Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers explores these forces at work, identifying the new influencers, their goals and motivations, and offers strategies for both large and small organizations on how to influence the influencers.

    A rich tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, insights, and predictions, The Cluetrain Manifesto illustrates how the Internet has radically reframed the seemingly immutable laws of business--and what business needs to know to weather the seismic aftershocks.

    What failed startups don't have are enough customers.Founders and employees fail to spend time thinking about (and working on) traction in the same way they work on building a product. This shortsighted approach has startups trying random tactics - some ads, a blog post or two - in an unstructured way that's guaranteed to fail. This book changes that. Traction Book provides startup founders and employees with the framework successful companies have used to get traction. It allows you to think about which marketing channels make sense for you, given your industry and company stage. This framework has been used by founders like Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Paul English (Kayak.com), and Alex Pachikov (Evernote) to build some of the biggest companies and organizations in the world. We interviewed each of the above founders - along with 35+ others - and pulled out the repeatable tactics and strategies they used to get traction. We then cover every possible marketing channel you can use to get traction, and show you which channels will be your key to growth. This book shows you how to grow at a time when getting traction is more important than ever. Below are the channels we cover in the book:Viral Marketing Public Relations (PR) Unconventional PR Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Social and Display Ads Offline Ads Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Content Marketing Email Marketing Engineering as Marketing Target Market Blogs Business Development (BD) Sales Affiliate Programs Existing Platforms Trade Shows Offline Events Speaking Engagements Community BuildingThis book draws on interviews with the following individuals: Jimmy Wales, Co-founder of Wikipedia Alexis Ohanian, Co-founder of reddit Eric Ries, Author of The Lean Startup Rand Fishkin, Founder of SEOmoz Noah Kagan, Founder of AppSumo Patrick McKenzie, CEO of Bingo Card Creator Sam Yagan, Co-founder of OkCupid Andrew Chen, Investor at 500 Startups Justin Kan, Founder of Justin.tv Mark Cramer, CEO of SurfCanyon Colin Nederkoorn, CEO of Customer.io Jason Cohen, Founder of WP Engine Chris Fralic, Partner at First Round Paul English, CEO of Kayak.com Rob Walling, Founder of MicroConf Brian Riley, Co-founder of SlidePad Steve Welch, Co-founder of DreamIt Jason Kincaid, Blogger at TechCrunch Nikhil Sethi, Founder of Adaptly Rick Perreault, CEO of Unbounce Alex Pachikov, Co-founder of Evernote David Skok, Partner at Matrix Ashish Kundra, CEO of myZamana David Hauser, Founder of Grasshopper Matt Monahan, CEO of Inflection Jeff Atwood, Co-founder of Discourse Dan Martell, CEO of Clarity.fm Chris McCann, Founder of StartupDigest Ryan Holiday, Exec at American Apparel Todd Vollmer, Enterprise Sales Veteran Sandi MacPherson, Founder of Quibb Andrew Warner, Founder of Mixergy Sean Murphy, Founder of SKMurphy Satish Dharmaraj, Partner at Redpoint Garry Tan, Partner at Y Combinator Steve Barsh, CEO of Packlate Michael Bodekaer, Co-founder of Smart Launch Zack Linford, Founder of Optimozo

     If you don't know what "SEO" stands for or what a "backlink" is, this book will get you up to speed in a quick 1 hour read and show you some basic steps to optimize your site and blog posts. There are no advanced ninja tricks here, but simply the meat and potato basics of what SEO is and how you can best use it without spending a fortune Have you ever wondered how websites end up on page 1 in Google - and…. why your site isn’t there? Does it just “happen”? Is it luck? Do you need to know someone at Google? Or…… are there actual techniques that can help you get to #1? The good news is: there are! The Art of Ranking in Google is called SEO and people who do it well, make a LOT of money! Why? Because the higher you rank, the more people will visit your site = potential customers -> the more money you can make. SEO is a form of internet marketing, just like Google or Facebook Ads, yet a lot more effective and stable once set up - and in the long run, far less expensive! For blogging purposes, SEO is next to Kindle Publishing the most effective strategy to grow an audience long term - and also, to market affiliate products (=monetize your site). And you need to start from Day 1. - This is the one technique you cannot put off for later! This book will take you as a complete novice and take you step by step through: What SEO is all about? The main techniques and strategies to start ranking in Google and how even as a total beginner you can start employing them from day 1. The pitfalls and dangers along the way (Google Penalties) How to structure your Posts for optimal ranking chances How to structure your overall Site for optimal Google recognition Basic - but effective Backlinking strategies Social Media Implementation Most of all - this book will help you understand what it’s really all about and why it is so important to employ SEO techniques from day 1! This is the one technique you cannot put off till later and while you might feel overwhelmed in the beginning with all the new things to learn, this book will make it painless and easy to get started with minimal time input. Go back to the TOP to purchase - see your there….;-

    His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among his finding:Gruesome health warnings on cigarette packages not only fail to discourage smoking, they actually make smokers want to light up. Despite government bans, subliminal advertising still surrounds us – from bars to highway billboards to supermarket shelves. "Cool” brands, like iPods trigger our mating instincts. Other senses – smell, touch, and sound - are so powerful, they physically arouse us when we see a product. Sex doesn't sell. In many cases, people in skimpy clothing and suggestive poses not only fail to persuade us to buy products - they often turn us away .Companies routinetly copy from the world of religion and create rituals – like drinking a Corona with a lime – to capture our hard-earned dollars. Filled with entertaining inside stories about how we respond to such well-known brands as Marlboro, Nokia, Calvin Klein, Ford, and American Idol, BUYOLOGY is a fascinating and shocking journey into the mind of today’s consumer that will captivate anyone who’s been seduced – or turned off – by marketers’ relentless attempts to win our loyalty, our money, and our minds. Includes a foreword by Paco Underhill.

    Microsoft has used games to painlessly and cost-effectively quadruple voluntary employee participation in important tasks. Medical schools have used game-like simulators to train surgeons, reducing their error rate in practice by a factor of six. A recruiting game developed by the U.S. Army, for just 0.25% of the Army’s total advertising budget, has had more impact on new recruits than all other forms of Army advertising combined. And Google is using video games to turn its visitors into a giant, voluntary labor force—encouraging them to manually label the millions of images found on the Web that Google’s computers cannot identify on their own.Changing the Game reveals how leading-edge organizations are using video games to reach new customers more cost-effectively; to build brands; to recruit, develop, and retain great employees; to drive more effective experimentation and innovation; to supercharge productivity…in short, to make it fun to do business. This book is packed with case studies, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid. It is essential reading for any forward-thinking executive, marketer, strategist, and entrepreneur, as well as anyone interested in video games in general. In-game advertising, advergames, adverworlds, and beyondChoose your best marketing opportunities—and avoid the pitfalls Use gaming to recruit and develop better employeesLearn practical lessons from America’s Army and other innovative case studies Channel the passion of your user communitiesHelp your customers improve your products and services—and have fun doing it What gamers do better than computers, scientists, or governmentsUse games to solve problems that can’t be solved any other way

    People don't listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral? Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He's studied why New York Times articles make the paper's own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender. If you've wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread - for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you're a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.

    This revolutionary method for connecting with customers provides readers with the ultimate competitive advantage, revealing the secret for helping their customers understand the compelling benefits of using their products, ideas, or services. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching readers the seven universal story points all humans respond to; the real reason customers make purchases; how to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and how to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.

    By now it’s clear that whether you’re promoting a business, a product, or yourself, social media is near the top of what will determine your success or failure. And there are countless pundits, authors, and consultants eager to advise you.   But there’s no one quite like Guy Kawasaki, the legendary former chief evangelist for Apple and one of the pioneers of business blogging, tweeting, facebooking, tumbling, and much, much more. Now Guy has teamed up with his Canva colleague Peg Fitzpatrick to offer The Art of Social Media – the one essential guide you need to get the most bang for your time, effort, and money.   With more than 100 practical tips, tricks, and insights, Guy and Peg present a ground-up strategy to produce a focused, thorough, and compelling presence on the most popular social-media platforms. They guide you through the steps of building your foundation, amassing your digital assets, going to market, optimizing your profile, attracting more followers, and effectively integrating social media and blogging.   For beginners overwhelmed by too many choices, as well as seasoned professionals eager to improve their game, The Art of Social Media is full of tactics that have been proven to work in the real world. Or as Guy puts it, “Great Stuff, No Fluff.” http://artof.social/

    In Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud, and Ignorance, he reveals the truth about how the subprime lending business spiraled out of control, pushed home prices to unsustainable levels, and turned unqualified applicants into qualified borrowers through creative financing. Learn about the ways the mortgage industry can be fixed with his twenty suggestions for critical change.

    The emergence of business “model” (not plan) courses, tools, and competitions are a step in the right direction. The focus of these new activities is engaging aspiring entrepreneurs in customer discovery and developing and testing a business model canvas.While this is a viable approach and valuable lesson in entrepreneurship education, business models only begin to take shape when a new venture idea is formulated. Customer discovery requires having a product or service concept in the mind of the entrepreneur. Without the idea for the product or service itself, no business model nor customer discovery can begin.It is this first step, the idea generation step, that the Opportunity Analysis Canvas fulfills. The Opportunity Analysis Canvas is an innovative tool for identifying and analyzing entrepreneurial ideas.

     In YouTube Black Book, Christopher shares how he launched these channels and shows you how to turn a passion for creating YouTube videos into a profitable business. YouTube Black Book offers you a glimpse behind the scenes. Christopher shares his journey with complete transparency so you can emulate his success and avoid his failures. This book focuses on the big pictures strategy of what it really means to create a successful YouTube channel. From setting goals and developing your initial idea to strategies to get more views, YouTube Black Book covers all the bases. Christopher Sharpe is the producer and director of the popular YouTube Channels Hilah Cooking and Yoga With Adriene. He is YouTube Certified in Audience Development and blogs about internet video at christophersharpe.com.

    A five-pack of the 32 page ShipIt Journal, a workbook designed for groups of people (or individuals) who want to do work that matters.Share them with your team, fill them out together, surface the issues and then ship.

    We also need insights into the everyday things that frustrate and confuse us so that we can more effectively solve problems and get things done. Yet we know very little about when, why, or how insights are formed—or what blocks them. In Seeing What Others Don't, renowned cognitive psychologist Gary Klein unravels the mystery.Klein is a keen observer of people in their natural settings—scientists, businesspeople, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, family members, friends, himself—and uses a marvelous variety of stories to illuminate his research into what insights are and how they happen. What, for example, enabled Harry Markopolos to put the finger on Bernie Madoff? How did Dr. Michael Gottlieb make the connections between different patients that allowed him to publish the first announcement of the AIDS epidemic? What did Admiral Yamamoto see (and what did the Americans miss) in a 1940 British attack on the Italian fleet that enabled him to develop the strategy of attack at Pearl Harbor? How did a “smokejumper” see that setting another fire would save his life, while those who ignored his insight perished? How did Martin Chalfie come up with a million-dollar idea (and a Nobel Prize) for a natural flashlight that enabled researchers to look inside living organisms to watch biological processes in action?Klein also dissects impediments to insight, such as when organizations claim to value employee creativity and to encourage breakthroughs but in reality block disruptive ideas and prioritize avoidance of mistakes. Or when information technology systems are “dumb by design” and block potential discoveries. Both scientifically sophisticated and fun to read, Seeing What Others Don't shows that insight is not just a “eureka!” moment but a whole new way of understanding.

    Nothing could be further from the truth. In Behind Every Good Decision, authors and analytics experts Piyanka Jain and Puneet Sharma demonstrate how professionals at any level can take the information at their disposal and leverage it to make better decisions. The authors’ streamlined frame work demystifies the process of business analytics and helps anyone move from data to decisions in just five steps…using only Excel as a tool. Readers will learn how to: Clarify the business question • Lay out a hypothesis-driven plan • Pull relevant data • Convert it to insights • Make decisions that make an impact Packed with examples and exercises, this refreshingly accessible book explains the four fundamental analytic techniques that can help solve a surprising 80% of all business problems. Business analytics isn’t rocket science—it’s a simple problem-solving tool that can help companies increase revenue, decrease costs, improve products, and delight customers. And who doesn’t want to do that?