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Book Review: Zen in the Art of Writing

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 23, 2024

Check Out This Book Review on Zen in the Art of Writing

Zen.

So for the social media writing class at Quinnipiac, we were required to purchase Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. However, the book proved to be optional.

Yet I read it from cover to cover, and I just plain devoured that thing.

Fiction Writing Zen

So as a fiction writer, I particularly loved his ideas about how to, well, get ideas. On Page 33, he wrote –

“… in a lifetime, we stuff ourselves with sounds, sights, smells, tastes, and textures of people, animals, landscapes, events, large and small. We stuff ourselves with these impressions and experiences and our reaction to them. Into our subconscious go not only factual data but reactive data, or movement toward or away from the sense of events.

“These are the stuffs, the foods, on which the Muse grows.”

This is not just why writers should also be voracious readers. It is also exactly why writers need to have lives.

We need to travel, have relationships, cook, consume media, work out, get involved in politics, and do all the other things that make up a life. Without knowing the trappings of living, it can be hard to write about it.

But not impossible. After all, people have been writing genders that are not their own since at least Homer wrote the Iliad.

Spoiler Alert: I Loved It

First of all, that is just a great way of looking at things.

Because what Bradbury is doing is essentially giving the aspiring writer permission to get inspiration from everywhere, and from everything. Since the smallest memories can do it. So don’t give up on your weirdness. And don’t suppress it. I love this concept.

Furthermore, on Page 50, he writes about praise. And as writers, we might aspire to everyone loving us, and buying our works or at least reading them or, at minimum, being aware of them.

However, Bradbury offers a rather different definition of success –

“We all need someone higher, wiser, older to tell us we’re not crazy after all, that what we’re doing is all right. All right, hell, fine!”

Therefore, really, it is okay to want to be loved. And it is one hundred percent, totally okay to be weird.

Who knew?

Zen Takeaways

I recommend this writing book above all others. Yes, really! It is just that good.

Review: 5/5 stars.

Want More Book Reviews?

If my experiences with book reviews for writing resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other book review blog posts.

Check Out Book Reviews on Writing

• The Elements of Style, by Strunk, White, and Kalman – this work is a classic for a very good reason.
† Stephen King On Writing – I bet this guy is going places.

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Book Review: Stephen King On Writing

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 16, 2024

Book Review: Stephen King On Writing

For my social media writing class at Quinnipiac, we were required to purchase Stephen King On Writing although it turned out to be an optional work. I think the work was decent.

But… I’m not overly ecstatic about it.

Frankly, I prefer William Zissner and Ray Bradbury (link below).

A lot of people seem to fall over themselves with praise for King. Me? Eh, not so much. I would say, though, that this is the best thing I have read from him.

Nuts and Bolts from Stephen King

One area that I feel he handles well: the question of how meticulous attention to detail needs to be. On Pages 105 – 106, he writes,

“For one thing, it is described in terms of a rough comparison, which is useful only if you and I see the world and measure the things in it with similar eyes. It’s easy to become careless when making rough comparisons, but the alternative is a prissy attention to detail that takes all the fun out of writing. What am I going to say, ‘on the table is a cage three feet, six inches in length, two feet in width, and fourteen inches high’? That’s not prose, that’s an instruction manual.”

Agreed, 100%. I see far too many fiction writers getting into far too much detail, and it’s maddening. Readers are intelligent (generally), and can follow basic instructions.

However, the writer needs to provide the framework and then let the reader run with it. Otherwise, it’s an instruction manual, as Stephen King states.

And the corollary is also true – for writing which requires meticulous instructions and step by step information, woe be unto the writer who decides everybody knows what a flange is, or a balloon whisk, or EBITDA.

Or any other term of art known more to insiders than to the general public.

Stephen King also exhorts would-be writers to read a lot and write a lot. Basic information, to be sure, but it makes good sense. Without practice or comparisons or even attempts to copy, none of us would learn how to properly craft prose.

What the Hell Did Adverbs Ever Do to You, Steve?

But here’s where we part ways.

King writes, on Page 124, “The adverb is not your friend.” On Page 195, he clarifies his statement:

“Skills in description, dialogue, and character development all boil down to seeing or hearing clearly and then transcribing what you see or hear with equal clarity (and without using a lot of tiresome, unnecessary adverbs).”

It’s funny how he makes the above statement with the use of the adverb clearly.

Show us on the doll where adverbs hurt you.

I see his point. But I’m not so sure that a lot of aspiring authors do. The gist of it? Make sure to choose your words well. A part of this is what editing is for, but it’s also to be able to best get across your point(s). You can write –

She waited nervously.

She waited, drumming her fingers on the table until her brother told her to cut it out or he’d relieve her of the burden of having fingers.

The second example is more vivid. It shows, rather than tells. But sometimes you just want to cut to the chase. There’s nothing wrong with that. Adverbs, like passive voice and other parts of speech and turns of phrase (even clichés!), are legitimate writer tools.

You can still use them.

In all, a decent work, albeit a bit redundant in parts. I didn’t want to read the memoir portions of the work although I can see where they would interest others.

I bet this guy is going places.

Review: 4/5 stars.

Want More Book Reviews?

If my experiences with book reviews for writing resonate with you, then in addition, please be sure to check out my book review blog post on the ever-popular The Elements of Style, by Strunk, White, and Kalman. It’s a classic for a reason.

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Book Review: The Elements of Style, by Strunk, White, and Kalman

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 4, 2024

Book Review: The Elements of Style, by Strunk, White, and Kalman

As a part of the Quinnipiac social media writing class, we had to purchase and reference The Elements of Style (illustrated) by William Strunk, E. B. White, and Maira Kalman.

Rather than just reference this work, I read it from cover to cover. And it turned out to be an easy read, considerably more comprehensive and better than I had remembered.

If you ever want to easily know what to do, and how to do it, when it comes to grammar and punctuation, read this book.

Simple Rules

Simple rules emerge in clear and concise prose which never talks down to the reader. It contains all of the rules that so many people should have known, and should have learned years ago. Yet these days it seems that so many people just plain don’t know.

Case in point: forming possessives. Therefore, on Page 1 the guide just says, “Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding ‘s.”

That’s it, no more.

It seems a pity to so much as comment on this.

Seriously, apostrophes are never for pluralization unless the sense would suffer. For example, The Oakland A’s is obvious. But The Oakland As makes it appear as if you’re missing a word or two.

Punctuation

Information about punctuation remains equally succinct. Hence on Page 15, the guide says,

“A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause. The colon has more effect than the comma, less power to separate than the semicolon, and more formality than the dash.”

Easy to follow and remember, the above two sentences tell more about colons, semicolons, and dashes than I think I learned in most of my formal education.

Do YOU Know the Elements of Language?

Furthermore, language comes across as something knowable, with rules and formal logic. This is instead of what English can sometimes seem like, e. g. a messy stew of words from all over the world.

The work gives the English language structure and predictability. Both of these things make it a lot easier to know the rules.

Rules, of course, can be broken. They were probably made to be broken. But at first you need to know what you’re throwing out. Keep the baby, not the bath water.

There is but one thing left to say, and the Elements of Style certainly says it.

Write better.

This classic, timeless work will help you to do just that.

Review: 5/5 stars.

Want More Book Reviews?

If my experiences with book reviews for writing resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other book review blog posts.

Check Out Book Reviews on Writing

† On Writing Well, by William Zinsser – a terrific, comprehensive book.
• Stephen King On Writing – I bet this guy is going places.

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Book Review: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on December 22, 2022

Book Review: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser

As a part of our requisite readings for my social media writing class at Quinnipiac, we read On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. This was a terrific book. And sorry folks, but I big time prefer this one to the Stephen King book (see link below).

On Writing Well covers a multitude of issues that writers can face. Zinsser gives writers the freedom to occasionally break some rules, or at least to bend them. Moreover, he gives reasons why one type of construction might work better than another.

This is one of the best parts of this work—an explanation of why selecting one construction will work better. Because sometimes stories are too cute by half or otherwise not serving the subject matter properly.

What’s Important per William Zinsser

For Zinsser, the start and the end pack heavy punches. On Page 54, he writes,

“The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn’t induce him to continue to the third sentence, it’s equally dead. Of such a progression of sentences, each tugging the reader forward until he’s hooked, a writer constructs that fateful unit, the ‘lead’.”

Not only is this good advice for fiction writing, it is excellent for report writing and for writing for the web. How many times have we had to slog through a ton of prose before getting to the good stuff?

How many times have we tried to hang in there when we would rather be doing anything but tackling an opaque garbage can full of prose?

And for fiction writers in particular, if we want to know why a sequel isn’t selling, it just may be because the last sentence of the preceding work didn’t pack enough of a punch.

Active Versus Passive Tense

Many writers get a message to prefer active to passive tense when writing. Zinsser explains why, on Page 67,

“Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb. The difference between an active-verb style and a passive-verb style – in clarity and vigor – is the difference between life and death for a writer.”

A little over the top, maybe, but it does get the point across.

William Zinsser and Ray Bradbury: Who’s Better, Who’s Best?

I have read other books on writing. I also really love Ray Bradbury’s take.

Don’t dance around your subject. Be bold. And be clear. Be terse.

GET. THIS. BOOK.

Review: 5/5 stars.

Want More Book Reviews?

If my experiences with book reviews for writing resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other book review blog posts.

Check Out Some More Book Reviews on Writing

• The Elements of Style, by Strunk, White, and Kalman – this work is a classic for a very good reason.
† Stephen King On Writing – I bet this guy is going places.

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Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson, a Book Review

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on March 25, 2021

Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson

Kristina Halvorson has really got something here.

Content Strategy for the Web is a short, snappy read that combines information about Content Strategy as a discipline with tips and tricks for throwing a lasso around your own company/site’s content.

Kristina Halvorson is essentially the doyenne of Content Strategy. Her main ideas:

You probably need less content and not more.

Figure out which content you’ve got and archive whatever isn’t working for you, e. g. fulfilling some sort of purpose. Good purposes include building trust and expertise, answering customer questions and facilitating sales.

Not such good purposes are things like get some content out there because we’re naked without it! Another not so great purpose is content on the site because the CEO wrote it but it’s not very good and/or it’s off-topic. Ouch.

Archive that Stuff!

For whatever currently published content that does not fulfill a good purpose, either archive it or get rid of it entirely. It does not help you, and it may very well harm your company.

With a website, this means unpublishing some posts and pages, and creating redirects.

Get Organized, Says Kristina Halvorson

Get someone in charge of content. Not surprisingly, a Content Strategist comes to mind but definitely get someone to steer the ship.

Listen to the customers and the company regarding content. The company may be sending out content that’s confusing to the users. The users may be asking for something that can’t quite work.

It may or may not be in the company’s best interests to fix either problem, but at least you’ll know what the issue is.

And start asking why content exists out there in the first place.

This process begins with a content audit. That is, know what you’ve got out there. Then talk to the users. And, once you finish these processes, you can start to think of a strategy.

Yes, it’s really that much time before actually creating any content. Why? Because doing the ramp-up now will save a lot of headaches later. Think it’s a bear to audit and check every single piece of content on your site now?

How are you going to feel about it next year, when there are, what, 100 to 300 more pieces of content to go through?

I bet it would thrill just about anyone to only have as much content to deal with as you have right now, at this very moment. So start swinging that lasso now. It’s time to audit.

And Now, How Does it All Shake Out?

I have to say, while I can see where Ms. Halvorson is coming from. Furthermore, there was also a large chunk of the book devoted to, essentially, justifying the Content Strategist’s existence.

And perhaps this is necessary with a new discipline – I don’t know. But it does make for an edge of defiance, e. g. this discipline is good enough!

It is. So don’t worry.

And, in 2025, content strategists are more respected and in demand than ever. But AI might be a bit of a threat. But we shall see….

Rating

Review: 4/5 stars.

Want More Book Reviews?

If my experiences with book reviews for social media resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other book review blog posts.

Check Out Book Reviews on Social Media, SEO, Analytics, Design, and Strategy — Halvorson isn’t the Only One Out There!

† The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th Anniversary Edition, a Book Review
• Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, An Updated Book Review
† Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
• Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen
† The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott, A Book Review
• The Numerati by Stephen Baker, a Book Review
† Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans, A Book Review
• Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, a Book Review
† White Space is not your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen, a Book Review
• The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani, a Book Review

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The Numerati by Stephen Baker, a Book Review

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on February 9, 2021

Time to Look at The Numerati by Stephen Baker

Who are the Numerati?

The Numerati by Stephen Baker remains a fascinating work about sensors, technology, data mining and where it’s all going when it comes to our privacy.

And it ends up all about data, about collecting, refining and interpreting it. People are, well, a bunch of fish in a bowl. Or, if you prefer, hamsters on a wheel. We are lab rats, we are subjects, we are collections of bit streams. We are … information.

And the kicker is that, put together enough things about us, and people and computers (and AI) can suddenly draw conclusions.

Conclusions from The Numerati

Let’s say I go to the same grocery store every week (not a stretch – I really do). And I buy fish every single week. What if I buy, say, tuna steaks 70% of the time, and swordfish the other 30%? Am I automatically a tuna lover? Or am I simply scared to try something new?

Or am I getting to the fishmonger when everything else is sold out?

And what happens if a coupon is introduced into the mix? Does my tuna consumption go up to 80% if you give me $1 off per pound? However, that’s not too much of a victory, seeing as I normally buy it anyway. Will a $1 off coupon entice me to buy the more pricey salmon instead?

Ideas But Not Gospel

The data gives its interpreters (Baker refers to them as the Numerati, which sounds a tad like Illuminati and perhaps he means that) ideas. However, it’s not really a slam-dunk. Or, at least, not yet. Hence essentially the Numerati bucket you.

So I am a tuna buyer. And I am a sometime swordfish buyer. And I am also a Caucasian woman, in her (ahem) sixties, married, no children, living in Boston.

So far, so good. And when we herd all the data together, when we aggregate the bits and bytes of our lives, this may very well have a lot to say about us. Because it might be a predictor of how I’ll vote in the next election.

Or perhaps it will show how I’d use a dating site if I should ever need one in the future. Or it may even tell whether I’m likely to become a terrorist.

Border Collies and Data Goats

The data matters, but, to my mind (and to Baker’s as well, it seems), there are not only herds of data but there are also nagging outliers. And these constitute the Border Collies amidst all the data goats.

Perhaps I am buying tuna to feed to a cat. Or maybe I buy it with the intention of eating it to improve my health but, alas, never get to it and it goes to waste every single week.

So consider this case: a health professional places a sensor into a senior citizen’s bed, to determine whether that person is getting up in the morning. And, let’s say we also collect weight data.

Because a sudden dramatic rise in weight would indicate the possible onset of congestive heart failure. And let’s say the senior in question is a woman who weighs 150 pounds. Your own mother, maybe.

Day one: 150 pounds. Day two: 158 pounds. And then day three: 346 pounds. Day four: 410 pounds. Golly, is Mom really that sick?

Maybe Mom’s dog is 8 pounds. Okay, that explains day two. But what about days three and four? Maybe Mom’s got a boyfriend.

Or maybe she’s got two.

Messy Feelings

When I had the occasion to meet Stephen Baker at the 2010 Enzee Conference, we had the opportunity to talk a bit about these squishy, messy feelings.

Sure, our hearts are in the right place. And we want Mom to be safe and healthy, and we can’t be there. She might live in a warmer climate, and we cannot (or won’t) leave our cooler climes.

Or the job opportunities may be no good there for us. For whatever reason, we are here and she is there. So we want to be aware, and caring and all, but in our desire to gather information and protect her, what else are we learning?

If Mom is competent, and single, and protecting herself from STDs, we truly have no business knowing who she spends her evening hours with. Yet this technology makes this possible.

And if we have any sense of the future at all, we have to think to ourselves: what happens when I become Mom’s age? Will my bedroom and toileting habits potentially become a part of this huge bit/byte hamster wheel lab rat canary in a coal mine data stream? You betcha.

Are the Numerati Worrisome?

So, it is often said that only people who have something to worry about in their private lives are the ones who have worries. Everyone else should be fine, blithely giving up their warts and preferences, their virtues and secrets, to all who ask.

I say bull. I like my secrets. And I like my hidden life. And I’ll be damned if I give it up, even in the name of health, diet, voting, national security or even love.

A terrific read. I highly recommend this book.

Rating

Review: 5/5 stars.

Want More Book Reviews?

If my experiences with book reviews for social media resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other book review blog posts.

Check Out Book Reviews on Social Media, SEO, Analytics, Design, and Strategy

† The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th Anniversary Edition, a Book Review
• Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson, a Book Review
† Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, An Updated Book Review
• Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
† Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen
• The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott, A Book Review
† Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans, A Book Review
• Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, a Book Review
† White Space is not your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen, a Book Review
• The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani, a Book Review

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Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, a Book Review

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 26, 2021

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith seems to be one of those books that everyone tells you to read when you want to go into social media marketing. And it’s that sort of a wholesale recommendation that sometimes, frankly, makes me nervous.

After all, how many people have read it? Are they happy with what they’ve learned? Or is the work somehow coasting on its reputation?

Usefulness

But it doesn’t seem to be. Instead, I think there’s useful information in there – and it’s information that doesn’t seem to be found in the other social media books I’ve been reading lately, in particularly Cluetrain Manifesto and Groundswell.

There’s more practical nuggets in here, more like in The Zen of Social Media Marketing. No great shock there – Chris Brogan is the coauthor there as well.

How so?

Too Many Delays

One of the issues with books (you know, pulp and paper books, not electronic ones) is that they take so long to be produced, and then they can become obsolete or at least out of date rather quickly.

It can almost seem like buying a new car – once you get it out of the dealership, it’s depreciated a good thousand dollars. And, once many books are published, they’re suddenly obsolete.

But Trust Agents doesn’t care. Instead, it forges ahead with practical, specific tips. If they go out of fashion or become obsolete, head to the website for an update. Or, if you prefer pulp and paper, there’s always a later edition.

Basic Principles

The gist of the book consists of six basic principles:

1. Make Your Own Game – e. g., break the mold and experiment with new methods. This means you’re going to occasionally – gasp! – fail. So you do. Get over it. Pick yourself up and try something else. Safety and sameness aren’t really going to get you anywhere. At least, nowhere good.
2. One of Us – be one of the people. Be humble and be accessible. This means blogging. It means letting your hair down every now and then when you tweet. Of course it doesn’t mean foolish oversharing or putting out things that are going to really harm you (“Had fun at the Crack House last night!” – uh, no)
3. The Archimedes Effect – use leverage. That is, got something that’s working? Then use it to push and promote the next thing. Think of it like the spinoff to a sitcom. Laverne and Shirley was originally a spinoff of Happy Days. The first success was, absolutely, used to generate the second.

More Ideas

4. Agent Zero – be the person in the center of the connections. This does not necessarily mean that you have to be the center of every conversation. It’s just – everyone seems to know someone (or know of someone) who is like this. Oh, talk to Gwen. She knows everyone.
5.Human Artist – be polite and gracious to people. This may seem to be like a no-brainer to most, but, sadly, it’s not. Thank people. Tell them how much you enjoyed meeting them. Follow up. If this means creating a tickler file to remind you to contact people, then do that.

True story – the first time I heard the term “tickler file” was in 1984 when I was working on Joe Biden’s Senate Campaign. And it made sense –you followed up with voters (in those days, it was via phone call or postcard or letter, and sometimes via an in-person visit) because you knew that, even if their support was unwavering, that they had busy lives pulling them in a million different directions. This continues to be true if not far truer these days.
6. Build an Army – e. g., as you become the person in the middle of all of the connections, and the one who does the followups, your time will start to fill up. You’re going to need help, so link up with other people who can be social hubs and follow-uppers. This does not relieve you from thanking people, but it does help you to continue to keep in touch.

Details

There are, of course, a thousand little details that go along with these. The specifics include things like using Google Alerts to check on how often your name shows up online and looking at AllTop and Technorati for blogs to follow. Grab an RSS feed so that you can get through more blogs with more speed.

But be patient. For alas, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were trust agents. You cannot take a shortcut and metaphorically substitute canned vegetables for fresh ones here. Cultivate this and pay attention to it. Much like a garden, your hard groundwork will pay off beyond your wildest expectations.

And you can even leave your extra lettuce on my front porch.

Rating

Review: 5/5 stars.

Want More Book Reviews?

If my experiences with book reviews for social media resonate with you, then check out my other book review blog posts.

Check Out Book Reviews on Social Media, SEO, Analytics, Design, and Strategy

• Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics 2.0, a Book Review
† The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th Anniversary Edition, a Book Review
• Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson, a Book Review
† Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, An Updated Book Review
• Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
† Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen
• The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott, A Book Review
† The Numerati by Stephen Baker, a Book Review
• Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans, A Book Review
† Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, a Book Review
• White Space is not your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen, a Book Review
† The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani, a Book Review

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The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott, A Book Review

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 12, 2019

A Look at The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott

The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott was a fascinating book that I had as required reading for Quinnipiac University’s Social Media Platforms course (ICM522).

The Premise

First of all, the premise is, like a lot of other books about the Internet and social media marketing, that marketing has become less of a one-size-fits-all/push system. Instead, it has instead evolved into a far more balanced bilateral conversation.

And perhaps the most interesting part of the book consists of the rules themselves, which are in Chapter 2, on page 31 and are as follows –

David Meerman Scott and The New Rules

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

• First of all, marketing is more than just advertising
† In addition, public relations is for more than just a mainstream media audience
• You are what you publish
† And people want authenticity, not spin
• People want participation, not propaganda
† Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it
• Furthermore, marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the web
† In addition, public relations is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It’s about your buyers seeing your company on the web
• Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. Instead, it’s about your organization winning business

And the internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media

• Furthermore, companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content
† In addition, blogs, online video, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate
• And social networks like Twitter (X), Facebook, and LinkedIn allow people all over the world to share content and connect with the people and companies they do business with
† Finally, on the web, the lines between marketing and public relations have blurred

Because customers are talking back. And companies and their marketing departments had better start listening.

Rating

Review: 5/5 stars.

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The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani, a Book Review

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 27, 2019

A Look at The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani

The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani is a fascinating little work on how to get ahead with online social media marketing.

Shama Hyder Kabani’s prose style is engaging and direct. Furthermore, if you go to her own website, the way she writes represents an obvious reflection of the way she really speaks. Major points for authenticity.

Three Main Sites

Shama says that the three main social media areas/sites you should focus on are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Forget most others.

However, this part has changed and is out of date, for I would argue to swap out Instagram or even Snapchat (depends on demographics) for LinkedIn. That is, unless your audience is mainly business people.

Or maybe TikTok.

In addition, your should present your company (and, by extension, yourself) on all three with a kind of what I like to call professional intimacy.

That might sound like an oxymoron. However, the idea is, be genuine and sincere but also hang back in terms of too much sharing and togetherness.

Your customers want to know about your company and your product, to be sure, but a little personalization works (and, in fact, can help to build trust). But too much personalization does not work.

Your prospects and customers really do not wish to hear that you’re going in to have a root canal.

ACT

So Shama’s three points come under the ACT acronym:

• Attract – bring the prospects and customers in with good, lively (and up to date) content
† Convert – turn your prospects into customers (and this may take several visits by them before this happens) and
• Transform – turn successes into magnetic forces of attraction

Attraction is your brand, your outcomes, your differentiators. And Social Media marketing is extremely good for this. Clarity of communications is key.

However, Social Media remains a less optimal tool for converting strangers (prospects) into clients (paying customers).

However, it is good for converting strangers into information consumers, which can often be a major step in moving them along the path from prospect to client.

Transformation

Transformation involves social proof, e. g. we’re more inclined to do something if we see others doing it.

Therefore, you have to do a good job, and use your success in order to attract more successes. That is, ask your clients if you can retell their success stories.

Make it easy to buy and pick your tactics (means of marketing) last – you need to get the essentials (such as theory) in place first.

Strategy is the big picture. Tactics are the when, the where and the how.

Blogging is also key. The idea behind blogging is three things:

† Educate – use your blog to add value by giving away good information.
• Market – make it attractive to buy and
† Sell – make it possible to buy.

Shama Hyder Kabadi is Walking the Walk

The book is a brisk read. Of particular interest are the testimonials in the back. As you go along, you realize that Shama practices what she preaches on every page of the book. And, it worked, didn’t it?

Because if she got you to buy her book and check out her website, then she’s already converted you to a client. And all she needs to do is sell you her services and she hits 100% of her target.

Finally, the most amazing thing is, even after you realize how much you are being marketed to, you just don’t seem to mind any more.

Rating

5/5

1 Comment

Book Review – Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 25, 2019

Let’s Review Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen

Dave Kerpen has a rather interesting book here.

Likeable Social Media

This book was required reading, as a part of my Community Management class at Quinnipiac University.

And it made for an excellent read.

For Kerpen, a lot of social media success comes from listening to, and then surprising and delighting customers and potential customers. Are your posts what they are interested in? If you received this post, would you bother clicking on it?

Case in point for surprise and delight

In May of 2015, my husband, parents, and I went to a Mexican restaurant in my parents’ town. We had eaten there before, but not so much that they knew our names or our usual orders or the like.

My husband and I don’t visit my parents too often. And he visits them even less than I do. To the restaurant, even if my parents were repeat customers, my husband and I surely didn’t look like repeats.

There was a short wait until we got our food. Without prompting, we received a little appetizer, which mainly consisted of little breaded and fried mashed potatoes, configured a bit like sticks. There were three bits of sauce in different colors.

The potatoes and sauce, most likely, were leftover odds and ends. It may have taken the chef all of ten minutes to make the dish. I didn’t see anyone else getting the appetizer. We thanked the server. The appetizer tasted good.

We were served our food, and you’d think that would be the end of it. But it wasn’t. We didn’t order dessert. But we received a plate of flan and four spoons anyway. No one asked us; we just got the flan (it tasted really good). We weren’t charged for either little extra.

These twin activities impressed us, so much so that I’ve even linked back to the restaurant. Win-win!

Surprise and delight your customers. Or, as I’d like to say, where’s their flan?

Being Likeable

By no coincidence, Kerpen named his company Likeable Media. From its positive name to its obvious association with Facebook, the book and the company are all about creating positive and meaningful experiences for customers and potential customers.

Kerpen begins with listening and with careful, accurate, and specific targeting. E. g. not all women in their 50s have the same interests. He strongly urges marketers to dig deeper.

He also encourages them to have empathy for their customers. Is a post interesting? Would it be welcome to the customer base?

The first fans should be preexisting customers, with perks for the really rabid fans. Another skill to master: engaging in a true dialog.

This means not just accepting praise, but also effectively and expeditiously responding to complaints. It also means owning up to your mistakes when you make them.

Honesty

Kerpen advocates authenticity, honesty and transparency in dealings, and promoting an exchange by asking questions, which goes right back to listening. From listening, comes the surprise and delight.

Did the restaurant hear us complaining about slower than normal service? Possibly. The appetizer and the flan certainly helped to quell those complaints and win us over.

Because he’s talking about social media (and not restaurant service), Kerpen’s flan moment doesn’t just cover coupons and offers. It’s also the sharing of stories as social capital.

Some of this includes stories of the company (e. g. how a product was invented that spawned an industry). But it also encompasses the stories of the customers themselves.

Imagine being a soft drink company and asking customers who drank your soft drink during their first date to share their love stories? Attach this promotion to Valentines’ Day and maybe even ask about a couple’s future plans….

Finally, rather than hard selling, Kerpen exhorts marketers to simply make it easy to buy. Good products and services will always have customers. Generally, you don’t need to massage demand. But you do need to make it easier for customers to open their wallets.

A terrific, breezy read, well worth your time.

Rating for the Book and for Dave Kerpen Himself

5/5 stars

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