12 Most Interesting Questions & Answers with David Meerman Scott

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I recently had the pleasure of interviewing David Meerman Scott for 12 Most. I asked him about social media, marketing and writing. His responses were, of course, insightful and educational. I hope you enjoy this dialogue and are inspired to read David’s books.

A little about David from his bio:

“David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, bestselling author of eight books including three international bestsellers, and a professional speaker on topics including marketing, leadership, and social media.

He is a recovering marketing VP for two U.S. publicly traded companies and was Asia Marketing Director for Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the world’s largest information companies. David has lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. He currently lives in the Boston area.

1. Your job title it Marketing Strategist. What do you love about marketing?

Marketing is FUN now. Much more than twenty years ago.

2. What has changed since you started in Marketing?

Everything has changed. We have had a marketing revolution as fundamental as the invention of the printing press. The ability to communicate is completely transformed.

3. What do you see as the mix for traditional and new media?

Depends on the platform and audience. When TV started, radio didn’t disappear. Create content online and don’t ignore multiple platforms.

4. How does social media factor into your day?

Look at social media as exercise, make it part of your day, your lifestyle. Build exercise and healthy eating into your day. Be thinking about your schedule and plan your social media as part of your lifestyle. Don’t let social media control your life. I check Twitter, Google News and my blog in the morning.

5. Which platform do you feel is winning at the moment?

Twitter, Google+ and Facebook each have their own benefits. The mistake that these platforms are making is that they are building islands with moats and making users choose a platform. When I travel the world, I see people using all the platforms. My books are now in thirty languages.

6. Tell me about The New Rules of Social Media books that you are working on.

I wrote The New Rules of Marketing and PR (published in 2007, more than a quarter million copies sold in over 25 languages) and people asked about learning about certain sections so I expanded them into this new series that I am editing.

7. Are you working on a new book now?

I am working on a top secret book that will be out in the Fall of 2013. My most recent publication is Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media explores how new media is challenging the traditional PR model.
Here is a video from the World Wide Rave that David created.

8. How long does it take from idea to actually writing to publishing a book?

A typical book is 50,000 to 70,000 words. For a traditional published book: one year to write it, six months to edit, design the cover and publish it. These have a short shelf life of a few months. Newsjacking was published as an ebook. This took 40 days to write and 30 days to edit, proof and publish.

9. Have you found that Kindles and eReaders have changed writing from a writer’s perspective?

Yes. You can add hyperlinks to text, fix mistakes later and ebooks are much faster to market. However; there is still more cache for a traditional print book from a publisher.

10. Do you prefer a book or digital reader?

I like both. I travel a lot, 160,000 miles last year, and I like the convenience of an digital reader for travel.

11. Have you had any mentors through your career?

Yes and no. I have looked up to Seth Godin and follow everything he does.

12. What one piece of wisdom do you wish each person reading this to leave with?

Have fun and don’t take social media so seriously.

Featured image courtesy of Yuppiesonfoot via Creative Commons.

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Article by Peg Fitzpatrick