The great thing about social media is that it gives everyone a voice. The problem with it is that it gives everyone a voice.
Brian Solis

I read Engage by humble Brian Solis. This book is in an excellent way lifting social media to an academic level. I think it is important to show that social media is not an hype. Brian compares the content in his comprehensive book with University studies – and he does it without becoming “academic dull.”
In this book Brian explains step by step how companies need to change to become an engaging company internally and externally. He also explains how social media can be used as a tool for managing change management. One of his strengths is that he not only involves the marketing department but takes a holistic approach and focus on the whole company to change (or update itself with the change and success that the new web offers for those who embrace-IT).

Some of the best points in Brian Solis book Engage:
• Brands will evolve, customers will gain in prominence, and brands will humanize–with ore without you.
• People don’t participate in conversations with brands; they converse with the people who are the ambassadors of the brands.
• … social media universe is in danger of spinning off course and into a black hole of obscurity.
• Earn their attention.
• It’s people that make something viral, not the video itself.
• It is our job to serve as a bridge between the interesting content we crete and those who are seeking it.
• The Web has both simplified and complicated the process of decision-making.
• Focus attention, trigger activity, and measure ROI.
• Transformation begins with observation.

Some of the best expressions in the book:
• We are one…
• Remember that thing called a TV?
• Social ecosystem.
• Listen, learning, and participating.
• SRM (social relationship management).
• Soft-selling.
• Drivers for engagement.
• Your costumers are among the most influential stakeholders presented today.
• The Internet, for better or for worse, has a long memory.
• Humanizing company and product messaging.
• We earn the relationships we deserve.

Brian digs deep into the technology opportunities that The Web offers to Engage with consumers. If you follow Brian’s ideas the world will probably spin faster around your brand. But that will happen only if brandowners are willing to learn and adopt from the dialogue opportunities that consumers offers by The Web.

One of the last pages in Brian’s book is pointing out “inspire rapid evolution,” which is exactly what I think his book does excellent.

An interesting thing happened while I was reading Brian’s book. As I came to the part where Brian writes about “galvanizes community” I got a request to hold a speech for the galvanizes industry organization Nordic Galvanizers (and during that lecture I quoted Brian to point out how they can galvanize also their costumer relations with social media).

Also I think this book is a good study of the american corporate culture.

If you like to read news about social media I strongly recommend Brian Solis blog Briansolis.com. He is passionated like few in the topic of social media.

This week Brain Solis held two lectures in Stockholm. First I attended an online lecture at Disruptivemedia.se and later the same day I saw him live at a lecture arranged by Wenderfalck.
I think too many “experts” are talking about social media as an intellectual playground, not as an opportunity to build meaningful relations. Brian is not one of them; he connects social media with business results. In my opinion Twitter has become more of an toy than a meaningful tool for business. This is not alright to say, because Twitter is the new Second Life and Facebook (the hype is so strong that criticism is not allowed to be told). Brian explained this excellently, he said that Twitter is only here for a while and will sooner or later be replaced by something else (but the social relations will still be there). Twitter is only a technical solution for being social. In other words our loyalty is based on the best provider to build relationships. In Sweden “Twittering” have become a shortcut to say that you “understand” social media. Brian explained that in the States the hype is even higher. So high that big corporations are employing young students to Twitter on their behalf because the executives “believe” that young people are the only ones who understands Twitter. But students don’t know the business they are Twittering about. Corporations do not understand how strong impact this sort of “fake” Twittering can have on the perception of their brand. But they are starting to understand the legal complexity to have an official Twitter person online (influence stock-value etc). My interpretation of his warning regarding not letting students to do this is the same as letting kids to play with guns. Twitter is fun, but it’s not a new toy for brands to shot of bad content into.

Here some of Brain Solis best points:
“The listening tells you everything.”
“Social media will soon be incorporated into CRM software’s.”
“We are all judges on what you’re sharing and what you are not sharing.”
“The press release is 102 years old and it’s still useless.”
“Attention becomes the major currency in content commerce.”

There were a lot of politicians in the audile who were a bit shocked over Brian’s criticism over the Barack Obama campaign. He explained that it was totally based on monologue “vote on me” but Obama will soon developed it into dialogue with the people (to make change). In the lecture did Brian repeat the expression: At the end of the day. At the end of his lecture did we talked for a while, my impression is that he is a humble cool big thinker. He didn’t give us the traditional BS about social media with the case story of Barack Obama. Also he did not compare its viral effect with how the swine flu spreads. It was really refreshing to listen to Brian who has the guts to say what he really believes in. His lectures pointed out what and how to create relevance of social media. At the end of the day – does social media need to make profit in the corporate world.

Sharks are not only nature’s most revered killing machines, they are highly strategic and efficient predators. Studying their behaviour and instincts can provide lessons for companies of any size who want to attack the competition.

Stefan Engeseth, author of the new book Sharkonomics, argues that taking market share from market leaders is about being aware, creating presence and punching above your weight. By applying the behavioural traits of the shark, Engeseth has created a number of highly practical business strategies which include striking unpredictably, developing a sensory system, hunting in packs and how to locate blind spots. The more competitive your marketplace, the more effective Sharkonomics can be. After all sharks have been evolving for over 420 million years and are still very much the leaders in their space.

Why Sharkonomics?
Quite simply, nature is smarter than the likes of Stanford, Harvard, MIT, McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain, IBM, Apple and all of the other Fortune 500 companies. In nature, sharks have to move to survive. But in business most market leaders remain static, because they are stuck in history – and eventually they become shark food. Sharks don’t perform by producing endless Power Points; they bite into market share. Sharkonomics will reveal how the logos of market leaders will have more chunks taken out of them than a seal after a shark picnic.

It’s not just about attack
Sharkonomics also includes tactics for companies to defend themselves against attack. It is important to state that Sharkonomics is inspired by nature, but Engeseth’s intention is not to spread fear in any form—except perhaps in boardrooms! Stefan Engeseth, the author of Sharkonomics, dived with sharks in South Africa as part of his research for the book!

Take a bite of this new book at www.sharkonomics.com
For more information, videos and book samples go to www.sharkonomics.com.

About the author
Stefan Engeseth is one of Europe’s most creative business thinkers and a top-ranked speaker. This is his fourth book. He is also a consultant and CEO of Detective Marketing™.

If you’d like to talk to or interview the author, please send Stefan an Email or call +46704443354.

Sharkonomics: How to Attack Market Leaders is published in April 2012 by Marshall Cavendish priced UK£10.99. It is sold in all good bookshops globally as well as via Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Endorsements for the book: Prof. Philip Kotler, Brian Solis and Merci Olsson, Marketing and Communications Director, Nobelprize.org read more at www.sharkonomics.com.

• Contact information.
• Press room (book cover, shark pictures, author portrait and graphics).
• About the author.
• www.sharkonomics.com.
• PRESS RELEASE: Sharkonomics: word / PDF. English (EMEA), French, German, English (US) (28/3-2012).

My fourth book, Sharkonomics (about strategies for attacking market leaders), will be published in March 2012.

You are swimming with sharks and you may not even know it. Stefan is your guide to not only surviving Sharkonomics but thriving in these adventurous economic waters.
Brian Solis, author of The End of Business as Usual and Engage!

Read my new book for free at www.sharkonomics.com (book summary, videos etc).

The global agency network, Euro RSCG does on recommended books about social media. It is for free download books here: Seth Godin (pdf), Chris Anderson, Brian Solis and Stefan Engeseth (pdf) and more (ore in Spanish).

A small selection of books, manuals and guides free (and recommended) on marketing, with particular emphasis on publications that can help us optimize our presence in social media.
Euro RSCG

There are few business fields that are open for constructive criticism. The public relation (PR) business is one such field who let me give out my latest book “The Fall of PR & the Rise of Advertising” at World Public Relations Forum. 400 professionals attended from 21 countries. Since my book is about the fall of PR I was not sure about how the message would be taken. The books where given for free, placed at a table and those who wanted it could pick them up by them self.
Impressively around 450 books where taken – I even got to sign the book to a lot of PR professionals! One prominent speaker, CEO Peter Ingman at MyNewsdesk recommended my book to the audience.
Even if I am critical to the PR field of expertise I would like to quote speaker Brian Solis:

PR is only dying if it’s not evolving…

I will get back with reflections on other speakers´ content – first I have to call those who did not believe that I would “survive” this controversial meeting of opinions.
Thanks to the arranger the Swedish Public Relations Association, audience and speakers at World Public Relations Forum for two inspiration days (Flicker photos).

A good picture says more than thousand words. Brian Solis does deliver more than thousand “social media speakers.” Why?

Well, I got the honor to be in the same picture as Brian today. I have to get back to reflect on his excellent lecture today at World Public Relations Forum (great people and seminar). I got an exclusive interview with Brian. One reason for why he is so popular in Sweden is that he is one of the most humble American “gurus” we ever seen.

Next week on the 14-15 June the conference World Public Relations Forum will take place in Stockholm. The theme for the conference is communicative organizations.
Speakers are from around the world, I especially look forward to hear Brian Solis (he is one of the sharpest minds in PR). There are still some tickets left. I will attend at the conference and blog.