Deirdre Breakenridge

I know why David Meerman Scott (@dmscott), author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave is one of my favorite marketing/PR authors…it’s because he writes a book that has me absorbed in every page. Congratulations David on World Wide Rave, another book really well done!

On the first day of the year, I wanted to provide a preview my 2010 book-reading list. I read some excellent books in 2009 that I’ve shared in earlier reviews, from Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents to Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It (both must read books). As mentioned in my post, “PR New Year’s Resolutions,” one of my resolutions is to read and review more books on my blog.

This is my first experience reading a book in the Dummies series. It’s also important to point out that I’m writing this review from the perspective of someone who is very familiar with social media and practices social media communications. Therefore, I’m offering my opinion on whether or not the book instructs people the way I would instruct them, as beginners of Social Media Marketing.

I traveled to Holland last week to present at the Coopr PR 2.0 launch event in Rotterdam.  It was an incredible trip and I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Ruud Bijl, the owner of Bijl PR and his PR team, and also spent time with @jodykoehler and @josgovaart who are driving force behind [...]

I just finished the book, Twittfaced, by Jacob Morgan and Josh Peters. I think it’s a good social media 101 handbook that provides you with a breakdown of social media tools, platforms and opportunities that are not overwhelming to the reader, but organized so that the information is straightforward and easy to read. I had the pleasure of interviewing co-author, Jacob Morgan. Jacob is a social media consultant and the Principle of Chess Media Group, a social business consultancy, focused on strategy, creativity, and results.

I had heard a great deal about Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) from my peers long before I even purchased his book, Crush It. They told me that he was extremely driven, energetic and so enthusiastic that he couldn’t help his use of profanity (often apologizing that some day his children would be watching his Wine Library TV videos). The first question that came to my mind about Gary was: how does a guy from New Jersey (my home state) turn a business under $10 million dollars into a $60 million operation? Was it a combination of luck, skill and timing?

Trust lies in the heart of a strong relationship. It can be very hard to achieve and once you have earned it, you would never want to do anything to break that bond. The book, Trust Agents, by Chris Brogan (@ChrisBrogan) and Julien Smith (@julien) teaches you how to gain trust or influence on the web, which definitely has its challenges.

I first learned about Tamar Weinberg’s (@tamar) book, The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, from Chris Brogan’s blog Community and Social Media (@chrisbrogan). I’m very happy that Chris introduced me to this book and he was right when he said that this is a really well done book and Tamar “knocked it out of the park.” So far, I’ve never been disappointed with Chris’ recommendations! I’ve read many books on social media from Now Is Gone and The New Influencers to The New Rules of Marketing and PR and Marketing to the Social Web (all really good books by the way). But for me, Tamar’s book stands out as a very thorough step by step easy guide to the thinking and planning that goes behind social media marketing all the way through to the best practices of implementation (and, of course, where it make sense for you to engage in communities and how to do it the right way).