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Age of Conversation ‘08 Final List of Authors

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Here’s the final list of blogger-authors for Age of Conversation ‘08, 237 in all. I only know a handful, but if those folks are any indication (and I’ll bet my bottom dollar they are), the book will be a phenomenal collection of ideas and perspectives. (more…)

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Listen How to Write Amazon Book Reviews

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

Barbara Rozgonyi, a PR specialist I met at a recent Tweetup, interviewed me yesterday on the topic of writing Amazon book reviews. You can read about the audio interview here, and listen to the audio interview here.

Barbara is an exceptionally good interviewer, and she had to be, because I’m not very comfortable being interviewed! If you have a special topic of interest in the areas of marketing, writing, and public relations, I’m sure Barbara would love to hear from you.

Next week she’ll be featured here with a guest post on a subject I know you’ll be interested in.

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New Word Sell Bookstore

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Do you love books? The new Word Sell Bookstore is open for business.

All the selections come recommended by me or Word Sell readers. Somebody has gotten something out of every book in the store.

If you have any new recommendations, please let me know and I’ll add them.

The “Recreational Reading” section could turn into some fun — check it out. Time to enjoy summer reading!

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David Maister Diagnoses What’s Wrong with Washington

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

David Maister’s new book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, explains how to manage and lead a professional services organization. Its lessons apply equally well to any other type of business.

Although Maister’s insights should prove valuable to any business leader, his finest insights come in the one chapter of his book he suggests we don’t read! The chapter is called, “The Trouble with Lawyers”. And although Maister is writing about law firms, he actually does a spectacular job of articulating what is wrong with our Federal government. I suppose this isn’t totally surprising, considering that Congress is comprised of more than a few lawyers. (more…)

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Coming Soon - The Age of Conversation 2.0

Monday, January 28th, 2008

The Age of Conversation, released last year, was a unique - and by now famous - group writing project spearheaded by Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan.

The pair has teamed up again to bring authors together to co-create a sequel. This time, the topic will be selected by vote. Choices are -

Marketing Manifesto
Why Don’t People Get It?
My Marketing Tragedy (and what I learned)

For more details on the project, to volunteer to write, and for a link to the voting site, click here and click soon - voting ends January 31.

Here’s a real opportunity to join the age of conversation, and in an especially meaningful way. All proceeds from book sales go to Variety, the Children’s Charity. Their motto - Never say no to a child in need.

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“Think and Grow Rich” - A Book You Should Read

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Just wanted to say thanks to Chris Winfield for recommending “Think and Grow Rich!” for Word Sell’s Favorite Book project. I just finished it - fantastic! A must read for anyone looking to improve professionally or personally - pretty much everyone, I suspect! Even though the book was written in 1937, you’d think it was written yesterday considering how on target it is.

Here again is the current Word Sell list of favorite books.

Joanna Young - Alice in Wonderland.

Bill Welter - Value Migration: How to Think Several Steps ahead of the Competition.

Matthew Stibbe - Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams.

Mihaela Lica - The Definitive Book of Body Language.

Jeanne Dininni - Tested Sentences that Sell and Lions Don’t Need to Roar.

Mark Hill - Free Agent Nation.

Denise Kincy Grier - How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Laura Spencer - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy.

Kenneth W. Davis - The Cluetrain Manifesto.

MDY - First, Break All the Rules.

David Meerman Scott - The Long Tail.

Chris Winfield - Think and Grow Rich.

Tom Wieczorek - Selling the Invisible.

Bob Ravasio - The Godfather.

Brad Shorr - A Season on the Brink.

Have a favorite business book? Please let me know and I’ll add it to our list!

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Cluetrain on the Wrong Track

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

A Rant about Rants

Inspired by Kenneth Davis, who chose The Cluetrain Manifesto as his favorite business book in my group project, I finally got around to reading the book that’s been on everybody’s lips since before it was published.

Cluetrain is full of fantastic insights about why we need more conversation in business. If you can get past the incendiary rhetoric, you can learn something. But I have a real problem with the rhetoric. In many ways, Cluetrain is its own worst enemy. If the authors are trying to persuade Corporate America to change its stripes, they’re going about it in exactly the wrong way.

Cluetrain’s rambling, ranting style reeks of smugness. “Fort Business” (one of their disparaging terms for executive leadership) is a bunch of blockheads and manipulative bastards, whereas the rest of us are smart, real, and several steps ahead of the corporate con game. Some Cluetrain observations -

Managed businesses have taken our voices. We want to struggle against this. We wear a snarky expression behind our boss’s back, place ironic distance between our company and ourselves, and we don’t want to think we have become our parents. But we have. And we’ve done so willingly.

By comparison, corporate messaging is pathetic. It’s not funny. It’s not interesting. It doesn’t know who we are, or care. It only wants us to buy. If we wanted more of that, we’d turn on the tube. But we don’t and we won’t. We’re too busy. We’re too wrapped up in some fascinating conversation.

Here’s some advice on entering the conversation: Loosen up. Lighten up. And shut up for awhile. Listen for a change. Marketing-as-usual used to be able to insert its messages into the mind of the masses with one swing of its mighty axe. Now messages get exploded within minutes. “Spin” gets noticed and scorned. Parodies spread ad campaigns faster than any multimillion-dollar advertising blitz. In short: the Internet routes around a-holes.

There’s Plenty of Blame to Go Around

Can you imagine the uproar if a group of C-level execs wrote a book blasting the stupidity, dullness, and insincerity of the working class? Yet, such a book would contain just as much truth as Cluetrain, and just as much distortion.

Having experienced all sides of the corporate world, I heartily agree that boardrooms can be full of blockheads, but so can loading docks. There’s no question that vice presidents can be disingenuous, manipulative creeps, but so can programmers. The fact that Fort Business is dysfunctional is not exactly news. Any organization comprised of people is going to be, including the company you work for, the Catholic Church, United States Congress, The Salvation Army, your local PTO, and the lemonade stand around the corner.

Organizations are dysfunctional because people are imperfect. When we start pointing fingers, when we start blaming an organizational problem on a particular group of humans, we’re not moving toward a solution. (Furthermore, to suggest as the authors do that organizations are relics to be discarded is an enormous blunder, but we can take that up at another time.)

Fact is, corporate leaders have plenty of good reasons for being cautious about dipping company toes into “authentic” online conversation. Here are three big ones -

Legal complexities and the threat of litigation can cause straight talk to blow up in a company’s face. Sure, companies can abuse their employees. But employees can also abuse their employers. If you’re a small or midsize company, one frivolous lawsuit that goes the wrong way can wipe out a year’s profit, or worse. In fact, you don’t even have to lose the case to have it ruin you. Corporations face disaster if they run afoul of federal, state, and local tax law, HIPAA regulations, EPA regulations, and a host of other legal land mines. Not exactly an environment that would lead a responsible executive to favor letting the staff run wild “expressing themselves”. An innocent and well intended “This product sucks!” published on a blog from the bowels of the IT department could become evidence in a class action lawsuit. A stab at humor stating that “our new perfume was tested on pet cats” could put PETA in your pocket, and my how that would bite.

The authors give passing attention to such problems, but brush them aside, believing that common sense will prevail. That would be true, if everyone the the marketplace operated under the influence of common sense. Unfortunately, our courtrooms are clogged with frivolous lawsuits because for every person out there who craves authentic conversation, there’s one who is motivated by greed, revenge, or fanatical attachment to a cause.

(Despite these unpleasant realities, the authors like to contend that corporations are “fictions”. I don’t know. Two weeks ago when the market tanked, one of my “fictions” lost about a thousand incredibly real dollars. When the fictitious Arthur Anderson folded in the wake of the Enron scandal, a few families in our community lost their real homes.)

Pressure for short term results from stockholders and boards creates a mighty big temptation for communicative quick fixes. Business leaders are enormously frustrated that their vision and plans are continually undermined by earnings pressure. I can tell you from experience - when you have people coming at you from all directions demanding to hear something different, it’s easier than you think to forget what you actually believe in. Corporate pronouncements that are cavalierly dismissed as shallow and stupid may in reality be a sincere attempt by leadership to keep frenzied factions inside and outside the company from tearing each other apart. A reluctance to speak, and a reluctance to speak frankly, are to some degree a conditioned response to being in the hot seat. These tendencies spill over into the world of sales and marketing, which may not be wise, but is definitely understandable.

A permanent, written record of everything that’s said, which is what you get on the Web, makes private conversation public. That is certainly a valid concern for execs who are mindful of potential litigation and other problems that might arise months in the future from words written today. And we should be just as concerned as the folks on the top floor. The authors are exactly right in pointing out that informal, real conversations have been taking place in and out of the company corridors since the Industrial Revolution. But there’s a big difference between blowing off steam around a water cooler and ripping the Finance Department a new one on your blog. Believe it or not, some execs are concerned that open, written communication could damage employees just as much as the company. Look at the problems kids are having landing a job because of indiscreet information laid wide open for the world to see on their MySpace or Facebook pages.

In short, when employees engage in conversation, there are few perceived consequences. When top level execs engage in conversation, there are big consequences, and execs are smart enough to perceive them. If your words or the words of your employees affect the survival of a company and those who work for it, well, you have to behave like a parent. Too bad.

But I’m not telling you anything the authors of Cluetrain don’t already know. These guys are way too smart and savvy to believe that Fort Business is as monolithic and moronic as they suggest. Which begs the question, why did they cast their brilliant observations in the form of a tirade against the establishment? To sell books? To pander to the faithful? As shock therapy? To provoke conversation? As a nostalgic return to the halcyon days of Power to the People? I have no idea.

What’s So Funny ’bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?

But I know this. The trend in Web conversation toward hostility, this eagerness to call people incompetent and stupid, this quickness to pass judgment and ridicule, is a much bigger problem than hamfisted corporate communication and marketing campaigns.

Some people - including the authors of this book - seem to regard the sarcastic rant as an art form. But I think that the beginning of real conversation is respect.

None of us has a monopoly on virtue or vice. The way to open up communication in business is not through intimidation tactics. It’s not the clued-in versus the clueless. If business is a mess, it’s a mess we’ve created together, and one we’ll have to fix together.

Enough of spitting on returning Viet Nam veterans, spitting on umpires, screaming at the adversary on FOXNews, court room TV, and Larry Springer, and throwing editorial tantrums. Communicating with civility is not being phony, it’s simply an acknowledgment that all people have value, no matter how misguided or unfamiliar their ideas or actions may be. Being polite is not the road to conformity, it’s the path to understanding.

A Practical Problem and Plea

The Cluetrain authors have forgotten more about the Web than I’ll ever know. But since I’m a foot soldier in the movement they’re leading, I wish they’d give me ammunition instead of demolition.

Though there are real challenges to transforming an old school company into a conversational company, I think they can and must be overcome. I work hard to persuade clients that open, interactive communication is the healthiest change they can make in their business. I believe it. But it can be a tough sell. When execs read high profile, rant-style marketing commentary, they get spooked. And it’s not because they’re afraid of the truth, at least not completely. They figure, quite reasonably, “Gee, if people are this irresponsible and uninformed and ill mannered when they’re talking to me, what are they going to say to our customers?”

It’s a good question.

The Cluetrain Manifesto, by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, David Weinberger.

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What’s with the Busy Book Formats?

Monday, September 10th, 2007

Kenneth Davis recently wrote about the runaway use of italics and boldface. He got me thinking just how much I miss the days when a book was a book. A recent trend in book publishing is to format the material to look like a Web page. Not good.

“The E Myth Revisited”, by Michael E. Gerber, is a truly exceptional book for entrepreneurs. And thankfully, it’s easy to read, because it looks like this–

“Beyond Buzz”, by Lois Kelly, is another outstanding selection, this time about word-of-mouth marketing. It is, however, a little hard to read, because parts of it look like this–

Text boxes inserted in the middle of a narrative are the book publishing equivalent of interruption marketing. Just when you’re getting into the flow of the writing, you’ve got to stop and decide whether to read the text box now or come back to it. Reading a book shouldn’t be that hard. In addition, the gray background and/or italic type frequently used in these text boxes is none too easy to read.

Am I picking nits here? I don’t think so. Seems to me people read books in linear fashion, starting at the beginning and reading straight through to the end. On the other hand, people read Web sites like pinballs in a pinball machine, skipping around from one area of interest to another.

Books are not Web sites, even books about Web sites.

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“Beyond Buzz” … A New Book to Help Companies Turn the Conversational Corner

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

Conversational marketing, word-of-mouth marketing … whatever you want to call it, it’s here to stay. This presents a challenge to larger companies, where entrenched ways of thinking in marketing, advertising and public relations can stop conversations cold and drive business away.

For companies to prosper in this new customer environment, they have to adapt, and that’s not easy. Lois Kelly’s new book, “Beyond Buzz–The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing”, explains how a company can reorient and reorganize itself to capitalize on the many opportunities now open in the conversational marketplace.

We’re not talking about a few little tweaks, here. What’s called for is a fundamentally new understanding of what marketing is. Lois sums it up brilliantly–

“Marketing has traditionally been more like a manufacturing operation, producing advertisements, Web sites, brochures, campaigns, and press releases. Reframed as a service, however, marketing gains even more value through the processes of listening, advising, explaining, and teaching.” (p. 155)

Recasting marketing as a service means that–

Companies will have to change reporting structures.
Leaders will have to articulate new visions and goals.
Staffers will have new things to do.
Everyone will have to jump into customer conversations.

These things don’t happen overnight or without help. “Beyond Buzz” gets into the nitty gritty of what it takes to become a conversational company. She discusses–

What conversational marketing is.
Why it matters.
How to start meaningful conversations.
How to speak conversationally (i.e., in plain English).
How to shift to a conversational mind-set.
How to build a conversational culture within your company.

There’s lots written about the theory of conversational marketing, and lots written about specific techniques that savvy conversational marketers use to start, build and sustain meaningful customer dialog. While Lois certainly touches on those things, what makes her book especially useful is that it fills the gap between theory and tactics.

When companies attempt to go directly from theory to action, chaos ensues. Learning and knowledge sharing have to occur first. There has to be a plan. There has to be buy-in. There have to be objectives and mileposts. Lois has studied this process thoroughly and successfully helped companies go through it–her case studies and anecdotes of success and failure are illuminating, and in some cases, alarming.

But the book is far more than a series of suggestions and stories. She beautifully describes what an ideal marketing organization should look like, providing a framework for her recommendations.

Any business leader, and sales, marketing, advertising, customer service or public relations professional will find something of value in “Beyond Buzz”.

Great companies are conversational companies. Where is your company on the conversational curve these days?

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My Favorite Business Book–A Season on the Brink

Monday, July 16th, 2007

My favorite business book is A Season on the Brink, by John Feinstein. It chronicles Bobby Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers as they struggle through their exceedingly difficult 1985-86 season. Though not a huge Bobby Knight fan, I’ll never forget Knight’s approach to leadership and adversity. They’re lessons I’ve tried to apply throughout my career.

1. Never quit. No matter how impossible the situation looks, keep trying. Things might be better tomorrow, and if not, at least you’ll be better.

2. Be willing to try everything. To achieve victory, Knight leaves no stone unturned. He screams, cajoles, lectures, pleads, strategizes, plays mind games, and at one demonstrates fly casting on the practice court. He’s just as willing to embarrassing himself as he is to embarrass his players. He keeps the team moving through the sheer force of his uninhibited imagination.

3. Work hard, think hard. Knight is relentless. He’s always engaged in his work, physically and mentally. He works on his team and in his team simultaneously. This gives him matchless perspective and decision making ability.

4. Be yourself. Love him or hate him, Knight is Knight. As difficult, uncompromising and mercurial as he is, players eventually respond to Knight because he’s honest. Honesty and sincerity cover a multitude of sins.

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