Paul Gillin was kind enough to meet me for coffee on Friday morning.   Paul and I go back a long way.  He played a key role in the success of TechTarget, and I spoke at one of his first conferences, the highly influential Storage Decisions conference.  When we met for coffee this week, Paul  brought with him an autographed copy of his latest book,  The New Influencers , which I am reading, while on a 3-day holiday in Syracuse, New York.   Who wouldn’t want to be in Syracuse, the land of lake-effect snow, in the middle of winter?  But it’s a great place to go to catch up on reading.

 As part of my New Year’s resolution, I’m determined to become more engaged in the “new social media.”  There are a couple of reasons.  The first is that, while I have an enormous network of contacts, I need a more effective way to maintain communication.  The second is that, I have several clients that need a more effective way to reach potential customers and influencers than traditional marketing approaches provide. 

I’m three chapters into Paul’s book, and I’ve already got a long list of ideas on ways to help my clients.   First among my priorities is to identify the top 10 on-the-web enthusiasts in each of my clients’ markets.  Second is to work with the marketing teams, PR consultings and full-service PR companies that our clients have engaged to figure out how they will use enthusiasts to build awareness of the companies and the offerings.  Read Chapter 3 of Paul’s book, and you’ll know what I mean.