The New Influencers
A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media
By Paul Gillin
Foreword by Geoffrey A. Moore
ISBN 1-884956-65-3
Hardcover 272 pages
Conversation marketing based on developing relationships and peer discussion are replacing the more traditional mainstream marketing techniques, writes Paul Gillin, in his important book The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media. These new social media, ranging from blogs to podcasts to YouTube, are changing the rules of how buying decisions are made today. Anyone in marketing, who is not paying attention, will be left behind.
Paul Gillin says the old rules of marketing products and creating advertising and public relations campaigns no longer apply. As the demographics of the buying public move toward the rising youth tide of Generation X and Generation Y, so too must the marketing message to capture their wallets. Younger consumers are well versed in the internet in general, and social media in particular.
Whether it's an iPod, instant messenger, or a community based site like Facebook or MySpace, these potential customers are turning their backs on traditional media in droves. To get their attention, marketers must not only change their message, but also their delivery channels. Younger consumers listen to marketing messages, but they are getting them from different media sources than those of previous generations.
Paul Gillin (photo left) makes some powerful observations about the power of the blogosphere and the various social media sites. Not only are these citizen based publishing and broadcasting outlets providing opportunities for fresh voices, but entirely new spheres of influence are resulting from them as well.
Many leading bloggers have large audiences. The conversational basis of blogging, and the development of relationships through interaction, spreads the influence of individual bloggers far and wide. Social media users hold almost unlimited marketing power and influence and many companies are already taking notice of the sea change.
For me, the power of the book is the description emerging structure evolving in the blogging community and in social media in general, and how it is causing a marketing revolution. Without formal laws and regulations, bloggers have developed a strong peer supported code of ethics and practices. As a result, the conversations created are authentic and transparent, leading to powerful marketing opportunities, as well as potential disasters. Bloggers are not likely to be gamed and their readers are not likely to fall for traditional marketing tactics. Conversation, peer discussion, and interactivity are the keys, and one sided messages are not going to work any longer.
The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media by Paul Gillin is one of those landmark books that has everyone talking and for good reason. The book is an important contribution to discussions of the sea change in marketing and public relations techniques. The democratization of publishing and broadcasting enables fresh, and previously unheard voices into the mainstream. With those voices and their new and constantly evolving delivery channels, marketing and public relations will never be the same again.
I highly recommend The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media by Paul Gillin for anyone who wants to explore the leading edge of the new social media revolution.
Read Paul Gillin's book The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media, and learn how your business can take advantage of the shifts in marketing influence, taking place right before your very eyes.
