Lexington, KY - David Meerman Scott begins his new book by telling us how lucky we are - incredibly lucky. We're lucky because we live in a time when we can reach the entire world. We can do so without having to spend huge amounts of money on advertising or media. As businesspeople, we're lucky to be able to reach buyers easily.
As luck would have it, we can create one of the coolest phenomena on the Web - a World Wide Rave.
A bit of that luck extends to having Scott's book, World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that get Million of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories. As a guide to Internet marketing, it is one of the best books we're lucky enough to have.
What is a World Wide Rave? It's a way to reach a vast audience and potentially find enormous success. A Rave can propel a brand, product or company to fame and fortune - for free. People around the world are talking about you and the online buzz is driving customers to your door. As Scott writes, "The World Wide Rave is the single most empowering tool available to marketers today."
It's like being at a sporting event and somebody starts "the wave," and suddenly 50,000 people join in. That's the same effect that happens with a World Wide Rave.
If you're an experienced marketer, creating a Rave requires a very different approach than what you've probably been using, Scott insists. Many of the Rave techniques are the opposite of what you've learned in your marketing experience or in school. If you're a business manager or owner, many of Scott's ideas will be exactly what your marketing staff or agency tells you not to do.
Here are the "rules of the Rave:"
1. Nobody cares about your products (except you). What do people care about? They care about themselves and ways to solve their problems. So you can quit hyping your products and services and create something interesting that can be talked about. People will buy your products because of their interest.
2. No coercion required. Quit spending bucketfuls of money on advertising to coerce people into buying products. When you have something worth sharing, people will share it.
3. Lose control. You've got to lose control of your information, making it available online for free.
4. Put down roots. For your ideas to spread, you have to be involved in the online communities of people.
5. Create triggers that encourage people to share. To create a World Wide Rave, you need a trigger to get people talking. A trigger should solve a problem, create interest, be funny or just be outrageous.
6. Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep. Once you've created a Rave, people will talk about you. Forget about data-driven search engines. A Rave will send people to your Web sites.
One example told in the book of an individual creating a World Wide Rave is particularly poignant in today's job market.
The old rules of job search require interrupting people to tell them you are on the market and beg them to help you. Steve Chazen, instead of following this path, wrote an e-book and offered it online for free. The first day saw 2,900 downloads. In a very short time, tens of thousands of people had downloaded the book. Chazen propelled himself into a position as a recognized expert, interviewed by major publications and invited to conferences as a speaker. His heightened profile landed him the work he wanted.
One interesting suggestion Scott makes is this: If you want to create great Web content and potentially a World Wide Rave, hire a journalist. Journalists, both print and broadcast, are great at understanding an audience and creating content that buyers want. A good journalist can create interesting stories about how an organization solves customer problems. Consumers love stories, not the typical marketing come-ons that many marketers produce.
Scott is a master storyteller and teacher with an easy to read, effective writing style. Each section contains a story describing how companies and individuals have created their own World Wide Raves. Examples range from companies like Disney to individuals like Erin Weed, founder of Girls Fight Back!, an organization that promotes women's safety and self-defense issues.
This is a book to be read and then followed with action. Realize how lucky you are and create your own World Wide Rave.