I love this time of year. It’s the season when people slow down, plan, and re-focus on their goals. I do it. You do it.

For smart marketers, a great way to stay up to date is through the very best information (makes sense, right?). So here are some of the books that I’ve found most helpful, most insightful, and the best guides for marketing in the coming years.

You can purchase items I recommend at the OnlineMarketerBlog store, including Kindles and books like these that I reviewed in 2009:

• - Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation In my mind, this is the first post-web 2.0 book and a must-read for savvy online marketers.
• - Paul Gillin’s Secrets of Social Media Marketing This is a great book to take your online marketing to the next level. However, newbies might be frustrated by the scope of experience needed to fully understand all of the lessons in this book. That said, this is great for those generally familiar with online marketing tools.
• - Goldstein, Martin, and Cialdini’s Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive This is a book every marketer should revisit every couple of years. If you want to convince people – and who doesn’t? – you should read this book.
• - David Meerman Scott’s World Wide Rave The perfect primer for business in a web 2.0 world. It offers a great entry point for new marketers and fresh ideas for more familiar readers.
• - Scott Fox’s e-Riches 2.0 This is a must-read for anyone dipping a toe in the online marketing world. It details everything one could hope to know and offers an in-depth look at the tools and philosophy behind today’s online marketing. A little more basic than World Wide Rave, but a great primer.
  
• - Hunter and Waddell‘s Toy Box Leadership This book is a good reminder of how to lead, without taking too heavy a tone. For the ambitious and parents, especially.

I spend over 500 hours per year writing this blog. And even more time reading and researching the material that goes into it. A lot of that material comes from books like these.

Marketers can gain the smarts and skills needed for success through books like these. But like Lavar Burton says, “Don’t take my word for it.” Try out some of these books, or others I’ve discussed on the blog, and let everyone know what you think of them in the comments section below.

You can read full reviews for all of these books on the Book Reviews page. Plus, my reviews from last holiday season might give you some more ideas as well.

(The links used above are affiliate links which means I get a small referral fee from Amazon if you purchase them from this page. This does not raise the price for you and it’s a nice way to show appreciation if you enjoy this blog. Thanks!)

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I’m trying a new format for my book reviews. Instead of a measured, logical summary and analysis, I’m just going to cut straight to the meat of it – here’s why I think you should buy this book (or why you might want to skip it).

I recently finished David Meerman Scott’s new book, World Wide Rave. I am a big fan of Scott’s work – he’s an innovator who has the guts to practice what he preaches. (He quit a high-paying job to write books like these, for instance.) You can check out his website at WebInkNow.com or check his Twitter stream at @dmscott.

So here are 5 reasons why I think you should buy his book (and 2 reasons why you might not want to).

[Sidenote: I read this thanks to Amazon's Kindle for iPhone WhisperSync. Hence, page numbers are between 1-2928. Sorry. You can use my citations to give a rough idea of where to find particular sections though.]

Get It

1. He hits on ideas central to social media marketing (and marketing in the future)

Scott emphasizes again and again that we need to think in terms of what we’re giving to the community, not in old media terminology. He most succinctly put it as such:

“You’ve got to think in terms of spreading ideas, not generating leads. A World Wide Rave gets the word out to thousands or even millions of potential customers. But only if you make your content easy to find and consume” (pg. 959).

Tenets like this seem really easy, but they are still a major sticking point for marketers in firm companies. Scott makes it simple to focus on what really matters in a web 2.0 world.

2. He translates theory into language your boss can understand.

Or rather, he confronts your boss’ out-moded ideas of how we gauge marketing success. His discussions about the old rules of measurement – tracking “leads” and “press clips,” especially – reveal exactly why these markers don’t make sense in social media marketing (pg. 1080).

And Scott speaks frankly. ROI obsession is causing your marketing to get boring. Like, soul-crushingly, lawyer-infused, uber-numbingly boooooring. And then he tells you why (pg. 1117 onward). (Try highlighting these sections before gifting this book to your boss or corporate overseer.)

3. Even n00bs can get it.

Scott speaks to the 90% who are still figuring out their online marketing, much less social media marketing strategy. That can be a tad frustrating for the other 10% of us, but hey, if we’re meant to be advocates, we need to get off the high horse.

It’s good that Scott covers the basics. No matter how new you are to social media marketing, I’m confident you will not get lost in this book. Heck, he even takes a moment to define social media – something that often gets skipped in even the more basic books (pg. 1261, the “Let’s Be Honest” section).

4. He makes the case for true content marketing

Content marketing, as I understand it, just means that you garner trust due to the content you put out. It’s not direct marketing; you generally build up trust until someone thinks of you when they have a need in your specialty.

Content marketing has its advocates, notably Joe Pulizzi from Junta42 and (to a slightly lesser degree) Rick Liebling from eyecube. But it’s pretty rare for a marketer to call this out in such detail. He says:

“A good journalist [someone you could hire for your content marketing] can create interesting stories about how an organization solves customer problems and can then deliver those stories in a variety of ways…Consumers will love it. How refreshing to read, listen to, and watch these products of journalistic expertise instead of the usual come-ons that typical corporations produce [read: marketing schlock]” (pg 2258).

5. He’s fun to read and that’s rare

Have you ever taken a business book on your summer vacation? Here’s how it normally goes: You have the best of intentions, so you drag this tome out to the beach with you. Before you know it, you’ve dozed off before finishing the preface and your snooze in the sand results in a bright red burn and your vacation is ruined.

That’s how it usually works for me, at least.

I’m not saying it’s a laugh riot, but this book is engaging. It moves. It has a sense of purpose. It’s got a lot of examples interspersed with the philosophy. And that’s miles better than most of the other books out there. And I’ve got the burns to prove it.

Skip It

Nothing is perfect in this world, so here are 2 valid reasons for skipping this book.

1. Lack of evidence

I don’t expect every marketing book to be chock full of research, graphs, and charts like Groundswell was (despite how much I love that book!). But, a little supporting evidence wouldn’t hurt, ya know?

And it’s not like Scott doesn’t provide a lot of citations – he does. But I feel like his most salient points are where he drops the ball in this regard.

Take for instance his argument about social media restrictions for employees. He builds up a case where those who have restricted open access for their employees in the past have been haunted by this decision. He provides a reasonable hypothesis of trends relating to computers, then the internet, culminating in social media. He provides all of the theoretical proof you could want.

But his thesis falls short without real-world evidence. Has Microsoft or Starbucks done this? What were the specific ramifications for Business X when they restricted employee access? Which companies have avoided this fate? I admit I was left wanting in just a few instances like these in the book.

2. Same ‘ol, same ‘ol

I was disappointed at a few parts in the book when examples were trotted out that I’d heard about months (nay, years) ago. It seemed tired. It seemed like something I’d read before. Seriously, I’ve heard that MailerMailer story 500 hundred times before.

But! (And this is a significant “but.”) The reason I’m sick of examples like MailerMailer is because I’m such a fan of Scott’s work. So really, this is hardly his fault. He’s trying to reach a new audience with this book and it’s likely they’ve never heard most/all of these stories before.

It’s only because I have read all of his white papers and many of his blog posts that things like “Where the hell is Matt?” seem trite. If you haven’t, then it’s new to you.

Final Verdict

This time, I leave the final verdict in your hands. In other reviews, I have ended the post with a pithy thought and recommendation. But that kind of post is boring, to be honest.

This time, I’d like to hear from you. Would you buy David’s book from this post? Or, if you have read it, what did you think? Would you recommend it to others? (Better yet, if you read his blog and white papers but haven’t bought the book – will you?)

I enjoyed the book and believe I’m a better marketer for reading it. Plus, because Scott practices what he preaches, he gave away the book during the first five days of publication and I essentially read it for free (Thanks, David!). So, while I have no real obligation, if it made me a better marketer, as a gentlemen I damn well better talk about it, right?

So, what do you think? Would you read World Wide Rave? Or did you read it? What did you think?

P.S.: If you enjoyed this review, you might also like my recent review of Paul Gillin’s Secrets of Social Media Marketing; Goldstein, Martin, and Cialdini’s Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive; and my list of the top 5 gift books for marketers.

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