Engage!: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

by Brian Solis

Book Overview

The ultimate guide to branding and building your business in the era of the Social Web'revised and updated with a Foreword by Ashton Kutcher Engage thoroughly examines the social media landscape and how to effectively use social media to succeed in business'one network and one tool at a time. It leads you through the detailed and specific steps required for conceptualizing, implementing, managing, and measuring a social media program. The result is...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470571098
• ISBN13: 9780470571095
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

How Far Down the Rabbit Hole Do You Want To Go?

If Social Media is a Wonderland, Brian Solis is the White Rabbit. The question is "how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?" "Engage" works on multiple levels: from explaining basic ideologies for engaging like-minded people through simple Social Media venues; to delving into far-reaching, strategic deployments to tap the human algorithm. I'm just starting out on my Social Media journey, but because I follow Brian on Twitter, read his blog, heed his suggestions, and especially keep my already tattered copy of "Engage" close by--the rabbit hole is turning into a vast and wondrous adventure. -Shauna

Creating a Social Media Plan to "Engage"

"Perhaps the biggest mistakes committed by businesses, personalities, and brands in social media occur when people jump into social networks blindly without establishing guidelines, a plan of action, a sense of what people are seeking and how and why they communicated, an understanding of where people are congregating, a definition of what they represent and how they will personify the brand online, and the goals, objectives, and metrics associated with participation." Albeit fairly late in the book, this sentence sums up the purpose of Brian Solis in Engage! One more book about Social Media, sure; but this one is one of the best written. It's almost reassuring to read sentences that exceed 140 characters (or twenty words), and, while you can find all the trendy buzzwords and expressions on virtually every page, the author authentically tries to assist social media managers as they transition from the broadcasting age to the intricacies of a new form of netcasting architecture where both users and corporations exchange "social objects." How well or efficiently can they do so? This book provides social media managers with the background knowledge and practical notions that they can leverage to design a consistent strategy. The first half of the book surveys the world of social media in general, describing all the aspects of social interactions and their impact on corporate marketing and communication, as well as customer service departments. Traditional marketing schemas have irreversibly imploded under the pressure of a crowd represented in a "conversation prism" that factors in behavioral guidelines implicitly or explicitly set by the multiple socialization channels. So marketers must listen. What can they do with so much information? "Instead of inhibiting the pace and breadth of information flow, we must channel relevant details and data," a task that does not only require "attention" (nice reference to Linda Stone's Continuous Partial Attention), but also some understanding of applied social sciences or researchers' and analysts' categorizations (such as Charlene Li's and Jeremiah Owyang's Socialgraphics). Achieving a state of the art "unmarketing" to use a time-stamped word by Scott Stratten - i.e. rebuilding a marketing strategy from the bottom up - entails, for many companies, a serious reassessment of some entrenched marketing habits. Hence the resolutely didactic approach of the two parts of the book: "The New Reality of Marketing and Creating Customer Service" and "Forever Students of New Media." The second half of the book comprises four parts that detail the new responsibilities that come up with the potential of social media, and focuses more specifically on what a "new marketing" approach may look like. One of the most remarkable sections is related to "defining the rules of engagement." It unambiguously shows to the skeptics that the social media revolution is not a passing phenomenon spurred on or controlled by influencers, but

Thoroughly & Utterly Engaged

Brian Solis does much more than introducing us to social media tools. Engage! is truly an education. If you take the time to do your homework, trying out the suggested resources, your efforts will most definitely pay off. There's something for everyone in this book regardless of where you are on the new media learning curve. I found myself captivated by several things in particular: social media dashboards, aggregation and syndication, geo location and mobile networking, social objects and social media optimization. Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web is a book you will be able to pick up on any given day and find what you're looking for as a way to keep on track with your social media goals and objectives. Great book. I highly recommend it! Debbie Hemley

Engage> Toolkit and more for the Forever Student of New Media

As one of those students of business especially in the " marketing" space- forever is the correct word for anyone who wants to keep pace with the changes that are happening. This book will lay it out for you and give you the thought leaders that Brian shares in here to dig even deeper. I have already made it required reading for some of my colleagues so we are having the correct conversation about these upheavals occurring in our business. Engage is the whole point of the book- as a business or just as an individual if you are not engaging with your important people in the way Brian lays out here be prepared to have surprises and shocks to your business ecosystem and not in a good way. If you are in a leadership position or what to be; this is a must read to prepare yourself and your company for this exciting new world. Also once you read it keep reading Brian's Blog and follow those that he mentions in this book and you will never be left behind. No matter where you are in the learning curve a newbie, or engaged for years there is something for everyone in this book.

A Must Read If You Want a Competitive Advantage

I've been a fan of Brian's thinking for some time. It's always so timely, effective and deeply researched. As the advertising, marketing and PR world's are turned upside down by social media, I find 'Engage' to be an indispensable guide. It's one thing to know the new social landscape and another to understand how to navigate it, and that's where I found engage so powerful. Better yet, he tells you how to set up your company in a way that allows you to keep pace with new technology and a changing marketplace so you're not having to constantly re-invent yourself. If you really want to remain relevant and prosperous in today's marketplace, you have to 1) embrace social media, 2) build community and 3) use 'Engage' as your guide. If you don't, you're risking your own survival. Get it, read it, go to market. Thanks, as ever, to Brian for the super smart thinking.