Joe Wikert reviewed Now Is Gone on his Publishing 2020 blog. Here’s what Joe thought of the book:

The subtitle for Now Is Gone is “A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs” and I think that very accurately sums up this book’s focus and target audience.  In short, anyone who wants to leverage new media in their business is going to find value in this book. It’s a nice, short read and yet the authors manage to cover all the critical components of new media.

In addition, local blogger and friend Shashi Bellamkonda got a new job. Now he will be engaged in social media full-time at Network Solutions. Way to go, Shashi!  In his announcement, he mentioned how Now Is Gone impacted his movement towards social media:

… “Now is Gone,” which did exactly what the cover says, it’s a “primer for Social Media.” I’ve met with him several times and he was a great guy to bounce ideas off. His book was a great resource and I remember his words, “First determine if your community is Social media Savvy and engage in the media they use” (I may be paraphrasing).

A great way to end the year.  Best wishes to everyone, and have a merry and safe New Year!

Earlier this week I had the great pleasure of being interviewed for Cincom’s Expert Access by friend and publicist Nettie Hartsock.  The focus was on Now Is Gone. Here’s a snippet:

But what does PR need to be in terms of an interconnected world?

Livingston says, “Public relations needs to become a mechanism for organizations to build goodwill between themselves and their communities. Unfortunately, this means that it must realize its roots because this is the classic textbook definition of PR.

“PR has moved from community relationships to spinning truth, dictating messages, yielding media and blogger impressions, and trying to command brand perception. This inherently mass communications approach does not work in a two-way conversational media form. Audiences, viewers and readers talk back now. And they call out companies, governments and other organizations on their perceived propaganda and stretched truths.”

And lo is the company who aims to just spit out marketing drivel, or inauthentic messaging. According to Livingston, social media communities — that is, people — want more than just bunk; they want truth, transparency and authenticity in their conversations.

“In a digital era when identity can be compromised so easily, it’s even more important to focus on building honest conversations to foster relationships. Trust is hard to come by and easily lost in social media communities.”

You can read the whole interview on Cincom.

Len Edgerly chronicled a good bit of our conversation at Social Media Breakfast IV on his Video Pod Chronicles blog.  Check out his post, “Death of the Audience.”

An actual day-to-day practitioner of social media, a community manager, Connie Bensen reviewed the book: “It’s a must read if you’re considering implementing a social media program or already have an established one. It was nice to nod in agreement with the ideas that I’m already practicing. And there were times I found myself pondering the overviews.”

Connie’s comments meant more to me than most of the reviews to date because she’s on the firing line.  It’s great to get an acknowledgement like this. Thanks, Connie!

Chip Griffin from Media Bullseye reviewed the book: Geoff Livingston has successfully authored a book that many communicators new to the social media game will find to be a useful introduction to the techniques needed to thrive. Recommended, with reservations. Chip’s primary reservations were with our blogger relations suggestions.

Finally, A-Lister Chris Brogan reviewed the book and says, “I just finished reading this excellent book by Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis. It’s chock full of interesting points, good case studies from the real world, supporting posts and references, and a great deal of useful information. It’s packed into a very slim volume, perfect for those who have a lot to do and little time to do it, and yet excellent in dispensing the important information to be covered.”

Frank Gruber interviewed Brian Solis today about the book, and social media in general. It’s got lots of great insights from two of the best minds in social media today. Check it out!

Also, if you haven’t perused Somewhat Frank yet, get over there now. Frank’s social media insights are just amazing, and his Tech Cocktail events are always packed! I had the opportunity to meet him last month, and I can tell you Frank is a bright and kind person who makes time for his fans.

Twice the fun, Technosailor’s Aaron Brazell reviewed Now Is Gone today. Here’s some of what he had to say…

Overall, the book is brilliant. I’m glad this is not “yet another book on blogging”. It doesn’t provide a how to. It doesn’t provide options for choosing your platform or describe how to subscribe to RSS.

It’s obvious that this book was written mostly for executives. This is not a bad thing as Executives are the ones steering companies and the reality is that if companies don’t embrace social media, they will be left behind. It is presented in a very philosophical way, describing the challenges that companies face today when it comes to the social media landscape, brand management and public relations.

Thanks, Aaron! Full review here.

We had two more strong reviews this week from Communication Overtones Blogger Kami Huyse and Valley PR Blog’s Linda VandeVrede. We are also featured on Rohit Bhargarva’s Ultimate Marketing Bookstore, which raises money for DonorsChoose.org (a site which allows teachers to submit funding proposals to ask for help doing something they don’t normally get the funding for).

Thank you to Kami, Linda and Rohit. If you are thinking about purchasing Now Is Gone, please support Rohit in his effort. There is no additional cost.

Criticism

Since one of the first tenets of the book is not to control the message, we’re going to vet some criticisms that have surfaced in the reviews and in conversation. Here are the five criticisms which I have found most interesting and, in some cases, spot on (image credit David Airey graphic design from criticism post).

1) Jeremy Pepper had a couple of interesting points. First, he didn’t see Crayon’s Coca Cola Virtual Thirst campaign as that great a success (case study, p. 108).

This campaign was a very high visibility effort that reversed a very negative approach to a prior Mentos/Diet Coke incident. Previously, Coke tried to clamp down on user generated videos and posts (instead of embracing them). So when Coke initiated it’s Virtual Thirst campaign it received a ton of blog ink as a successful approach towards embracing social media. That’s when the book was being written so I included it.

As to the actual results of the campaign, we don’t know what they are. The campaign just wrapped up. Did Second Lifers really embrace Coke’s virtual thirst social media? I’d have to ask my sources at crayon and C.C. Chapman if they could provide some measurement.

2) On page 127-128, I wrote up the relatively new Nikon D80 blogger relations program as a fiasco because of the many negative posts and ensuing controversy the program caused. Shel Holtz was also quoted as saying the blog discussion wasn’t the conversation that Nikon wanted.

Jeremy Pepper noted that the Nikon D80 program turned out to be a pretty good success. I have to agree with him. Tom Biro and crew did successfully get the D80 into the marketplace. When I was at Blog Orlando last September I noticed every blogger except Chris Heuer had a Nikon. Then I saw Tom speak. It seems a lot of negativity was actually jealousy and envy. And everyone really did want a Nikon. Kudos to Biro for a job well done.

Jeremy added, “if you condemn the D80 program, you eliminate any way for any PR firm to do any blog outreach and review programs. There have been worse (Acer Ferrari/Vista) and some better (Nokia).

“I was at the LiveJournal party this week, and a well-respected blogger and photographer said to me, ‘You know, that Nikon program was great. People see you out at events, and they know you are shooting with a Nikon camera and that you take great photos.’”

3) Nikon is a perfect segway to criticism from Chris Thilk, Biro’s comrade in arms, on the Open Dialogue blog. Chris has several criticisms in what has been the most lukewarm review to date (he still recommended Now Is Gone). The one that’s interesting from my viewpoint is this comment on blogger relations:

At one point Livingston warns public relations practitioners that if they send out a heads-up to bloggers and that pitch does not result in the story being written up then it’s a failure and they need to scrap the entire program since it’s obviously not adding value to the larger community.

While I agree that PR people should approach bloggers carefully (that’s why it helps to have someone who knows the community and that language) and that pitches need to be individually crafted to make the story as valuable to the blogger as possible I don’t think failure to achieve pick-up is a sign of a bad program… Since blogging is so highly personal - even if I’m not blogging about personal matters - sometimes I just can’t get excited about a story that would normally be right up my alley. Bloggers are moody, something that occasionally renders any hard and fast rules about engagement moot.

I absolutely agree… if the pitcher is an experienced blogger relations pro like Chris or Tom. However, because the book is written for executives and entrepreneurs that have almost zero to basic experiences in social media, I stand by the original statement. It’s a primer, not a detailed how-to guide.

Folks that are new to social media don’t know how to pitch bloggers, and when they do, they end up in positions like these. Encouraging them to send a “good pitch” to bloggers when they cannot judge what good is? You may as well send a lamb to its own slaughter.

OK, both Chris and Tom have a lot of great value to add to the marketplace. It would be excellent if they wrote a white paper on blogger relations. If they do, I promise to promote it on both Now Is Gone and the Buzz Bin.

4) Debbie Weil and Kami Huyse pointed out the writing was rough at points and could use some more editing. They are correct, we made a conscious decision to sacrifice quality and rush the book to market so the information would be relevant.

The book was finished at the end of June and sent to print just four months later. The last chapter was literally written two days before the book went to press. Also, please keep in mind Bartleby is a small press that may publish eight to 12 titles a year. Their resources are not as deep as Putnam.

Was it worth it? Having just read Meatball Sundae, yes. Seth’s book is better written, but the information is much older than Now Is Gone and it won’t be released until after Christmas. Now Is Gone is rougher, but much more current, and has been out for a month now. Meatball Sundae is a good book that will be read by many, many more folks, but I believe on a case by case basis Now Is Gone will have more pragmatic impact.

Even then, the book will not have much value in two years. Trying to pin down a primer on social media is like trying to down a running cheetah with a bee-bee gun.

5) “Anyone can write a book.” “Writing a book is the new MBA.” Comments like these are just based in ignorance.

Think I’m wrong? Go for it. Write a book, try to find an agent, and get it published by a real publisher, large or small. See how hard it really is.

And for the record, getting my MA at Georgetown was a lot easier than the 15 year trek from my first manuscript to my first book as primary author. As I told Ike last August:

I’ve been trying to get a book published since the early nineties. Finally did it. No one will look at the decade plus of stops and starts, and the thousands upon thousands of hours practicing the craft. They’ll only look at the event.

Four months later, the accuracy of this quote haunts me.

A flurry of new reviews out there, including four thumbs up and our first mediocre review. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the book , and to write a blog post about it. Here’s a summary of the reviews.

BlogWrite for CEOs’ Debbie Weil (author of the Corporate Blogging Book)gives Now Is Gone is a “Stellar Unreview” today. This was particularly great because Debbie was the first A List marketing blogger to give a review since Valeria Maltoni’s. Here’s a snippet:

Nine (out of 10) stars for Geoff Livingston’s [and Brian Solis's] Now Is Gone… First and last, rush online and order this book. It’s a gotta-have for your book shelf if you want to understand social media and how it fits into the new marketing mix (and yes, it does).

After The Launch’s Shama Hyder dubbed the book a must read today:

I have two vices- books and good food. Due to my first vice, I have read over 200 books this year alone. And one book that really stands out in my mind is Now Is Gone by Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis.

Open the Dialogue’s Chris Thilk (also on Movie Madness) gave the book a lukewarm thumbs up on Monday:

If there’s one thing that I took issue with in Now is Gone, it’s Livingston’s tendency to paint things as definitively right or wrong or to characterize the social media world as if it operated with a single collective conscious… While there are points of view in Now is Gone I don’t exactly agree with, it is worth picking up and reading.

Mobile Diner’s Chris Parandian also reviewed the book over last weekend (congratulations on the new gig, Chris):

The book continues at a nice pace with examples of companies utilizing social media and the success of having two-way conversations with consumers. There were some instances in the book where I was wanting more from now is gone. However, this topic is a big one to tackle and Geoff focused appropriately on those who might be interested in social media but have not committed to it. That is a growing constituency and this book could be a catalyst for engagement by some companies.

Fleet Street PR’s Dave Fleet says your boss needs to read Now Is Gone:

If you (or your boss) find yourself confused, apprehensive or unsure about delving into the world of new media, then Now Is Gone is for you… For me, a particular strength of the book is that it doesn’t automatically assume that you should market your business using social media. I’ve found that a lot of people fall into “shiny new object syndrome.” Instead, Livingston challenges the reader, asking questions like whether they are ready to relinquish control of their message, whether their audience is ready and whether they can dedicate the necessary resources.

Again, thank you to all five reviewers. I know reading books take time as do blog posts. It’s an honor that you invested this time in Now Is Gone.

We’ve had 19 reviews including bloggers, Amazon and publicity, and this post actually has some of the best of them and the most pointed criticism to date (Thilk’s). Overall, all of them recommended Now Is Gone.

Next week, we will take some time to examine some of the points that folks have questioned in the book… Why would we do that? Well, it is a conversation, right?

BlogWork’s Rajesh Lalwani wrote up the book last Monday for the PR community in India.

Rajesh says:

So what does it mean for the reader?

1. The book introduces Social Media, the benefits, and the importance of engaging with influencers and customers directly
2. Explains the new culture of two-way conversational marketing
3. Inspires and shapes social media strategies to successfully engage communities
4. Highlights some of the more common social media promotion tools
5. Reveals cultural hurdles a company must face before starting social media outreach
6. Provides ways to manage the rapid evolution of social networks and technologies

This morning Communicators Anonymous’ Lauren Vargas reviewed the book and said:

Currently, I use The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott as a teaching tool/primer of social media. Now is Gone is a natural evolution of Meerman’s premise. Each book reads with a very different voice and cannot be substituted for the other. The outline,flow and parting comments of each [Now Is Gone] chapter makes an easy and valuable read.

I couldn’t agree more. I found the New Rules to be a great book. David Meerman Scott’s book was cited several times in Now Is Gone. And David did a back jacket review for the book, too.

But more importantly (and I hope David doesn’t kill me for disclosing this) he has been a great help, coaching me through the trials and tribulations of book publishing. See this is round one for me (and Brian), while David is an established author. Getting coaching tips have been invaluable, and I guarantee David’s influence will extend beyond Now Is Gone into my next book (if there’s another one in the cards).

So in addition to big thanks to Rajesh Lalwani and Lauren Vargas, I also want to thank David. Have a great Thanksgiving, folks. We’ll be back on Monday.

Now Is Gone was the #1 bestseller for several hours tonight in its class on Amazon, Computers & Internet/Business & Culture/Culture…