Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs

by Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0910155739
• ISBN13: 9780910155731
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Bartleby Press
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

If You Have Been Marketing For A Few Years, You Are Probably Out of Touch

The world is changing fast. The marketing principles are the same, but the implementation has got to be different. For a period of time during the last century, big budgets and mass media gave us the illusion of control, we knew that we couldn't force people to talk about us but hoped they would talk about what we planted in the conversation. Today, that illusion is gone. Customers have more ways than ever to bury you if you don't treat them right. The good news is, if you treat them right, join the conversation that they WANT to have with you, you can leverage this free power to more profits. Read "Now is Gone" and stop hanging on to those illusion.

Quickly Learn the Essentials of New Media

The subtitle for Now Is Gone is "A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs" and I think that very accurately sums up this book's focus and target audience. In short, anyone who wants to leverage new media in their business is going to find value in this book. It's a nice, short read and yet the authors manage to cover all the critical components of new media. One of my favorite sections in this book talks about the "five steps that a business must embrace to know its social media initiative will work." They are: 1. Give up control of the message 2. Participate within your community 3. Determine whether your community is social media savvy 4. Committing the resources 5. Understanding transparency and ethics It's easy to look at a failed social media initiative and point to one or more of these items as the reason the project collapsed. Some organizations stick by old media rules and insist on controlling the message themselves (#1), others take a "if you build it, they will come" approach and don't bother becoming active community members (#2), etc. Here are a few other excerpts that really jumped out at me: ** "I have a hunch that the years ahead will be very exciting from a creative standpoint, as well as from a media view," said Kipp Monroe. "Creative content that does resonate with the culture and cuts through will be in big demand. Call it an online renaissance. I can't wait to see how what we call advertising will look 20 years from now." ** Build value for the community. This is a strategic principle. When you are looking to "market," know your community. It is only by listening, reading, and understanding that community that you can serve it with valuable information. Building value for a group of people means making a core decision to create content for them regardless of the technology or social network. ** Brian Oberkirch offers this valuable insight for his fellow bloggers: Focus on building the tribe one person at a time. Forget the Technorati 100 thinking. Being famous to 15 people is a huge advantage if they are the right 15 people. Now Is Gone features a great companion website where the story continues in blog format. It's also an excellent way to communicate directly with the authors. This book is filled with solid insight and is a must read for anyone who needs a quick lesson in new media capabilities and tactics.

Now is Gone: The Perfect Gift for Senior Management

Many senior executives feel out of the loop with social marketing - they don't understand its application, have privacy concerns and think that it's addressing a younger demographic. What they aren't listening to is the conversation that their customers are trying to have. I've been giving copies of Geoff Livingston's "Now Is Gone" away to both clients and my senior management - it educates the reader in a straightforward, non-patronizing way, while giving great insight and direction on navigating this new marketing reality. As someone who is also creating/executing social media strategies for clients, it has tremendous value to me. I find myself rereading certain sections to help me refocus on the basic principles of community building when I'm caught up in a new project. Both Geoff Livingston's and Brian Solis's (who wrote Now Is Gone's killer introduction - "Engage of Die" indeed!) blogs are on my daily must-read lists (as well as the other media they both produce) and the value that they offer through their various channels is focused in the writing of this book.

Practical guide that helps build relationships and achieve results

Geoff Livingston gives us an easy-to-read practical guide that helps executives reach new levels of social marketing. As a Director of Marketing and Public Relations, I am always looking for new ways to connect with our current customers and potential clients. Not only did this book help me put together new communication strategies to reach my audience, it also gave me tools to build stronger relationships with clients. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking to grow their business, especially on a tight budget.

Great Overview of Social Media's Impact on Marketing

By page 2 of the introduction by Brian Solis, I knew I was in for a great read. Geoff Livingston's engaging, authoritative new book provides a comprehensive overview of social media's impact on the marketing landscape, particularly with regard to public relations and advertising. Drawing upon a mix of expert interviews, well researched posts from the blogosphere and case studies, Geoff traces the evolution of marketing from a top-down, message-controlled medium to one in which participation is marketing. He predicts the rise of a new type of CMO - the Community Management Officer, who will have responsibility for "fostering online communities and conversations with them." Not long ago I came across some research that claimed most marketers don't read marketing blogs. If that's the case, they're ignoring them at their own professional peril. Read this book and you'll understand why.