| BOOK BITES,
EVERYTHING | Jay Hagstrom
| Comments Off on Permission Marketing
The best thing about Seth Godin’s book on user experience in the marketplace, is that it isn’t only theory anymore. Employing a less invasive approach seems to pay, if you have something worth selling. News Flash: The old “foot in the door” is not only ineffective, it can eliminate the potential for future sales. Customer service seems to be how the battle is won or lost. By situating the customer service at the beginning of the customer relationship, a higher degree of trust is gained. Rewarding the people who care about your product is not the only strategy employed here, you must also listen to the people who don’t like it, and once you’ve compiled that all important email list, not the one gotten through purchase, but through sweat and labor, you can expect better receptivity to sales initiatives (your customer base will show you more love).
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| BOOK BITES,
EVERYTHING | Jay Hagstrom
| Comments Off on Trust Agents
Julien Smith and Chris Brogan are at the forefront of their field… Their field being, teaching us ALL how to blog, and how to market ourselves. In the book, they discuss a diverse set of topics relating to affiliate marketing, customer service and social communities. I think that the information here is adaptable to a lot of fields, and will probably have a good shelf life, largely due to fact that many of the rules-of-thumb for social media seem to revolve around common sense principles of etiquette. Listening, adaptability and critical thinking seem to be critical skills for every trust agent to possess. It seems like these co authors spend a good chunk of time in observation of people in unrelated fields. One of the charms of affiliate marketing, apparently you can be nicely compensated for acting as an observant fly-on-the-wall. This book has helped me to better understand what type of tone might be best for blog posts.
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| BOOK BITES,
EVERYTHING | Jay Hagstrom
| Comments Off on Here Comes Everybody
“The Power of Organizing Without Organizations” is the tagline for this book by Clay Shirky. Before I began reading this book, I thought that social change was plausible through online initiatives, but I had no idea how extensive the changes could be, or to what extent this had already begun. I certainly had no idea that these groups could be self-stearing. Here, the author makes the assertion that there are all kinds of things about social media that nobody could have expected. The author talks about every internet-spawned social phenomenon, from the “ice cream flash mobs” in Belarus, to the fund raising efforts of Josh Groban’s fans (Grobanites). In case study, after case study, Shirky attributes these changes to pre-existing social dynamics superimposed over the technology of web2, rather than being the effect of the technology itself. If you’re still not convinced that social media is anything but a fad, read this book. It is a difficult book to put down, and it may inspire you to start a meme of your own.
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| BOOK BITES,
EVERYTHING | Jay Hagstrom
| Comments Off on All Marketers Tell Stories
Every time you sneeze, Seth Godin writes a highly pertinent book about marketing. Apparently the title was changed from “All Marketers Are Liars” to appease a rattled readership. I doubt if that’s actually true, because every time I mention the title(s) of this book to people who are in marketing, they laugh, nod and concur. I read the book because I’m a freshly reborn freelancer. My reputation consistently lodges at the agencies where I work, but because I’m a “behind the scenes” person, well don’t get me started… I now believe that unless I begin to tell a compelling story all my own, I won’t be as able to sell my services on a broader scale. Now ordinarily, I wouldn’t be interested a book of this title, but Godin’s reputation as the author of “Permission Marketing” makes this book seem somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and nothing here contradicts that book. Godin simply asserts that we people don’t buy products or services, we buy stories that fit with our personal world view. As visual marketers we’ll do well to embrace this idea.
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| BOOK BITES,
EVERYTHING | Jay Hagstrom
| Comments Off on Social Media 101
In the opening chapter of this book, Chris Brogan points at the irony that nearly all the information covered in the book is also available on his blog, at ChrisBrogan.com. I bought the book anyway, because I wanted Brogan’s riffs in portable, shatterproof form. This book describes setting up a blog, utilizing Facebook and Twitter presence to generate leads, and stay in touch with your community. The book is full of actionable pointers, to help you hit the ground running. Brogan’s writing (like his blog) is funny and insightful. A great book if you’re already convinced you, or your company will benefit from having a presence on Facebook and Twitter, and are ready to devise a plan of action. The enthusiasm of the author is somewhat infectious.
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| BOOK BITES,
EVERYTHING | Jay Hagstrom
| Comments Off on Cognitive Surplus
Clay Shirky is all about case studies. His writing is very easy to follow. Before I began reading this book, I was of the mistaken impression that social media was just a macrofad. Now, I realize that the heart of the matter has more to do with connectedness, and the great feeling we get when we’ve done something nice. My wife read it and liked it! I plan on passing my copy to my father-in-law, who teaches sociology, because this book is more about sociology than technology. The text doesn’t get gummed up with tech speak. After reading all the case studies set before you by the author, you can’t help but think that there is something larger behind the success of social media than just technology.
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