Blog and internet community gurus, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith have taken a fresh look at how the internet and specifically, social media, have helped to change marketing forever.
In their book "Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust" they articulate exactly what that change is and how it enables business owners and marketers to build brands, influence, reputation and most importantly, profits.
Brogan and Smith highlight the need to develop relationships by being real and authentic and explores the importance Trust and the role it plays in developing effective relationships.
It discusses the different approaches to developing these networks and how these methods can work for you, or against you.
They look at the role building a community plays and explore the various ways you can leverage the power of community.
This easy to read, easy to understand book identifies the many different ways you can leverage the internet.
I know that as a website owner myself, I am always looking for ways to build my audience and with this book I found myself busily taking notes and starting to get excited about putting each of the ideas into practice.
Brogan and Smith not only identify the possibilities but relate examples where these methods have been used successfully in practice.
But while they advocate using the web and social media they still believe that traditional media still has its place and suggest that it be used in conjunction with your online efforts.
Brogan and Smith discuss the role of the Trust Agent in our newly interconnected world and the new rules of human networking in an online world.
They point out that the days of going into an event and being a human business card dispenser no longer work.
The focus should always be on how you are able to assist people and developing a relationship based on value and trust.
There is also a great discussion on reputation and competition management and the ways you can ascertain your reputation on the web, which is valuable in determining whether what you are working to project is actually how you are seen in the community.
As an online business owner, I found this book to be an insightful read and probably the best book I have come across in articulating, explaining and identifying the power social media brings to the table.
Better still, is the valuable tips and expert advice on how to make the most of this technology to build online communities and networks.
This book is a must read for online entrepreneurs who want to build more profitable businesses, faster.