Customer Reviews

The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this after reading all of the glowing reviews, but I guess I should have read between the lines. When other reivewers say this book is the one to buy if you're clueless about social marketing, they aren't kidding. If you know even a little about blogging, which is what this book spends most of its time on virtually ignoring other forms of social marketing, then you'll be left with a bunch of stories about awesome bloggers would did awesome things with little to no real advice on how to do something awesome yourself. Gillin seems to worship the ground bloggers walk on and spends most of the book, including all of the first couple of chapters, saying so. There are endless profiles and anecdotes but little "how to". By page 40, I found myself saying "so what?" a lot. If you like reading profiles and "case study lite" type stories, then get this book. If you're looking for information on how to actually engage in social marketing (especially other than blogs), influence people and use social marketing to improve your business, a quick search on the net would turn up more useful (and free!) information.

If you're an experienced marketer or PR professional and have no clue how social media will impact (if it hasn't already) your industry or business, then you must buy this book.

Using lots of case studies, interviews, and his own insights, Paul Gillin explains why blogging, podcasts, and social media sites such as Digg are changing how companies and their customers relate to each other.

In other words, thanks to these new technologies, the customer is now in the driver's seat. Make a wrong move -- ignore a negative blog post or post "canned" marketing messages to your corporate blog -- and your customers, prospects, and the blogosphere will let you know immediately that they don't appreciate your tactics.

Do it right and you'll win their appreciation.

However, this book isn't only about keeping the blogosphere happy. It's also about how you can use blogs and podcasts to gain media exposure, engage in converations with your customers, and build new business.

I read this book in three sittings. The content is well-written, easy to read, and interesting. Gillin explains all terms and gives detailed case studies about what works and what doesn't.

I came away with over a dozen ideas for my own blog plus ideas on how I can use things like podcasts for my clients. The key take-away for me is this, "Don't be afraid to experiment and see what works." Who knows -- you just may be the next big success story.

Bottom line: A must-read book for anyone involved in marketing and PR.

In his terrific exploration of The New Influencers, Paul Gillin shows how organizations are communicating directly with important constituents. And he does it using real word examples, not theory.

In the past, marketers could try all kinds of expensive advertising to get the word out to new buyers, with little to show for the investment. These are companies where the existing customers love the products, but the media doesn't seem to care. Many people are saying that big budget marketing and PR programs just aren't working anymore so they are asking: "How do you get noticed in a crowded marketplace?"

Gillin shows the power of online thought leadership and communicating to people directly without the advertising and media filter. Imagine if people learn about you on the Web first, so when they to contact you, the sale is already partly done, That's the power of online thought leadership.

The New Influencers shows marketers at agencies as well as those who work for companies, nonprofits, and other organizations how to harness the power the Web. It is an important riff on how the Web has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on the media.

I'm one of the New Influencers! Yes, that's right. I write book reviews on Amazon about products that other people sell. I'm either helping or hurting those sales. Thus, I'm a new influencer within the meaning of this book.

I liked this book a lot. It was well-written and very informative. Not that it told me anything I probably didn't know since I use the Internet in a large part of my day-to-day life. But it documents what I believe to be reality when it comes to using the Internet to promote and market oneself, his services, and his products.

The book has 17 chapters as follows:

1. The origins of social media
2. From chaos, structure
3. Enthusiasts
4. Influencer profile - the Gadget King
5. Measures of influence
6. Corporate conversations
7. Influencer profile - the Corporate Renegade
8. Small is beautiful
9. Putting "public" back into public relations
10. Influencer profile - the Marketer
11. The talkers
12. Influencer profile - the Sound Man
13. Tools of the trade
14. Influencer profile - the Toolmaker
15. Going viral
16. Influencer profile - the Guerilla
17. Next stop

This book will help you harness the power of the Web in order to further your marketing efforts. You can play the game as a mere participant. Or, after reading this book, you can play the game as a leader and having the masses working for you for free the way Amazon has me writing book reviews. 5 stars!

Marketers aspire to have that one-to-one with consumers in which there's two-way communication. With the rise of the social media, marketers have scrambled to attach themselves to the coattails of phenomena such as MySpace, Facebook, Second Life and others. Enthusiast sites, blogosphers and online portals where customers can express themselves, be heard, and connect with their peers certainly holds appeal and promise. But the fact remains that some elements that come along with two-way communication are - in a word - terrifying.

As Gillin writes, "Powerful voices are emerging: people and groups who have the capacity to move markets and challenge institutions". Never before has one consumer had the potential to directly impact the company's business and reputation. These "new influencers" are passionate, outspoken and they now have plenty of platforms to be heard.

Gillin navigates you through the ins and outs of this social medium. He gives real-world examples of what works, what doesn't, and why. If you have only one take-away from this book, understand rule #1 is that you must be genuine in your intentions as well as your communications. The New Influencers will know the difference and respond passionately for better or for worse.

But if you're brave enough to put your customers in the driver's seat AND you're genuine in your commitment to provide a service to them, you just may witness your customers transform into powerful brand advocates and champions.

When the world of media as we have known it changes, we need to adapt. Gillin does an insightful job at not only conveying these changes, but talks about what they mean for you, your image and your brand. He gives examples and tools for how both large and small players have engaged customers and potential customers in a much more powerful way. An essential read for any marketer who wants to gain a competitive edge.

Renee Blodgett, Blodgett Communications & Down The Avenue

Just finished reading The New Influencers - this book outstanding and I strongly recommend it to everyone in Marketing and Public Relations. I also recommend it to those business people just wanting to understand and leverage the new world of 'social media'.

Paul does a great job of explaining the forces that are driving this shift as well as profiling individuals and companies that are succeeding. His background as a reporter and editor makes the numerous profiles of key influencers very insightful. He has also included several interviews with key influencers that are excellent.

Being in high tech PR and corporate communications, this book is right in my sweet spot. But I also recommend it to anyone starting or running a business/orgainzation as a excellent tutiorial for successfully using social media to drive your business.
Bob O'Brien

This book is copyrighted 2009 but there's no information in the book more current than 2006. I'm serious... This book was written in 2006 so why it was released last year is beyond me. In a book about the fast changing world of blogs and other social media, why would you waste your time on a book that thinks MySpace is the latest big thing and that the also-rans include Facebook?

There is no excuse for releasing a book in 2009 that was written in 2006, especially one about social media. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY ON THIS BOOK! (Am I repeating myself?)

It's amazing how Gillin managed to speak the mind of a generation that he obviously doesn't belong to. When I signed up to Facebook and Myspace early this year and I got hocked to the game of social networking, I personally thought that those networks can be a great advertising play, because of the enormous database of people's demographics, relationships, likes and dislikes that can be used for targeted advertising. And here comes Gillin to prove to me that what I thought about is true.

It's sincerely a very essential book for any marketer to read, Gillin talks about how social networks media has revolutionized the structure of traditional media, and the great impact the members of those social networks can have on current marketing trends. Gillin suggests that we're living at a time where marketers must establish a two-way communication scheme with their consumers, meaning, they need to exchange information with their consumers in the form of conversations rather than just delivering information in the form of advertising.

This book is more of an eye-opener, the whole idea of ordinary people in social online-networks can influence marketing products and services has actually always been there in the back of our minds - speaking on behalf of my generation - but we don't came to realize it until someone speaks this idea to us and put it in a very structured manner.

The only drawback of this book from my own point of view is that Gillin seems to be an observer of the entire situation rather than an analyst in many parts of the book. He focused on illustrating the general picture of how social media is vital in today's marketing rather than going deeper into the little nitty gritty of social media, he didn't draw a diagram on how to implement this idea and bring it to the advantage of today's marketing practices. So he sort of inspires the reader to come up with more questions rather than feeding them with answers, which makes it also interesting in so many ways, as long as it can motivate the reader to think more and take those little thoughts to a different level of realization, then I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Nevertheless, I believe it's a very important book for any marketing specialist in the modern world.

Books about Web tools and strategies for marketers tend to be written hastily, for two reasons: primacy and recency. With respect to the former, the marketing consultants who write these books want to build visibility in the market quickly, and to be perceived as pioneers, because the competition is intense. With respect to the latter, the web environment evolves and shifts daily; so authors worry that taking time to cover these topics in depth, present meaningful case studies, verify factual accuracy, and polish prose might unduly delay publication beyond the point timeliness. Among the several books I've read about Web 2.0 marketing, Gillin's book is the most sophisticated, with ample real-world cases and examples -- and the least evangelistic. While many of the authors in this "space" come across as self-serving buzz-meisters, Gillin is enthusiastic but circumspect.