#24/111: microMARKETING

What is it about?

Greg Verding talks about micro branding, viral marketing and social media. He works with a lot of case studies and recommends to view them.

Key points?

look for a niche: It’s better to get 10% of 1000 than 1% of 5000. Try to define and reach a small demographic and widen it over time.

build a relationship: Try to interact with your customers and prospects. If they feel loved, they probably will love you.

try to get people talk about you: Basically the good ol’ Word of mouth marketing.

Conclusion

After reading two books (Inbound Marketing and The New Rules of Marketing & PR) on this topic, I’m not so impressed by this one. Maybe it’s just the problem that at the moment people try to explain events in the past without checking if they will work in the future. I.e., actions in business should bring repeatable success. However, this book is more realistic than the other two. It don’t present social media marketing as an holy grail. Greg Verding shows the strengths and weaknesses of social media marketing and emphasizes that there is luck involved.

#12/111: Inbound Marketing

What is it about?

Do you want to boost your customer base? Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shan show you how. Inbound Marketing focuses on building relationships and delivering remarkable content to your customers instead of interrupting them with TV or radio ads. Furthermore there are several steps for each chapter which shows you how to execute these ideas.

Key points?

Track your progress: Whether you test a new layout or a new form of online activity, track your progress. Test what works and what doesn’t and act on this!

Remarkable content: It is important that you create content which is valuable to others. It should be so valuable that your readers decide to share your content with their peers.

Conclusion

What I really like about this book is that it gives you actionable advice. This point was missed by The new Rules of Marketing & PR. Additionally, there is one really cool list with about 20 points on how to promote your startup on social media or tips on how to name your blog/company.

In conclusion, Inbound Marketing gives you a great view about a lot of important topics in social media (marketing) and provides a solid base to work on.

#3/111: Crush It!

What is it about?

Gary Vaynerchuck, wine lover, writes about his passion for social media marketing. He tells us about how he learned to do business in his dad’s liquid store or with selling baseball cards. Furthermore he gives a brief introduction to different forms of social media marketing and building his own personal brand.

Key points?

Write about your passion. Be extremely good at it and take it to the web.

Conclusion

It is somehow too light for an real marketing book, but too focused on marketing for an autobiography.