Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

5 Responses to “Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web”

1. T. K. Gordon says:

   March 29, 2010 at 9:29 pm

   Just out from one of the best thinkers in PR 2.0. We’re in an age of engagement, where the customer is knocking on your laptop before you’ve even had your morning coffee. If you’re in a communications role you’ll want to read this book and know how to renovate your essential relationships before that wake up call.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
2. Debbie Hemley says:

   March 29, 2010 at 10:57 pm

   Brian Solis does much more than introducing us to social media tools. Engage! is truly an education. If you take the time to do your homework, trying out the suggested resources, your efforts will most certainly pay off. There’s something for everyone in this book regardless of where you are on the new media learning curve.

   I establish myself captivated by several things in particular: social media dashboards, aggregation and syndication, geo location and mobile networking, social objects and social media optimization. Engage: The Perfect Guide for Brands and Businesses to Erect, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web is a book you will be able to pick up on any agreed day and find what you’re looking for as a way to keep on track with your social media goals and objectives.

   Fantastic book. I highly recommend it!

   Debbie Hemley
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
3. David Onoue says:

   March 30, 2010 at 12:35 am

   Engage is a fantastic book for a name who is really new to the social media landscape. The entire beginning of the book (Social Media 101 – MBA) is devoted to understanding the social technologies out there. If you’re active on the web and keeping up with all the social trends, you’ll find the first half dull and a small too long. The second half of the book is where he digs deeper into how to engage with people. So skip the beginning and jump to the second half of the book.

   His first book, Putting The Public Back In Public Relations, was a lot better.
   Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
4. Marylene Delbourg-Delphis says:

   March 30, 2010 at 2:19 am

   “Perhaps the largest mistakes committed by businesses, personalities, and brands in social media occur when people jump into social networks blindly lacking establishing guidelines, a plot of action, a sense of what people are seeking and how and why they communicated, an understanding of where people are congregating, a definition of what they represent and how they will personify the brand online, and the goals, objectives, and metrics linked with participation.” Albeit honestly late in the book, this sentence sums up the purpose of Brian Solis in Engage! One more book about Social Media, sure; but this one is one of the best written. It’s nearly reassuring to read sentences that exceed 140 characters (or twenty words), and, while you can find all the trendy buzzwords and expressions on virtually every page, the leader authentically tries to help social media managers as they transition from the broadcasting age to the intricacies of a new form of netcasting architecture where both users and corporations exchange “social objects.” How well or efficiently can they do so? This book provides social media managers with the background knowledge and practical notions that they can leverage to design a consistent strategy.

   The first half of the book surveys the world of social media in all-purpose, describing all the aspects of social interactions and their impact on corporate marketing and communication, as well as customer service departments. Traditional marketing schemas have irreversibly imploded under the pressure of a crowd represented in a “conversation prism” that factors in behavioral guidelines implicitly or explicitly set by the multiple socialization channels. So marketers must listen. What can they do with so much information? “As a replacement for of inhibiting the pace and breadth of information flow, we must channel significant details and data,” a task that does not only require “attention” (nice reference to Linda Stone’s Continuous Partial Attention), but also some understanding of applied social sciences or researchers’ and analysts’ categorizations (such as Charlene Li’s and Jeremiah Owyang’s Socialgraphics). Achieving a state of the art “unmarketing” to use a time-stamped word by Scott Stratten – i.e. rebuilding a marketing strategy from the bottom up – entails, for many companies, a serious check of some entrenched marketing habits. Hence the resolutely didactic approach of the two parts of the book: “The New Reality of Marketing and Making Customer Service” and “Forever Students of New Media.”

   The second half of the book comprises four parts that detail the new responsibilities that come up with the potential of social media, and focuses more specifically on what a “new marketing” approach may look like. One of the most remarkable sections is related to “defining the rules of engagement.” It unambiguously shows to the skeptics that the social media revolution is not a passing phenomenon spurred on or controlled by influencers, but the reality of today’s computing, one of the incarnations of the social Web, and that it is set to transform every single company from the inside. The examples of IBM’s and Intel’s guide-lines (and its digital IQ Program) do not only demonstrate the forwards-thinking intelligence of people like Bryan Rhoads or Ken Kaplan, but also the proactive approach of highly regarded companies as they define new roles and responsibilities to adapt to a new world. Digital intelligence is not simply the prerogative of a handful of gurus appointed to task forces or advisory boards, it will also be part of the job description of most employees in the close future if they want to be up to par with educated customers. The scope of the book stops here, but it’s clear that the social media revolution will lead to the check of corporate cultures, employee empowerment methodologies, and linguistic and artistic skills. “Unmarketing” just like any vibrant “marketing” starts from within. Corporate stonewalling doesn’t have too much future.

   End result: a serious book that gathers the Zeitgeist (and will bring many people up to speed with trends and idioms). To some extent voluble, yet kindly extroverted and certainly useful if you want to make a social media plot.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
5. Simon Mainwaring says:

   March 30, 2010 at 2:48 am

   I’ve been a fan of Brian’s thinking for some time. It’s permanently so timely, effective and deeply researched.

   As the publicity, marketing and PR world’s are turned upside down by social media, I find ‘Engage’ to be an indispensable guide. It’s one thing to know the new social landscape and another to know how to navigate it, and that’s where I establish engage so powerful.

   Better yet, he tells you how to set up your company in a way that allows you to keep pace with new equipment and a changing market so you’re not having to constantly re-invent yourself.

   If you really want to remain significant and prosperous in today’s market, you have to 1) embrace social media, 2) erect community and 3) use ‘Engage’ as your guide. If you don’t, you’re risking your own survival.

   Get it, read it, go to market. Thanks, as ever, to Brian for the super smart thinking.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5