HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

I Was Successfully Stalked!

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

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I was “stalked” in a very polite and clever way by a team of Tufts University undergraduates who lured me to their class.

Tufts_selfieSome background: My book The New Rules of Marketing and PR is used as a text in hundreds of universities around the world. I’m frequently invited to speak to the classes who use my book. While I’d love to be able to visit each class, that’s impossible. I do visit local universities in the Boston area on a pro bono basis when I can – over the years I’ve lectured at Boston University, Bentley University, Harvard Business School, and several others near my home. I’ve managed to do a few talks when on the road such as one at HWZ University in Zurich, Switzerland. And I’ve Skyped in to others around the world when time permits.   

But my very busy schedule means I must decline university invitations much more often than I am able to accept.

The power of social networking!

The students in an Entrepreneurial Marketing class at Tufts created a Twitter account with the clever ID @WheresDMScott. The “biography” they used was: “Jack Derby's Marketing Class is on a manhunt for David Meerman Scott in an attempt lure him to Tufts University.”

Then the team composed clever tweets, tagging my Twitter ID so I would see them.

Tufts_first_tweet

 

Knowing that I like to take selfies at my speaking gigs, the students specifically said the class wanted a selfie with me too. 

While I know Professor Derby from having spoken at another of his Tufts classes several years ago and we shared the stage at an event for in Enterprise Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada last year, Jack didn’t get involved at all in the “stalking” – it was all from the students.

Tufts is close to my home so how could I say no? I found a date that worked and made it happen.  I enjoyed my time at Tufts and want to thank Alyana, Alexandra, and Jianne for their efforts.

And we got that selfie! 

Connecting with your target market

Social networks are a great way to generate interest in your ideas.

However, the hard sell approach doesn’t work. Nor does the generic bulk tagging of people on sales messages that is so popular on Twitter now.

Take a lesson from the Tufts students on how to connect.