The Digital Handshake
Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media
By: Paul Chaney
Published: September 2009
Format: Hardcover, 272pp
ISBN-13: 9780470499276
ISBN-10: 0470499273
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated
"What used to be known as the information superhighway has become an interconnected maze of conversation, a global symphony of voices speaking at once. This has vast implications for business", writes social media expert Paul Chaney, in his very practical and all encompassing book The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media. The author builds a powerful case for embracing social media as a conversation building channel, while laying out a very usable blueprint for any company to put social media tactics into action.
Paul Chaney understands the value of conversation in building trust between a marketer and a potential customer. At the same time, he recognizes the critical importance of nurturing and developing that conversation further with existing customers. Key to conversation in any medium is listening, and Paul Chaney emphasizes that no two way communication is possible, in any meaningful way, without truly hearing what the other person is saying. As a result, the author shares his powerful ideas for starting conversations and for turning them into long term customer relationships. For Paul Chaney, the days of one sided, controlled messages broadcast to the consumer are long gone. If any businesses continue to employ these outmoded tactics in a digitally connected world, they are only hastening their own demise.
Paul Chaney (photo left) takes the leading edge position that that social media is much more than simply a set of tools. For the author, social media and conversation are about creating an entirely new way of thinking. As both the media and the consumer become more fragmented, it's essential to find a medium that meets the consumer on their terms. The rise of social media sites including blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and the various video outlets, along with the audio medium of podcasts demonstrates clearly that the consumer want and demand the message in their preferred format. The good news for marketers, according to Paul Chaney, is that consumers want to receive marketing messages. The onus is on the marketer to listen to those consumers and build relationships based on real conversations.
For me, the power of the book is how Paul Chaney shares both a strategic and a tactical outline for employing social media effectively. His seven strategies are proven to be effective in the real world of marketing, and if used correctly, can add value for both the company and the consumer. Paul Chaney lives what he writes, and as a result, shares a passion for the conversational value of social media. The author provides a critical bridge from the theoretical value of social media to the hands on world of results oriented business. Social media is still in the very early stages of its acceptance as an accepted mainstream marketing and public relations tactic. Paul Chaney teaches business people how to enter into the social media arena through listening and sharing conversations. In other words, this book shows how to use social media the right way from the very beginning of a business relationship.
I highly recommend the research based and real world proven book The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media by Paul Chaney, to any business people working in the areas of marketing and public relations, as well as to any entrepreneurs and small business owners seeking to make a genuine connection with their customers. Paul Chaney, and the many experts quoted in the book (disclaimer: I am quoted in the podcasting section), share real world tactics for developing relationships through conversation and high touch techniques.
Read the business transformational guide The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media by Paul Chaney, and discover the power and growing importance of social media in business. Instead of continuing to use the increasingly ineffective broadcast tactics, and failed attempts at controlling the message, Paul Chaney shares a better way. Listen to your customers, and nurture conversations that lead to long term relationships, and watch your customers become happier, as your company grows the right way.
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