This week’s Resource Recommendation – Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust By Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
This review/recommendation is overdue. I could give you reasons for my delay, some even relevant, but as I write this today I apologize to any of you who haven’t yet heard about and read this book.
If you are a small business owner, marketer, interested in social media, public relations and using the web as a tool in any of those areas, you likely already know about the book. If so, hopefully you have already read it. If not, do not pass go, it absolutely must be on your reading list (and not just because it was a bestseller, though being able to talk intelligently about a bestseller in your field doesn’t hurt either).
Since I know many of you who read my writing aren’t in those areas, I want to share more about this book and why I recommend it to you as well.
Like any great book, the title gives us a good clue as to the content – it will help you build influence, improve reputation and earn trust, using the web.
The book is organized around the six characteristics of Trust Agents:
Make Your Own Game – Define your approach and niche in a way completely unique to you.
One of Us – Let people see who you are and help them feel connected to you.
The Archimedes Effect – Use leverage in all your efforts.
Agent Zero – Be at the center of a wide, powerful network.
Human Artist – Learning and living the skills of human interaction.
Build an Army – Collaborating in larger and more powerful ways.
These concepts make great sense, and the chapter devoted to each is interesting with great and widely varied examples. I love the fact that I learned a bunch of cool stuff through the examples and anecdotes!
If you aren’t in one of the fields or have the interests that the book is specifically focused on, read the six characteristics again through the prism of leadership. Aren’t all these things valuable and important to all leaders? (The obvious answer is yes.)
So while I recommend this book highly for those who it is written for, I also recommend it as a book all leaders can read. You will gain insights and ideas of great value, and it may help you learn more about, and understand the needs and perspectives of, your employees who are more web-savvy, interconnected and “all Twittered up” (consider that a nice side benefit).
I started by apologizing to you, but I must also apologize publicly to Chris Brogan, one of the co-authors whom I know, for not getting this reviewed sooner. I’m sure he’ll accept my apology after you buy a copy of the book!
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