One Flew Over the Cubicle's Nest : Books on Social Media Marketing (and more)

Following are three good books on social media marketing and PR, and one on presentations;

The New Rules of Marketing and PR
Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Marketing Gurus
Radically Transparent
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery

The New Rules of Marketing and PR (David Meerman Scott)

I liked this book. Well organized and thought out, it outlines a new approach to marketing and PR, using Web 2.0 tools. The old days of mass marketing and PR has been replaced. Now it’s all about conversations, interaction, and appealing directly to the user’s needs. You’d better give the customer the information they want, when they want it—or kiss them goodbye.

My favorite part of the book is where the author talks about how anyone can now be an online publisher, even corporations. Chapter nine outlines the “content rich website” which will undoubtedly replace the old marketing-driven website of the 1990s, with these focusing on the viewer/reader. Other good chapters on “branding your company as a trusted resource,” blogging to reach your buyers, and the usual stuff on wikis, podcasting, and other web 2.0 tools.

David covers a lot of strategic and practical ground. As the Amazon review puts it, this book, “provides the technical novice a thoughtful and accessible guide to cutting-edge media arenas and formats such as RSS, podcasts and viral marketing, without neglecting the fact that technological wizardry can't substitute for a well-thought out marketing program. This may even be a better book than The New Influencers, which I also liked (see review).

Other noteworthy books (which I’m either reading or will be reading soon):

1) Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Online Marketing Gurus (Michael Miller)

Covers everything from web design to blog marketing and online advertising. Nice array of bloggers and writers.

2) Radically Transparent (Andy Beal and Judy Strauss)

Andy Beal writes a great blog so this is bound to be a good book. Written for any marketer or PR manager-or anyone—who has to deal with online reputations—whether you’re trying to polish your company’s reputation, or someone has blasted you.

Book includes step by step action plan so that you can develop the skills necessary to monitor and manage your online reputation, and strategies for repairing your reputation if it’s already been damaged. For a glimpse of the book, check out Andy’s posting (Ten Ways to Fix a Google Reputation Nightmare)

3) Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) ((Garr Reynolds)

I've been reading Garr’s (Presentation Zen) blog for over a year, tons of good advice on presentations and the book, from what I’ve heard, is also a winner. Goes far beyond just practical advice on creating good slides, to talk about how to “simplify presentations for better communications.” (See Joel’s review )Rules include “removing everything but the essential.” (Think Apple). Overall, good advice for anyone managing or conducting presentations, and inspirational to anyone--and that's all of us--who have longed for years to break out of the PowerPoint mindset.

See Guy Kawasaki's Interview with the Garr.
Excerpt: Question: In a nutshell, what makes a good presentations stick?

Answer: If you want to know how to make better presentations, buy Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. The Heath brothers found that sticky, compelling, and memorable messages and ideas share six common attributes: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, and Stories. Ask yourself how your presentations rate for these elements, and you are on your way to crafting presentations that stick.