concert in front of 40,000 fans and is signed by Billy F. Gibbons.

Congratulations to the winner, Bryan Bliss. You can read Bryan's blog or check out his Twitter page. Brian’s entry was:

"Cool is knowing exactly which rules and conventions to bend, having the confidence to try your own way and the strength to succeed. Cool is more than being trendy or fashionable but excelling at inspiration and creativity in a way that invigorates the observers otherwise dreary and uninspired lives."

The winner was chosen by Shannon Vargo of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. the publisher of The Cool Factor (and my latest books). Note that neither Del Breckenfeld nor I had any part in selecting the winner.

In addition to the winner, there are ten runners-up who have been selected to receive a complimentary copy of The Cool Factor as well as the brand new paperback edition of my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR. The runners up are:

Joel Johnson: "Cool is the nudge that gets us to look up from where we are and to imagine ourselves a little closer to who we dream we could be."

Colin Clark: "Cool occurs where brilliance and indifference meet. Cool is the most amazing thing you've ever seen in your life that refuses to acknowledge its own impact."

Gavin Heaton: "Cool cuts a swathe through the mundane yet is unaware of its impact on the world around it."

Paul Dettman: "When you see something that is cool, you instantly become an inch taller and a pound lighter. Cool just makes you feel... great."

Tim Kaschinske: "For me, Cool is a moment in time where everything comes together in such a perfect way that a magnificent experience is created. In those moments, the only possible response is 'Cool!'"

Bobby Lehew: "Cool is a personal metamorphose: when excellence becomes a protest against mediocrity, life becomes a calculated exploit, and success becomes a state of mind; when you live intentionally, love magnanimously, and leave regrettably - you are cool."

Mark R. Hinkle: "Cool is an intangible aesthetic tempered by eccentricity colored by indifference."

Jaculynn Peterson: "Cool is communicating and connecting on a level that transcends languages, cultures, boundaries, barriers, and inhibitions of the heart – just like music."

Jim Benson: "Cool: An event or object of awesome social value."

Jon Mierow: "Cool is being comfortable with who you are no matter who you are with or what you are doing."

Thanks to all who entered. Now we know how to define cool.

The Scalper's Got my Baby

For an interesting use of video check out those produced by Max Deale, author of the self-published book Sold Out, So What! The Secrets that High-Priced Ticket Brokers and Scalpers DON'T want you to Know!

This excellent little book (you can read it in an hour) is for fans of concerts and sporting events and teaches the art of scoring tickets to sold out events and always sitting in the best seats in the house. I've been going to concerts since I was 15 and had accidentally discovered and used some of Deale's techniques. However, this funny and well-written little book gave me some new ways to score tickets.

Deale, known to his friends as the "Ticket Jedi" spent 20 years perfecting his technique of acquiring "sold out" tickets at or below face value. (One of his themes as that there is no such thing as "sold out.")

He calls his video series "ridiculously idiotic spoof commercials," and says, "I'll keep pumping them out until I get it right." My personal favorite is called The Scalper's Got My Baby. It's amazing what you can produce with a little time and a healthy dose of creativity. As a result of his excellent Web site for the book and the videos, Deale was recently interviewed for an article in Rolling Stone and Sold Out, So What! is selling briskly.

My best ticket story? I scored front row center to the opening night of The Rolling Stones most recent world tour, paying face value for a ticket that the brokers wanted over ten thousand dollars for. I took this photo at Fenway Park in Boston on August 23, 2005. Can't get much better than this, don’t you think?

Thank you fellow business book authors

11,000 business books are published each year. The published ideas in these books educate, inform, and influence how people go to work every day. As an author, I like to think that our efforts help to make people more successful. It is an honor that tens of thousands of people have invested time and money to read what I am passionate about.

800-CEO-READ (8CR) is the premier business bookseller and is used by corporations to buy copies of the best business books available. They created the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards to recognize the best business books of 2007.

How cool is it that my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR was selected as "authors choice" from nearly 300 books submitted. I’m stunned that my fellow business book authors chose my book as a best title of the year. If you voted for me, thank you!

Please check out all the terrific books that were selected. These authors work really hard to write great books.