I finally had a moment to review UnMarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging by Scott Stratten. Scott, on Twitter, is insightful, caring, goofy, personable, and inspiring. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised then when I found his brand-name book insightful, caring, goofy, personable, and inspiring. Add honest and entertaining and straightforward to the list for the book, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

What I enjoyed the most were the numerous true stories of companies and brands interacting online – how they messed up, how they fixed it (sometimes), how they won customers, how they lost them. Scott is a great storyteller. The stories were entertaining, but also added a real-life application to the book, driving his points home.

Here’s my review (click here if you cannot see the video):

It’s an action-item creating read. No fluff. No generalities. Applicable to big and small brands alike. Definitely worth your time if you’re looking to really make progress with your brand’s social media engagement online, and have a good time doing it. It’s not a huge, complex-concepts type of read, but a simple, fun, straightforward one.

So! What book(s) are you focusing on right now? Do share.

I just read a fantastic, thought-provoking article this morning on creating content in the online media space that I couldn’t wait to share. In the blogging, podcasting, online video, etc world you constantly hear that “content is king.” Meaning, nothing else matters unless you are consistently producing quality content. If you ARE consistently producing quality content, then everything else can and will fall into place if you keep pumping it out.

But is that really the case? Is it TRULY the content that’s king online? The thoughts of the brilliant Chris Brogan:

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Content is not king. You are. (or Queen.) Content is currency. You’re the king.

What do you say?”

Part of one of his last sentences made me smile…”focus on relationships.” That’s been the number-one, driving factor for why I have been blogging, networking online, and posting videos throughout the past year – I want to meet new people and develop quality relationships. The kind that, whenever the future need might arise, connect two people who have the potential to, together, create greater good than they could have individually.

Awesome to see what I’ve been doing stated so concisely by an online media maven.

Thoughts?

Let’s discuss! Here’s the stack of books I purchased the other day and why I’m excited about each one (err, almost each one).

Ok, I’ve shared. Now it’s your turn. If you regularly read books, what’s on YOUR to-read list? What are you reading right now? What are you excited about? If you don’t regularly read books, what other media do you use to learn and catch up with the world?