42 Rules

The authors are donating all their royalties to the Khan Academy, an organization committed to providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. The publisher, Happy About, is matching their contribution dollar for dollar.

What’s it about?

If you want to remain relevant as a marketing professional and avoid common mistakes, read this book. Social media is changing the way people think about marketing. It’s much more than pushing out the same content through new channels.

1. Start Listening

The biggest shift: marketing communications has become a bi-directional discipline, where you can (and must) listen to your customers rather than just talk to (at) them. But, with so many social media channels and new rules of engagement, even seasoned marketing professionals sometimes get stuck on where to begin.

2. Know the Difference in B2B

This book was created for business-to-business (B2B) marketing professionals who need to move quickly towards a marketing mix that now includes social media. While B2B marketing is still the commonly used term to differentiate it from business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, social media – and the future of marketing – is about people-to-people (P2P) communications.

3. Learn Practice vs. Theory

Learn from a combined 20 years of hands-on social media experience. The authors provide guidance on how to understand market requirements, engage in conversations with customers, build awareness for solutions, and generate targeted leads. Using a combination of best practices and use cases, it will quickly become clear how to maximize your return on investment with LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and other popular online channels.

4. Implement Quickly

The phased approach used in the book will enable you to make steady progress as you move into social media without getting overwhelmed by too many options.  Providing small, well-defined chunks, the book makes it easy to integrate what you learn into your existing marketing strategy and day-to-day execution, step by step, while avoiding classic mistakes like over-committing resources., If you want to remain relevant as a marketing professional and avoid common mistakes, read this book.

What they’re saying

“A must-read for those responsible for digital and social program execution within progressive B2B organizations.”
Maggie Fox, Founder and CEO, Social Media Group

“”42 Rules’ offers valuable, practical guidance for B2B marketers of all levels.”
Mark Yolton, SVP of Digital, Social and Communities, SAP

“Whether you want to build your brand online or turn your organization into a social business, this book is a great resource.”
Dave DeWalt, Former CEO and President, McAfee

What’s in the book?

Michael Procopio consults with Fortune 1000 customers on social media and social intelligence.
LinkedIn: http://LinkedIn.com/in/MichaelProcopio
@MichaelProcopio

Peter Spielvogel uses social media extensively to listen to customer sentiment, build awareness, and generate targeted leads for SAP.
LinkedIn: http://LinkedIn.com/in/PeterSpielvogel
@peterspielvogel

Natascha Thomson is the founder and owner of MarketingXLerator, a B2B Social Media Marketing Consultancy.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/NataschaThomson
@NaThomson

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“My consulting revenue has grown by 6 figures after my book was published.  I was able to get more leads, close more business and increase my fees because I am an author.”
—Michael Griego author of “42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness”

If you are an entrepreneur, consultant, professional speaker or coach you spend a great deal of time marketing your products and services.  Your goal is to get your message to as many potential customers as possible.  But each year it becomes more difficult to differentiate yourself when so many of your competitors are trying to do the same thing.

You can become the recognized expert in your field and build a thriving business by writing a non-fiction book.  A book isn’t just a book… it’s probably the most effective marketing tool out there for independent professionals.  Your book is the platform from which you build your brand and your business.  Here is a list of just a few of the ways our authors use their books to build their business:

Build a brand.  Use your book as a branding tool.  Create paid products and services on the same topic as the book.  For example, your book could become an e-course, an audio book, a series of podcasts or radio shows, special reports, part of a book series, a teleclass, webinar or DVD.

Get more clients.  There’s nothing like giving a book you wrote to a prospective client.  In the “old days” we created expensive printed proposals with all sorts of graphics but a printed book is far more impressive and shows your potential client that you are an expert in your field.  Close more deals by including a free book for every team member you will work with on the project.

Get free media coverage.  Media outlets like newspapers, magazines, television, radio shows and blogs need a constant stream of new stories to keep readers engaged.  Pitch your book to journalists for review and offer yourself as an interview subject.  Chances are you, as an author, will receive much more coverage than someone without a book.

Make money.  Sell your books on your website, bookstores and online book retailers.  Take them to speaking engagements and sell them at the back of the room.  Package your book with other products.  Build an affiliate program and have your affiliates sell your book for you.

Increase your search engine rankings.  The number one way to increase your search engine rankings is to have incoming links from a variety of reputable websites.  Get these links by offering your book for free to online book reviewers and ask them to include a link to your website in the review.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to using a book to build your business.  A good book can be used as a marketing tool for many years as long as it is relevant.  Now that you know a book is the best marketing tool you can have what’s stopping you from writing one?

©2012, 42Rules, a Division of Impact Marketing Group.  Reprints welcomed so long as the article is reprinted intact and all links are made live.

Author Laura Lowell is the creator and Executive Editor of the 42Rules™ book series.  The 42Rules™ book series is founded on the belief that most subjects can be summarized into 42 distinct areas that capture a topic’s essence.  Learn more about how you can become a 42Rules™ author by visiting http://42rules.com/write/ and follow our publishing blog for writers at http://42rules.com/blog/.