Ignore this Book at Your Peril!

The title of this blog is a quote by Michael S. Malone of ABC news after reading this book by Dave Evans, I would have to agree with him. If you are a senior in college, are a Marketing or IS major, this is a must read. We are in a technology revolution …if you doubt it or are not an early adopter of the social web, don’t wait until you feel uninformed and not with it to read this book. Technology revolutions always take longer than predicted, but arrive faster than anticipated. Think about mp3players…just think about it…when did you get your first one? What did it do? Play music? How did you purchase or borrow the songs you played on it? Hum…and when was that? How do you listen to music now? What else can you do with that very little mp3 player? Even if you plan to focus in another marketing specialty be it production, print, media, whatever…wherever you work the social web will be the buzz and certainly will be a part of your life at work and home. If you decide to work for an advertising agency, you should find one that has a social media department. This might be a good indicator that they are on the cutting edge of what is already here and coming our way. But…it won’t do you any good if you can’t speak the language.

Dave Evans provides great insight as to why people are using the web to connect, share ideas, spread the word both good and bad and how companies that aren’t using this marketing avenue can understand the big picture and put it to use. Dave applies basic marketing principles and explains how they are used in the vast world of the social web; Blogging, YouTube, Twitter, and so forth. Through a comprehensive list of exercises the reader is to do in an hour a day, he or she is given places to go on the web to understand what is happening and why it is appealing, appropriate for them… or not. An hour a day, something most people can manage and commit to doing. In my limited experience, I find that most people do not understand that we are in a revolution, they don’t understand it, deny the possibilities and tend to criticize people that spend time on the social web. This is mostly a fear response. Your job will be to help them overcome their fear and embrace the opportunities available to them, comfortably evaluate and explain the costs and the benefits to their organization.

If you utilize the book the way that the author intended it to be used it is more of a hands on study. By chapter four you are hooked. The biggest challenge in reading this book is the time you can dedicate to the exercises as you are quickly sucked into areas of the web you have never considered. You are drawn into the real reason you probably bought the book, “How can I make money at this?”, and “If I choose to jump in, how do I start, and how do I evaluate my success?”. You’ll have to read the book to get the answers… after all, this is just a review.