Warner Kremer Paino Advertising, the ad agency for the State of Maine that last month filed what “pre New Media” would have been a crushing lawsuit against small business blogger Lance Dutson — has issued an unconditional surrender. In addition to the obvious win of David over Goliath with the big guy underestimating the power of the blogosphere, there are some timeless influence and persuasion principles at work here. New Media Marketing principles that you can put to use in your business.

First, the main story …

After widespread New Media coverage by bloggers and podcasters, Warner Kremer Paino Advertising (WKPA) withdrew its suit which, when filed alleged:

“Dutson’s [blog] contains numerous defamatory statements designed to blacken [our] reputation, expose [us] to public contempt and ridicule, and injure [us] in [our] business and profession.”

Meanwhile all Dutson was doing was drawing attention to the fact that the state’s payment of premium rates for keyword placements outbids smaller business owners within the state who want to utilize the search engines to draw traffic to their web sites. If this were big companies against little guys, well that would just be business. But when a government spends taxpayer money to take away opportunities of it’s very own taxpaying citizens — that’s a big problem.

Dutson also claimed that the firm is wasting taxpayer dollars and that the firm has misdirected state funds for “non-tourism” activity. That non-tourism activity being advertising materials prepared for the state, on which a tourism hotline actually directs callers to an adult chat line.

Will they never learn?

WKPA could have learned form the mistakes of previous companies with deep pockets. Companies like Kryptonite, who when they saw a blogger had posted how their new high profile lock could be picked with a pen, ignored the story thinking that would make it go away. Ignorance that cost Kryptonite over $10 million in returns and replacements.

Yes, WKPA instead of paying lawyers could have more effectively handled the issue in the blogosphere. And in the process would have had a good chance to rebuild their credibility with the small business owners and taxpayers of Maine. (For that matter, the state of Maine should have jumped in there too.)

But instead the New York City law firm hired by WKPA went on the attack. They sued Dutson, asking for damages of $150,000 for each time their copyright material was supposedly used by Dutson on mainewebreport.com.

The New Media Marketplace at work

Before the rise of the New Media, this would have been just another story like so many others. A sotry where entrepreneurs and small business owners get squashed by the big guys. But now, as private attorney Jon Stanley (who helped defend Dutson) said:

“The plaintiff failed to understand it’s a new world. This is a textbook case of how blogs work. This result could not have come about without the blogosphere. Lance’s defense team was put together through the blogs and pressure was brought to bear on WKP through the blogs.”

Granted, the push back power exhibited in this case were magnified by Dutson’s membership in the Media Bloggers Association. But the underlying power to create buzz came from wielding the new weapons of online persuasion — blogs and podcasts.

Now the story behind the story — what you can take away to use in your business

You may not be under attack. And you may not need to push back against any “big guys” in your niche or industry neighborhood. But use this story to think about how you could you be using your business blog and other New Media tools to create buzz for the benefit of your business.

HINT — First look for the basic principles or components that this (and any good story) has that ignites buzz. Then think laterally and figure out how those principles could be broken down to their core essence and applied in your business or niche.

A couple of examples of core principles you have in this story:

# 1. An underdog (hero) taking action based on facts … in this case it’s about Lance Dutson holding accountable a state sponsored agency that’s taking away opportunities from it’s own citizens.

Lateral thinking: What are some little known facts that are or soon could be damaging to your target audience? How can you can educate and alert them to those facts? When you focus on this and use New Media marketing tools to get the message out, you can become a hero too!

It doesn’t have to be a big hairy issue. Watch for the day-to-day stuff, and let your target audience know about that. Make their lives easier and they’ll reward that with loyalty.

# 2. Strong belief, passion, and dedication exhibited by the hero … Lance is passionate about helping Maine businesses. His track record of research, articles, and posts on his business blog http://www.mainewebreport.com/ proves it.

The fact is, your audience will stand up for you when you’ve proven you’re dedicated to their best interest. As with all business or marketing endeavors, business blogging is no different. If you’re disingenuous, or if you try to use old-school marketing tricks instead of learning how to build relationships and market with the interactive New Media — your target audience will see through that.

Lateral thinking: What are some causes that impact your target audience that align with your beliefs? What are some of those related topics you can be passionate about? Begin to champion those causes and open dialogs with your prospects and customers.

When you influence and persuade through your actions and passion, you’ll be on the road to marketing successfully in the New Media Marketplace!

Copyright © RPM Success Group Inc. 2002-2006. All full copyright rights are reserved by RPM Success Group inc. Other bloggers and journalists are allowed to excerpt and link to posts (as is common with bloggers,) as full credit/attribution is given to AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com and RPM Success Group Inc.

John-Paul is a published author and weekly columnist for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. As a Business Coach he helps small business owners market, manage, and sell more with self-influence and persuasion. You can reach J.P. directly via [communicationcommando@gmail.com].