Author: Jay Otaway
Publisher: Wiley
Reviewer: Andy M Turner of Six Sigma Public Relations
Sloppy editing mistakes in the introduction made for a bad start to this review. That aside, the introduction to any business book is always the most important. It must be attention grabbing and it must convince readers that it’s worth the precious time investment to read on. If it doesn’t, then it’s ultimately failed. Unfortunately, I suspect most people who begin Mastering Story, Community and Influence won’t continue beyond the first few pages.
Nevertheless, I persisted hoping to learn something new only to find myself wondering: “who is this book for and when was it written?” The thought was prompted by the statement ‘the web allows us to quickly share and consume interesting subject matter with other like-minded people, and then have conversations about those stories’. Only someone living in a cave for the last three years would need that explaining to them.
The author Jay Oatway is a Canadian ex-journalist turned social media evangelist and self-confessed technology geek. He thinks that sharing what-I-ate-for-breakfast-style content is valid. That may be so for some, but for me it pretty much killed any further interest. To be fair, I did find myself nodding in agreement about what Oatway has to say on two social media subjects: the value of listening and finding customer engagement opportunities; his arguments against outsourcing or delegating personal involvement.
But, to summarise, this book on social media isn’t the best one to choose for B2B Marketing readers. While it contains useful advice for novices, it’s too general to be of much use as a B2B Marketing tool. And it doesn’t offer any answers to some of the most pressing questions business people still have about social media, such as “How am I supposed to fit all of this real-time interaction into my day job?” or “How do I stop social media becoming a massive distraction?”
Star Rating: 2/5