The Age of Conversation Bum Rush

Posted by Josef Katz on 3/28/2008 at 2:02 PM
Posted in book marketing

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At Trump U we have done our share of book marketing but nothing compared to the two efforts I have found in the last week. Both efforts offer unique approaches to marketing books. Today is the book launch for The Age of Conversation.

What makes this marketing effort so interesting is that the whole marketing plan revolves around social media. The authors named their effort 'The Age of Conversation Bum Rush'. The goal is to get people blogging, podcasting, twittering, digging, social book marking and emailing friends etc to help get the word out. Ultimately if this is successful people all across the web will learn about and buy the book. What makes this even more interesting (and presumably attractive for people to get involved with) is that not one individual stands to profit from the efforts. All the money from the book sales goes to charity.

So if you want to have some fun and learn about social media marketing below is a list of activities from the Age of Conversation Bum Rush blog of ways you can help the Bum Rush. If you are interested in marketing then you might want to buy the book. I joined the Bum Rush to see how effective social media can be in promoting the book. I hope to learn a thing or two that will help Trump U. utilize social media more effectively and of course I get to help a good cause while having some fun.

What You Can Do Right Now

· Buy the Book & send others to buy the book. This is the number 1 call to action, because this is where we want to see the most impact. NOTE: Please buy 1 copy at a time because Amazon counts bulk orders once, and please use this affiliate link, which will help us in tracking sales. Remember, all the proceeds from the book sales and referrals will go to charity. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1847992994?ie=UTF8&tag= drewmclellan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325& creativeASIN=1847992994

· Blog About It - Make sure you have a prominent link to the Amazon listing so that readers can easily purchase the book. (Remember to use the affiliate link above. All of these earnings will go to charity as well.)

· Twitter Commentary - Join Drew and I as we give a Bum Rush play-by-play on Twitter. (Follow us: @Freshpeel, @DrewMcLellan, @Servantofchaos) We also ask that everyone saying anything about the Bum Rush to use the code #AOC so that it can be picked up by Twemes.com

· Trackback or Comment on the post that I will leave here on March 29th at 12am CST, so that everyone can follow the conversation and help promote exposure on social sites (Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, etc.)

· Digg the posts listed here & send emails and shouts to friends requesting Diggs.

· Stumble the posts listed & tell friends to do the same.

· Bookmark your posts on Del.icio.us

· Add your post to other social media outlets ( Technorati, Ma.gnolia, Furl, BlinkList, Newsvine, Facebook, etc.)

· Send an Old Fashioned email to your friends about the Bum Rush for AoC.

· Keep talking - Get on ooVoo, iChat, Aim, or where ever you like to talk, and start talking.

Are you going to get involved?

Don't forget to check back next week to find out about the second book's marketing approach.

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6 Comments Post a comment

Posted by mergatroidal on 03/29/2008 8:32 PM

Ok, I suppose it's interesting to see the mechanics of the internet as a "What Is The Book About Anyway" book goes through the wringer at Amazon, but this is like everyone taking their clothes off in Grand Central Station, and then having everyone standing around shivering and looking at each other in the nude for a couple hours while waiting for the photographer guys to show up.

"Ok, you can all put your clothes on and go home now ..."

I'm sure I'm missing something to this article the more savvy marketer is keen to. So it goes.

Posted by Josef Katz

on 03/30/2008 4:12 PM

@mergatroidal - Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I think there are differences between the Grand Central ' Art' project and this marketing effort. The idea here is to spread the word about the book as opposed to creating controversy around an art project. This effort's goals while initially only one day will continue to spread for days and weeks as people learn about the book and how new/social media was used to spread the word. It is also worth noting that in this case a charity is benefiting from all the activity. If social media doesn't interest you (which is OK) you shouldn't buy the book.

Posted by mergatroidal on 03/31/2008 6:27 AM

Your article was informative, and free and open to my inspection the information to be used as I see fit. I got a list of blog sites and I became more familiar with the Digg website. I will probably find a need for Digg in the future, for now Digg is only another tool in my pocket I don't know what to do with yet.

The fact is all I know about the book is that it is about marketing. Perhaps if my previous post said the following, the point I was trying to make would be clear:

"Hey, that was a real cool commercial! What were they selling?"

"Depleting my resources" of twenty dollars for a couple marketing tips that may perhaps be inside the book...? I don't know. The presentation didn't hook me, and social media marketing is actually an interesting subject at the present time.

Posted by mergatroidal on 03/31/2008 6:32 AM

Josef, I saved this blog page as a pdf. The links will be carefully checked for their utility in regards to my own "project" in the future. I have to be frugal these days. Can't go buying books all the time. Thanks for the (free) scoops in your latest blog.

Posted by Cheryle on 03/31/2008 9:45 AM

I think I'm missing something too. This call to action was as interesting as shedding a
tear at a fire auction. The word FIRE is a call to action, meaing DANGER, Get out the best
way you can as quickly as possible. Nobody really notices the pain in the word TEAR.

Words are the communication vehicle you use BEFORE anybody knows what the book
is about. If you have vague descriptions in your promotion, why would I want to buy the
book? There are hundreds of marketing ideas for books. This one didn't get me
curious enough to buy the book. Sorry, but I would try again.

I buy alot of books. I also frequent libraries at home and when I travel. In fact, I just
bought two books from Amazon this weekend about Marketing. One of them is being
delivered today. The first bok I read in two sittings. This is an interesting book and I
would highly recommend the authors.

Like I said, NO OFFENSE INTENDED. This is how ALL of us learn and improve.

Posted by Josef Katz

on 03/31/2008 2:11 PM

@Cheryle - I agree there are many great marketing books around. What Marketing books did you read? BTW- No offense taken. I had two goals with my post. 1 - highlight what I thought was an interesting marketing approach. 2 - to help the Bum Rush sell books for Charity. I haven't read this book yet so I can't tell you if it is good or not but I tend to enjoy compilation books like this.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

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