Book Review of “UnMarketing” by Scott Stratten

April 22nd, 2011 by Diane Conklin under Diane's Book Reviews. 15 Comments.

Scott Straten’s ” UnMarketing” is a book about relationship marketing and how to build relationships effectively online and more specifically using Social Media.  The subtitle of the book, ” Stop Marketing.  Start Engaging.” is the basis for the book.

While I agree with Scott Stratten that we all need to be more engaging, especially in social media where it’s all about building a relationship with your friends and followers, there are areas I differ from him on as well.

We talk a lot about the idea of integrated marketing as the key to successful marketing and it’s the way to build your business.  One is always the worst number in marketing which is why we always advocate online as well as offline and a variety of media – along with and in conjunction with your social media – together it all works to better build the relationship further and deeper.

Scott gives some great examples in the book from social media that are excellent and go to prove his points very well.  I thought it was excellent that he made the distinction between somebody selling to you and somebody who is actually an expert.  This is something not many people talk about and is so important to be able to know the difference.

I have long said you never want to learn from the Ivory Tower professor who talks a good game but has never done or even tried to do what they are teaching, talking about, or trying to sell you.  Scott clearly is active in and is an expert in this arena.  All you have to do to know this is check out his social media pages to know he’s active on them and practices what he talks about in ” UnMarketing” .

This is a fun book as well as being informative, if you appreciate Scott’s sense of humor, which can be seen by looking at the back cover where you can look at the Praise for ” UnMarketing” and continues throughout the book in the form of his comments and footnotes as well.

The section where he talks about developing good content was very good and if folks follow that you would be putting out really good stuff.

I also really liked that he constantly points you to url’s and places to free cialis go to look at things – some of which would have been very hard, if not nearly impossible to find without the url’s – we all love it when somebody makes our lives easier, don’t we?

So, kudos goes out to Scott for not just generically sending us places where we have to waste our time trying to find the exact things he was talking about but instead just being upfront and sending us where we could just see the item he was talking about.

Chapter 49 on viral marketing is also full of great information and this is a subject not many folks talk about or teach.  And, it’s such a great way to get a message out, create buzz, and build our friends, followers and lists.  If, you do it the right way and are ready for the potential onslaught you might create – Scott shares all of his experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly.

I love that he was so transparent and just put it out there.  Cialis He told you all of it and I respect that.

There is a lot of great marketing advice in this book.

I had a friend who read this book and sent me an email telling me I could price of cialis have written it.  While I thanked her for her sentiment and the great compliment on my marketing skills and talents, this is Scott’s book and although I don’t know Scott personally, I think what you got in this book was all Scott – his personality, experiences, biases and advice.

I debated whether I was going to share this part with you, but I have decided I am, because that’s how I am and what you expect from me as well.  I’m not going to tell you the specific story or where in the book you will find this, but I will tell you that one of the stories in the book is about me.  My name isn’t specifically listed there but I know it’s me because of the story he tells.

It is my opinion that Social Media is a venue that has a learning curve to it when you start, no matter how long you have been in business or marketing, and sometimes we do things in those situations we might not do later when we learn more, and in some cases we would do the same thing in both situations.

In the section of the book on Trade Shows, Scott says:

” You never know who somebody is and who they might be down the road.  You never know who someone knows currently or who they are going to be meeting with speaking to after the show.” He uses this story after sort of being snubbed at a show by some vendors because he had a student badge.  Shortly after this he was responsible for making a financial decision that affected all of these guys adversely except the one guy who was nice to Scott because that’s who got the big contract.

I think this is just a good overall lesson for all of life, business and marketing.

Remember, everything you put on your social media pages and online are out there as a representation of you and your company, so keep that in mind before you post things.

Build relationships, have fun and go make a lot of money in your business…with marketing, common sense and good strategy and plans.

Make some new friends in your life and business…

To find this book on Amazon Click Here: UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.

Tags: business, Complete Marketing Systems, Diane Conklin, Direct mail, Direct Response Marketing, entrepreneur, Facebook, Gail Saseen, Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Scott Stratten, Small Business, Social Media, Strategy, Twitter, UnMarketing, Viral Marketing.