The 100 Best Business Books of All Time

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time has been on sale for over three weeks now.  I haven’t read it yet (or bought a copy) but it sounds very good.

The 100 books covered covered are listed here.

Filed under: Books, Branding, Business, Entrepreneur, Ideas and Riffs, Media, Planning, Strategy, ideas, marketing , 100 Best Business Books, 800ceoread, Jack Covert, Todd Sattersten

Micro postings 02/11/08

Here are some micro postings and bookmarks,  c. November-December:

Merriam-Webster’s 2008 Word of the Year – from Boing Boing.
Too be honest it will be a few years before the American Dialect Society’s 2005 Word of the Year (“truthiness”) is beaten imho.

The Book Design Review blog’s top book covers for 2008 – from Boing Boing.
The Trouble with Physics wins for me.

The leading application and service providers laying the foundation for the Top 500 retailers’ e-commerce operations – from Internet Retailer.com

Everything is an Emotional Buy – from CSM
(Poor spelling aside, this piece makes some good points)

B2B Branding – from Neutron

The Death of Blogging – (How Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004), from Wired.
Luckily no mention of Pownce in the title.  Personally I think that the rumours of the death of the blogosphere are perhaps greatly exaggerated.

Filed under: Art, B2B, Books, Branding, Design, Micropostings, Twitter, Wired.com, marketing, technology , neutron, truthiness, best book cover design, ecommerce technology, B2B Branding, Wired death of blogging

20 free eBooks about social media

Chris Brogan points us at 20 Free eBooks about Social Media

(Don’t ignore the extras in the comments)

Filed under: 2.0, Books, Business, Ideas and Riffs, Influence, Media, Planning, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Networking, Strategy, Twitter, User Generated Content, Web, Web2.0, digital, ideas, marketing, technology, trust, web 2.0, word of mouth , Chris Brogan, ebooks, freee, Media, social, Social Media

Want to write a book?

Today, there is one less excuse not to. Thanks to Blurb.com.

I just published my own – a photo portfolio – and will report back on the quality in due course.

My initial belief is that it is ideal for photo books, portfolios, business books, wedding books and even a blog book, something that has been in the news recently!

And for the youtubeaholics here’s a video with more info, and an interview with Blurbs CEO.

Filed under: Books, Design, User Generated Content , author, blurb, book, Writing

Please help

Sport Relief

(I should apologise for bringing you here by illicit categorisation and tagging, but I won’t. You might have wasted just 10 seconds. Hopefully you will make the choice to change someone’s world in less than a minute).

Filed under: 2.0, ACL, Adobe, Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Analyst, Analytics, Apple, Awards, BBC, Blog, Blogging, Blogroll, Books, Branding, Business, Buzz, CBS, CIM, CRM, Charity, Colour, Computer, Computing, Conversational marketing, Conversion, Cool, Corbis, Customer service, Data, Deloitte, Design, Direct Email, Direct Mail, EMI, Email, Entertainment, Entrepreneur, Events, Experiential, Facebook, Fairchild Semiconductor, Forrester, Fun, Gartner, Google, IBM, IODA, IT, IT Planning, Ideas and Riffs, Illusion, Imagery, Influence, Infrared, Job, Keywords, Knee, MIT, Mac, Measurement, Media, Microsoft, Mobile, Music, News, Online, Online Video, Open Social, PC, PR, Planning, Power 150, Printing, Public Relations, Punchstock, Quotes, RSS, Religion, Remarkable, Research, SEO, SEO / SEM, SPARQL, SQL, Salmon, Scene7, Search, Search Engine Optimisation, Second Chance Tuesday, Second Life, Semantic Web, Sinclair, Social Graphs, Social Media, Social Networking, Software, Sony BMG, Spam, Spectrum, Strategy, Surgery, Survival, TV, Tattoo, The Orchard, Tim Berners-Lee, Twitter, Usability, User Generated Content, Viral, Viral Coefficient, Virtual Worlds, WIFI, WIKI, WOM, Warner Music Group, Web, Web2.0, White Paper, Wired.com, Wordpress, Xerox, Xuuk, Yahoo!, YouTube, ZX, blogs, bob, copywriting, digital, dotcoms, garfield, iStock, ideas, illustration, last.fm, marketing, ogilvy, permission, photography, podcast, sport, startups, stock photography, technology, trust, venture capital, verge, web 2.0, webmasters, wi-fi, word of mouth , 2008, Advertising, Age 5-14, Animals, Anime, Announcements, Answered, Art, Articles, Barack, Basketball, Bible, Big, Big Questions, Blog, Blogging, blogs, Books, Business, Charity, Children, China, Christianity, Church, clinton, Club, Comedy, Commentary, Community, Crime, Culture, Current Events, Daily, Democrats, Design, Economics, Economy, Education, Election 2008, Elections, Eliot Spitzer, English, Entertainment, Environment, Events, Faith, Family, Fashion, Fiction, Film, Food, Friends, Fun, Funny, Games, God, Government, Health, Hillary, Hip-hop, History, Home, Humor, ideas, India, inspiration, internet, Iraq, Islam, Jesus, John McCain, Journal, Kids, Leadership, Life, Links, Love, marketing, Marriage, Me, Media, Misc, Miscellaneous, Money, Movies, Music, Musings, My Life, Nature, News, Obama, Opinion, Parenting, penguin, People, Personal, Philosophy, photography, photos, Physics, Pictures, Poems, Poetry, Political, Politics, Pop culture, Prayer, Projects, Psychology, Questions, Quotes, Race, Ramblings, Random, Rants, Recipes, Reflections, Relationships, Religion, Research, Review, Reviews, School, Science, Sewing, Sex, Shopping, Society, Software, Spiritual, Spirituality, Sports, Stories, Stuff, technology, television, The Page, Theology, Thoughts, Travel, trends, TV, Unanswered, United states, Update, USA, video, Videos, web 2.0, Welcome, Women, work, World, Writing, YouTube

An Excellent Web Design Best Practice Guide

e-consultancy have just introduced their latest best practice guide. This time it concerns itself with Web Design.

Now this is a popular topic, and everyman and his dog has a perspective on what to do and what not to do when it comes to web design. But just for a change, e-consultancy introduced this particular guide with a testimonial; and quite rightly they are proud that even the BBC are saying very nice things about it.

This is first-rate piece of work that will provide an invaluable reference for anyone involved in the production of websites . I’m personally delighted to see a document that so clearly espouses the broader role that designers must play, beyond the creation of the visual layer, in order to achieve this success.
Adam Powers, Head of Design, Vision – BBC

Do you need insight into how to develop your next web project?
Not a web designer?
Not sure where to look?

e-consultancy’s comprehensive 350-page Web Design Best Practice Guide, will provide you with a single point of reference on the key aspects of web design.

If you are a member of e-consultancy this report is FREE. If you are not a member it’s yours for £99.00. In fact is you pay £149.00 you’ll get access to every single report and piece of content they have – lock stock and barrel. Now that’s value.

e-consultancy reports are aimed at empowering people who work in business and marketing roles, and this one is no different, though it can also be used as a reference guide for web designers.

- So what’s in this guide?

e-consultancy believe that there are 14 key aspects of web design that need to be managed for a successful outcome. As such, their Best Practice Guide includes plenty of detail on the following:

1. Strategy and planning
2. Internet marketing planning and improvement process
3. User-centred web design process
4. Web usability
5. Web accessibility
6. Information architecture
7. Visual design
8. ‘Findability’ – best practice principles
9. Search engine optimisation (SEO) best practice principles
10. Persuasive design & copywriting
11. Using web analytics to improve website design effectiveness
12. Technical site requirements
13. The law – is your site legally compliant?
14. Selecting agencies to support web design

What I think is super is that there is a free sample for non-subscribers, or those of you that fancy trying before you buy.

Filed under: Analytics, Books, Design, Measurement, Online, Planning, RSS, SEO, SEO / SEM, Search Engine Optimisation, Strategy, Usability, Web, Web2.0, copywriting, marketing, web 2.0, webmasters

Pushing Past the Dip – free eBook

With a title akin to the great but dated ‘Crossing the Chasm’ (ISBN 0-06-051712-3), Seth Godin’s new book ‘The Dip’ is sure to be an Amazon best seller.

The book is released in hardback in the UK tomorrow, with a paperback following August 2nd 2007.

In the interim, make sure you read Seth’s summary eBook “Pushing Past the Dip: How to Become the Best in the World” a book about the long, tough slog through mediocre-ville!

To be the best, Seth Godin explains, you must concentrate your effort, push a little harder, commit a few more resources and leave mediocre to those willing to be average.

Institutionally easier said than done.

Filed under: 2.0, Books, Customer service, Ideas and Riffs, Public Relations, Strategy, ideas, marketing, trust

Forget about the size of a slice. Make a new pie.

This isn’t the first time that I have pointed out the slow pace of fast change.

Quite often great ideas, or the best quotes, or winning concepts aren’t new.

Yes, business has changed. As Elizabeth Haas Edelsheim says, “It’s now one built of human assets such as knowledge, information and collaborative exchanges, absent the noisy clamour of factories or the hum of machinery.“

Agreed.

But some older ideas on meaningful strategy still resonate and can act as a spur for innovation today. By definition some ideas and thoughts are ‘timeless’.

In a ChangeThis Manifesto, Elizabeth Haas Edelsheim discusses how the work and words of Peter Drucker are still relevant and applicable to the unique challenges of the 21st century workplace. Its super stuff.

Drucker has surprising ideas, even about what he considered “strategy.”

“It is not about competing for a larger slice of pie, rather, strategy is a recipe for creating an entirely new pie to fill a new white space. And during that creation, the recipe is constantly tested and refined.”

Authors of marketing and business strategy will tell you otherwise, but most of the time, some of the best ideas or concepts have already been said or written.

There are very few ‘new ideas’. Ideas are spun, redrawn, reapplied, and very often its worth looking back – as well as forward.

The manifesto is free. The way ideas are spread certainly has changed!

Filed under: Books, Ideas and Riffs, Quotes, Strategy, marketing

The Dip by Seth Godin

The Dip by Seth Godin. More here.

Filed under: Books, Ideas and Riffs, Strategy, marketing

Freebie

If you have not seen Tom Asacker’s ebooklet On Branding : A Visual Presentation, check it out.

Filed under: Books, Branding, Ideas and Riffs, Strategy, marketing

What Every Good Marketer Knows (Source: Seth Godin)

As the American’s would say – here are some “game changers”.

The challenge: Embrace them.

I am not bored of saying it. This is Strategic Alternative Marketing®

• Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
• Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
• Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.
• Marketing begins before the product is created.
• Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
• Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
• Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
• Products that are remarkable get talked about.
• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
• You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
• People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
• You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
• What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
• Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
• Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
• People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
• Good marketers tell a story.
• People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
• Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
• Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.
• Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
• A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
• Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
• Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.
• Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.
• Good marketers measure.
• Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
• One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.

Filed under: 2.0, Advertising, B2B, Books, Branding, Buzz, Design, Direct Email, Direct Mail, Email, Events, Experiential, Ideas and Riffs, Measurement, Online, PR, Public Relations, SEO, SEO / SEM, Search, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media, Strategy, Usability, Viral, WOM, Web, Web2.0, copywriting, marketing, web 2.0, webmasters

Change This.

You may have heard of Change This. Its a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.

I love the idea of manifesto’s. They are rich, sticky, and can be distributed quickly easily and freely. During 2006 I will be authoring a few – so keep a look out for them. In the interim may I suggest these 3 for starters;

The Talent Myth (Malcolm Gladwell)

Do Less (Seth Godin)

The Word on Word of Mouth (Dave Balter)

Filed under: Books, Online, Strategy, copywriting, marketing