Then I read Trust Agents. In it, Julien explained to me exactly why he didn't respond to my clumsy email. In fact, I listened to it as an audiobook which was read by him (as well as his co-author, Chris Brogan), so it really felt like he was actually telling me personally, in explicit detail, why he didn't respond to my self-serving email. For 6 1/2 hours. A bit hard on the ego, but I needed to hear it. He does a brilliant job of explaining not just social media etiquette, but also why it works the way it does, and why it should work that way.
Before reading Trust Agents, I understood the mechanics of social networks and social media, but not the "rules". I "got" Facebook because I used it only for purely personal and family contacts, but my attempts to start to leverage social networks for my business were clumsy, and I wasn't sure where the lines were that should not be crossed.
So now I know. I get it. Sorry Julien.
My review of the book itself? Very valuable to all but the most seasoned social media butterflies. Unless you're one of those, you should read it if you're looking to use social networks for anything other than purely personal use. Thumbs up. 4.5 stars. Pick your scale, and put my review somewhere well into the positive end.
A few (very minor) flaws -to me anyway....
1) The advice "as long as you keep at it, people will start paying attention to you online eventually" only works if you have reasonably interesting ideas and the writing skills to express them. The harsh reality is that many people just don't, and could waste a lot of their time following this advice. If the authors' assumption is that anyone who has the wherewithal to read the book in the first place probably meets both of these criteria, then I retract this comment.
2) I have trouble with the idea that "it's different now because consumers are in control". It's a bit naive to think that people were drones before 2002, who would buy any old shit as long as it was on TV. Plenty of products failed in the 70s too... Yes, a lot has changed, but the bottom line is that large-scale brand advertising still works, and the data show that large corporations still exert enormous influence on consumer behaviour. The channels are just different now. See Jay Rob Walker's "Buying In" for more on this.
3) For the audiobook version, I didn't like the authors sharing reading duties. It was a bit distracting the have the book's "voice" change at the beginning of a new chapter. I also wasn't crazy about Julien's reading voice (sorry Julien). I'm no professional voice actor, but many syllables were mashed together or dropped altogether, and the speaking volume wasn't consistent, making it hard to hear in a noisy environment (I listen while walking outdoors).
These are very minor issues, however, and I have already recommended the book to several people, and now this includes you.
