With the maturing of the digital age, traditional public relations, or PR 1.0, has evolved into PR 2.0. The traditional rules of PR for building reputation in key areas and conveying values have fallen to the way side, and a new paradigm has emerged. Instead of relying on media relations contacts as gatekeepers for the select few, authority and expertise now flows from numerous subject matter experts. The voice of authority has been replaced by the voice of many peer experts. Mass communications has been replaced with personalized messaging. Today’s public relations 2.0 marketers need to employ and harness personalized, story-centered communications to steer their corporate brand: Create Buzz on a Person-to-Person Level In contrast with the mass communications style of traditional public relations, PR 2.0 professionals create influence by starting, joining and shaping one-on-one conversations. They rely on storytelling rather than press releases. They make customers the hero of the story, positioning the corporation as the enabler. They promote … Continue reading →

The fusion of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is creating a new Donut Marketing (TM) paradigm, which combines content you create on your website with content others have created on social media channels. Read details.

A copy of my presentation that I gave to non-profit and for-profit members of Business Volunteers Unlimited in Cleveland is included below. Marketing 2.0 & PR 2.0 from abunoaman Enjoy it.

Here is a summary of my presentation I gave yesterday at the Pittsburgh Technology Council. 1. Marketing is conversations. 2. The consumers have shifted from tv/print to web and are now increasingly mobile. Marketers better move too, if they want to connect with their audience. 3. Consumer psyche has changed. They expect conversations. They reject authority. They want transparency. They love stories. They are both content consumers and content producers. 4. Great websites are conversation starters. Conversations begin by great storytelling at the site blogs+communities, and buzzworthy linkbaits. 5. Emarketing tools carry the conversation starters outside the organization. Email marketing, event marketing and sweepstakes are examples of these. 6. Social Media sites are conversation hubs. 7. PR2.0 aims at influencing conversations. 8. Search Engines are conversation finders. 9. A whole breed of conversation listening tools have emerged, such as Google Alerts, Blog Pulse, Tweetdeck, Ennect Survey, and the major search engines. I wrapped the presentation with a couple of real … Continue reading →

The Internet and mobile devices have changed not only our lives, but entire disciplines. Marketing is no exception. Marketing 1.0 vs. Marketing 2.0 In Marketing 1.0 world, marketers could get away with producing brochures, ads, press releases, events, and promotions. It was a world world where opinion makers ruled in mass communication mediums. Accountability for performance was fuzzy at best; metrics such as brand impressions were bantered around and were found acceptable. Half of advertising was effective, but no one knew which half. In contrast, Marketing 2.0 is about doing all of that in a new ecosystem where your prospects and customers are now living in print, on the Internet and carrying mobile devices. Opinion makers are moving aside and social networks are the new opinion shapers. Direct to consumer PR new channels are exploding. The new currency of conversation is demand generation and accountability for performance. Campaigns better be measurable, or else you risk joining the statistics of short-tenured … Continue reading →

Even though Marketing budgets are being slashed, online marketing spending is on the rise. Here are some reasons for this paradox: 1. eMarketing provides better ROI. 2. eMarketing is more measurable. 3. eMarketing provides better tracking. You know what is working, and exactly the things that are working. 4. With eMarketing’s lower costs, marketers can do more with less. 5. You can adapt fast, pull triggers faster. 6. Most importantly, prospects and customers have shifted to living online. A soft, yet increasingly important benefit is that eMarketing lets you play a part in saving the environment. As we all know, necessity, not goodwill, drives true behavioral change. The current recession and explosion of online life, not the green movement, is real force behind the shift towards eMarketing.

An eMarketer newsletter late last year was headlined “CPG Starts Thinking Outside the Box,” and projected that CPG (consumer package goods) companies “will spend $920 million on all forms of Internet advertising (2007), up 33% over 2006,” with that number going to $1.81 billion by 2011. I remember many years ago when Proctor & Gamble’s then-CEO Ed Artzt admonished ad agencies (where I was working at the time) for not “stepping up” and fulfilling the promise of what was then termed “interactive marketing” (though, if you want a counterpoint, read “Interactive Marketing: The Future & Present” AMA & NTC Books, 1995. It’s an interesting read that profiles the beginning of much of the marketing we’re seeing happening or about to happen today.). The idea then was simple: there are lots of ways to connect with the customer (and remember, this was the early ’90s) and marketers continued to rely on network TV advertising. Today we see what in some marketers’ … Continue reading →