5 Ways to Sink Your Online Media Strategy

1. Try to speak to everyone. When I first try to communicate the wonderful possibilities of online communication, people invariably ask, "How big will my audience be?" It's a good question in a world where we've been conditioned to aim our marketing or PR at the largest possible audience, in hopes of finding a few people who will care. But it's not such a good question in a world where you can zero in on a topic and reach an audience with a very narrowly defined interest. That's possible today, using podcasts, blogs and other online tools. Your first task must be to embrace quality over quantity when thinking about your audience.

2. Talk yourself up. If the primary goal of your blog or podcast is to inform people of the great products or services you offer, you're missing the point. Your audience doesn't want to hear that. Instead, it wants to be educated, or entertained or informed. But not about you -- about life. Do that, in your realm of expertise, and watch the relationship with your audience grow.

3. Protect your turf. Ever since grade school, we've been taught to guard our work from prying eyes. (Remember huddling over your test paper, so the kid next to you couldn't copy?) Now's the time to unlearn that behavior. If you take photos at one of your events, make those photos available to everyone who wants to share them. If you write an especially helpful piece, post it online with instructions that it be shared with friends. Encourage sharing, and your piece of the idea marketplace will grow. That's a key component of any successful new media strategy.

4. Discourage customer input. I know people can be mean. Sometime they're even wrong. But the fact is, you can't stop them from saying mean, wrong things about you. And now you can't stop them from spreading those mean, wrong things all over the Internet. So instead of trying to stop them, it's important that you interact with them. And don't do it just because you're trying to shut them up. Do it because you're a human being who wants to interact with other human beings.

5. Don't acknowledge competitors. Our mothers always told us, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. So when it comes to our competitors, a lot of us clam up. That's exactly the wrong approach. New media strategy should be about establishing authority with your audience. And nothing undermines your authority like ignoring the obvious fact that other people are doing good work in your field. So if you want people to trust you, you're going to have to own up to the fact that you have competitors. And sometimes they do cool stuff. In the long run, making that admission on your blog or podcast will increase your credibility. (Not to mention that it will help people find your blog when they Google your competitors' name.)