Wikipedia

David Meerman Scott

For other people named David Scott, see David Scott (disambiguation).

David Meerman Scott is an American online marketing strategist and author of several books on marketing, including The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

David Meerman Scott
David Meerman Scott photographed in Boston, Massachusetts on August 11, 2014 by Bruce Rogovin
Born1961
Alma materKenyon College
Occupation(s)Marketing strategist, Speaker, Author
SpouseYukari Watanabe Scott
Children1
WebsiteOfficial website

Education and career

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Scott graduated from Kenyon College in 1983 with a BA in economics. After early jobs as a clerk on several Wall Street bond trading desks, he worked in the online news and information business from 1985 to 2002, holding executive positions in an electronic information division of Knight-Ridder, from 1989 to 1995.[1]

Scott moved to the Boston area in 1995 and joined Desktop Data, which became NewsEdge Corporation, ultimately holding the position of vice president of marketing until the business was sold to Thomson Corporation in 2002.[1] Thomson Corporation terminated his employment after acquiring NewsEdge, so he started his own business as a marketing strategist.[1]

Content marketing strategist

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Scott's assertion is that marketing and public relations is vastly different on the Web than in mainstream media.[2] He says that the old rules of mainstream media are about controlling a message and getting the message into the public domain by buying expensive advertising or begging the media to write about you. He says that the rules of marketing and PR on the Web are completely different.[3] Instead of buying or begging your way in, Scott says anybody can earn attention by "publishing their way in" using the tools of social media such as, blogs, podcasts, online news releases, online video,[4] viral marketing, and online media.[5] He believes that, with few exceptions, marketers gain the best return on their investment in content creation when they choose "ungated" publication.[6]

Writing for Forbes, Nick Morgan notes that "David is one of those select few people who saw and understood the social media phenomenon as it began..."[7]

Books

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Scott is the author of several books, as detailed below.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

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Scott initially released the book as a free, ungated e-book. It was subsequently published as a traditional printed book.[8]

Scott summarizes the book's content marketing theme as "You are what you publish online."[9] The content should be about what audience cares about, not directly about the product itself. "Nobody cares about your product but you," Scott says.[10]

He continues updating the book and in 2024 released the ninth edition.

Writing for The New York Times Magazine, Virginia Heffernan recommended the book "For practical P.R. in the age of Twitter,..."[11] In an interview on Marketing Update, Scott stated that besides the fast pace of change in marketing, another motivation for the new edition was that the book had been incorporated into the curriculum of many universities. As a result, he plans to publish a new edition in summer every other year.[12][13] The second edition[14] won praise in The New York Times[15] and Computerworld[16] reviews. The first edition[17] was featured in the BusinessWeek Best Seller List.[18] John P. David describes the book as being the preeminent text on public relations.[19]

Scott believes that the ideas in the book apply not only in commerce but also political campaigning, referencing in particular the 2016 US Presidential campaign of Donald Trump.[20][21][22][23] They can even be used to humanize otherwise faceless government organizations like the CIA.[24]

Newsjacking

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Writing about Newsjacking;How to inject your ideas into a breaking news story and generate tons of media coverage for Forbes Magazine, Nick Morgan notes that Scott and his publisher, Wiley, "point the way forward" by publishing this book only in electronic formats.[25][26] He describes [newsjacking] as the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news.[27][28] Kristi Hedges, also writing for Forbes, observes that Scott 'answers [the question] "Should I be on Twitter?" once and for all', citing its instantaneous nature and widespread use by journalists.[29] Writing for Fast Company, Wendy Marx cautions those who might be tempted to take the idea too far, "Don't ... spam reporters ... That will only backfire".[30] Tracey Boudine criticizes the term because it is a mashup of news and hijack and thus "implies you’re doing something you’re not supposed to" and goes on to say there is no need for a buzzword and that PR professions should use the criterion "Does this elevate?" [31]

The word was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017 ("the practice of taking advantage of current events or news stories in such a way as to promote or advertise one's product or brand") and appeared as one of the eight neologisms on their Word of the Year shortlist. They credit Scott for this contemporary usage.[32]

Real-Time Marketing and PR

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Real-Time Marketing and PR:How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect With Your Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now draws on Scott's earlier career as an up-to-the-second Wall Street trader, this book highlights how the timely creation of heart felt content can be more important than polished pieces with their long lead times. Examples include the Dave Carroll United Breaks Guitars phenomenon. Writing in BtoB Magazine, Christopher Hosford quotes Scott as saying, "The idea of real-time communication ... is the most interesting thing going on in b2b marketing right now".[33]

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead

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Scott (left) with co-author Brian Halligan on the Marketing Lessons... book tour. The background photomontage includes Jerry Garcia, founder of The Grateful Dead.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History was coauthored with Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot. Scott Kirsner, reviewing the book in the Boston Globe,[34] mentions that the authors say they were inspired in part by an article in the Atlantic by Joshua Green.[35] Rather than record sales, the band generated the majority of its revenues from live performances and associated merchandise sales. While most bands tried to prevent bootleg recordings, The Grateful Dead actually encouraged fans to record their concerts and share them with their network, building a passionate community of fans called ‘Deadheads.’[36][37]

Marketing the Moon

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Reviewing Marketing the Moon:The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program for The Boston Globe, Carolyn Y. Johnson writes that the book documents NASA's success in placing the Apollo mission at front-of-mind of ordinary people[38] and The Wall Street Journal found the "decadelong surge of public interest in all things lunar" remarkable.[39] Reviewing the book for The New Yorker magazine, Joshua Rothman contrasts the usual "derring-do" presentation of the Apollo program by observing: "Scott and Jurek see it as ... an attempt to convince America, and the world, of its own competence, intelligence, and courage."[40] In an essay based on the coverage of astronaut celebrity in their book, Scott and Jurek link it to that of aviation predecessors such as Charles Lindbergh.[41] A particularly important facet of the Apollo mission was live television broadcast of the landing. Scott calls this "one of the best decisions ever made."[42] Besides NASA's own PR team, many of the Apollo subcontractors invested in innovative press kits.[43] The authors critique NASA for assuming that initial levels of public interest would remain high, and not developing a long-term strategy to maintain public engagement and support.[44]

The book's foreword is by Captain Eugene Cernan, the twelfth and last man to walk on the Moon.[45]

Scott and co-author Richard Jurek were consulting producers on the documentary film American Experience: Chasing The Moon by Robert Stone, which was based on the book[46] and which aired on PBS in July 2019 for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.[47]

Rose Gilroy, the screenwriter of the movie Fly Me to the Moon referenced the book for her writing. She says the book "is about the original ads that were used, and how sci-fi was woven into the minds of the American people" using genre books and movies "That was instrumental. It was endlessly interesting to learn all the ways they sold" the Apollo 11 mission.[48]

The New Rules of Sales and Service

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Dan Schawbel interviewed the author about The New Rules of Sales and Service: How to Use Agile Selling, Real-Time Customer Engagement, Big Data, Content, and Storytelling to Grow Your Business for Forbes magazine and notes that instant communications wasn't instant, ease of researching products online, and ease of voicing a complaint about poor service have led to these new rules.[49] Scott published a free summary of the main points of the book on SlideShare.[50]

Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans

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In January 2020, Scott published Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans co-authored with his daughter, Reiko Scott. It explains how to benefit from the trend where savvy companies and non-profits attract not just customers but fans who indirectly promote the product better than direct marketing from the company itself can.[51] It was listed on the Wall Street Journal Best Selling Books list in the Hardcover Business category[52] and on Publishers Weekly This Week's Bestsellers list.[53] Reiko Scott has a background in neuroscience and points out that the brain is wired such that human connection, such as fandom, depends on physical closeness.[54]

 
Scott (left) is a guest of Karen Rubin and Mike Volpe on hubspot.tv February 13, 2009. Photo: Kyle James (CC-BY-SA)

Other books

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In addition Scott has published:

  • World Wide Rave (2009).[55]
  • Tuned In (2008)[56]
  • Cashing In With Content (2005)[57]
  • Eyeball Wars: A Novel of Dot-com Intrigue (2001)[58]

Personal life

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Scott is married to Yukari Watanabe Scott. They have one daughter, Reiko Scott, with whom Scott co-authored Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans.[59]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c "Bio: David Meerman Scott". Archived from the original on 2011-11-13. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  2. ^ Kirsner, Scott (April 26, 2009). "Increasing marketing isn't just a one way street". Boston Globe. NY Times Co. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
  3. ^ Smith, Helaine (2008-02-01). "Get adventurous with 'new rules' online". The Boston Herald. Herald Media. Archived from the original on 2008-12-10. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  4. ^ Flandez, Raymund (2007-11-26). "Managing Technology - Lights! Camera! Sales!". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  5. ^ Moran, Gwen (2007-07-01). "Under the Influence". Entrepreneur.com. Entrepreneur.com, Inc. Archived from the original on 2008-05-01. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  6. ^ Ericka Chickowski (May 24, 2011). "Why You Shouldn't Wall Off Your Web Content". Entrepreneur Magazine. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  7. ^ Morgan, Nick (June 7, 2012). "People I'm Grateful for #4: David Meerman Scott". Forbes. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  8. ^ Cain, Alexandra (2012-04-03). "Got a book in you? Self-publishing could be your best bet". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2017-01-15. His secret was to release his first e-book ... for free... enviable position of being able to approach traditional publishing houses.
  9. ^ Volpe, Mike (2014-06-03). "A Great Content Strategy's Anatomy". Search Engine Journal. Retrieved 2017-01-15. You are what you publish online.
  10. ^ Markowitz, Eric (2011-07-26). "How to Launch a Viral Marketing Campaign". Inc. Retrieved 2017-01-15. ...content usually can't be about the product or service itself [but] ... about what the audience cares about...
  11. ^ Virginia Heffernan (March 26, 2010). "Trust Busting". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  12. ^ "Marketing Update". hubspot.tv. August 19, 2011. Archived from the original on 11 October 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  13. ^ "Instructor Companion Site, Scott: The New Rules of Marketing & PR".
  14. ^ David Meerman Scott. (2010). The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly (2 ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 978-0-470-54781-6.
  15. ^ Taylor, Barbara (December 11, 2009). "Business Books Worth Finding the Time to Read". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  16. ^ "Social media marketing: 5 must-read books".
  17. ^ David Meerman Scott (2008). The new rules of marketing and PR : how to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly (1 ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-37928-8.
  18. ^ "The BusinessWeek Best Seller List, page 2". BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. March 26, 2009. Archived from the original on March 31, 2009. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
  19. ^ David, John P. (2015-12-10). "Preeminent Book on Marketing and PR Gets an Update". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-01-15. As I mentioned, I think his book is the preeminent authority on PR out there. But he's also a pioneer of "newsjacking."
  20. ^ Press, Gil (2016-11-11). "6 Trump Marketing Lessons". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  21. ^ Kanaracus, Chris (2016-11-11). "How Savvy Marketing Put Trump Over the Top/". ZD Net. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  22. ^ Mittica, C. J. (2016-05-06). "Marketing Lessons From the Presidential Election". Advertising Specialty Institute. Retrieved 2017-01-15. Think the presidential election is just about politics? In reality it's America's most-watched and most compelling marketing and sales campaign. "It's a massive case study...
  23. ^ Tuttle, Brad (2012-01-04). "Save Big Bird! Will Romney's Threats Wind Up Boosting PBS Fundraising?". Time. Retrieved 2017-01-15. ...especially in a major forum like a presidential debate...
  24. ^ Slattery, Gram (2014-07-10). "With Twitter wit, CIA tries to shed staid public image (+video)". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2017-01-15. Anything that can humanize an organization ... is a good thing...
  25. ^ Nick Morgan (2011-11-14). "The Future of the Book: David Meerman Scott, Publishing, and Newsjacking". forbes.com. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  26. ^ David Meerman Scott (2011). Newsjacking: How to inject your ideas into a breaking news story and generate tons of media coverage (Mobipocket ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-25230-7.
  27. ^ David, John P. (2016-01-22). "Five Questions about Newsjacking with David Meerman Scott | The Huffington Post". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-12-17. ...describes [newsjacking] as the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news.
  28. ^ Irani, Delshad (2015-08-12). "Independence Day Special: Here's how newsjacking looked like in 1947". The Times of India. Archived from the original on October 17, 2015. Retrieved 2017-01-15. 'the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business.'
  29. ^ Hedges, Kristi (January 24, 2012). "How to Make Twitter Pay Off With Media Coverage". Forbes.com. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  30. ^ Marx, Wendy (Jan 6, 2012). "Transforming PR For A Mobile World". Fast Company. Mansueto Ventures LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  31. ^ Boudine, Tracey (2016-08-17). "Has the term 'newsjacking' damaged the PR industry?". Ragan's PR Daily. Retrieved 2016-12-17. The best filter to use in any situation should be: Does this elevate? I don't have any suggestions for creating a new buzzword or mashup to describe this media relations strategy.
  32. ^ "Word of the Year 2017: the shortlist". Oxford Dictionaries. 2018-01-30. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2018. as first popularized by marketing and sales strategist David Meerman Scott's 2011 book, Newsjacking
  33. ^ Christopher Hosford (May 31, 2013). "At the BMA: Real-time marketing takes center stage". Archived from the original on July 1, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  34. ^ Scott Kirsner (July 16, 2010). "New book casts the Grateful Dead as brilliant marketers". The Boston Globe.
  35. ^ Joshua Green. "Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead".
  36. ^ Cordero, Robert (2016-04-18). "Concert 'Merch' Comes of Age". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 2017-01-15. "It's still a very vibrant, ongoing entity that makes a lot of money off merchandise," says David Meerman Scott, a marketing strategist and author of Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.
  37. ^ Reynolds, Christoper (2015-09-25). "Free art: blessing or curse?". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 2017-01-15. For decades, they allowed fans to record their concerts, unlike virtually all their contemporaries.
  38. ^ Carolyn Y. Johnson (March 20, 2014). "Savvy PR brought NASA lunar program into American homes". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  39. ^ "Photo-Op: Lunatics: A photographic review of "Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program."". The Wall Street Journal. March 14, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  40. ^ Joshua Rothman (August 23, 2014). "Live From the Moon". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  41. ^ David Meerman Scott; Richard Jurek (March 24, 2014). "Being a Celebrity Astronaut Is Tougher Than It Sounds". Gizmodo. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  42. ^ Taurean Small (April 3, 2014). "Marketing on the Moon". NPR WTTW Chicago Tonight. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  43. ^ Onion, Rebecca (2014-05-15). "Two Colorful Infographic Wheels Used to Track the Apollo Missions". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2017-01-15. These tracking wheels represent two companies' efforts to provide technical context, while distinguishing themselves from the piles of press releases on journalists' desks.
  44. ^ Shindell, Matthew (2016). "Waning Interest". Distillations. 2 (2): 40–43. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  45. ^ David Meerman Scott; Richard Jurek (28 February 2014). Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-02696-3.
  46. ^ Robert Stone (2012-12-04). "Breaking News". Archived from the original on 2014-03-15.
  47. ^ "Chasing the Moon: Credits, Part One". American Experience. Public Broadcasting Service. 2019. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  48. ^ Patrick Ryan (2024-07-14). "Is 'Fly Me to the Moon' based on a true story? What's behind fake moon landing movie". USA Today.
  49. ^ Schawbel, Dan (2014-09-03). "David Meerman Scott: The New Age Of Sales And Customer Service". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-12-17. All of this used to be true because communications wasn't instant. There was no way to easily research products or companies or to complain about poor service.
  50. ^ SlideShare: The New Rules of Selling
  51. ^ Scott, David Meerman; Scott, Reiko (2020-01-07). Fanocracy: Turning Fans Into Customers and Customers Into Fans. Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780593084007. Retrieved 2020-01-07.
  52. ^ "Best-Selling Books - Week Ended January 18". Wall Street Journal. 2020-01-23. Retrieved 2020-01-26. Hardcover Business - Fanocracy - 6
  53. ^ Juris, Carolyn (2020-01-25). "This Week's Bestsellers: January 27, 2020". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2020-01-26. At #20, Fanocracy, a business title about marketing and fandom,
  54. ^ Jantsch, John (2020-01-07). "Building a Fanocracy Around Your Business". Duct Tape Marketing. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  55. ^ David Meerman Scott (2009). World wide rave : creating triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and share your stories. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-39500-4.
  56. ^ Craig Stull; Phil Myers; David Meerman Scott. (2008). Tuned in : uncover the extraordinary opportunities that lead to business breakthroughs. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-26036-4.
  57. ^ David Meerman Scott (2005). Cashing in with content : how innovative marketers use digital information to turn browsers into buyers. Medford, N.J.: Information Today/CyberAge Books. ISBN 0-910965-71-4. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
  58. ^ David Meerman Scott (2001). Eyeball wars : a novel of dot-com intrigue. Lexington, Mass.: Freshspot Pub. ISBN 0-9701414-8-3. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
  59. ^ "Efficiency as a marketing asset". WebInkNow.com. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
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