Free new ebook download – Media Savvy in the Internet Era.

Trying to figure out the new online world? Web 2.0, blogs, social media, Twitter? What’s the value, and where’s it all headed?

I’ve just written a new and free ebook that delivers valuable perspective and helpful guidance, and you can download the new ebook here.

Please feel free to download, and share with your friends and colleagues. It’s free. This link to “Media Savvy in the Internet Era” brings you directly to the PDF of the ebook with no registration or email required.

Hope you enjoy it! Thanks, David

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban makes it clear about the importance of knowing how to use the Internet to communicate, to engage in conversations with audiences, and to build brand awareness and value. Cuban, is owner of HDNet, the high definition cable television network, and the Dallas Mavericks, among other ventures.

The Internet has been an essential communications tool for Cuban’s business empire. As a high-profile executive, he’s actively online and involved in conversations through his personal blog, BlogMaverick.com. Cuban is in control of his image and that of his business.

“In the Internet age,” Cuban told me, “executives have to learn how to shape information about themselves and their companies, or the Internet will do it for them, and it won’t be pretty.”

Traditional marketing is broken

The once-effective support structure for executives and leaders—such as public relations, marketing, and advertising agencies—has been shockingly slow to learn the new and ever-changing trends of how to use the Internet … how to harness the interactivity of Web 2.0 to engage audiences in conversations that benefit clients.

We are living today in a new era when conventional methods of getting an organization’s messages communicated through the media are either broken or less effective.

There is chaos within the mainstream media. Traditional newspapers are cutting back because revenue and audiences have swarmed online. There are fewer viewers of conventional TV news program. At the same time, the number of online news choices is exploding at an amazing pace. The challenge for anyone in marketing is to locate audiences.

PR, advertising and marketing, for the most part, have not kept up with the trend, locked in old-school methods, and focused on maximizing billable hours.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is just one of many media savvy leaders to say that today, it is up a CEO, executive or leader to personally take the initiative and responsibility to get savvy about the Internet, and the new ways of communicating in today’s online world.

Media leadership: 5 easy steps

In the new world of media—with the erosion of mainstream media and the dramatic rise of online media—there is more responsibility on CEOs, leaders and executives to take charge of communicating the vision of their organizations in a clear, compelling and transparent way. The days of delegating that important role are over. Here are my 5 steps to seize control and become a media savvy leader during these challenging times and beyond:

1. Develop personal and trusted media contacts
2. Communicate through captivating storytelling and memorable messages
3. Become the credible voice and face of the organization
4. Learn new trends in media, especially online
5. Get involved in conversations online with customers and stakeholders

The Media Savvy Leader: Visibility, Influence, and Results in a Competitive World delivers the answers, and the solutions. Now available at booksellers everywhere.

Here’s a recent interview about my new book, The Media Savvy Leader, with Nick Hetcher. It’s a lot of fun to chat with Nick, who has interviewed some of the biggest names in the Internet and business/entrepreneur world.

Check out Nick’s website – www.Audio4U.net. He is also the creator of the fun www.TwitterBreak.com.

Click here to listen.

As we begin a New Year, our country is in trouble. It’s more than an economic crisis, which many people seem to be ignoring. It’s an embedded culture of corruption from Wall Street to Capital Hill. In that context, I wanted to share an entire chapter from my new book, “The Media Savvy Leader: Visibility, Influence and Results in a Competitive World.” The subject is about the seldom used yet powerful tactic of an apology:

I have never failed to be impressed by how a simple, honest apology can defuse the most volatile situation, often averting a communications crisis for a corporation or politician.

In another time, in the cowboy film, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, John Wayne growled “never apologize, and never explain.” But that was then—more than 50 years ago in a macho western. This is now. Today apologies can do wonders.

Consider this example: “Gov. John Rowland changed his story and acknowledged that friends—including some under suspicion in a federal corruption investigation—paid for work on his summer home,” reported Susan Haigh of the Associated Press. “Rowland’s admission, made public in a statement, came ten days after he insisted he alone had paid for improvements on the house at Bantam Lake.”

Another politician confirms what we believe about most politicians: that they accept payoffs. We hear it all the time these days. Yet in this case, Rowland exacerbated his situation by lying, then changing his story, and announcing it in a written statement. A statement! Who’s going to believe a written statement? Why not just come clean and stand up in front of the microphones and reporters with notebooks and say something that begins with, “I’ve made a terrible mistake. I apologize, and I’m going to do everything possible to make it right.”

Rowland was later found guilty and went to prison.

Read the rest