Book Review – “Trust Agents” by Brogan and Smith
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Chris Brogan and Julien Smith are two who have risen to the top of the social media sphere. Chris, in particular, is quite often on my radar. I just finished their book “Trust Agents” (Amazon Affiliate Link) which is subtitled “Using the web to build influence, improve reputation and earn trust.”
I had the chance to hear Chris speak at last year’s PubCon South in Austin, and was impressed with this ideas on how businesses can move in the social media sphere. I’ve been following his blog and tweets for over a year now, so when he and Julien released their book I put it on my “must read” list.
I wasn’t disappointed. May of the ideas presented in this book are also covered in Brogan’s other writings. What’s nice about having them in book format is that everything is arranged by topics in an easily-digested format along with a lot of material from Smith (who, by the way, is going on my “follow” list).
I approached reading this book from the perspective that people don’t want to be “sold to” any more. People are tired of traditional marketing and PR methods which attempt to tell them how to think, what to buy and how much to spend. I firmly believe the tide is quickly turning against this concept in communications. People have been talking about brands and products for years and The Net allows those communications to flow more freely than ever.
If “companies” and “brands” are to succeed they need to adapt to the online culture. What Brogan and Smith do in “Trust Agents” is lay out a road map on how to understand and join the communities where The Conversation is already going on. They don’t give a set of step-by-step instructions showing how to succeed on Twitter or Facebook, but rather they explain the concepts needed to succeed in social media settings in general. These concepts can be applied to just about any on line community or communications tool. There are a number of examples of real life people who are already employing these concepts, and succeeding, to give you an idea of how powerful these tools can be.
The principles put forth can also be used by people looking to further their individual goals. Are you looking for a job? Then look to be a trust agent. Are you looking to create better relations between departments at work? Then look to be a trust agent. Are you looking to be a catalyst for change for the better? Then be a trust agent.
If you are looking to succeed in getting your message out online then “Trust Agents” is a must read. If you are still skeptical about web marketing, and social media marketing in particular, then you owe it to yourself to read the words of Brogan and Smith to see what you might be missing. Either way, taking time to read this volume is time well spent.
