Thursday, May 10, 2007 Toral: That marketing spark By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
A CHALLENGE that most struggling self-published writers like me face is how we can do better in reaching out to a bigger international audience.
Our next book project entitled, “Blog This: How Blogs Empower Every Internet User,” is intended to inspire the reader on how blogs can be made useful for their personal interest.
But instead of the usual mailing list, I’m now using blogs as a tool for information dissemination.
Since this is a blogging how-to book, a promotion was created where a book will be given to the first 100 bloggers who will make a post about it and express their desire to have a copy.
Hopefully, this, in turn, will create awareness to other blog readers about the book and generate sales in the process.
I haven’t seen anyone who has used blogs this way for book promotion and it will be interesting to see how far I will go with such an effort.
Of course, that would entail cost. Compared to formal launching with cocktails where I would easily spend no less than P20,000, allotting the same amount for free book give-aways in exchange for promotional link will help spread the word and may even empower more bloggers as they’ll get a book copy ahead of anyone else.
I can even devise a way to “incentivize” them in the process.
It’s important that we challenge our conventional marketing ideas and look at new ways to reach out to the target audience. There are sites on the Internet today that share insight on this, such as Matt McDonald’s A New Marketing Blog (http://www.mattjmcd.com).
His latest blog post on sparking new marketing ideas encouraged me to share my personal undertaking in this area.
This blogging book will be the first in the country.
With majority of Internet users and bloggers today belonging to the teenager segment, I hope of being able to reach out and make them aware of the potential of blogs, that they can take advantage now, despite their young age.
Of course, adults, entrepreneurs and corporate people should also find the book as a resource for creative online expansion.
VOTE. Elections will be held this coming Monday. I noticed that a lot of bloggers, columnists and media personalities are beginning to post their preferred candidates and the justification for their choices.
If you are still uncertain on which ones to vote for, I encourage you to go online, using your favorite search engine, and research about it.
Making an informed decision, more than just liking the candidate, is a must for voting wisely.
What if voter’s turnout will be low?
Will that have an impact to us economically?
Will that show non-interest to both government and its opposition?
But what if the turn-out will be higher than the usual?
Will that mean that we want to take charge and silence the chaos we are experiencing today?
The election process is a democratic and important exercise of our rights as Filipinos to choose leaders who will govern us.
Our active participation can lead to the next impeachment proceeding or support for charter change.
At the very least, encourage your friends, neighbors and relatives to
vote. It is a duty and privilege that we should not take for granted.
