Tuned In book review

We all have books in our summer reading que. Some are business related, some are to help us escape reality and others are the carryovers from last summer's reading pile. Among the books in my que are The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles recommended by John Moore, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing (I realize I'm behind the curve on this one, as evidenced by the bargain basement price of $5.49 on Amazon) and Tuned In , which I received as part of a blogger outreach post on Web Ink Now.

Summer also coincides with my company's planning session so Tuned In made it off the pile first. I was hoping to find some inspiration to get the brainstorming started and in some aspects I did. Though like many who will read this book I realized there is a lot more work to be done before becoming "Tuned In."

Tuned In is a new book on the market written by Craig Stull, Phil Myers and David Meerman Scott. It "argues that the key to business success lies in understanding and connecting with what consumers and markets want most." It's a quick read and gives a good overview of what companies need to embrace to become tuned in. To give you an overview of the book I'll share with you the book's Top Ten Actions to Create a Tuned In Culture.

1. Get out of your comfortable office and talk with buyers about their unresolved problems.
2. Identify your buyer personas. In order to make them real for you and your colleagues, name each buyer persona, build a profile for each and cut a representative photo from a magazine to represent them.
   
3. Define your distinctive competence. Make certain everyone on your team understands what it is.
   
4. Don't go to an internal meeting if you're only going to give your own opinion. Instead, be the person who goes to the meeting armed with data.
   
5. Always ask where "facts" come from to disqualify mere opinions from your decision making process.
   
6. Map your products and services on the Tuned In Impact-Continuum. Build a plan to increase the impact.
7. Communicate directly the problems you solve for customers, not what your product or service does.
   
8. Count the number of times you say "our" and "we" on your website. Write for your buyers by using "you" and "your" instead.
   
9. Remove corporate gobbledygook such as mission statements from your external communications.
10. Become a thought leader in your market and industry.
    

If this list has peaked your interest or if you're unconvinced by anything on the list then pick up the book. Or start with a free excerpt from the Tuned In website.

Buzzwords banned in England

Buzzwords have been banned in town meetings across England. According to a recent article on CNN.com the Local Government Association has asked its members to stop using management buzzwords. Perhaps corporations should take the country's advice as well, it's not only ordinary citizens that find the continuous drone of buzzwords dizzying.

Here's the quote that brings it all home: "Why do we have to have 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?"

It's an article that should make David Meerman Scott proud.

Image credit: San Diego Shooter's

Making Dental Sexy

A shout out to my colleagues at Delta Dental, we knew dental was sexy, and here's the proof. Inspired by David Meerman Scott, Dr. Helaine Smith brings us the Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex ebook. You can download it from her blog.

The New Rules of Viral Marketing e-book

David Meerman Scott recently posted his new e-book The New Rules of Viral Marketing on his blog. Like David's book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, his new e-book is a quick read filled with great insights and easy to implement action plans. If you're thinking about writing an e-book or trying your hand at content with the goal (hope) of going viral this e-book will give you some quick tips and the inspiration you need to stop thinking and start doing. Enjoy.