FIR Reviews
Reviews of books dealing with PR and online communications
Sunday, August 07, 2011
FIR Book Review: Measure What Matters, by Katie Paine
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Measure What Matters, by Katie Paine.
FIR book review editor Bob LeDrew reviews Katie Paine’s latest book, “Measure What Matters.” Katie—a longtime friend of FIR—previously wrote “Measuring Public Relationships.”
From the inside front cover of Measure What Matters: “If the only numbers you really care about are revenue and profits, you’ll never fully understand what makes them go up or down. Want to know what people think of you? Want to know how those opinions will affect your sales? You’re only guessing unless you learn how to Measure What Matters.
Today, even the smallest business can track and measure relationships with customers, with the media, and even with employees and sales forces. Measure What Matters delivers the know-how to find those tools and use them to increase your revenues. The right data tells you whether you’re getting your share of ink. It tells you how you stack up against your competition in search ranking, sales, share of conversations, and share of wallet. Good data measures what your marketplace is saying,thinking, and doing. It reveals which of your methods work and which ones don’t.”
The book’s website is at kdpaine.blogs.com/measure_what_matters
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Measure What Matters by Katie Paine
Publisher: Wiley
252 pages
Published March 15, 2011
ISBN-10: 0470920106
ISBN-13: 978-0470920107
Purchase at Amazon US (US Kindle edition), Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK (UK Kindle edition).
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
The FIR Book Review theme music is “Pocketbook” by Derek K. Miller.
To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
This FIR Book Review is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
FIR Book Review: The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
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The Thank You Economy, by Gary Vaynerchuk.
FIR book review editor Bob LeDrew reviews Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book, “The Thank You Economy.” Vaynerchuk earlier hit the bestseller charts with “Crush It.” He oversaw spectacular growth of Wine Library through the use of social media. He was also a guest on FIR Live #15.
Here’s the Amazon product description of the book: “The Thank You Economy is about something big, something greater than any single revolutionary platform. It isn’t some abstract concept or wacky business strategy—it’s real, and every one of us is doing business in it every day, whether we choose to recognize it or not. It’s the way we communicate, the way we buy and sell, the way businesses and consumers interact online and offline. The Internet, where the Thank You Economy was born, has given consumers back their voice, and the tremendous power of their opinions via social media means that companies and brands have to compete on a whole different level than they used to.”
The book’s website is at ThankYouEconomyBook.com
Get this podcast:
The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
Publisher: HarperBusiness
256 pages
Published March 8, 2011
ISBN-10: 9780061914188
ISBN-13: 978-0061914188
Purchase at Amazon US (US Kindle edition), Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK (UK Kindle edition).
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
The FIR Book Review theme music is “Pocketbook” by Derek K. Miller.
To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
This FIR Book Review is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
FIR Book Review: Welcome to the Fifth Estate
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Welcome to the Fifth Estate, by Geoff Livingston.
FIR co-host Shel Holtz reviews Geoff Livingston’s “Welcome to the Fifth Estate.” co-founded Zoetica, a social enterprise that provides superior communication consulting, training, and strategy to help mindful organizations affect social change.
Here’s the Amazon product description of the book: “Grounded in years of award-winning campaign experience, Welcome to the Fifth Estate delivers the necessary guidance to build a successful, sustainable social media program. In addition to solid strategies, tactics and measurement tips, businesses and nonprofits will learn how to address internal cultural challenges, and avoid hype-driven pitfalls like shiny object syndrome and personal brands. Mashable Editor in Chief Adam Ostrow provides a thoughtful forward on the evolving media landscape.”
The book’s website is at geofflivingston.com/fifth-estate
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Welcome to the Fifth Estate, by Geoff Livingston
Publisher: Bartleby Press
216 pages
Published May 31, 2011
ISBN-10: 0910155860
ISBN-13: 978-0910155861
Purchase at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK. Not currently available in a Kindle version.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
The FIR Book Review theme music is “Pocketbook” by Derek K. Miller.
To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
This FIR Book Review is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
Sunday, May 01, 2011
FIR Book Review: Social Location Marketing
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Social Location Marketing, by Simon Salt.
FIR Book Review editor Bob LeDrew reviews Simon Salt’s “Social Location Marketing: Outshining Your Competitors on Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp & Other Location Sharing Sites.” Salt works with large brands and international PR companies through his own marketing communications firm, whose client list includes Fortune® 500 companies. Before starting his firm, he participated in three successful startups. Salt is in the process of conducting a social media roadshow, speaking on social location sharing across the United States. He has spoken at major conferences including BlogWorld, Internet Summit and SXSW 2011.
According to the book’s jacket, “Social Location Marketing offers powerful new ways to promote practically any product, service, or venue. Now, pioneering expert Simon Salt shows exactly how to make the most of it! Salt introduces Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, and other apps, helping you choose your best options, and build cost-effective marketing programs that work. Through real examples, you’ll learn how to reach your key audiences and segments…craft and execute winning strategies on realistic budgets…measure activity and calculate ROI…avoid costly mistakes…and much more! Whatever your goal, role, or industry, this book will help you find new customers where they are, strengthen loyalty and retention, and supercharge profits.”
The book’s website is at SocialLocationMarketing.com
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Social Location Marketing, by Simon Salt
Publisher: Que
240 pages
Published February 2011
ISBN-10: 0789747219
ISBN-13: 978-0789747211
Purchase at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK. Available in Kindle edition.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
The FIR Book Review theme music is “Pocketbook” by Derek K. Miller.
To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
This FIR Book Review is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
FIR Book Review: Customer Service by Peter Shankman
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Customer Service, by Peter Shankman
FIR book review Bob LeDrew reviews Peter Shankman‘s “Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World.” PR Week Magazine has described Peter as “redefining the art of networking”, and Investor’s Business Daily has called him “crazy, but effective”. Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year became the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 200,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. Peter is also the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Social Media, Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide.
Former CNN anchor Miles O’Brien, in a review of Customer Service, writes, “Shankman offers a compelling, engaging, humorous checklist of do’s and don’ts for those who are still in a freefall–a bit dazed–wondering what happened to all the tried-and-true rules of advertising, marketing, and PR. Shankman knows the answer, and he can barely contain his enthusiasm in sharing his insights.”
The book’s website is at Shankman.com
Get this podcast:
Customer Service, by Peter Shankman
Publisher: Que
208 pages
Published December 2010
ISBN-10: 078974709X
ISBN-13: 978-0789747099
Purchase at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
The FIR Book Review theme music is “Pocketbook” by Derek K. Miller.
To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
This FIR Book Review is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
FIR Book Review: Curation Nation by Steven Rosenbaum
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Curation Nation, by Steven Rosenbaum
FIR co-host Shel Holtz reviews Steven Rosenbaum’s “Curation Nation.” Rosenbaum currently is CEO of Magnify.net, a video curation website. Amazon.com explains that Rosenbaum reveals why brands, publishers, and content entrepreneurs must embrace aggregation and curation to grow an existing business or launch a new one. In fact, he asserts that curation is the only way to be competitive in the future. Overwhelmed by too much content, people are hungry for an experience that both takes advantage of the Web’s breadth and depth and provides a measure of human sorting and filtering that search engines simply can’t achieve. In these shifting sands lies an extraordinary business opportunity: you can become a trusted source of value in an otherwise meaningless chaos of digital noise. In Curation Nation, Rosenbaum ‘curates the curators’ by gathering together priceless insight and advice from the top thinkers in media, advertising, publishing, commerce, and Web technologies. This groundbreaking book levels the playing field, giving your business equal access to the content abundance presently driving consumer adoption of the Web.”
The book’s website is at CurationNation.org
Get this podcast:
Curation Nation, by Steven Rosenbaum
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
304 pages
Published February 2011
ISBN-10: 0071760393
ISBN-13: 978-0071760393
Purchase at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
The FIR Book Review theme music is “Pocketbook” by Derek K. Miller.
To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
This FIR Book Review is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
Friday, February 04, 2011
FIR Book Review: The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov
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The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, by Evgeny Morozov
FIR book editor Bob LeDrew reviews Evgeny Morozov’s “The Net Delusion.” Malcolm Gladwell, in his review of the book, wrote, ““Evgeny Morozov offers a rare note of wisdom and common sense, on an issue overwhelmed by digital utopians.” Amazon’s description of the book says, “In this spirited book, journalist and social commentator Evgeny Morozov shows that by falling for the supposedly democratizing nature of the Internet, Western do-gooders may have missed how it also entrenches dictators, threatens dissidents, and makes it harder—not easier—to promote democracy. Buzzwords like ‘21st-century statecraft’ sound good in PowerPoint presentations, but the reality is that ‘digital diplomacy’ requires just as much oversight and consideration as any other kind of diplomacy. Marshaling compelling evidence, Morozov shows why we must stop thinking of the Internet and social media as inherently liberating and why ambitious and seemingly noble initiatives like the promotion of “Internet freedom” might have disastrous implications for the future of democracy as a whole.”
Get this podcast:
The Net Delusion, by Evgeny Morozov
Publisher: Public Affairs
432 pages
Published January 2011
ISBN-10: 1586488740
ISBN-13: 978-1586488741
Purchase at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
The FIR Book Review theme music is “Pocketbook” by Derek K. Miller.
To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
This FIR Book Review is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
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