Trust Agents



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Hardcover
271 pages
ISBN 9780470743089 Published Aug. 2009
John Wiley & Sons
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Trust Agents
Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
By Chris Brogan, Julien Smith 

Related Blog Posts
Friday Links
Posted Sept. 24, 2010 11:04 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

➻ The new edition of the Penguin Business Beat has been released. This month's episode focuses on performing under pressure and includes Paul Sullivan, author of Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Others Don't, and CNBC host Maria Bartiromo, who recently released of The Weekend That Changed Wall Street. As always, Jack took a look inside one of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, going with Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches for this occasion.

The Business Beat also shares views from inside the publishing house, with Portfolio publisher Adrian Zackheim giving some book suggestions on performing (or not) under pressure, including Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. And this episode introduces a new segment, "Books at Work." This month, Viking publicist Gabrielle Gantz discusses Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark.

➻ Being a fan of Writing Tools, Gabrielle may be busy celebrating National Punctuation Day today, something she would have in common with Meredith Blake at The New Yorker's book blog—The Book Bench.

➻ Todd Sattersten, our former president and co-author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time has published "a 150-page custom book entitled Everything I Know About Business Books" in preparation for this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. Todd was kind enough to share a free sample of the book with Ed Nawotka and Publishing Perspectives.

➻ Callie Oettinger recently interviewed Michael Bungay Stanier at Steven Pressfiled Online. He discussed his book, Do More Great Work, published earlier this year, and the big ideas contained therein.

➻ Bob Sutton's Good Boss, Bad Boss is now available, but he has accepted the fact that no matter what else he writes, he is and will forever be "The Asshole Guy." He tells us why in On Being The Asshole Guy: [The] New Chapter in The No Asshole Rule:

Regardless of anything I ever wrote or said about management, or ever will, I am condemned to be that guy for the rest of my life. This book was first published in North America in February 2007. The No Asshole Rule has sold over 125,000 copies in the English language, plus over 350,000 copies translated into other languages (especially Italian, German, and French). I have given hundreds of media interviews and received thousands of emails filled with stories, studies, questions, compliments, and insults from readers—or from people who haven’t read a page but instantly love or despise the book based on the title alone.

The No Asshole Rule was just released in paperback for all you out there yet to read it.

➻ Oronte Churm (a.k.a John Griswold, author of The Democracy of Ghosts) wrote recently about how the greatest service we can provide a writer we're critiquing is Squinting at the Stories, and then he digressed into something altogether different and wonderful concerning poverty.

➻ And speaking of poverty, Julien Smith—co-author with Chris Brogan of Trust Agents—blew my mind last week when he pondered a big question, Where the Poor Go. It's a post about gentrification, condos, Facebook getting into location based social software, European immigration to America, angel investors, and the "force exerts its influence wherever you are on the chain." All in 401 words.

➻ Banned Books Week begins tomorrow, which leads us to the obvious question: Which book would you like to see banned? I'm going with The Boz by Brian Bozworth and the menu of the International House of Pancakes.

➻ "It's taken years to make a beautiful shroud." —Nathaniel Rateliff

Nathaniel Rateliff - Shroud from Ryan Adams on Vimeo.

Yeah "You should have seen the other guy."



unGeeked Elite: A Social Media Event
Posted April 15, 2010 7:01 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

Milwaukee will soon be hosting the first nationwide unGeeked Elite event. The conference is being organized by Cd Vann, owner of SohoBiztube.com, who defines unGeeking as "the widespread adoption of trends, strategies, and tools that allow us to enhance and embrace internal and external marketing campaigns, enhance customer service, strategize effective sales efforts, and develop better PR campaigns.” The focus of the event will be "to form a community of social media, marketing and branding professionals and pundits."

And they couldn't have found better folks to bring in for it. Chris Brogan, author of Trust Agents and Social Media 101, and Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate, will both be delivering keynotes—as will Scott Stratten, author of the soon-to-be-released Unmarketing.

We can recommend both Chris and Sally personally, as they are both old friends of the company. We first met Chris when he and Julien Smith wrote Trust Economics, the ChangeThis manifesto that begat their book. And we met Sally when she attended our first Author Pow-Wow around the time she released her fantastic debut effort, Radical Careering. (She later sent us a box of brass knuckles, which I would explain further, but it's a better story without the explanation). And speaking just before Ms. Hogshead is another friend and Pow-Wow attendee, Phil Gerbashak, a man as consistently bright as Florida and the author of 10 Ways To Make It Great.

Other speakers include:

You can find more information and RSVP at sohobiztube.com.



Social Media 101
Posted Feb. 18, 2010 9:38 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

We are big fans of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, as evidenced by us naming their book Trust Agents the best Advertising & Marketing book of 2009 in the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards.

We're also huge fans of all things analogue here at 8cr—we love us some books and records. Sure, everybody has mp3 files on their computers, and we all read our blogs and follow the Twitter, but how many of us really bookmark our favorite posts and go back to them for inspiration, affirmation, or to remind ourselves of a valuable lesson? And have you ever held an mp3 file in your hand, pored over the liner notes and inspected the artwork as the music envelopes you? (And that's not even touching on the superior sound quality of a record or a book's near perfect, portable, paper interface.)

Well, that's the long-way-round to telling you that I love Chris Brogan's Social Media 101, but it has everything to do with why I love it. Brogan tells us up front that "This book is a collection of several blog posts that originally appeared at www.chrisbrogan.com. You could get this book (in a very raw form) from my blog for free (minus all my updates and edits)." So, why publish a paper copy? Compiling blog posts into a book is nothing new, and Brogan admits to giving others a hard time for doing it in the past, but I think there's a compelling reason to do so. Let me explain.

There's a lot of great advice on Chris's blog. The problem is, I'm probably not going to save today's Kitchen Table Talk and refer back to it. I will, however, probably get the Martin Luther King, Jr. box set he reviewed in the video, put it with the section of my music collection that houses my records of speeches, broadcasts and poetry,* and come back to that.

*My favorite, by far, is Dylan Thomas reading Gerard Manley Hopkins' The Leaden Echo & The Golden Echo.
It's so wonderfully over the top.

The difference is simple. I don't get on the Internet to read something I've read before, or listen to music I've heard. The Internet is a beast we can't catch; it's constantly changing. We are forever chasing it, looking for something new—new ideas, new music, new solutions—always trying to catch up. But, when you place an object in the analogue space of your home or office, it's caught you. If it is special enough, or useful enough, that you've found room for it in your finite analogue world, you're bound to come back to it again and again. And that object is going to be the same every time you do, never updated, never changing. You love it the way it is, and it's going to stay that way for you, consistently informing your daily life.

Social Media 101 is not a book I am going to read from cover to cover, but it will stay on the corner of my desk or on the shelf behind me, and I'll be coming back to it anytime I have a question about social media (which is often). I'm sure I'm going to dog-ear and highlight the parts I find most useful. The problem is that, judging upon my first reading today, I might end up dog-earing and marking up every other page.



Huge Discounts
Posted Dec. 22, 2009 3:50 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

Around this time of year, companies commonly slash prices to ease the cost of gift giving.  While all of our books can be ordered in bulk at great discounts any time of year, there are certain books we offer at huge discounts at any quantity.  But, we wondered, did anyone know these offers existed on our site? So, we've collected all these books into one section, called, Huge Discounts, and have created a link to it at the top of every page of our site.

Make sure to check there often, as the books featured will change regularly.  Limited quantities may be available of each title, and once the book is off the page, the deal is over and the book will go back to the standard bulk discount schedule.  There are some great titles up there now, featuring Crush It, Strengthsfinder 2.0, The Go Giver, Trust Agents, and many more.  Thanks for having a look.



The 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards of 2009
Posted Dec. 15, 2009 3:00 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

The 800-CEO-READ Business Book of the Year

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—And Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking Books, 624 pages, $32.95

Even though Too Big to Fail was written during the same year the financial collapse occurred, Andrew Ross Sorkin has written what we predict will be the definitive book on the subject. Sorkin not only tells a gripping “perfect storm” story—reporting the gory details as our 401k’s disappeared and our financial system became nationalized—but he humanizes the players as well, resulting in an imminently readable, albeit lengthy, book.

It’s a sobering reflection and a critical reminder of what transpired in recent financial history. But it is the great stories and detailed, insider information—the sense one gets of being in the room while history is being made—that will place this book among the greats.

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Leadership

best in category ➻ Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading By Listening by Roger Nierenberg, Portfolio, 128 pages, $19.95 | Leadership is something that can be learned. However, the most respected leaders are not textbook cases, but those who wield the necessary traits and knowledge with a very personal sense of purpose. A parable, which Maestro is, is an ideal way to create a scenario for that sense of purpose to develop, as ideas are presented in ways that are interpreted personally by those who read them, rather than listed as bullet points or chapter summaries. By using the metaphor of a conductor and his orchestra, important details are revealed, from interpersonal communication skills, individual effort to benefit the group, group dynamic to celebrate the individual, and the role that listening (both physically and intuitively throughout all experience) plays in creating the most successful results.

best of the rest:

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Management

best in category ➻ The Four Conversations: Daily Communication That Gets Results by Jeffery Ford & Laurie Ford, Berrett-Koehler, 238 pages, $19.95 | At the core of management is the practiced skill of communication. The Fords present four kinds of the conversations and the best situations to use each of them. More performance conversations (asking for promises) and less understanding conversations (are you OK with all of this?) are needed, they say.

best of the rest:

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Marketing & Advertising

best in category ➻ Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith, John Wiley & Sons, 271 pages, $24.95 | Social Media took off in big ways this year, and while technology has become an important tool for communication, marketing, and advertising, Trust Agents reels the tech-excitement back in by advocating a not-so-new element that is essential: trust. If the people who put out the messages aren’t people we’d like to work with and buy from, their messages, no matter how easy to broadcast, won’t hold their weight. It’s not about how to master technology, but about being the kind of person, the kind of company, that people like to do business with. This book is filled with prime examples, great stories, and hard facts that convince us not to be blinded by innovation as we communicate with our audiences.

best of the rest

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Sales

best in category ➻ A Seat at the Table: How Top Salespeople Connect and Drive Decisions at the Executive Level by Marc Miller, Greenleaf Publishing Group, 174 pages, $19.95 | In A Seat at the Table, Marc Miller shows that selling is based on the simple concept that the only thing a customer desires is value. The value this book will have for salespeople is that in the discussions of the customers need for value, Miller guides the reader step by step how to provide strategic help for their customers and deliver new and different forms of value.

best of the rest

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Finance & Economics

best in category ➻ False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World by Alan Beattie, Riverhead Books, 321 pages, $26.95 | Alan Beattie not only provides engrossing snapshots of mankind’s economic history; he demonstrates how naturally fragile economies are—and continue to be—and how they are guided by the choices we make, not by some invisible hand. It’s a great lesson in these uncertain times that we are—or at least can be—in control of our own economic future.

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Entrepreneurship & Small Business





best in category ➻ Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim, Portfolio, 340 pages, $25.95 | “Should I go solo?” The collapse of companies and careers over the last year has many asking themselves exactly that question. It’s the avalanche of concerns that follow like “What would I do?” to “Do I have enough money?” that stop most. The power of Escape from Cubicle Nation is that it removes all the roadblocks to saying “Yes.”

best of the rest

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Biographies & Narratives

best in category ➻ The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy, PublicAffairs, 272 pages, $26.95 | In The Match King, Frank Partnoy brings Ivar Krueger, the match king, and exciting (though terrifying) time to life. We learn how he cornered the market on matches in his native Sweden and using “creative” accounting was able to ride that success to riches beyond belief until the market collapsed and so did his house of cards. So brilliant is Partnoy’s portrayal that I wanted to keep reading the book even as I walked to my car from the office at night. A great story, told well—there is nothing better.

best of the rest

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Current Interest

best in category ➻ Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—And Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking Books, 624 pages, $32.95 | How could we not pick a book on the financial crisis to lead the Current Interest category this year? And if we are going to pick a book on it, how could it not be this one? Too Big To Fail is the definitive book on the events leading up to, as well as on the characters involved in, the financial meltdown. In his reporting, Andrew Ross Sorkin has managed to weave together an entertaining narrative and recreate a nearly unbelievable sequence of events on Wall Street and in Washington—one that will likely be referenced as long as the topic is studied.

best of the rest

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Personal Development

best in category ➻ Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life by Rodd Wagner & Gale Muller, Ph.D., Gallup Press, 243 pages, $24.95 | Wagner and Muller contend that it is a myth, or a rarity at least, that the best work happens when one heroic person who is somehow more superiorly gifted than average wrestles an insurmountable task and wins. Instead, Power of 2 proposes that a great partnership can more reliably produce transcendent work by capitalizing on the strengths of both persons engaged in the venture. It’s not a surprise then that Power of 2 was published by Gallup Press, the experts on strengths theory, and it is a pleasure to read a book that encourages collaboration based on strong research and communicated through enjoyable stories, particularly at time when many people are more often encouraged to “look out for #1.”

best of the rest

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Innovation & Creativity

best in category ➻ The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger L. Martin, Harvard Business Press, 191 pages, $26.95 | Design thinking is a popular trend in innovation thought this year and a number of good books submitted to this category offer various and useful treatments. The Design of Business by Roger Martin lays out the most applicable system to integrating design thinking into an organization or applying it to a singular problem. Martin also shows just how design thinking can reside harmoniously with more analytical or quantitative approach to strategy. Using memorable metaphors, Martin brings his professorial experience to the topic teaching the uninitiated and the theorist alike this new way of problem solving.

best of the rest

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Big Ideas

best in category ➻ What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis, HarperBusiness, 257 pages, $26.99 | Don’t be confused. This book is not about Google. Jarvis is delivering the virtues of clickable, linkable, searchable, and transparent using the Internet powerhouse as the metaphor. The thought experiments in the final third of the book (Google Cola, Google Capital, and The United States of Google to name a few) make concrete the ways in which the web is quickly changing what we expect from those who serve us.

best of the rest

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