Archive for Book reviews
When conflict resolution isn’t your bag – check out this book
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Who among us has sailed through work environments without being part of or witnessing some sort of conflict, whether it is bullies, wet blankets, micromanagers, or troublemakers? Win at Work!/The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution by Tucson-based author Diane L. Katz delivers an eight step “Working Circle” concept to problem-solving at work.
It’s a flexible, non-linear approach to solving issues in the workplace. The process gets you to think, rather than follow a prescribed formula to conflicts, and that is the power of the concept. One of the key themes that Katz emphasizes in the book is that you should not go into conflict resolution with a pre-determined idea of what the other person will say, but rather with an idea of what your game plan should be and what is personally negotiable and non-negotiable.
This is a powerful way of approaching conflicts, because you focus on a different area than on trying to prepare for a debate or trying to anticipate their reaction. In order to understand one’s personal style, Katz includes a simple questionnaire that helps categorize people into one of five different styles: attacking, confronting, problem solving, compromising, and withdrawing. Read More→
Read “Create Your Own Blog” if you’re just starting out
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A good "A to Z," nuts and bolts book about blogging
If you get frustrated by how-to books that assume too much knowledge upfront, you will probably like Tris Hussey’s “Create Your Own Blog: Six Easy Projects to Start Blogging like a Pro.”
It’s a simple guide that walks you through every step of the way, from getting started to how to build an audience. It covers everything from personal and business blogs to podcasting, video, and lifestreaming blogs. It’s one of the few books I’ve seen that helps you determine which blog platform to choose (the author is partial to Wordpress, as I am).
Every now and then publicity agents for these new books contact me to see if I would like to review the book, and if it’s a topic I’m interested in, I usually agree. If I don’t like the book, I don’t blog about it. Here are a few nuggets from the book, which is 273 pp and priced at $21.99: Read More→
Are PR professionals afraid of the “New Rules”?
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If you haven’t read “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott, you’re missing out on a top guide on how public relations has changed and “how to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video and viral marketing” to reach your buyers directly. You can find the book at his website www.webinknow.com or from Amazon and other online bookstores.
I re-read the book this past weekend (the revised 2010 edition), and there’s one section that I didn’t feel represented PR professionals properly – or, at least, not the PR professionals I know, most of whom are in Arizona. In chapter 7, “The New Rules of News Releases,” he writes that “many PR professionals have a fear of the unknown. They don’t understand how to communicate directly with consumers and want to live in the past, when there was no choice but to use the media as a mouthpiece….I also think there’s a widely held view about the purity of the press release as a tool for the press. PR professionals don’t want to know that hundreds of millions of people have the power to read their releases directly. It’s easier to imagine a closed audience of a dozen reporters.”
The book is brilliant and has helped completely change the way we look at public relations. I don’t think he has quite captured the issue here, however. Granted, he travels a lot more than I do and talks to way Read More→
Blogging to Drive Business: Book Review
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Here’s a good overview for anyone in business who wants to learn more about how to use a blog to create a relevant audience and drive more business. As the authors point out, there are three parts to blogging: 1) the specific technical instructions to set up your blog and add information to it, 2) what you need to know to get eyeballs looking at it, and 3) how to leverage your blog with other marketing efforts.
Even though I have been blogging for Valley PR Blog for 2 years, I found this book helpful and more practical than some other blogging books I’ve read. There are plenty of factoids in the book to persuade even the most reluctant blogger, such as the news that online media is the only area of media currently growing. Blogging helps people communicate with large numbers of people quickly and publicly. Blogs have grown from 5 million in 2005 to 133 million in 2008. If one of your competitors is continually blogging about your industry and you aren’t, search engines will find your competitor’s blog and place it, not yours, high on the list of search results when someone searches for one or more terms in your industry. Read More→
My big regret from 2009
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My big regret in hindsight was not being bright enough, or energetic enough, to drive down to hear author, blogger, and wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk speak in person when he was here in Tempe this past October at the Changing Hands bookstore.
I asked for, and received, his new book “Crush It!” for Christmas. I’ve read several books that have summarized the social media wave and future trends, including PR 2.0 by Brian Solis, Now is Gone, by Geoff Livingston, and “The Social Media Bible” by Lon Safko, et. al. All good books, but in my mind, Gary is the one who really “crushes it.”
I like his book best because of 1) the personable way in which he delivers the message, 2) because it makes me feel like less of an anomaly in this world (Sometimes I think I’d get more people to believe me if I were male, not female), and because 3) it follows my own book formula of writing something that can be read in a 2-hour plane ride.
If you find yourself in the middle of two camps, like me, you’ll love this book. Read More→
Holiday gifts – buy books, and buy local!
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You don’t need to go out of Arizona to find great books. Here’s a list of some of the local authors I’ve read and like, in no particular order:
- Dine Out Phoenix – Where to Eat from Chic to Unique – by Pamela Swartz
- Life as a Mother-in-Law – Roles, Challenges Solutions – by Olivia Slaughter, Ph.D. and Jean Kubelun, Ph.D.
- The Art of the Fresh Start – How to Make and Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions for a Lifetime – by Glenna Salsbury
- Arizona Gun Owners Guide – by Alan Korwin
- The Braces Cookbook – by Pamela Waterman
- Women Who RV – and Their Kindred Spirits – by Marion Orem
- Laid Off? Don’t Stress! How to Get from Mad to Glad – by Kitty Wiemelt
- Twilight - by Stephenie Meyer
- Steering by Starlight – by Martha Beck
- Escape from Cubicle Nation – by Pamela Slim
I believe these are all available on Amazon, so one-stop shopping and your holiday gift-giving is done.
Finally – a good book about twitter
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I just finished a really good book about twitter that would make an excellent gift for any friends you have who are sitting on the fence about whether to jump in or not. Hey, it’s never too early to think about Christmas!
What I like best about “All a Twitter” by Tee Morris is his conversational style. He’s not trying to be a lofty author, speaking from on high. He’s just sharing what he has learned since he first started tweeting in spring 2007. He covers a lot of ground, and in fact the book is 280 pages long, and includes a section that explains tools for twitter as well as twitter speak.
He tells you how to register, starting with the basics. He tells you how to pick a good photo. There is a significant section on how to get tweets on your mobile phone. The book addresses all levels of experience on twitter, and goes into both personal and professional uses. If you have friends who wonder about twitter search, hash tags, tweet stats, tweet ups, Mr. Tweet, this is a great overview for them.
