Whether you're starting an Internet business, promoting an upcoming event, or simply want to increase the number of hits to your Web site, you have to make your online approach intelligently. Not only can the online community be insensitive to those who don't know the rules, competition for garnering any type of audience is tremendous.
Steve O'Keefe, respected Internet publicity pioneer and author of Publicity on the Internet, has some ideas on how to effectively market online, which he'll share on October 27th speaking for CAMA in Princeton. Call 609-890-9207 for more information.
There are three key mistakes that beginners to Internet publicity often make: deception, selectivity and formatting. "Deception involves pretending to be a disinterested party recommending some product or service in online discussion groups. People online aren't stupid. When you're discovered, it will discredit you and your client," says O'Keefe, "Selectivity involves thinking that because it's inexpensive, you'll be able to send your advertising material out to everyone rather than going through the time-consuming process of narrowing your target audience. For most clients, the short-term benefits of 'Spam' (online mass mailings equivalent to junk mail) are dwarfed by the negative impacts.
As for formatting, it's hard for people to understand that the end user controls the look of online documents -- not the producer. You have to design for your audience, and that means avoiding things like file attachments, audio, and video -- or at least providing easy alternatives to them."
Even those who have experience still make a common mistake, which could potentially alienate the vast majority of Internet users who have slower dial-up connections. "Every day I battle with length issues. The net requires a brutal brevity that is difficult to adjust to. Everything must be kept small: news releases, Web pages, graphics -- everything," he says.
But what happens when the inevitable breach of "Netiquette", the online equivalent to an accepted set of good manners, does occur? Aren't particular Internet users notorious for the ferocity of their attacks? "People will often give you a warning before attacking. They might complain about you in a discussion group, or send your service provider a nasty letter," he says, pointing out, "You should apologize or defend yourself immediately, because next time the action could be very unpleasant. Once you've been blacklisted or e-mail bombed, you'll have to change your domain name -- a potentially costly loss. Nowadays there are even legal repercussions for bad online behavior."
And what about when everything seems to work? One of O'Keefe's more popular online successes was The Seinfeld Aptitude Test, whose idea came from the book of the same name. O'Keefe has an interesting take on the test's success, with a somewhat sobering realization. "Quite honestly, it was effective because it tickled the fancy of a People magazine reporter, who wrote about it," he says, "Maybe a few thousand people played the quiz online -- maybe a few hundred thousand saw the People article. I think this demonstrates how powerful the mainstream media are compared to online media, and suggests a strategy of using the Internet to reach the media rather than the public."
There are also challenges in the near future that potential Internet publicists need to be aware of -- the speed of the vast majority of modems won't be restrictive indefinitely, effectively reversing a current restriction. "The closer we get to 'broadband' (high speed, high capacity Internet access), the closer the Web gets to cable TV. Public expectations have been shaped by television and motion pictures," he says, "People will demand production standards that will be very expensive to meet: good writing, lighting, sound, color, animation, etc. A lot of us will go down in flames trying to meet those expectations. It won't be pretty. People will lose a lot of money before they realize they can't afford to compete."
O'Keefe is Director of Internet Publicity Services at Tenagra. He leads the Tenagra team that handles online marketing and promotion exclusively for book publishers and authors. His own writing has appeared in various publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Internet World, Harper's, and Curio. He has launched Internet publicity campaigns for over 100 books and more than two dozen Web sites.
