Influential Marketing Blog

The 5 Models Of Content Curation

Curation has always been an underrated form of creation. The Getty Center in Los Angeles is one of the most frequently visited museums in America - and started as a private art collection from one man (J. Paul Getty) who had a passion for art. Aside from a few well known examples like this one, however, the term curation has rarely been used outside of the world of art ... until now.

One of the hottest trends in social media right now is content curation - thanks in no small part to the leading efforts of several thought leaders actively promoting the idea. Joe Pulizzi is a "content marketing evangelist" who speaks and writes often about content marketing publishes a list of the best content marketing blogs across the web. Steve Rosenbaum just published a book called Curation Nation looking at the rise of content curation in the business world - and a recent post on the Psychology Today blog even declared that "content curation is the new black."

What Is Content Curation?

Back in 2009 I published a blog post called the "Manifesto For The Content Curator" which predicted that this role would be one of the fastest growing and most important jobs of the future. I would stand by this prediction today, but also in the post I shared one potential definition for content curation:

Content Curation is a term that describes the act of finding, grouping, organizing or sharing the best and most relevant content on a specific issue.

It is such a powerful idea because curation does NOT focus on adding more content/noise to the chaotic information overload of social media, and instead focuses on helping any one of us to make sense of this information by bringing together what is most important.

The 5 Models Of Content Curation

Over time, the idea of content curation has felt like more and more of a catchphrase that is really encompassing many smaller activities that are adding structure and insight to the cacophony of information being published online. What if we could define not just content curation as a macro activity, but look at how curation might be applied in very specific situations? The rest of this post shares 5 potential models for content curation as a starting point for discussion:

1. Aggregation - There is a flood of information online and Google can only give you a best guess at the most relevant, but there are millions and millions of pages returned for any search result. Aggregation is the act of curating the most relevant information about a particular topic into a single location. Often taking the form of catalog style blog posts which list "27 Great Resources For Small Business" (or similar aggregations), this is the most common form of content curation. Volume is not typically an issue when it comes to aggregation, so in this case you still may have hundreds of pieces of source material - but just the fact that it is in a single location and not millions of pieces of information has a high value for people interested in a particular topic.
2. Distillation - The idea behind distillation is that adding a layer of simplicity is one of the most valuable activities that someone can undertake. Distillation is the act of curating information into a more simplistic format where only the most important or relevant ideas are shared. As a result, there may be quite a bit of additional content that is lost for the sake of simplicity - however the value comes from the fact that anyone digesting this content no longer has to contend with a high volume of content and can instead consume a more focused view of information.
3. Elevation - The smaller ideas that are often shared online in 140 character bursts or pithy mobile phone images may point to a larger societal trend or shift. Elevation refers to curation with a mission of identifying a larger trend or insight from smaller daily musings posted online. Encompassing much of what many trend-focused websites do, this can be one of the hardest forms of content curation because it requires more expertise and analytical ability on the part of the person or organization during the curating. The benefit is that it can also be the most powerful in terms of sharing new ideas as well.
4. Mashup - A term often used in the context of music to describe the growing trend of taking two or more pieces of music and fusing them together - there is a wider implication for mashups in relation to information. Mashups are unique curated justapositions where merging existing content is used to create a new point of view. Taking multiple points of view on a particular issue and sharing it in a single location would be one example of this type of behaviour - and could be used to describe the sort of activity that takes place every day on Wikipedia. More broadly, mashups can offer a way of creating something new while still using content curation as a basis for it because you are building on existing content.
5. Chronology - One of the most interesting ways of looking at the evolution of information is over time - and how concepts or our understanding of topics has changed over time. Creating a Chronology is a form of curation that brings together historical information organized based on time to show an evolving understanding of a particular topic. Most useful when it comes to topics where understanding has shifted over time, this can be a powerful way of retelling history through informational artifacts that exist over time to prove how experiences and understandings have changed.

Content curation is certainly an emerging space and one where more and more thought leaders will continue to share their voices. This is simply a contribution to the curated universe of discussion on this topic - as well as an option invitation to others who have thought deeply about content curation to share their own visions for what the future may look like.

I'll look forward to eventually reading the "Chronological Curation" of this discussion one day in the future where this post may be included among many others to spark a longer and deeper conversation about a topic that has the potential to transform how each of us sees the world around us.

Interested in learning more about content curation?  Click here to learn how to book Rohit to speak at your next event >>

Additional Posts About Content Curation:

• Manifesto for the Content Curator: The Next Big Social Media Job Of the Future
• Why The Future Of Travel & Destination Marketing Is All About Curation

 

CBS Wants To Kill Demographics, Marketers Should Help

"There is no link, none, between the age of the specified demographic delivery of the campaign and the sales generated by that campaign."

You would expect a conclusion like that to come at a consumer rights type of event. Perhaps even at a social media event with marketers who are fighting the status quo and encouraging others to think differently. But when this point of view comes from CBS Corporation's Chief Research Officer David Poltrack - it is downright revolutionary. At an event earlier this month, Poltrack presented findings from new research that he conducted along with Neilsen that challenges some very long held assumptions about not only TV advertising, but about advertising and marketing itself.

Among the conclusions the report shared - according to an article in AdAge:

• "Reliance on the 18 to 49 demographic is hazardous to all media and marketers, partly because it doesn't strongly correlate with purchases and partly because it's declining fast."
• "A growing amount of data that matches audience measurement with purchase information shows that using demographics to target commercials is 'essentially invalid,' Poltrack said, 'resulting in a misallocation of television advertising investments.'"

It has long been a dirty little secret in marketing that the targeting that is used throughout much of media buying is based on information that is readily available instead of information that is most important. As technology starts to bridge the gap and offer better insights into consumer behaviours, attitudes and intentions - why should the industry still rely on old and outdated demographics to determine where and how they spend on media?

Apart from a few situations (like targeting 18-19 year olds because you know many of them are preparing to head off to college, for example) age based demographics ARE completely useless. Social media and digital advertising has already been leading the way with methods for buying media that are inherently more focused on behaviour (keyword text advertising) or attitudes (targeting by interests on Facebook). It's about time that marketers had similar options for a more sophisticated way to target who they want to reach through other mediums such as TV.

The temptation from the industry may be to dismiss this research from CBS as being self-serving or flawed in some way. The smart marketers will get behind it immediately. Ultimately we all should.

5 Branding Secrets You Can Learn From Google

If you asked any designer, they would probably list Google's logo among the ugliest of any brand. In a world where it is en vogue to change logos and corporate positioning each time a new CMO starts his or her tenure - Google has not only held on to their ugly logo, but also made it into one of the world's most recognized corporate icons (UPDATE - the World's Most Valuable Brand as well!). Clearly consistency is has been one of Google's more obvious branding secrets, but what else might you learn from Google about marketing?

1. Be consistent, not paranoid.

 
While Google has been remarkably consistent with their logo, they also enjoy regularly playing with the logo in various ways to celebrate moments like Dr. Seuss' birthday or the first Indian movie with sound that arguably launched the Bollywood industry. The Doodle4Google project is another example, where a competition for schoolkids to create their own versions of the logo allows winners to be featured on the homepage for millions to see. The point this makes is that even with a consistent brand image, they are not afraid to venture outside of typical "brand guidelines." In many ways, allowing their logo to be "remixed" in various ways ADDS to their brand strength instead of diluting it.

2. Share an understandable mission.
Google's first stated mission has become almost legendary for its simplicity and non-corporate feeling ... "don't be evil." An undeniable jab at the monopolistic Microsoft of the time when Google was first founded, this simple focus on sharing what they actually do through natural language has continued at Google. Despite yesterday's setback in their goal of digitizing every book ever published - Google has stayed true to their own mandate of "organizing the world's information." Even last week, when they launched the new Google for Nonprofits program, the topline message was clear: "You're changing the world. We want to help. No jargon or doublespeak - just clear understandable mission statements.

3. Reinforce the brand suite.

Google is a product company, and as such they develop new products all the time and famously offer their engineers and staffers enough free time as part of their roles to dream up the next big thing. When they do launch a new product, it typically has "Google" in front of it and a design that is recognizable and fits into their "suite" of products. As a result, users get the sense that all of these products are designed to work together and that there will be an advantage if you already use one to start using another. This is critical to get them to adopt using new products which may replace other tools they are used to using which are developed by other companies.

4. Don't rush to rebrand acquisitions.
Along their growth path, Google has invested in several big acquisitions. The largest three would surely be Blogger (a blogging platform), Picasa (a photo sharing platform) and YouTube. Each has retained their own branding and identity, and Google has resisted the temptation to rebrand each or bring them directly into the brand suite of Google. Making this choice allows them to maintain the relationships that people may be built up with each of those brands and offer new services or functionality that are complimentary to what people are already using - instead of being dictatorial about forcing users to use a new tool ... Google can keep the goodwill and userbase of an acquisition in a way that most larger brands could not.

5. Be brutal about brand simplicity.
A hallmark for Google since their founding has been the simplicity of their design approach. From their choice to not have any distractions on their homepage except a single field and the search button, Google has succeeded in part because of their simplicity. There are recent signs, such as their slight redesign of the Google Chrome logo, that this philosophy is moving into a deeply held corporate value that will assert itself in many ways .. . not least of which is making sure that every piece of identity remains uncomplicated and as simple as possible.

*Image Credit: "Don't Be Evil" Image from http://noranajohar.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

How ABC Killed Their Fan Base (And What All TV Networks Should Learn From It)

In Dilbert, Mordac is the character who is described as the "preventer of information services." He is a caricature of the unhelpful IT support tech who seemingly goes out of his way to create inefficiency and discontent in the workplace. Unfortunately for all of us, he also seems to be the role model upon which many television networks are basing their content strategies.

Last night, in an attempt to watch a missed episode of the ABC drama V ... I went online to ABC.com to seek out the latest episode. After several errant clicks, 15 minutes of online searching, and considerable frustration I finally found an external blog post talking about a decision ABC had made to stop allowing fans to watch episodes of V online. According to the post, ABC only issued the following statement:

Fellow V fans,
It is with much regret that we must inform you that full episodes of V will not be available on ABC.com or Hulu for Season 2. Just like you, we truly wish full episodes were playing here. But we also hope our detailed recaps will keep you informed and entertained should you ever miss an episode.

Best always,
The ABC.com Team

This type of thinking is why piracy is thriving in many places around the world - because getting and sharing content legally has so many restrictions. It explains part of the reason that it is so difficult to keep a consistent audience for any type of new drama. Most importantly, it demonstrates how backward thinking in the realm of entertainment programming is stifling revenues, stirring discontent and helping new programming to fail.

Instead of dreaming up ways of preventing people from accessing content, watching it where they want and on the platform they want - why not focus on creating more ways to monetize the content that you already have? Create new advertising models, sell new sponsorships. If the cost of a show is becoming too burdensome or ratings are lower, why not get a company to sponsor the availability of older episodes online?

Thinking more creatively about new revenue opportunities can not only help the economics of paying for high quality content, but also serves the dual purpose of giving consumers what they really want. Without it, you risk coming off as a brand that is hopelessly out of touch with their consumers ... kind of like ABC does to fans of V.

What You Should Know About Google For NonProfits

This afternoon in front of a packed room of nearly 200 nonprofit communicators in Washington DC, Google announced their most innovative and ambitious set of tools to help nonprofit organizations to succeed yet. Promising to offer $10,000 in free keyword advertising credits, branded channels and other extended premium features, the announcement of the Google for Nonprofits program divided the ways that Google could help into three core areas; reaching more donors, improving operations and raising awareness.

There is a great description of the program available at www.google.com/nonprofits - including answers to all the basic questions anyone interested in the program is likely to have. If you are wondering how to apply, the specific services that Google offers, what types of organizations are eligible or what the specific terms are, please do check out the site.

Once you do, here are a few observations about the most interesting aspects of this program and how your nonprofit might best take advantage of it:

1. Get the right technical support. You may be tempted to think that Google making lots of technical resources freely available means you will be able to get by with internal less technical support ... actually, the opposite is true. To get the most out of many of Google's services, you need a smart and savvy technical person who can understand how to integrate all the free tools and really leverage them. If don't have a great technical person, do everything you can to find one.
2. Prioritize creating video. Whether or not your nonprofit is actively using video right now, Google's announcement should provide you with the motivation to start immediately. Extended features on YouTube that corporate brands pay tens of thousands of dollars for will be free for nonprofits - and taking advantage will be a great way to spread your message through a medium that people are more and more likely to engage with.
3. Move fast to become a case study. While Google's announcement is new, they will be looking for success stories to feature. As a result, the quicker you can move to be part of the program, the more likely you are to get featured. This is one of those situations where being an early adopter will almost certainly pay off.
4. Start with "citizen cartography." One of the best buzzwords to emerge out of the session at Google was the idea of "citizen cartography" - a slightly sexier way of describing the act of adding geographic information and context to Google Maps or Google Earth. Whether you use some of the newer digital cameras which include GPS tagging of images or input data about the locations that your nonprofit serves, there is a way to add your data to the global archive of geo-specific information that Google has which can be an easy way to start adding your mission and content to the global collective of data.
5. Visualize your data. One of the hottest trends of the year, creating a more visualized way to share your data should be high on your list of priorities because chances are you have data that is underleveraged simply because it is hard to tell a story around it.  Google's new "Fusion Tables" service will allow you to upload your data and turn it into a visual that can help to tell a more cohesive story. Grab your best spreadsheet, upload it and start to visualize your data now.

Overall, Google's announcement is exciting news and is bound to lead to more innovations and smart tools to help nonprofits. During the session, I asked the question of whether there would be more ways for nonprofits to collaborate with one another to help each other leverage the platforms and share both success stories and failures. The short answer was that there will be.

Ultimately, focusing on that may lead to Google tackling the biggest problem in the nonprofit world today ... duplication of resources. There are dozens of organizations all fighting to raise HIV awareness. Another dozen focused on homelessness. And the list goes on and on. It is inefficient. If anyone can enable collaboration on a global scale around the key issues, it is Google. Imagine the impact that a global network of nonprofits could achieve if they were able to efficiently work together to build on one another's successes.

Enabling that kind of collaboration really could change the world.

Overtweeting: Are We Becoming Socially Antisocial?

There was a time when there were only two types of thoughts: those that you shared and those that you kept to yourself. Call it discretion, or social etiquette ... but learning to interact in any culture mostly meant learning the unwritten rules about how much to share and how much to keep to yourself.

Social media has led to a third type of thought: one that you share with a virtual social network instead of those who you may be interacting with in person. This might lead people, for example, to post a review of a menu item at a restaurant on Facebook instead of sharing that same thought with those who they are dining with.

When you have and share this type of "third thought," the big cultural question is whether this is anti-social behaviour, or just a new kind of social interaction. How much should we focus on being in the moment versus amplifying our experience by sharing and interacting with our virtual social network to add context to our real life interactions and activities? In other words, where is the line?

Each of us needs to answer this question for themselves, but below are some "visual notes" (thanks to Sunni Brown) from a panel discussion I led yesterday at SXSW where we explored this exact question and came up with some interesting conclusions.

See a full collection of nearly 100 visual notes from SXSW created by the ImageThink team sponsored by Ogilvy at www.ogilvynotes.com >>

The Secret To Avoiding Information Overload (Especially At SXSW)

On Monday morning at 9:30am, there are 27 other panels or discussions scheduled for the exact same time slot as mine at the SXSW Interactive show this weekend. This is not unique to that time either. Over the three days that the Interactive festival will be held, there will be hundreds of panels and discussions about interesting topics - and a nearly impossible additional number of "unofficial" talks and events and will easily overwhelm even the most experienced conference attendee.

So how can you avoid getting completely overloaded, or consistently feeling like you are always missing something? The biggest thing you can do to help is to prioritize the people and not the content. Who do you really want to meet or hear in person? At an event as large as SXSW, this is really the only way you can maximize your time and decide between a panel, a lunch or just hanging out in a hallway.

To help make sure you can still benefit from the content, even if you aren't able to attend every session that peaks your interest - this year Ogilvy is partnering with a great group of visual illustrators from ImageThink to create visual notes from nearly 100 panels and discussions at SXSW. Every day we will release more than 30 of these illustrations on www.ogilvynotes.com and distribute limited edition prints of the illustrations at the Day Stage if you happen to actually be AT SXSW.

It's our chance to help with the overload by sharing information in a useful visual format, while you're off doing the most important thing you can do at an event like SXSW ... making real connections with real people.

Interview: 10 Insights On Enchantment With Guy Kawasaki

1. What is the big idea of Enchantment and how did you land on that word as the title?

The big idea is that if you want to change the world, you need to enchant people. Inronically, the more innovative your product, service, or idea, the more you need to enchant people. As for the title, I wanted to own a work like Tom Peters owns "excellence," Malcolm Gladwell owns "tipping," Geoffrey Moore owns "chasm," and Robert Cialdini owns "persuasion."

Too many people use "influence," and "woo" lacks depth. No one owns "enchantment," and the Facebook vanity URL Facebook/enchantment was available. I took this as a message from above that "enchantment" was the way to go.

2. Can anyone master the art of Enchantment, or do you need to have a certain type of personality or skill?

Everyone can increase their level of enchantment--it's like increasing one's level of physical fitness. Enchantment is a process that moves you along a continuum. People are not born enchanting or not. Sure, there are outliers, but if a person believes they are naturally enchanting, then they're probably not. And if a person believes he cannot be more enchanting, then he won't be.

3. This is your 10th book - what were some of the mistakes that you might have made with some of the earlier books that you learned from and used to make Enchantment even better?

It's not that my other nine books were perfect, but a book is a work of art. It's the best you could do at a given time. Maybe my early books had too many passive-voice sentences, adjectives, and adverbs, but they reflect what I knew at the time.

4. You talk about everything from being more trustworthy to being likeable - including directions on how to achieve the perfect handshake. If you could choose one part of the book that you'd love for everyone in the world to read, what would it be?

The single most powerful recommendation in the book is that if you want to enchant people, you should default to a "yes attitude." In other words, when you interact with people, you should assume that you will agree to their requests of you--you are always thinking of how you can help other people instead of how they could/should help you. The world would be a better place if everyone embraced this attitude.

5. A danger of enchantment that you talk about is the potential for misuse. You have a list of where people should draw the line, including at enchanting "gullible people." Doesn't that exclude a lot of people? ;-)

You're right--it does. And that's why I had the moral obligation to tell you not to abuse your enchantment skills, and I also include a whole chapter about how to resist enchantment. Everyone does not have your best interests at heart. Let's not be naive about this.

6. One thing I have always loved about your writing style is that you can write a book in a way that is easy to digest in pieces. How important do you think it is that someone read a book like Enchantment from cover to cover versus just dipping in and out of it?

One of my recommendations in the book is that if you want to be likable, you should not enforce your values on others. Diversity is good, so I would be a hypocrite to tell you that people should read my book in only a certain way. I'm a big believer in "letting a hundred flowers blossom."

7. It seemed that you chose to include many more personal elements in Enchantment, like pictures of yourself and stories of real people instead of charts and tables like you have done before. What led you towards doing it this way for this book?

I'm getting all warm and fuzzy in my old age. Plus, I love my Nikon camera. I included people's personal stories in their own words because I believe in the principle of social proof. That is, if you see that many people have been enchanted, you'll believe that enchantment is possible.

The personal stories are also a testament to the power of social media. I used Twitter and my blog to ask people to submit their personal stories. Of the twelve or so in the book, I only knew one of those people before I wrote the book: Garr Reynolds. I also used Twitter and my blog to solicit examples of enchantment techniques. Now I'm using social media to evangelize the book. This book is truly a product of social media.

8. Was there a second favourite title for Enchantment - like something the book almost was titled before you decided on the title that you went with?

You may find this ridiculous, but the first title was The Elements of Guile. It was a pun on The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. I even considered The Elements of Guyle. I wanted to own the word "beguiling" for a while. Luckily, my publisher talked me out of these.

But then the publisher wanted to call it The Yes Factor, and I didn't like that title. Finally, we settled on Enchantment, and I hope the "rest is history" as the saying goes.

9. As part of your book release, I imagine you will be heading out on a speaking tour - what is the most unexpected thing that you will be doing to promote the book this time around?

There isn't anything unexpected in the "Richard Branson parachutes in" way that you mean. I have never done a book launch with so many things in place, though. The list is long: Facebook fan page, online quiz to determine how enchanting you are, badges to promote your level of enchantment, infographic, background page for reviewers including photos of enchanting examples, and wallpapers. We also sent out review copies to about 1,500 bloggers which is the largest number I've done by a factor of four.

10. What's next for you - more books, focusing on starting new businesses like Alltop, or something else?

I don't know, and I can't even think about it right now. The proper launching of a book is an all-encompassing effort. Gone are the days when you do a two-week book tour, get on a few TV shows, and cross your fingers. This is hand-to-hand combat where every email, tweet, like, share, and update adds up.

Characters Worth Celebrating

For a little less than a year, I have been contributing technology articles to an interesting blog launched by the USA Network (a cable television network) to celebrate people and organizations who are having a positive impact on American culture. Along with fellow writers who focus on all kinds of topics from food to music - my focus has been on technology and highlighting some of the most interesting and innovative products and people who are helping to make a cultural impact.

Sometimes, it is through big ideas - like IBM's Watson super computer that recently competed on Jeopardy ... and sometimes it is micro ideas, like a stylishly designed AM radio. Big or small, thinking about the impact of technology on culture is a lens that can be easily forgotten within the daily struggle to stay on top of all your email or come up with a pithy comment to share over Twitter.

Tonight at 11pm EST/10pm CST, the USA Network will air an hour long special featuring some of the nominees in every category who have blazed new paths in their respective disciplines. The New Media and Technology honorees are the co-founders of Foursquare, Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. Others on the list include Emily Pilloton for Design and her nonprofit design firm Project H, and singer, songwriter, dancer, and "futuristic funkstress" Janelle Monae.

As the social media "twitterati" get ready for what many consider the biggest Interactive festival and conference of the year at South By Southwest this weekend in Austin, USA's Character Approved project offers a nice reminder that behind all the gadgets and networks there is a real impact that technology and new media can have not just on how widely you can broadcast your opinion to the online world ... but also on the culture that we are all playing a role in shaping.

The Influential Marketing Book List - March 2011

Who has time to read books? We all should, but it's tough to know what is worth reading. As an Author myself, I have a unique point of view on what I look for in great books. On the first Sunday of every month, the Influential Marketing Book List will spotlight and review several new books relevant for marketers, entrepreneurs and those interested in business with ideas worth learning and sharing. 

Enchantment: The Art Of Changing Hearts, Minds & Actions

Author: Guy Kawasaki  | Book Website: http://www.facebook.com/enchantment

The first time I saw Guy Kawasaki, he wanted to know who called him an a**hole. He was on stage as part of a panel, simultaneously sharing advice and checking his Twitter stream for comments. He found one that was unflattering, and challenged the person to share their distaste verbally. By the end of the exchange, Guy had won over the crowd and his detractors - with the art of enchantment. A year later when I had my own book (Personality Not Included) coming out - I asked Guy to write the forward (which he did).

Whether you are a reader of Guy's previous books and blog or not, Enchantment is Guy's moment to share his secrets. Theories built up over his lifetime of influencing others are packaged in neat sections with titles like "how to be more likeable" and "how to overcome resistance." Best of all, Guy's writing style is always short on "bullshiitake" (as he entertainingly calls it) and filled with easily understood and implementable advice. Very few successful entrepreneurs have the ability to look at their success, break it down and present it in a way that anyone can learn from. This book will not only take you inside the mind of one of the most innovative entrepreneurs and marketers you will ever meet ... it will give you amazingly useful advice on how to use his techniques for yourself. 

Bottom Line: Guy's best book yet, filled with "how to" style information you can use immediately.

Tell To Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story

Author: Peter Guber  |  Book Website: http://www.peterguber.com/telltowin/

Reading this book is like slipping back stage into moments in pop culture that you have heard about, but never knew how they came to be. In this amazing book of stories, Peter Guber creates a powerful combination of a personal memoir from his more than 30 years in Hollywood and his time tested business strategy of using stories for success. From moments like sitting in his backyard listening to Carl Sagan share the story of Contact before he wrote it, to the real story behind how Gorillas in the Mist actually got made (hint - it involves Peter lying on the floor in front of a door) - Tell To Win has example after example to prove the power of storytelling for business success.

Whether you consider yourself more analytical or emotional, you'll find Tell To Win is one of those rare business books that is impossible to put down because of the compelling stories that Peter shares and the lessons they offer to anyone. This book is the product of a philosophy that Peter Guber has used to carry himself through a career that any of us (whether we work in Hollywood or not) would be lucky to have. 

NOTE: Check out my post about 6 Lessons From A Hollywood Producer for more insights from Peter Guber's Tell To Win.

Bottom Line: A rare business memoir offering a powerful look into how storytelling can propel your career.

The Thank You Economy

Author: Gary Vaynerchuk  |  Book Website: http://thankyoueconomybook.com/

When Gary Vaynerchuck appeared in front of a live studio audience and showed Conan O'Brien how to spot the "earthy" flavors of wine by feeding him spoonfuls of dirt, it was clear that he was a guy about to change the wine industry. Gary earned that appearance through his growing reputation as a brash video blogger and social media enthusiast who used his own video blog called WineLibraryTV to supercharge his family liquor shop into an online wineselling powerhouse.

His first book (Crush It!) was all about attitude, encouraging anyone to "hustle" their way to success. In his second effort, The Thank You Economy, it is clear that Gary's philosophy is growing up. He includes more data, shares many corporate examples and manages to bridge the gap between encouraging people to act more intuitively with social media, and actually giving them to the tools and examples to sell it to a skeptical boss.

Ultimately, The Thank You Economy isn't just about why social media works. It is a story of a gifted entrepreneur who has found a way to take the lessons he has taught himself and share them freely.  At the top of that list is Gary's own self-professed secret to success ... that he has mastered the art of simply caring way more than anyone else. Just a few pages into The Thank You Economy, you'll wish every business you ever had to deal with as a consumer had read this book.

Bottom Line: An unexpectedly sophisticated look at how caring more than your competitors is the new secret to social media success

Poke The Box

Author: Seth Godin  |  Book Website: http://www.thedominoproject.com/

This may be the most useless book you'll ever read. If you are used to reading useful books, you probably have a few expectations when you open any book. You might look for case studies, or data and statistics. It is possible you are looking for step by step instructions on how to accomplish a task, or new research that you can use to make a case to someone else. By all of those measures, chances are you will find Poke The Box to be completely useless. But consider this: being useful is consistently overrated.

Most of us spend too many months planning and not enough doing. We wait for the perfect industry leading example which we can then follow. And we generally avoid taking big risks. The message in Seth Godin's newest book/manifesto (and first of his new Domino Project) is as simple as you could imagine ... go! A useful book would tell you how to go, but Poke The Box doesn't do that.

Filled with simple and profound ideas (ie - "it does hurt to ask the wrong way"), this book is not a guidebook ... it's a spark. And despite its laserlike focus and lack of detail, this spark might just inspire the next big world changing idea. Poke The Box is your wakeup call to take the initiative and just go, because (useful or not) the future belongs to those who do.

Bottom Line: The most useless book that you'll ever read (but that you still need to).

About Face: The Secrets of Emotionally Effective Advertising

Author: Dan Hill  |  Book Website: http://www.sensorylogic.com

If there was one underappreciated book that everyone working in a role that touches advertising should read, this would be it. Building on his considerable body of research into the power of emotions in advertising, Dan Hill's latest book shares ten powerful rules for what he calls "emotionally effective advertising." There are lots of books talking about the power of emotion or intuition versus logic (Blink, Predictably Irrational, and Sway). but what sets About Face apart is how Hill uses his research into human emotional reactions and facial cues to give you a better roadmap on how to read the signs that people are giving you (whether verbal or not). Reading some of the conclusions in this book will transform how you use and interpret data from a focus group, if you use them. Even if you don't, the lessons Hill shares will help to you get better and understanding and reacting to emotions that anyone displays, from your boss to your spouse. In fact, if everyone had to read this book in college - it would make life's relationships a whole lot easier.

Bottom Line: The 10 rules for "emotionally effective advertising" make this book a worthwhile read.

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All the books that are reviewed in this series are worth your time. That's why you won't find any negative book reviews on this blog. As a Author myself, I have hundreds of book on my shelf and have researched hundreds more. I dozens of invitations to preview books and search online as well as looking at pitches to choose the 5 best books for marketing and busines readers every month to share here on this blog. Read my other book reviews at http://www.rohitbhargava.com/book-reviews/. 

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