Lead with Love – Social Media will Lead us to the top!

Exciting News! With the release of my 4th book, Lead with Love, coming on April 6th, I am pushing all the limits and test the Social Media world on a whole other level. Together with an Internet Evangelist and a Brand Manager, I am doing a mass release of my book through multiple social media networks. I am posting the book, line by line on Twitter– and chapter by chapter on my blog. I am releasing the book on YouTube through videos of me reading the book– and using media deployment sites. I am also sending out personalized video messages to book reviewers and TV stations.

Why the extreme media push? Simple. I want the book to reach best seller status! Best seller status will get more attention for the book and better placement in the stores, which will help spread the message of the book. Lead with Love, is inviting managers and associates to bring love to the work place– the kind of love that moves businesses and maximizes performance! This method has been working for me throughout my career as a Corporate Executive and CEO, and it can work for leaders in any business or industry!

I believe social media is the new PR. For most of human existence, or at least since we adopted language–we have had conversations with people we know. Our circles of connections have tended to be limited to those we encounter on a personal and physical basis, and often have resulted with networking in professional and social circles. In the old paradigm world of advertising and Public Relations, our circle of contacts was expanded by spending money and energy to send our message out to the rest of the world. PR firms used a broad range of ways to connect with others and to have them learn about us. The messaging was generally controlled by us, and we connected through those communications telling the story about ourselves.

In many ways, the ability to have conversations and in particular to be listening to our connections is dramatically changed by the internet. Web sites were originally designed to act as a substitute for traditional collateral material. These brochure-type sites became the first phase in which the messaging was available to the world at large. Search engines created a way for people looking for information could find the sites. These sites provided a one way conversation. We spoke, the visitor listened.

Today, Social Media is changing the way in which we have those conversations. These conversations become true, two way communications. Blogs were the early efforts, and remain essentially at the core of this process. I write, you respond. Eventually we actually can have a serious dialogue as not only you, but others chime in. Blogs then started to evolve as small groups of people started to connect. Then the next evolution became the true social media sites. My Space, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., have all opened up a whole new world of conversation. In many ways, these groups of connected people now have the ability to control the message, rather than the person or organization using traditional PR techniques to send the message.

This emerging pattern is both good and dangerous at the same time. It is good because millions of people can now be part of your conversation, and a message can go viral in an instant, and the buzz about you and your message can explode awareness. On the other hand, that message can be either positive or negative, and you may have no control of it. You can go from a strong positive image, to a devastating one, overnight.

This all means that given the social media world as it now exists, it is essential that organizations and brands constantly monitor the chatter to be certain that they are aware of what is being said. It may not be possible to completely stop erroneous and damaging information from appearing on the social media networks, but it will be essential that when negative or damaging comments appear, that the organization have a positive and constructive response that can set the record straight.

All that said; in the long run, the free and open exchange of ideas continues the explosion of information available on the internet. There is no running away from the fact that we have more information available about us than ever before. That is why I am making such a push to make it possible for the world to know about the message in my new book, Lead with Love. I have great passion about that message and I want to have a true conversation with the world about it.

Help “Lead with Love” become an Amazon Bestseller and you will have 2 chances to win an iPad -OR- A spot on a National Television show. Go to www.leadwithlove.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.