Book Review: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence

I've often said that the best book on social media marketing is Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Although Carnegie never updated his Facebook status, tweeted or even commented on someone else's blog, the lessons one can learn from that book can be used to win Facebook friends and Influence people on the social webs.

Well, now that book has some real competition. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith is a must read for anyone looking to understand how businesses and non-profits can use the Web and social media.

This book is not about how to get more followers on Twitter, or to get the most connections on LinkedIn. Rather, it's about understanding how the Web--and specifically social media--is changing the rules of engagement and networking. 

The book takes a step-by-step, chapter-by-chapter approach of how to become a trusted member of this new society, and how to leverage that power. (But always for good; the book does address the possibly slippery slope of questionable activity, or taking advantage of one's community. However, no doubt that some people will put the lessons learned towards hacking the trust equation.)

There's a lot of great examples in the book, both from Chris & Julien's lives, as well as Gary Vaynerchuk and dozens of others who have learned the lessons in this book firsthand. I found myself folding down a lot of the page corners, and recommending the book to several friends and clients.

The book was also good at reinforcing what I already believed to be true, just with more concrete examples. Chris and Julien say a lot of the same things I say--except when they say it, it comes across as much more intelligent and insightful--I'll have to work on that.

You won't find get rich quick ideas here, and there's no promises of untold riches. If you're looking for how to set up a Facebook fan page or create a custom background for YouTube, better to Google it than read this book. But when you're ready to think about strategy and how this fits in with the bigger picture of your business, your career, your causes, this book will help you get there.

Rich Brooks
Getting There

How Does Web Marketing Help Your Business?

At flyte we have a model called Holistic Web Marketing; it's a way of explaining how Web marketing helps improve your online visibility, drive qualified leads to your Web site, and convert that traffic into business. There are four pieces:

• Attraction: How do you drive qualified traffic to your site?
• Retention: How do you keep the lines of communication open after they leave your site?
• Conversion: How do you get them to make a buying decision or move further down the sales cycle?
• Measurement: How do measure your site's effectiveness and whether your Web campaigns are working?

We recently created a cheat sheet around Holistic Web Marketing that you might find helpful. You can download the PDF of What Is Holistic Web Marketing? here.

 

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Business

Web Developer Appreciation Day Take II

I came into the office this morning to be greeted by a box of chocolates from Jeff and Jennifer from SelectDwelling for the recent Web site flyte designed and built for them.

As a "you're welcome!" I offer a link to your Web site (see above.)

Best of luck with your business of helping home owners and long-term renters connect in southwest Florida!

Rich Brooks
Will Link for Chocolate

Long-Term Florida Home Rentals: SelectDwelling

flyte has just redesigned and re-engineered a website for SelectDwelling, who offer affordable residential listings for homeowners in SouthWest Florida seeking long-term renters. 

In three easy steps, owners can list their properties, provide a detailed description, select from a list of amenities and upload up to 12 photos along with a link to Google Maps.

Flyte programmed a simple-to-use admin that allows multiple levels of user access: owners can list and maintain multiple properties and manage their inquiries, SelectDwelling can administer the entire site and edit/confirm listings while site visitors can search for properties multiple ways.

Visitors search for long-term rentals by clicking on city names on the home page map, typing in specific cities, or by clicking links for popular towns.  While searching for properties by city, site visitors can refine their search by number of bedrooms, rates and specific amenities. 

Recent posts from their blog automatically populate the home page, providing fresh content with no extra work for SelectDwelling. The SelectDwelling blog offers relevant information on various Southwest Florida towns and activities year round.

Apart from being a great resource for home owners looking to enter the property rental market, the site is a veritable goldmine of information for Southwest Florida, offering travel guides and a calendar of events.

If you're looking to rent your home, or looking for a long-term rental in Southwest Florida, be sure to give SelectDwelling a visit.

Cybele Brooks
Project Manager

Avoiding Twitter Phishing Scams: Don't Click On That Link

There's a popular new phishing technique on Twitter that a lot of people are falling for.

Someone you follow on Twitter--maybe even someone you trust--sends you a DM (direct message) that encourages you to click on a link. Some of the come-ons I've seen include:

• Is this you? [bogus link]
• I just found out my iq from [bogus link]
• I made $426.23 online today with [bogus link]
• I make money online with google. i learned how here [bogus link]
• I've got pictures of @therichbrooks naked. Check them out here: [bogus link]

It's amazing how many people fall for that last one.

The reason why spammers are sending these phishing attempts via DM is so that the account owner is less likely to see them until too many of them have gone out through their account.

If someone on Twitter DMs you with something that seems phishy, don't click on it. Instead, DM that person back and ask if they meant to send that last DM. I often just send a message:

I think ur acct may have been hacked; u should change ur pw.

Because that's how I roll.

Only you can prevent phishing scams!

Rich Brooks
Something's Phishy