The Digital Handshake - Interview with Paul Chaney (Part 1)

This is the first of a four part interview with Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake which officially launches today. Paul and I have known each other since 2004, when I first started blogging (5 years next week). Paul Chaney is one of those guys you just have to know. He is smart, generous with his knowledge, time and help, and is quite humble as well.

Paul has been on the forefront of new thinking about blogging and social media and has now published The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media. I asked if I could publish a blog interview and Paul graciously agreed.I asked 8 questions, some contributed by readers at Biz Tips Blog. I've split the interview into four parts since there's a lot of juicy info in Paul's answers.

Let the interview begin...

1.    I'll start with the obvious question…there are a plethora of books on the market now about social media marketing. What inspired you to add your voice to the mix with The Digital Handshake and what's the primary take-way you want readers to get?

You're absolutely right about the number of social media books glutting the market now. "Plethora" is an appropriate term. I'm going to be completely honest with my answer too. I had this book in me and it had to get out. I pitched it to Wiley , who was receptive to a proposal. I put it together and they decided to run with it.

The big question is "why." I believe Wiley wants to own this space. I can count a minimum of a half dozen social media marketing books that they've commissioned in the past year. And that's probably a conservative number.

To answer your question in a way that's it will benefit readers. This book is a combination of strategy and tactics, very much on the order of David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR. (Now, I'm by no means suggesting it is as well written as David's, but has that same practical focus.)

So what, you might say, so do any number of others. To that I respond you are absolutely correct. The one thing then that separates this book from the pack is that I wrote it. Don't get me wrong. I'm not being pompous in making that assertion. It's just that this book contains everything I believe about social media. It is a reflection of my philosophy, ethics and approach to using social media for marketing.

You know, there is one more thing that makes this book different. While it does reflect my own approach, it also reflects the voices of so many other social media marketers. I interviewed a number of them and share their thoughts, ideas and opinions pretty much just as they rendered them. In that respect, this book is a collaboration of some of the leading voices in the industry.

This book is written not for the social media "navel gazers," but for those still on the outside looking in. It is an overview of the medium, and very much an introduction to it. One person called it a "field guide." I like that term.

2.    Because you and I connected first through blogging, in 2004, I have to ask this…what role do you see for blogging in the near and long term? Is blogging dead or does it still have a place in social marketing?

Blogging is not dead, nor will it soon be. As the forerunner to the social media "movement," it has found its place as more of a long-form medium. At least, that's what the more traditional form of blogging has become. Other forms have evolved as well - micro-blogging and lifestreaming for example. In fact, lifestreaming is sort of what blogging was at the time you and I started. We talked about everything in our blog. It was our "lifestream" because there was nothing else out there for us to use.

Now, you've got apps like Posterous, Twitter and Tumblr to take some of the strain of the blog so it can contain more thorough, well-researched, more fully fleshed out copy.

Tomorrow: how to manage the message overload and how to generate client leads with social media.

Read Paul Chaney's blog The Social Media Handyman, join The Digital Handshake Fan page, and follow Paul on twitter.

Comments

[Paul Chaney]

Thanks for doing this Denise. I count myself most blessed to have known you for these many years. You are a rich resource of marketing knowledge.