Posted by Elena del Valle on September 25, 2009
Trust Agents book cover
Chris Brogan and Julien Smith believe the Internet has changed the nature of business relationships. While researching information is faster and more efficient with the advent of the Internet, unreliable websites, spam, blam and other suspect communication tools make it hard to trust online and related sources. Reaching out to strangers or responding to their outreach efforts in the virtual world is challenging, they say. Winning over customers who are increasingly unwilling to respond to traditional media strategies and often are suspicious of expert claims requires a new approach, according to them.
They outline their thoughts on these issues in their newly published 271-page book, Trust Agents Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust (Wiley, $24.95). In the hardcover book Brogan and Smith discuss how the they think the web has become more humanized. Brogan indicates that “the people who succeed in understanding this and using the web to build businesses are called trust agents.”
In the book, an introduction and eight chapters focus on six characteristics and skill sets: standing out, belonging, having leverage, developing access, understanding, and establishing a network of contacts and relationships. The two co-authors discuss how readers can become trust agents, and make software, resources and tool recommendations. The chapter are titles as follows: Trust, Social Capital and Media; Make Your Own Game; One of Us; Archimedes Effect; Agent Zero; Human Artist; Build an Army; and The Trust Agent.
Julien Smith, co-author, Trust Agents
Brogan, who has been blogging since 1998, is co-founder of Podcamp, a new media conference series on the use of social media to build business and personal relationships. Smith, a trend analyst, has run web communities for 10 years. A resident of Montreal, Canada and he has been podcasting since 2004.
Click here to buy Trust Agents
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on September 18, 2009
Twitter Tips, Tricks and Tweets book cover
In Twitter Tips, Tricks and Tweets (Wiley, $19.99) Toronto resident Paul McFedries shares step by step insights on Twitter. He wrote the book for beginners and those who have been Twitter fans and want to expand their knowledge. The book is filled with photos of the website and related media illustrating the author’s text and instructions. He starts out with very basic information to introduce first time users to Twitter, the growing and increasingly popular social media website.
From there he progresses, explaining how to add a picture, theme and background image to an account; send account updates; manage the 140-character limit and use non standard characters; follow Twitter etiquette; make updates private; use hashtags; find and follow people; retweet; understand and use Twitter’s mobile phone feature; find information on Twitter; use Twitter Scan, Twitterfall, TweetGrid, Monitter and others; share your Twitter presence and updates on other websites; use TweetDeck, twhirl, and Twitter websites like iTweet, Tweetree, and Tweetvisor; use Twitter gadgets and widgets; use tools to extend Twitter by shortening URLs, sharing photos, videos and music; post to multiple social networks; follow Twitter trends; and get your Twitter account ranking.
The 249-page paperback book is divided into nine chapters: How Do I Get Started with Twitter? What Can I Do to Customize My Twitter Profile? How Do I Send Twitter Updates? How Do I Follow Other Twitter Users? Can I Use Twitter on My Mobile Phone? How Do I Find Stuff in Twitter? Where Can I Display My Twitter Feed? How Can I Take Twitter to the Next Level? and What Tools Can I Use to Extend Twitter?
McFedries, who wrote his first computer book in 1991, has 60 titles to his name and combined sales of more than three million books. He owns Word Spy, a website about words and phrases.
Click here to buy Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on September 11, 2009
The New Rules of Marketing & PR book cover
Photos: Wiley
An update on marketing and public relations tools, The New Rules of Marketing and PR How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly (Wiley, $16.95), a 287-page paperback book by David Meerman Scott, was published this year. In it, the author outlines how the tools for marketers and public relations practitioners have changed. Where offline, he believes, the skills for practitioners have been interruption and coercion; online they are journalistic thinking and being a thought leader.
The title, first published in 2007, was recently updated and revised. Meerman Scott uses his own book to illustrate the power of the online world for promotion. He explains at the beginning of the book that he did no advertising for the book and all the promotion was through bloggers, press releases and media outreach. According to him it has been the top title in its category for more than one year.
The paperback book is divided into three main sections: How the Web Has Changed the Rules of Marketing and PR, Web-based Communications to Reach Buyers Directly, and Action Plan for Harnessing the New Rules; and twenty-one chapters. He begins by discussing why the old rules are ineffective in the online world. Then, he outlines the new rules and proposes that it’s good to reach the buyer directly online.
In the second section, he talks about blogs, podcasts, news releases, online forums, spreading the world online, and successful websites. Finally, he dedicates chapters 10 to 21 to planning and developing promotions online.
Meerman Scott is former vice president of marketing for two publicly traded technology companies and was Asia marketing director for Knight-Ridder, a newspaper publishing and electronic information company. He has lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, Boston, and Hong Kong and has presented at industry conferences and events in thirty countries on four continents.
Click here to buy The New Rules of Marketing and PR
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on September 4, 2009
Financial Self-Defense book cover
Attorneys Arnold S. Golstein, JD, Ph.D. and Hillel L. Presser, JD provide tips to readers about legal ways to safeguard their assets against lawsuits, divorce, creditors, bankruptcy, tax collections and foreclosure in their recently published book, Financial Self-Defense: How to Protect Everything You Own…From Everyone…Everytime! (Garrett Press, $16.95).
They believe that asset protection requires a proactive approach and a shift in attitude on the part of those wishing to safeguard their wealth. They say that too many people dedicate much time to accumulating wealth but little or no time to protecting the wealth they acquire, suggesting readers dedicate one minute to asset protection thinking for every hour of asset accumulation.
The 236-page paperback book is divided into twelve chapters: Planning, Strategies, For Your Home and Other Real Estate, For Your Investments, For Your Retirement Accounts, For Your Estate and Inheritance, For Your Business or Professional Practice, For Your Other Assets, Against Lawsuits, From Foreclosures, In Divorce, and Against the IRS.
Goldstein, a member of the Massachusetts and Federal bars, is a professor at Lynn University and a professor emeritus at Northeastern University where he received a Ph.D. He has written several other books on wealth protection which, according to promotional materials, are best sellers. He has 40 years of experience. He has, according to his website, represented 20,000 clients on wealth protection issues. Presser is co-founder of Presser/ Goldstein, LLC.
Click here to buy Financial Self-Defense
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on August 28, 2009
Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South
Photos: University of Georgia Press
In the past decade the Latino population in the South has doubled bringing with it social, economic and cultural changes. In 2004, a conference on Mexican immigration to the southern part of the United States was held in Atlanta, Georgia with the help of the Consulate of Mexico in Atlanta and four universities. The edited conference proceedings were published initially by the Institute of Mexico in Atlanta. The editors, Elaine Lacy and Mary E. Odem, expanded the topic to encompass Latin American immigration to the United States South and this year published a collection of articles by 10 contributors in a book titled Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South (University of Georgia Press, $24.95).
Elaine Lacy, co-editor, Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South
In the book, ten academics, five women and five men from the United States and Mexico, dedicated 175 pages to an examination of issues relating to Latinos and the South. Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South is divided into nine chapters: Cultural Enclaves and Transnational Ties: Mexican Immigration and Settlement in South Carolina by Lacy; New Scenarios of Migration: Social Vulnerability of Undocumented Veracruzanos in the Southern United States by Rosío Córdova Plaza; The Dalton Story: Mexican Immigration and Social Transformation in the Carpet Capital of the World by Víctor Zúñiga and Rubén Hernández León; Globalization and Latin American Immigration in Alabama by Raymond A. Mohl; Hispanic New Comers to North Carolina: Demographic Characteristics and Economic Impact by James H. Johnson Jr. and John D. Kasarda; Race, Migration and Labor Control: Neoliberal Challenges to Organizing Mississippi’s Poultry Workers by Angela C. Stuesse; Latino Immigrants and the Politics of Space in Atlanta by Odem; New Americans in a New South City? Immigrants and Refugee Politics in Nashville, Tennessee by Jamie Winders; and Popular Attitudes and Public Policies: Southern Responses to Latino Immigration by Lacy and Odem.
Mary Odem, co-editor, Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South
Lacy is professor of history and assistant to the executive vice chancellor at the University of South Carolina, Aiken. She has published several articles on Latino immigration to the United States and Mexican cultural politics. Odem is associate professor of history and women’s studies at Emory University and the author of a number of publications about women, gender, immigration and ethnicity in the history of the United States.
Click here to buy Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on August 21, 2009
Twitter for Dummies book cover
As social media grow in popularity (see Which social networking site is right for you? and Businessmen outline social media basics) more people and businesses seem to join the Twitter ranks (see About Twitter and About Twitter II). Twitter offers easy to use social networking opportunities with postings limited to 140-characters. For aspiring Twitter users, the well known For Dummies series released a new 267-page paperback book published in 2009, Twitter For Dummies (Wiley Publishing, $21.99). Three people collaborated to make the book come to fruition, Laura Fitton, Michael E. Gruen and Leslie Poston.
Twitter For Dummies starts out with a foreword from Jack Dorsey, founder and chairman of Twitter, and a Cheat Sheet with do’s and don’ts, access points and shorthand commands. Dorsey mentions that Twitter is based on three concepts: “minimize thinking around communication, expose trends in local and global circles, and spark interaction.” The book is divided into five parts of between three and four chapters each: Twitter? Like Birds Do?, Joining Your Flock on Twitter, Twittering in High Gear, Knowing Why We Twitter, and The Part of Tens.
It was written for people wanting to start a Twitter account to build their network of contacts, locate similar minded people interested in following their brief Twitter postings, and leverage the social media site for business communication and networking. It also addresses Twitter terms, how to Twitter when you are not at your office or home, third party applications, and Twitter character use and meaning.
Fitton is a business consultant, blogger and Twitter fan with a following of more than 32,000 when the book was published. Gruen is a business adviser and chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Nom, a digital strategy agency. He is also the chief executive officer of a healtcare startup. Poston dedicates her time to social networking, new media, branding and business development. She has more than 200 books to her credit.
Click here to buy Twitter For Dummies
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on August 7, 2009
The New Influencers book cover
Photos: Quill Driver Books
Paul Gillin makes his living advising marketing consultants and senior executives on social media. He believes one of the most remarkable aspects of the new media landscape is the emergence of people and media that influence others within “communities that have no rules, no governing structures, no standards and no hierarchy.” Toward that goal he wrote The New Influencers A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media (Quill Driver Books, $16.95).
Out of what should be chaos, he says, an informal structure is developing. Often those who command attention and lead the way online are individuals of authority in their own fields offline. He discusses Enthusiasts, a group of people who blog to express their opinions and share information. Although their motivations are difficult to pinpoint he believes they can be valuable to businesses and organizations as a sort of “global online focus group that works for free.”
He also refers to Influentials (from The Influentials, a book by Ed Keller and Jon Berry) who some believe play a major role in the decision making of the general market. According to the book authors, 10 percent of Americans influence the purchasing decisions of the remaining 90 percent of Americans. Gillin goes on to argue that many enthusiast bloggers see their role as one of commentary rather than original reporting. His advice: Businesses, such as Wal-Mart, which he refers to in an example, would be better served by addressing mainstream media for large focus issues and bloggers for personal issues.
The 236-page paperback book, published earlier this year, is divided into 11 chapters: The Origins of Social Media; From Chaos, Structure; Enthusiasts; Measures of Influence; Corporate Conversations; Small Is Beautiful; Putting “Public” Back Into Public Relations; The Talkers; Tools of the Trade; Going Viral; and Next Steps. He closes with two appendices: The Numbers and Leveraging Technology.
Author Paul Gillin
Prior to writing the book and offering his services as a social media consultant Gillin covered computer industry issues as a journalist for fifteen years. He was editor-in-chief of TechTarget and held the same title at Computerworld.
Click here to buy The New Influencers
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on July 31, 2009
Web Content RX book cover
Wayne English believes the quality of online content is important. He also believes that web content, design and keywords are equally important. That is why he included web development information in his recently published book Web Content Rx A Quick and Handy Guide for Writers, Webmasters, Ebayers and Business People (Career Press, $7.99). In the book, he includes insights on writing easy-to-understand content, choosing a good design, preparing eBay ads, making email addresses unreadable by spammers, and the abc’s of making a podcast and blogging.
The 240-page softcover book is divided into eleven chapters: Get Read or Get Lost – Your Content Decides; Writing Your Content; Content That Sells; Using Automated and Other People’s Content; E-mail; Your Blog; Getting Found: Content and Search Engines; User-Generated and User-Maintained Content; Communication; Podcasting; and Digital Photography.
There are also 10 appendices: Grammar, A Writer’s Checklist, Web Design and HTML, Your Business, A Short Style Guide and Confused Words, Online Tools, HTML Characters and Special Characters; Unspammable E-mail Code, An Almost Foolproof Data Backup Scheme, and Site Search with Google.
Author Wayne English
English, formerly a professional photographer, is the founder of WebContentRx.com. He makes his living writing online oriented content; doing website analysis; launching e-mail campaigns; and marketing websites for clients.
Click here to buy Web Content Rx
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on July 17, 2009
The Social Media Bible book cover
The Social Media Bible Tactics, Tools and Strategies for Business Success (Wiley, $29.94), a 821-page tome from Lon Safko and David K. Brake published earlier this year, outlines basic social media issues in 43 chapters. The soft cover book is divided into three parts: Background Basics and Tactics (chapters 1-23), Tools (chapters 24-38) and Strategy (chapters 38-43). The authors believe that readers who successfully implement the strategies they outline in the book may increase revenues, improve profitability and remain relevant in their industry.
The two authors relied on 48 experts and authors from companies such as Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publishing, Flicker, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Yelp, LinkedIn, and MySpace, among others, to enhance their contribution to the book and its partner website. The book project required almost two years of planning and about six months to write.
“The most challenging aspect of writing a 43 chapter, 844 page book on social media was the wrapping my brain around the extensive landscape of social media. I took months to gather information about the hundreds of companies and tools then creating the 15 basic categories of social media applications,” said Safko by email when asked what were the most challenging and rewarding aspects of the project. “Then the real work began; researching each of these technologies and compiling all of their histories, features, benefits, and interviewing nearly 50 of the world leaders on social media; Biz Stone, Twitter, Matt Mullenweg, WordPress, SVP YouTube, SVP, Flickr, VP MySpace, and even Peter Wiley, chairman of the Board for John Wiley & Sons, and Vint Cerf, the inventor of the Internet.
The most rewarding aspect of creating this work is the testimonials and stories I hear on a daily basis about how this book is answering so many peoples questions about social media and where they do they begin. Business people are both excited and stressed about social media. They all know social media is changing the way we all do business, but they don’t know how they should be applying it. The hear that this book is helping so many people is the most valuable reward I could have hoped for.”
The first section is designed to serve as an introduction on social media and its varied applications; they delve deeper in the second part where they address 100 social media tools and applications in 15 categories; in the last section, they share exercises for readers to determine their individual needs to facilitate their efforts at crafting and developing social media strategies for their business or company.
Safko, the founder of eight companies including Paper Models, Inc and LonSafko.com, dedicates his time to public speaking and developing innovative ideas. He has 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, training and e-commerce. Brake is the chief executive officer of Content Connections, a social media strategies company.
Click here to buy The Social Media Bible
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on July 10, 2009
Gabriel Garcia Marquez A Life book cover
The work of 17 years of research and dedication, Gabriel Garcia Marquez A Life (Knof, $37.50) by Gerald Martin, is the first official biography of the famous Colombian Nobel Prize winner. The 642-page hardcover book is divided into three sections and 24 chapters that follow the author’s life in chronological order to the time of publication. The book, published in 2008, includes 16 pages of photographs and three maps. A Spanish edition is due out this year.
To complete his task Martin interviewed Garcia Marquez, the author best known for his magical realism writing style, extensively as well as 300 other individuals; including family members (wife, children and siblings), political figures such as Fidel Castro and Felipe Gonzalez, fellow authors and even self described detractors. Martin summarized his findings in order to publish the current title, down from more than two thousand pages which he plans to publish as an extensive work in future years.
A resident of England, Martin is Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and senior research professor at London Metropolitan University. Past publications include Journeys Through a Labyrinth: Latin American Fiction in the Twentieth Century; and a translation and critical edition of Men of Maize, a work of Miguel Angel Asturia.
Click here to buy Gabriel García Márquez: A Life
Comments:
Filed Under: Books
