Scott Stratten, author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, has two new books out. It’s kind of a buy-one-get-one deal; see, one book is just flipped upside-down and glued onto the back of the other one.
Good Vs. Evil: Stratten's competing book covers side-by-side
OK, maybe a teensy bit gimmicky, but it comes off as a pretty cute idea, really. The front-facing Book of Business Awesome explains “how engaging your customers and employees can make your business thrive.” Flip the book over and upside-down, and you’re faced with awesome’s yang: The Book of Business UnAwesome: The Cost of Not Listening, Engaging, or Being Great at What You Do.
Much like the cartoon angel/devil duo from Warner Bros. cartoons, each side addresses the same subject (in this case, “the awesome,” as Stratten insists upon putting it), but from different perspectives.
As you may have noticed from previous reviews, I am a fan of any business writer who can bring a little humor and lightheartedness to their work. Stratten achieves this and then some. Unfortunately, he goes a little overboard with the parentheses, and seems to think that sarcasm is utterly undetectable in the written word (therefore requiring him to point it out every time he uses it).
Aside from these minor irritations, though, this is an entertaining and insightful book(s). One area in which Stratten especially excels is making points that are both unsaid and forehead-slappingly self-evident. These alone make this book a satisfying read; after all, the best tip is the one that makes sense before you begin to implement it. Some examples: Continue reading »
By Erica Christoffer, Multimedia Web Producer, REALTOR® Magazine
Make a New Year’s resolution to focus on social media platforms that work for you and your business. When I say work, I mean platforms that you’re comfortable using, enjoy updating, and that help you make authentic and meaningful connections with your sphere.
For author and communications coach Carmine Gallo, that platform would be foursquare.
Gallo became a believer when he was introduced to the app by his publisher about two years ago. Gallo has an insatiable interest in all things that improve communication. He’s also the author of The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.
Gallo started using the foursquare while on a business trip in New York after a presentation in Hoboken, N.J. He was searching for a place to have dinner, so he opened foursquare to see if it could help. Just around the corner was a restaurant called the Energy Kitchen offering free coffee. “Foursquare opens up a whole new world for you because businesses are using this mobile medium to attract you with incentives,” he said. “I walked into Energy Kitchen — had never been there before, never heard of it before — and it was just fabulous!”
After traveling home to California, Gallo ended up calling the marketing director of Energy Kitchen to pick her brain, and it became the first interview for his book, The Power of foursquare: 7 Innovative Ways to Get Your Customers to Check In Wherever They Are, which was released in November.
When planning for the year ahead, Gallo says think mobile. Foursquare is a good place to start — especially if many of your clients are using foursquare, too.
Gallo chatted with the Weekly Book Scan to provide a window into his foursquare evangelism. Here’s what he had to say:
Can you explain how foursquare works? Continue reading »
By Shane Michael Singh, Editorial Intern, REALTOR® Magazine
If you’re abiding by the new rules of Facebook, Twitter, and social media networking, you may have a few more “friends” and followers than you do in real life—and that’s exactly the problem, says author Tommy Spaulding in his book, It’s Not Just Who You Know (Broadway Books, 2010; $23 hardcover). Spaulding advocates a move from the personal gains of networking to the interpersonal rewards of net-giving, or building relationships that help others, and not just yourself. Calling them “Fifth Floor relationships,” Spaulding writes that deeper connections between individuals and coworkers can build better organizations and businesses.” You never know when the next relationship will be the most important of your life,” writes Spaulding, who uses personal anecdotes throughout the book, such as how a bartender at a small restaurant led to his winning a scholarship. Here’s a peek at some of the points Spaulding emphasizes to move from networking to net-giving.
- Skip the weather and water cooler talk. An integral step in building deeper relationships is moving away from generic talking points and towards something more specific. Do your homework about those you’d like to know better; ask sincere questions and allot them genuine attention. Continue reading »
The following excerpt is from the book “Social Media 101 : Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online” (Wiley 2010) by Chris Brogan. The book gives insight on effective use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, and how to utilize them to grow your business.
Social Media Starter Moves for Real Estate
Disclaimer right up front: I’m not in the real estate biz, so I’ll write this from the perspective of what I’ve observed and what might be useful. Some real real estate pro can come and fix this on his or her own blog, and it’ll likely be better. Why would I ever let a simple thing like inexperience get in the way of sharing my opinion?
SHOW ME THE HOUSE The first and most obvious thing I think the real estate world can (and should) be doing is buying video cameras and shooting their own walk-throughs. You don’t have to be a pro. You do have to know how not to make something look horrible, but that comes with trial and error.
PICK UP A VIDEO CAMERA If you don’t yet own a video camera, here are a few thoughts: Most still cameras have a video feature, and that’s nearly good enough. The Flip camera is the easiest and often the least expensive video camera to use. Kodak’s new Zi8 (and related) models have more flexibility than the Flip, but are a bit more complicated as a trade-off. Continue reading »
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the book “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust” (Wiley, 2009) by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Looking for insight on how to build a good online reputation through social networks that helps boost your brand? This book offers answers on how a business can gain positive influence (and profit) online.
How Humans Shape the Web
Although the general public’s level of mistrust is at an all-time high, there are individuals and companies who do successfully use the Internet to establish levels of trust in the communities where they operate. In the technology sector, a person such as Robert Scoble (circa Microsoft days) stands out as someone who, by the nature of how he communicated about his formerly faceless company, developed a strong level of trust among his online community. In the United Kingdom, JP Rangaswami is managing director of BT Design for BT Group. His blog, Confused of Calcutta, is often about cricket, music, food, and many things not related to a major telecommunications company; yet, because of his stories and conversational writing tone, we trust Rangaswami and have a positive opinion about BT.
Those who are most familiar with the digital space—we refer to them as ‘‘digital natives’’—have become accustomed to a new level of transparency. They operate under the assumption that everything they do will eventually be known online. Realizing they are unable to hide anything, they choose not to try. Instead, they leverage the way the Web connects us and ties our information together to help turn transparency into an asset for doing business. Continue reading »
By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
- By next year, Generation Y will outnumber Baby Bombers. And 96 percent of Gen Y has joined a social network.
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth largest in the world.
- YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and has 100 million videos.
- Approximately 25 percent of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content.
Erik Qualman uncovered these startling statistics and more, which he lays out in his new book Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business (Wiley, 2009). Social media has created a fundamental shift in how people communicate, Qualman says. One only needs to look as far as Qualman’s Socialnomics YouTube video that went viral just weeks after its release, topping out at nearly 1 million views. He believes that soon people will not have to search for news, products, and services — but rather news, products, and services will find them via social media. Thus, in order to be successful in business today and in the future, the social interaction with potential clients must be embraced.
What was your first social media experience and what were your thoughts at that time?
Erik Qualman
QUALMAN: I joined MySpace, like a lot of people, in 2005. An 18-year-old introduced it to me and it was like she was addicted to crack. She’d always have to check her MySpace to see if she had more friends or to see in anyone commented. It was obvious to me that it was something big, especially for someone to be so ingratiated with it. I hopped on and it made sense to me right away. It wasn’t a surprise once Facebook opened up their platform to go beyond just college students that Facebook became so popular. Then the world was turned on its head when they opened up their application program interface to allow anybody to write applications for Facebook. That decision was so far reaching that it actually caused Apple, which has typically been a very closed environment, to open up and allow others the ability to code applications for the iPhone. That was really the game changer. Continue reading »
Recent Comments