Some marketers focus on pushing their message with branding and PR and creating “buzz.” David Meerman Scott has another approach: get your customers to tell your story.

Few of us are fooled by traditional PR, particularly for technology products. After all, the reporters generally know less on the subject than their readers. And few of us are fooled by fake buzz. On IMDB, it’s fairly common to read a glowing review of a just-released movie by a person who has written only one review. Gee, could that be a PR staffer who is trying to prime the pump? Like that guy who laughs so loudly at a comedy routine that you realize he’s a shill. Happily, IMDB and bloggers in general are savvy enough to spot such fake behavior and call them out.

Instead of creating artificial buzz, Scott advocates marketing your products by helping your customers tell your story. Talk about an industry problem (that naturally your product or company can solve) and watch customers tell their friends. Create chat rooms and discussion forums to help customers connect with each other; create funny videos and electronic product content that can be shared. Write something real, something that matters!, and be amazed that people share it, pass it along, comment on it, include it in their social networks.

When was the last time you clicked on a link to a YouTube video sent by a corporation? Likely never. But if the link comes from a friend, you’ll certainly check it out.

World Wide Rave is a how-to book on using social media in your marketing mix. Or perhaps, using social media AS your marketing mix. If you insist on getting personal information like name, title, buying intention, email, and mailing address, people will most often just walk away and never read your product information. Write an ebook, share it freely (without trying to make it a leadgen vehicle), and you’ll get leads anyway. And better still, the leads are people who came to you instead of you coming, hat in hand, to them.

The old rule was “beg reporters for coverage.” The new rules bypass the established order of press and advertising to embrace real people with real stories that persuade.

Great marketing programs start with “There’s a problem in the industry today.” They don’t start with “Our product...” Read World Wide Rave for using social media to get your customers to tell your story and bring customers to you.

Steve Johnson is a recognized thought-leader on the strategic role of product management and marketing. Broadly published and a frequent keynote speaker, Steve has been a Pragmatic Marketing instructor for more than 10 years and has personally trained thousands of product managers and hundreds of company senior executive teams on strategies for creating products people want to buy. Steve is the author of the Product Marketing blog. Contact Steve at sjohnson@pragmaticmarketing.com