Finally I Blog — “The Rumors of Declan Dunn’s Death” are Greatly Exaggerated…;-)

If you know me, you’ve likely read or seen me speak so many times prior to 2005.  Yet since then I have not blogged, written, or shared information except on stage with a few friends.

Why?  Because like many writers know, you have to have the passion, the energy, and the drive to put the words and performance out. And instead of putting my own voice out, I tried a different approach.

For the past 4 years I’ve decided to move behind the scenes and work with many start up businesses, experts, speakers, bloggers, and podcasters…

And what they taught me leads me to release this blog and project, called The New Media Game.  This is the third in my own Internet trilogy (sorry, I can’t segway to any Darth Vadar voice because my father and I are good friends, and he’s not dark side, he’s an entrepreneur), driven by what I’ve learned, and what I see many folks are missing…hopefully I can add something to the discussion.

The New Media Game Defined:  Take the old Internet Game (search, email, and advertising) that still makes money, and adapt them to the new worlds of social media and mobile media.  I began working on social media back in 1994, because that’s what we all dreamed about then…an Internet connecting people passionate about specific subjects, willing to discuss and interact.

We all wanted video and interactive groups, yet all we had were slow dial-ups and discussion forums, which amazingly kept ruling until about 2005.  With the rise of MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, the world we all dreamed about is coming through.

While the technology was definitely not on anyone’s radar back then, the principles of social media are the same — the customer is in control.  As a marketer, I know we are all used to the marketerspeak of prospects, leads, and customers.

In this year long project, starting officially September 21 with the launch of my new book and System, I want to refocus my fellow marketers on a principle I learned long ago, yet that is just starting to come into focus.

The goal is to turn Friends into Fans and Customers.  Here’s what I mean.

• Friends are people you are just meeting or have not met yet, not the offline term for friends.  You’ll likely have a wider circle of friends online, because we don’t have to deal with the limitations of the physical world…yet we also have to deal with the Vikings of the affiliate world, spammers, black hat search engine geniuses, and plain, old aggressive marketers.  They are attacking the Friends, which gives you the opportunity because….
• People are looking to Friends for advice and direction (though they definitely trust offline friends more than online friends by a wide margin)…yet the attitude is critical.  Treat them as Friends and try then to…
• Turn them into Fans if you want them to follow you, and if your business model is advertising different.  Fans are people who come back again and again.
• Turn them into Customers if you want them to buy from you…and to do this you have to stop throwing products at them in social media spaces and do what traditional direct marketers call the 2-step;  engage them, get them interested in you hopefully with an email, and with this then drive them to sale…like a lead to sale process.

Yet it all begins with the attitude, which is shifting and leaving most companies/people behind.  Stop talking about yourself and talk about who you like, what’s interesting, and most importantly, as  your new “Friends” what they think…listen and react.

You don’t run the Show, they do…and that’s the fun part of it.  I’m looking forward to joining the Show, back on the stage after 4 years, again with you.

Peace
Declan