And the FOUR winners of The NOW Revolution books are…
There were some very solid entries…
So many that I decided I’d even give my copy away. There are four winners instead of three…
Thanks to Jay and Amber for making this happen.
Congrats to all the winners! I’ll be following up with each of you.
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The Now Revolution by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund – Book Review and Giveaway
In case you’ve been living in a cave, Jay Baer and Amber Naslund have teamed up and published The NOW Revolution – 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social (affiliate link).
Their new book has been receiving rave reviews and I received a copy with the understanding that I would share my thoughts after reading it…
There is a high probability that this book will frustrate you.
Yes… frustrate you, but follow me here. Jay and Amber have decided to tackle the challenge businesses are facing to adjust to being social and not just doing social. For those of us in or around the “social” industry, we completely grasp this concept.
The NOW Revolution is organized into seven sections – the 7 shifts mentioned in the title. Each shift walks us through the process of becoming social, scalable and sustainable. There are action items, questions, summaries and plenty of additional documents linked via Microsoft Tag technology.
But, you’re wondering why this book may frustrate you.
Most companies are not social.
Even the companies that do social.
Most companies have processes and organizational hierarchies that inhibit being social.
If you have a finger on the pulse of where you work… there is a good chance that reading an actionable guide of what you should or can do to infuse social into your business will lead you to the conclusion How the *$&^ am I going to make this happen?
Being a social company is not a fluffy thing. It isn’t a trendy thing. It isn’t creating cool content that is sharable. It is changing the entire culture of your organization and embracing the fact that there are TONS of things out of your control.
If this was an easy thing to do, we wouldn’t need a book, guide, agency or consultant to help.
What will you get out of The NOW Revolution?
- Lots of ideas for things to do within the workplace
- A better understanding of scaling social
- What to look for and cultivate in employees to become more social
- How to handle real-time crises
- A more in-depth knowledge of what listening and monitoring really means
- Potentially frustrated, depressed or overwhelmed trying to make this happen
Again, I’d like to reinforce the fact that if this was easy… every company would be social. This book when read, understood and placed in the correct hands can be a catalyst to help you start the process of becoming social.
Who should read this?
- Ambitious, social savvy folks that don’t mind overcoming adversity
- Executives who don’t want to be years behind the curve (hint: you’re already a few behind)
- Agencies and consultants that are tasked with improving or creating social strategies and business units
This book isn’t a get rich quick scheme. It isn’t a guide to monetize your blog. It isn’t a direct aide to your personal brand. It isn’t something one person can read and do themselves. However, this book is one that can be passed around to a few key folks and used as a guide to restructure, revamp, create or destroy business practices and processes.
The NOW Revolution is one of the better books I’ve seen to tackle the business and organizational challenges of social media and give you a roadmap to improve things.
What one thing is missing?
Jay and Amber are both extremely smart, engaging and funny folks. I never quite heard their voice in this book. This is something nitpicky and probably comes from the fact that I enjoy talking to each of them, but I wish there was a little more of their personalities here. Granted, the goal of this book isn’t entertainment… it is about empowering you to change your business and teaching you how to do that. But, I would have liked a little of the sarcasm and humor I know and love about each of them. :)
Ready to get your copy and start changing your business?
I have three copies of The NOW Revolution to give away to folks who need and want one.
Here is how to win a copy:
- Tell me why you want this book and what you plan to do with it.
- 1 Entry: Leave your explanation in the comments section.
- 3 Entries: Write a blog post telling me why you want this book and what you plan to do with it and link to this blog post. Notify me and link to your post in the comments.
- One book will go to the best answer and the other two will be randomly chosen (which means you have a 3x better chance to win by writing a blog post).
- I’ll announce the three winners February 25, 2011!
Disclaimer: All four books were received free of charge with the understanding I would write a review (good, bad, or ugly) and give away the extra books. :)
PS. Jay and Amber are coming to Raleigh in May for a Triangle AMA luncheon. Stay tuned for more details!
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Why I was totally wrong about Quora and now love it
I was skeptical.
I have too many things to keep up with already.
Half the time I suck at the things I do keep up with.
I routinely fail at Twitter and checked my Google Reader and Tumblr for the first time in three months today.
Enter Quora.
I like good marketing books as much as the zombie kid likes turtles. I asked this simple question.
Now, I honestly can’t keep up. I’ve had incredible responses in minutes. Including Dave Morin, Ramit Sethi and other folks that I look up to. Minutes.
I’m getting an update notification per sentence typed in this post.
Which leads me to my main point…
I am an idiot.
I refer to myself as a dumb guy, but I honestly doubted Quora. Purely for intelligent Q&A alone… this is gold. Consider me sold, hooked, signed, sealed, delivered. This is awesome.
Now I have the best marketing and product book list there is and it is being added to as I type.
Join in with your suggestions.
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The Top 10 Marketing Posts of 2010
2010 was an insanely productive and busy year, both here on the blog and at work. There were more comments in 2010 than all other years combined and Phonebooth was named one of the top business services of the year by BNET.
Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to read a post, comment, share and even disagree with something that has been posted here. It’s always fun to converse with like minds about marketing.
With that being said…
The Top 10 Posts of 2010
10. Want to improve your company, product, career or self? Be humble.
Funny how any article where you expose yourself (figuratively of course) and are personal is always successful. There is a definite correlation.
9. What I Learned At Social Fresh Charlotte – An Exhibitor, Attendee and Speaker Perspective
This was the birth of The Great Phonetree of Knowledge. A really fun SMB experiment that you should check out with short videos answering small business marketing and social media questions. As always, another fun and productive Social Fresh event.
8. How to Use Social Media to Save Customers
We’ve all complained on Twitter once we’ve reached a certain frustration level. Some companies handle this wonderfully and save customers in the process. This post shares a few of my experiences with social customer support.
7. SEO is Killing Our Creativity
Our SEO genius at Phonebooth (Al Scillitani) and I get along great and work together on almost every outward facing communication. But, there are times when optimization and SEO consideration kills the fun marketer inside of me and the lust for a catchy and descriptive title that search engines may hate.
6. Everyone Needs A Dumb Guy – The Ignite Raleigh Video
I like taking risks. Luckily, enough people voted for my preso idea and I was fortunate enough to educate everyone on the value of my kind of dumb guy. Essentially, you need someone who is “dumb” enough to listen without proposing solutions to truly meet your customer needs and expectations.
5. Out of the Blue… Sears has an Incredible Zombie Campaign
I love zombies. You love zombies. We all love zombies. Sears embraced this around Halloween and created one of the best microsites I have ever seen… a zombie-themed e-commerce site with great supporting content.
4. Ten Signs That Your Company Shouldn’t Use Social Media
You can hate me, but social isn’t for everyone. If you have a crappy business or product… social media won’t fix it. It will help publicize the fact that you are crappy though. I compiled ten indicators that you may need to avoid social media.
3. How to Improve Your Blog Community By Being Yourself
Another personal, but sincere and authentic post. I’ve met great friends online (yes, in real life) and the more you let people get to know you… the stronger the bond you’ll have with your blog community.
2. Five Things I Learned by Hanging at Zappos HQ That You Can Apply to Your Company
I had a great tour of Zappos at Blogworld and honestly, didn’t anticipate the popularity this post would receive. It was featured on MarketingProfs.com and their 60 second business tip to their large email newsletter for that particular week. As companies, we have to find something that makes us sticky. Something that defines us. Something that others will be like “I need me some of that.” If we don’t have that, we’re competing on price and fighting for business in the red ocean. This is referred to as “the purple cow” by Seth Godin.
and the most popular post of 2010 is…
1. Are You Influential Where It Matters… With the People You Love?
My wife actually read this post. As did many friends, colleagues and folks I didn’t know. It was me trying to make myself more accountable. I’m not perfect and you aren’t either. But, the rat race for corporate success should never impact the closeness we have with those we love. I admire the folks that live by this mantra. This is an area we can never master and must always keep ourselves in check.
Thank you all.
Thanks for putting up with my rants, my complaints, my bad posts, my mediocre posts and for finding the patience to wait it out until I write something that speaks to you. I’ll continue to work diligently to produce quality content in 2011 and would appreciate it if you stay with me another year.
I truly appreciate everyone who takes the time to read this. Thank you.
CM
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Use opportunistic marketing to get more customers
I’m always amazed at how often marketers don’t take advantages of opportunities that present themselves. Virtually anything that happens can resonate in some way with a key value proposition or marketing message of your product.
I was reminded of this at lunch today near a closed and vacant Schlotzsky’s Deli.
I was eating a quick lunch and like to get out of the office occasionally to clear my head for a few minutes. I picked up lunch at Arby’s and parked in the vacant Schlotzsky’s lot to listen to sports radio and eat.
Two minutes after parking, a car drove up… parked… walked to the door of the completely empty building and then reluctantly walked back to their vehicle.
Another two minutes passed and a car pulled through the drive-thru, also completely empty. They paused for a few seconds and then slowly drove away.
In fifteen minutes, there were eight vehicles that approached a vacant restaurant (and note that it has been vacant for several months).
Why isn’t another restaurant taking advantage of this opportunity?
There is an Arby’s next door. A KFC / Taco Bell about 100 yards away. And even a Firehouse Subs across the street, with similar and arguably, better tasting sandwiches. Would it be that difficult for them to post a piece of paper to the door and drive-thru offering a $1.00 discount if they come to their restaurant instead and mention that they were at the vacant Schlotzsky’s?
I’d venture to say that in the fifteen minutes I was in their parking lot, someone could have gained at least eight more customers that may have liked their clever, albeit extremely obvious marketing ploy.
I know you are all very busy restauranteurs, so I’ve taken the time to make this simple. Just copy this format and see what happens.
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