Emergence Media

Introduction:
Over at the WSJ Small Business Seciton, Gwendolyn Bounds does a nice backgrounder on online marketing activities in “How to Get Attention In a New-Media World” (09/25/06 Registration Required).

Bounds goes through the whole online marketing landscape in a relatively quick ~3,700 words, covering: Online PR; blogging for buzz: Google AdWords; “organic” seach marketing (oddly, never calls it SEO); doing podcasting; using flickr and del.icios.us; and, word-of-mouth marketing. This is a tall task given the need of explainations of the terms and use of real-life examples and other antedotes.

Covering the Power of Blog Marketing (with social media optimization):
What’s interesting, to me however, is that Bounds covers the power of online PR/blog marketing so very well. Here’s an excerpt regarding the Hollywould website:

Ms. Dunlap, in fact, was seeing results — just not so much from the PR firm. She had begun penning a diary on her Web site, www.ilovehollywould.com, chock-full of juicy details about her personal life, from late-night keg-party revelry in her downtown Manhattan boutique to boozy jet-setting jaunts through Europe….As Web-site traffic grew, so too did sales.
…
After five months, Ms. Dunlap cut loose her PR firm, betting the Web site could do more to build her company’s image. Today, she spends roughly $700 a month on Web maintenance and commands an average of 20,000 visitors a week, a figure that can triple when her site is mentioned on other Web-site trend leaders such as DailyCandy and Gawker. She sends weekly email blasts to “VIP” customers who registered online, profiles a customer each month and doles out fashion tips.

“Our best PR,” Ms. Dunlap says, “comes from people who are mentioned or featured on our site and forward the link to their friends.” Ms. Dunlap estimates sales of $6 million to $8 million for 2006 for Hollywould, and her wares are now sold in Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Harrods of London, among others. (Empahsis mine)

Miss Dunlap is conducting a very interesting form of “online PR” using her blog to empower those she blogs about (via an ego boost of being mentioned) to further her blog and her brand.

While this doesnt apply to many websites, having people spread your blog (and thus brand) by playing on their ego (e.g. “guess’s who got mentioned? me!”) is another form of “Social Media Optimization” that’s better than any “Add to Del.icio.us” link.