Book Reviews

I've been reading a lot of marketing books over the past few months, and I thought you might enjoy hearing about some of them:

• With the economy driving unemployment to record highs, it’s more important than ever to be aware of how to present yourself to potential employers and potential customers alike. Dan Schawbel, the “personal branding guru,” wrote Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success to teach the newest generation of business people how to thrive in the digital age. The book outlines the process for building a powerful and effective personal brand, as well as tips on how to use social media tools, how to create both an on- and offline presence for career protection and self-promotion. Me 2.0 also includes expert quotes from leaders including Don Tapscott, Guy Kawasaki, Penelope Trunk, and David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine. The business world is changing, but Schawbel’s book makes it possible to keep up with that change and use it to the the greatest extent possible.

• Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyer through Social Media Marketing is the book for modern marketers. Author Bernie Borges does a wonderful job outlining the needs for having a presence on the internet that brings buyers to you. The social web is a big new world, and Borges provides a very detailed, interesting map with which to navigate. With a detailed outline of just how the Web 2.0 phenomenon came to be and how it is growing, Borges shows readers how to adapt to the emerging methods of reaching customers and clients.

• "You don't have to outspend your competitors anymore. You can just outsmart them." That's Dan Zarrella speaking from the pages of The Social Media Marketing Book. It's a bracing thought, isn't it? If only we had something telling us how to outsmart the competition...
  Well, we do: The Social Media Marketing Book takes you through a brief but comprehensive look at communities, platforms, and social media tools. If you've always wondered how blogging, forums, reviews, and social networks can help you and your business, this is the book to start with. Author Dan Zarrella provides a wonderful introduction to the world of social media marketing, complete with screenshots, graphs, and step-by-step visual instructions. This is way better than Marketing For Dummies...

I actually enjoyed reading these, so I hope I haven't portrayed them as dull or uninteresting.