Well, things are moving along with our NY publisher for the release of our new book on business blogging, podcasting, and all forms of New Media. Secrets of Online Persuasion has been in their hands for several weeks now and we’re at their mercy for timing. But we’re thrilled to now have the final version of the forward by Dave Lakhani.

If you’re not familiar with Dave, he’s the best selling author of ‘Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want’ and ‘Making Marketing Work.’ Here’s Dave’s forward in it’s entirety. (At the end of this post we’ll share how you can download a free excerpt to Secrets of Online Persuasion and get a free subscription to the New Media Marketing Journal.)

Friends; families; relationships; cults; tribes …

They all have one thing in common.

Persuasion.

In today’s rapidly changing marketplace, we all hope to deepen our relationships with people and create a swarm of hungry customers. Or, as the Miceks so aptly demonstrate, we should be creating tribes.

Tribes are unified groups bound together by tradition, common thought, shared beliefs, and a common interpretation of the symbols around them including marketing and advertising messages. They come together for a common purpose – to support and to receive support from one another. They are highly influenced by the other members of the tribe and they exert great influence in the tribe.

But how do you create such a tribe – a connected community that pulls together to support each other and you?

The best answer today is by using social media to build your tribe online. Borders, time, and distance have been erased allowing your customers to communicate nearly as instantly as they experience something – and they do. Secrets of Online Persuasion leads you step-by-step through the process of connecting with others like you and attracting them to you to build a thriving tribe. It teaches you very specific processes of education – two-way interactive communication through multiple channels that allows you to influence members of the tribe.

In today’s instantly connected economy, tribes communicate faster and better than ever before. They sit in the theater and tell their friends via text messaging during the movie not to waste their money, not on the movie or the new restaurant they tried before the show.

The tribe speaks, the movie dies, and so does the restaurant because the word spreads in minutes – not days, weeks, months, or years – minutes.

The same thing happens in every business in the world every day. Consumers speak, trends start, businesses grow – or they are damned – with the click of a mouse or the push of a send button.

In order to succeed today, you must not only understand what your consumers want, but how they find that information, validate it, and make decisions.

This book makes that process predictable, profitable, and easy.

When I wrote my #1 best-selling book, Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want, I included one chapter on influencing online. This book doesn’t just blow that chapter out of the water, it expands on the major premise of the chapter in ways I should have, but never would have. And, the reason I wouldn’t have is quite simple. Deborah and John-Paul live and breathe online influence every day. They are in the trenches developing, testing, and implementing for their clients, and this book is filled with the result of that labor. It is a playbook for any businessperson who is serious about attracting, building a relationship, and influencing the most valuable customers in the market today – all the while gently leading them, no, compelling them to join, to take part, to participate.

Loyalty is dead. It harks back to a construct where people are forced through limitation, availability, and lack of information to stay connected with a brand. That kind of experience no longer exists precisely because of the Internet. Tribethink and Tribespeak now rules the day.

Tribal relationships are the customer loyalty of our age and you are about to embark on the best education you can get on exactly how to turn your customers, your fans, your following, into a connected, supportive community with you at the center. And, you are going to profit from it for decades to come.

Don’t just read this book; take action; study the book; implement the ideas and you’ll profit immediately.

By reading this book and taking action, you’re joining a tribe of enlightened marketers, marketers who’ll share with you, educate you, and learn from you. You are now part of a living, breathing, marketing organism that is growing and changing. You hold in your hands the tools to succeed.

Welcome to the tribe of online persuaders.

Read on to find out what to do next.

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