Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

image credit: lastbeats

If you’re a blogger, marketer, designer or any type of creative, your best ideas probably hit you when you’re not actively looking for them. Rather, they strike when you’re engaged in another task, or sometimes quite randomly. That is why it is vital to carry a pad and pen (or the digital variety) with you everywhere you go.

What happens to me in many cases is my best ideas strike while in the shower, driving my car, at the gym or while running/rock climbing/swimming — times when I can’t just stop what I’m doing and write down an idea (hey inventors, here’s an idea: a water-proof white board for the shower).

Anyway while working out the other day, it struck me how going to the gym is highly analogous to blogging. The analogy is as simple as: going to the gym is good for your body, as blogging is good for your brain.

Bloggers have been fired up all week due to a bit of controversy over the idea of paid blogging, a situation where a company pays a blogger directly for coverage. I’m not linking to any people or companies involved as I do not think the participants warrant any link love – if you want the full background go here.

That specific situation completely aside – I would like to discuss why the idea of having a company directly pay someone cash to blog about them is a situation where nearly everyone loses.

Robert Greene is a sharp writer with a deep understanding of power hierarchies in our society. He writes on strategy and power and loves to reference historical figures such as Otto von Bismarck, Louis XIV, Talleyrand, Catherine the Great and others in order to illustrate real-world application of his points. Robert also clearly and repeatedly states in his books he hopes readers will use their insights on power for good, something I agree with.

I read one of his landmark books, The 48 Laws Of Power while in college, have repeatedly referenced it for insight, and seen many of the laws proven true time and time again.

Learning the art of power is perhaps even more important as a defense in preventing others from manipulating you. The laws are vital for success in life – if you haven’t read the book you should.

The other day I was pondering just how close the blogosphere mirrors the concept with which these laws were written with reference to – modern courtship theory, which is the thesis of the book (inspired by Machiavelli).

This post isn’t meant as a kick at traditional media – what I want to show you today is how the playing field is now level for all people who want to have a say in our world. This is an exciting time for everyone involved in the media industry. In fact it has been like this for awhile, but it is worth reiterating.

Even with everything else that is happening around us (down economy, newspaper layoffs) you do have to look around in awe at the communications revolution we are living through. At no time in history have individuals and organizations been on such equal footing.

Despite what area of communications you are involved in, you have to admit this democratization of media is a positive for society itself. Even if a few people are hurt short term, we must look at what is going on from a long term perspective and embrace the changing world around us and the possibilities it brings.

I previously wrote an in-depth piece on entrepreneurial journalism and writers as brands. In it, I noted that in fact there has never been a better time to be a passionate writer, and I stick with that statement. A quick excerpt from that post:

The web enables anyone to create their own, personal brand of media and share their ideas with thousands or even millions. When you develop content for a publication that is all your own, you:

• Retain 100% of the rights to your work
• Maintain editorial control and total freedom to write on whatever you please
• Retain 100% of the advertising revenue brought in by your work
• Are working to build your own brand and web property
• Are creating something that works for you and makes revenue while you sleep
• Are free to work on your own timetable
• Are free to work from wherever you want, whenever you want
• Can create a group of people loyal to you who will work to promote your content (similar to what Kevin Kelly suggest with 1,000 True Fans, but for writers)
• Begin to build your own network and carve out influence in your writing niche

So it was exciting to see today to that professional blogging platform TypePad, owned by Six Apart, has created “The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program” as an easy path for journalists to step into the world of digital publishing with the ability to monetize their work already built-in.

Image Credit: Shapeshift

I’ve written previously on how your resume is meaningless, on building career security, not job security and on the rise of personal branding. To summarize the overarching themes of those three posts quickly:

• Your work should be working for you, building your reputation, not locked away in a resume.
• A resume proves nothing, a living case study proves everything.
• Creating a name for yourself in your industry provides you the ultimate freedom: career security.
• The tools exist for you to influence your industry in deep ways to make positive change and carve out a name for yourself.
• Building your personal network enables incredible connections with the world around you not previously possible.