Tag Archives: book review

Book Review: Like

I was recently graced with a review copy LIKE: Seven Rules and 10 Simple Steps for Social Media in Your Campaign by Kelly Groehler with Dave Ladd, Greg Swanholm, and Bass Zanjani.  The book is available as both an e-book, hardcopy and has presences on Facebook and Twitter.  The foreword is available as a free download at the bottom of this post.

This wonderful volume is different than a number of the other social media books out there, in a number of good ways. Continue reading

Book review: “The Real Truth About Social Media” by Eric Harr

I recently finished reading Eric Harr’s energetic new book, “The Real Truth About Social Media: Confessions of a Social Media CEO.” The book details how the social media revolution has permanently changed the dynamic of modern communications and the theories behind why businesses should embrace the shift to help modernize their strategies and tactics to match the shifting tide of customer culture.

I found it to be an excellent summary of the core social media ideals that businesses should understand and adopt to help their transition into a communications era that is widely considered essential to thrive in for business. The book is mainly geared towards skeptics, naysayers and those reluctant to try social media, help them understand just how important the platform is to leverage and how it simply can’t be classified as a “passing phase.” Continue reading

Book Review: How To Market To People Not Like You

As the title suggests, “How To Market To People Not Like You” is all about understanding people who are very dissimilar from yourself. In my case, that would be the entire world, more or less. Author Kelly McDonald does an excellent job of opening your eyes to entire audiences you aren’t getting. In other words, increasing your business by expanding into new markets rather than increasing your existing one(s).

I found the book extremely readable. My biggest fear when reading a “work related book” is that the material will be a bit dry, making it tough to get through even if the information is great. McDonald cites many examples of various businesses and people who had their eyes opened to audiences they weren’t even considering, targeting those audiences, and reaping huge benefits. Continue reading

Brains on Fire: a Video Book Review

Young man sitting in chair resting feet on second chair using laptopI read a lot of books and am always looking for a good recommendation. So when I saw Mark Schaefer’s plug for Brains on Fire in his post entitled The Spirituality of Social Media, I figured I’d check it out as I respect Mark’s opinions and the term “profound admiration,” is pretty serious.

After reading the book by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, and Spike Jones I can safely say that Mark’s description was well deserved. Instead of focusing on tactics to increase engagement within social networks, the Brains on Fire team creates movements.  The book encourages readers to embrace their core audience and find out what they are passionate about in order to build a true movement for their company or cause. Continue reading