Marketing in the Age of Google

For my book review I read Vanessa Fox's instruction manual on search optimization "Marketing in the Age of Google". There were a lot of direct ties between what's in the book and the presentation we received in class regarding the industry and its benefits. I highly recommend this book one for all marketing majors because this is the direction in which a majority of successful marketing strategies and campaigns are headed, and two for anyone wanting to either start a business or a website. This book gives you direction on how to make your website value-added to both Google and most importantly you customers! It isn't a very long read in that it's only 218 pages filled with large font and a plethora of images and graphs. I initially read the reviews which not only praised the book, but commended it on it's readability and I must say they were accurate for sure! So on the smallest level if you want your website to be in the crucial top 3 spot well this book can help but there may be better suited books, however if you want to optimize your site so that you gain more customer loyalty than anyone wasting money on adwords? Then this is the book for you!

Viral Loop: "from facebook to twitter, how today's smartest businesses grow themselves"

Book: Viral Loop
Author: Adam L. Penenberg
Recommended: Ohhhh Yeah.

This book by Adam L. Penenberg was the most inspiring read I've had in a while. The book catches your attention automatically with it's black/white cover and large yellow letters. But the design of the cover was not what sold me on the the read.

Deciding on what book to read for the book review project was somewhat challenging. I maybe read a handful of books throughout the year, 4 of them were my collegiate textbooks. What inspired me on this track of Viral Marketing is a lecture Professor Gruen gave during the first half of the semester. It wasn't until that lecture that I realized how today's interconnected world (through the internet) is revolutionizing the whole business platform. I figured, "I better knowledge my self before the world leaves me behind."

Long behold, the book Viral Loop popped up in my search results. And what a find! From cover to cover Adam trickles interrelated and organized information into my brain. From case studies to his personal thoughts, Adam begins by addressing how companies and products grow by creating "Viral Loops"

I wont' give too much of the book away, but throughout the chapters you will find: how Hotmail, Facebook, Tupperware, ebay, PayPal, and roughly 5-10 other products, services, and companies have expanded by virtually spending minimal financial amounts on advertising.

More to come!

Meanwhile, please enjoy my Xtranormal YouTube video I created.

The Dragonfly Effect

Stories abound about real life people doin the thing. Workin with social media to change the world. Barak Obama using social media sites to win the election. Alex Scott before the age of 8 was able to change the world and raise $1 million for cancer research by setting up a lemonade stand. Scott Harrison asking for $31 for his birthday from all his friends and raising $15000 to build Charity: Water and continued on to raise $13 Million to drill 1,548 wells in developing nations with the goal in mind of raising $31 million in time.
Social media is a tool that can be used by anyone for the betterment of the world and with the ideas and concepts in this book the world is actually the limit. Read this book if you wish to change the world to make it a better place.
Joshua Bascom

What I Didn’t Learn From Google But With I Had!
By Jamie McIntyre
Reviewed by Lisa Peterson

This book is a great foundation for anyone who is interesting in learning more about starting their own internet business or generating online income. The book emphasizes that “Google is your friend” and using Google correctly to assist in the process of creating internet income can have a huge positive impact on a business. Anyone can create online income to displace current revenues or to add to them!

The book is broken into twelve chapters which allows for easy reading. The first chapters help to lay a solid foundation no matter what a person’s familiarity with the internet or Google is. Some of the information is very basic, but because the book is sectioned out well, one could skim through in order to gather the information they need. Some of the chapters include: The Rise and Success of Google, Internet Wealth Creators, Web 2.0 the Next Generation, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Online Advertising, Blogs and Mash-ups, Tips from Successful Internet Entrepreneurs, and Google Traffic Tips. Each chapter is loaded with useful information and examples to help the reader see the theories being described and discussed.

One of the key lessons that McIntyre stresses in his book is to model other internet millionaires. There is no need to reinvent the wheel! Though everyone may be doing something slightly different, there is a formula that can help make it all work, and one does not need to start from scratch. He specifically mentions throughout the book being able to find a business mentor. While all of the work described in the book can be accomplished by a single person it is extremely useful to be able to have someone who has worked through problems, issues and successes before in order to move quickly, generate revenues, and create success.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in learning about online business. It gives foundational and useful information, provides interesting stories and backgrounds, and is kept simple and readable for anyone to access the information!

Here is a video to add fuel to your fire in reading this book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcREdkLwwWc

Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars

When I first started reading Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars, I was a little confused. I knew from reading the cover that the book was collaborated among the 22 authors and experts in social media, but I didn’t realize each chapter was written by a different expert. This is truly a unique book. Right away, I found this book to be very valuable for anyone trying to improve their business through social media.

The book is divided into two sections—the first section (chapters 1-12) covers the strategies and principles related to social media marketing such as building relationships, the psychology of social media, how to communicate, and more. The second part (chapters 13-22) addresses the actual applications and websites like blogging, Facebook, Linked In, You Tube, and Twitter.

Besides offering many tips and tactics, the book also describes the biggest mistakes businesses make with social media and how to fix them, in depth case studies, actionable plans for all areas including social networks, blogs, web TV, and mobile marketing, along with valuable tools and resources that anyone can use to get involved in social media marketing. This book was mainly written to teach people and entrepreneurs how to effectively put together successful social media campaigns in order to greatly expand their reach and grow their business.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in social media, or looking to stay on top and improve their business. This book was extremely organized and seems to be a perfect reference book. You can easily find the content you are looking for and the chapters contain very relevant and concise information about all of the aspects of social media. As I was reading, there are certain chapters and authors that stand out (I found Chapter 6 about personality and standing out on the internet very interesting, and chapter 15 about Twitter was very fascinating as well.) I liked how this book also gave me an idea on other authors that might interest me or other social media books that might be appealing because there are so many social media books out there. This is definitely a good book, and I strongly recommend it.

To see my recommendation on youtube please click the following link
http://www.youtube.com/user/SMRach22?feature=mhum

Rachael Rush
Marketing 4700

The Future of Business

Social media is the future of business.  It's here to stay.  Why is that?  Because it's personal.  No longer will businesses be seen as faceless entities.  No longer will marketing boil down to an impersonal sales pitch.  Social media will change all of this, in my opinion.

As of now, social media is a rather new phenomenon.  The internet has created a portal for people to be connected to eachother, and businesses are now using these tools to reach customers on a level like never before.  Yet many businesses are stuck in the past.  Many have no idea where to start or why they should bother.  That's where social media experts like Tamar Weinberg (Community and Marketing manager of Mashable) enter.  If you know little to nothing about social media, and are ready to dive on in, start here.  There are literally dozens of various social media portals out there like Twitter, Facebook, Mashable, LinkedIn, Reddit, Delicious, etc.  Tamar Weinberg has managed to take all of these services and explain them in detail in this book.  And not only will you finally understand these novel tools, but you'll understand how to use them to do one thing: promote your business.

For more details, check out my youtube video.

Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz

Want to be a celebrity but have absolutely no talent? Don't know where to start? Seaman offers a sarcastic, comical step-by-step guide to help! This book starts with creating an attitude and moves into the internet, television, and the radio. He ends with recognition of when your 15 minutes is up. I HIGHLY SUGGEST reading this book to everyone. It's great for both informational and pleasure reading. Seaman uses a clear tone to get his message across with several well-known examples including Tila Tequila, Michael Moore, and Donald Trump.

David Seaman is highly qualified to write this book. He is a respected PR consultant, full-time blogger, writer, and media personality. He is also the founder of Shutterline Interactive, a vehicle for rapidly deploying new publicity stunts.

BUT if you don't have time to read this book don't worry! I summarized his suggestions into 7 simple steps. Check it out!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oWmeFFN4a4