The Now Revolution by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund is a decent book that you don’t need to read. It’s intended audience is not you, a blogger with a dream and a Twitter account, and even then, this book could have been executed much more effectively.
The Now Revolution has a lot going for it. Two awesome bloggers combine their powers to produce something better than than the two of them could alone. It’s got a lot of social media buzz happening, and it seems like it could be a major shift in social media books. Still, I think this is a book most social media people will read once, think about for an hour or so, and then put back on their shelf where it will live until it is sent to their public library as a donation years from now.
It’s not a book about how to do social media, but at the same time, it is. The chapters on listening, crisis management, and measuring return on investment (ROI) are all excellent resources about how to handle those aspects of social media. This book is not meant to be read by bloggers like me, but rather the higher managers and c-suite executives who make big decisions for businesses. Still, the authors are trying to spread the word through bloggers like me. I don’t know about you, but a blog that says F#*k you, Facebook usually isn’t my first thought of a place that has an ear with the CEO every morning.
The last three chapters of The Now Revolution are the best. They’re the least vague and wishy-washy, and tell you how to set up your business to accomplish goals in listening, measuring ROI, and social media crisis management without being too preachy or saying there is only one right way to do it. They give real, practical information that a business can use to improve their social media efforts. Not much of the information was new to me because it’s the type of thing I do for my clients in my day-to-day work, but if you’re new to the game, this is good stuff.
Here are the 8 things I despised about The Now Revolution. These are the things I felt took away from the valuable information, and were the things that made me stop and go “WTF?!”
- This Book is 7 Extended Blog Posts - The Now Revolution reads like the longest blogs posts you’ve ever read. To me, the book is 7 very long blog posts that are tied together in a hardcover. At times I felt like I was reading copy that was destined for search engine optimization, rather than a cohesive and coherent narrative.
- The Chapter on Hiring - I know nearly every employee now has a Facebook profile, a LinkedIn Profile, and other pieces of an online presence, but that doesn’t give employers the right to stalk them using social networks. It’s extremely easy for anyone to look at one tweet and blow it that information out of proportion. The authors even go so far as to suggest this type of search can supplement a true background check service. We have enough problems getting people to work right now without having to deal with HR managers who are stalking candidates on Twitter.
- Bad Grammar - Normally, I don’t read books with pens sitting next to me. Because I knew I’d be reviewing The Now Revolution, I made sure to have my pen next to me to mark things I like and things I disliked. As I did that, I also found myself correcting grammar in places instead of taking notes. If I, a blogger who admittedly has problems with spelling, typos and grammar can find these, someone wasn’t doing his or her job.
- Terrible language - “Engineer a New Bedrock.” “Follow the Humanization Highway.” “Emphasize Response-ability.” What the hell are these? Bedrock is formed naturally by geological processes, response-ability is the worst pun I’ve read in years, and I still have no clue what a humanization highway is. There was one chapter where there was a bad simile in every third paragraph. Writing should be fun and it should be able to stir the imagination with images and ideas that didn’t exist previously, but we can do it without confusing the reader and writing down to them.
- The Microsoft Tags - Jay and Amber use Microsoft’s weird version of QR codes so readers can access more information outside of the book with their smartphone. These tags added so little value to the book. With the space they take on the page must have added an additional ten pages alone because they are so big. It would have been much easier for me go to a URL using my computer, because I have a nice big screen to read from and it’s infinitely easier for me to save things for later using my computer. Also, by using these tags without any URLs, the authors presume everyone reading the book has a smartphone. There’s nothing like needing a $200 phone with a $100 monthly bill to get all the value out of a $13 book.
- The bad graphics - I’ve seen better graphics designed with the publishing program I had on my first DOS Machine in the late 1980s. The images and charts used in the book are terrible, and I think they actually take away from the stuff of quality in the book. They are that distracting. Jay and Amber - when either of you write another book, I offer my services to illustrate if you so choose.
- The blog ads and speaking ad in the back of the book - I don’t know which is worse, the ad to bring Jay and Amber as speakers, or the ads for their blogs. These stink of desperation and gratuitous self-promotion. They make me as a reader think I didn’t get value from the product.
- The two pages of testimonials INSIDE the book - Now, for all I know, this could be dictated by the publisher. Still, regardless of whether the sin was committed by the authors or the publisher, I worry about the content of a book when the first two pages I read tell me how good the next 200 pages are going to be.
You don’t need to read The Now Revolution. Unless you’re a business owner or an executive, you’re not going to get much out of this book. If you are a business owner and are getting into the social media game, you’ll want to read the last three chapters. Find a sucker friend who has the book and borrow it from them to read it, or fork over the $9.99 to read it on Kindle.
If you’ve read The Now Revolution, I want to know what you think. Am I being a crazy curmudgeon, or is this book really deserving of those two pages of praise?
Win a Copy of The Now Revolution
So, after all that, do you still want to actually read this book? Sucker.
I’ll make it easier for you. I’m giving you the chance to win a copy of The Now Revolution. All you have to do is draw a picture of a social media bacon cat, whatever the hell you think that is, and leave a link to it in the comments by February 18. 2011. I don’t care if you use crayons, Photoshop, pencils, or MS Paint. I wanna see what you think a social media bacon cat is. I’ll be picking the winner randomly from all selections and sharing all entries later.
Disclosure: I won two copies of The Now Revolution, one to review and another to give away, and I wouldn’t otherwise pay to read this book.
I’ve just started on the Kindle version so I haven’t really got anything valuable to add except that bacon cats is good eatin’.
They are so delicious.
Wow…that bad, huh? Just asked my husband to pick it up at Chapters while he’s there…kinda hope he can’t find it now so I can borrow it from the library.
More like that “meh.” I say a library is a great option, because if you do really like it and want to keep it around, you can always go buy it afterwards.
Hey Jay -
Well okay then! Thanks for sharing your take on the book, and the bits about it that didn’t work for you.
You’re definitely right that the social media crowd isn’t the target for this and while we did look for bloggers to help read and review, it wasn’t just social media folk we targeted, we opened it up to all kinds of folks with blogs.
But regardless, I’m sorry you found so much to dislike about the book. We worked hard on it and it’s always disappointing when such a big project fails to meet someone’s expectations. If you’d like to discuss the points in detail I’m more than happy to do so, but don’t want to take over the comments with a litany of counterpoints. Also happy to answer any concerns or questions from your readers like Anita as to whether it’s worth giving it a shot for their own purposes.
In any case, Jay, I appreciate your candor, and the pointed feedback. You can reach me at amber@brasstackthinking.com, anytime.
Best,
Amber
Amber - Don’t be sorry that I disliked the book. I dislike lots of things (see every post on this blog for some examples).
There’s a lot of good in The Now Revolution, and I think it’s a good read for the audiences you aimed it for. It’s quick, gives lots of practical advice, and gives readers lots of good options to get started. For me though, it was a big “meh.” And that’s life as an author of anything. I’ve always believed if something is really good, you’re going to upset someone.
I’ll be shooting you an e-mail later. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Jay. Bummed that you didn’t like the book, but as you said we didn’t write it for you necessarily. I am in fact in love with the wonder bloggers activate graphic, and the bacon cat ain’t bad either.
I don’t want to argue about it, but just a couple of comments about your criticisms.
The book is 7 distinct chapters. Each chapter stands on its own, and is then part of the larger sweep of the book (the things businesses need to do to take advantage of real-time business). I guess I can see how that might feel like 7 long blog posts, but I’m not sure that’s a particularly devastating criticism.
On the hiring side, what we recommend is in fact going on today. Right now. As I’m typing this. We’re not going to write a book that ignores reality, just because that reality is inconveniently icky for some.
On the grammar and writing side, I’ll only say that the praise for that component of the book has been universal, except here. You may be a particularly exacting judge of written communication, and evidently we’ve fallen short of your benchmark.
On the Tags side, of course it would have been easier to include a URL. But that’s not trackable, and it’s not innovative. When you say the Tags add little value to the book, are you basing that on the fact that you took a picture of each Tag and digested the video interviews, downloadable PDFs, and substantial other materials contained therein? Or, do you just not like the way they were implemented? For the record, the Kindle and Nook versions feature URLs.
On the graphics side, they are intended to convey the points they illustrate. They do so, at least in our estimation. If you’re serious about illustrating the next book, we’d be happy to chat about that when the time comes.
On the promotional stuff at the back, indeed we mention our blogs and the fact that we do presentations about The NOW Revolution. Sort of the book version of your “Speaking” tab at the top of this very page. I’m not sure why that’s so offensive, to include an actual Call-To-Action in a book. Several recent business books have done so.
Lastly, while I disagree with essentially every point you’ve made here (shocking), I am especially puzzled by the fact that you are irked that TOO MANY people think the book is good. As with the promotional pages at the back, having praise for the book inside is an incredibly common circumstance within business and even fiction books. Take a look at almost every contemporary fiction book, and you’ll find 2-5 pages of praise quotes at the front.
In essence, the bacon cat’s share of your criticisms are not really about the content of the book, but about how the book is structured and presented to the reader. Many of those are choices that WE made of course, and we’re disappointed that they fell short in your estimation.
Given that there were parts of the book that you liked, and given that indeed the book is not intended for “social media people” but rather for business people, it seems a bit unfair to slap a “8 reasons you don’t need to read the now revolution” headline on this post. But, if you want to accentuate the negative to generate clicks, that’s a choice YOU made.
I won’t link drop here, but will close with a simple request. That Anita and others reading this post do a quick search for the title and consider the dozens of positive reviews of The NOW Revolution before making a purchase decision.
I do appreciate you following through and posting a review, especially one with specifics - even if we disagree on them. As we say in the book, all feedback is good feedback.
You know, this comment is all about defending why you did what you did in the book. You should never defend why you did something. Not everyone is going to like or appreciate why someone did something a certain way. It’s impossible to get everyone on the same page about everything.
Jay may not have liked it, but that doesn’t mean that he HAS to like it. He, like everyone else, is entitled to his own opinion.
Jay is just one man, after all, and if you really do have so many great reviews, then more power to you! Don’t waste time trying to change someone’s mind. Thank them for the review, maybe even embrace what they said, and even invite them to discuss with you further.
Point being: Look at every review in a positive light and never explain why you did something.
Just my 2 cents!
Regardless of his review, I am curious to read it.
Good comment Morgan. Thank you.
I don’t get the impression that anything is out of line in his comment. I’ve had winemakers comment on my less-than-generous reviews of their product before. Some flat-out told me that I was wrong and needed to go back to it. Others either admitted the flaws in their product or pointed out how they were unsuitable for my tastes.
He definitely deserves a rebuttal. We don’t review in a vacuum after all.
I never said he couldn’t rebuttal. However, defending your work is like saying “I made a mistake, now I must explain myself.”
His work will either speak for itself or it won’t. I feel it’s important never to have to explain yourself. If people don’t like it, oh well.
Not all the reviews have to be great, either.
Exactly. Who said this was a good review?
Hi Jay (B.),
One thing I’d add here is that you *can* obviously track URL’s. Get a vanity URL with a call-to-action at the other end, then track the clickthoughs and the actions once there.
I know you know this - it just doesn’t come across in your comment.
Jay,
re: “On the hiring side, what we recommend is in fact going on today. Right now. As I’m typing this. We’re not going to write a book that ignores reality, just because that reality is inconveniently icky for some.”
There is a large difference between reporting “bad practise” reality and recommending it.
re: “In essence, the bacon cat’s share of your criticisms are not really about the content of the book, but about how the book is structured and presented to the reader.”
When did bad grammar and visual distractions become a great way to get a point across?
If you have so many great reviews, why are you so concerned about one negative one? It is an opinion and there are many people who will read your book just to see if they agree. They will then decide for themselves.
Hi Jay (and Jay) (and Amber): Imma let you finish, but… you sent out a book to Jay Dolan. He didn’t like it a whole lot. He wrote a reasonable review of it, based on his impressions. (PS: I would love to get a review copy for “For Immediate Release” and/or my site.)
You guys had 224 pages to make your arguments. I don’t know that you need to make two separate replies to Jay D’s 1200 words of review.Let the book stand or fall on its merits and on the readers’ responses, sez me.
Bob -
Heh; we didn’t coordinate our comments. That real-time thing. Doh.
Amber
Jay - As I said to Amber, if you’re not getting someone angry, you’re not doing it right.
My intention with this review was to point out the flaws that I think kept The Now Revolution from being even better that what it aleady is. Is the style overly negative? Yes, but that’s how I role on The Anti-Social Media.
This is just one review. You’ve got many more from many other people who are much more influential, more qualified, and less crazy.
I’ll be shooting you an e-mail later. I appreciate the extensive comment!
Holy ouch. I really respect this blog, though I do not always agree with it. Also, I view Jay Dolan as a very candid writer, who either is truly disgruntled or puts on a good show regarding social media, advertising, and society at large. I, on the contrary, am generally a very upbeat, annoying, cheerleader type. So I take with it that people are however they are, and realize that Jay Dolan’s review is not the end-all be-all of what your book may have to offer.
On the other side, I was much more interested in reading it until your rebuttal. You have every right to do so, but ouch, do your words sting of bitterness. I actually found myself cringing as you repeatedly defended yourself. Perhaps you should take some marketing advice from Amber, as her reply was very well received while maintaining that she felt disappointment at the review, while still regarding Jay Dolan’s merits in why he may have reviewed things as he did. Your reply, however, smacks of trying to make someone wrong and someone right. Ouch. Not very friendly. In fact, a little needy sounding.
Also, please make sure you read Danny Brown and Grayson’s comments below your reply. They really have some great points I hope you consider before you sound off in defense again.
I hereby submit for your consideration my bacon cat.
http://wineexplored.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/bacon-cat.jpg
This is wonderful.
LOL “Hip Bacon”. Love it!
Oh man Jay, my two favorite things. Bacon and cats. Here is my version of Bacon Cat!
http://www.ifightdinosaurs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Bacon-Cat.jpg
Wait, but if the bacon cat is made out of bacon and he’s sad that the bacon is gone, wouldn’t he just start consuming himself? LOL
Haha good point! I was thinking it was more that he ate so much bacon that he turned into bacon. Then again he could be sad because he ate his whole bacon family. Any way you look at it, it’s a pretty messed up situation.
REALLY messed up! LOL
Bacon cat looks like he needs hugs and more delicious bacon.
I LOVE YOUR BACON CAT! Hehaeh I just wish said cat were happier. Hheahe
Good, honest review of why it didn’t work for you (and folks that have the same outlook as you), mate. I always tend to look for examples of why I wouldn’t like something, because that saves me time on deciding whether I would.
Works exactly like “why you will like this”, but more effective. Cheers.
Hey Jay, how come your picture isn’t up there on that Capstrat whatever website?
- or perhaps I missed it…
Hey Jerome - I currently work on a contract, so my smiling face isn’t there yet.
@Amber/ @Jay
Is there a Chapter in the book on “when” to respond to a negative review from a blogger so as not to make a mountain out of a molehill? I mean Jay’s got his audience but he ain’t Chris Brogan. Seems you’ve just unnecessarily started a more visible spitting match and elevated his stature by lowering yours.
You should have also noted that Jay prides himself as 1. Anti-media, 2. Sarcastic 3. Satirical. Not exactly the Holy Trinity of literary authority.
Jay baited you and you took the bait….kudos to you Jay.
There are too many Jay’s in this paragraph. I might need to make a “NO HOMERS” type rule.
I love satire. And honest reviews. I’ve not yet read The Now Revolution but am certain it’s not written for me.
Here’s what I think people need to pay more attention to: R.E.V.I.E.W.S.
If you read reviews nowadays (much like LinkedIn recos), they are pretty much all written by BFFs of the authors and designed to blow smoke up a reader’s ass. In fact, when I’m looking to buy something, I go straight to the reviews, disregard all the positive ones and go straight to the negatives, which I imagine are closer to the truth. Then, I make a buying decision.
Disclosure: I bought the book. Mostly to be nice, because I know what a suck ass job marketing and selling a book can be (you’re welcome Jay and Amber, (who has yet to ever deign to speak to me, but i’m not bitter [remember, it's satire people])).
And also because I’ll share it with clients - or give it away on the blog - to people who really do need to know some of this stuff. I’m sure, based on what I know of both authors, that there’s some valuable info in there for the business owner who’s trying to get a grip on all this social media schizz.
What I’ve really enjoyed, Jay, is your no bullshit take on the book. Far too people will stand up and say what they actually think.
And bravo to you for doing it. I shall perhaps continue to slink by and read your insightful commentary from time to time.
Shelly
@shellykramer
P.S. Jay + Amber, nobody’s ever going to like what you do all the time. That’s just a fact of life. I’m sure everyone respects how much effort the book project took and how passionate you both are about it. But it’s the nature of the beast in this tiny little space we all live and work in. You put your stuff out there, and we’re going to pick it apart. Thankfully, the true audiences for this book are NOT the folks who dominate this space.
Shelly -
Have we truly never spoken? If that’s the case, that sucks. And I’m sorry. It’s not for any deliberate purpose. In fact, see you pop up in my stream all the time, so it’s my fault for not engaging better, ’cause I like what you do.
And I’m good with people not liking what *I* do all the time. Honestly. It’s a good and healthy thing, and I figure it can only make me more aware over the long run. Generically, universally palatable in all things would really suck.
Appreciate all of the input.
Amber
Hi Amber,
I’ll admit to trying - on a number of occasions to have conversations - but all unsuccessfully. So I figured I had bad BO or halitosis or some such affliction. No worries, though, I’m a big girl. And I like - and respect - what you do, as well.
And - on another front - I’m with you, vanilla would blow.
I think there’s actually a great marketing lesson here - for all of us. Market not to the people who already know what you do - market to the people who don’t and who really need it. Doug Haslam actually wrote a post about it today and I’ll link it here at the risk of Jay drop kicking me outta the place … because it was terrific - What Made Me Your Audience? http://bit.ly/fLNGfc Context for people as well as content
And once again - you two did a great job. And while most of us commenting here probably have some concept as to how much work goes into writing a book, I think the thing that’s easy to overlook is how much work goes into marketing the damn thing. And it’s a lot. I have great respect for that and know that it’s probably taking a toll on you both.
Best of luck to you both!
Shelly
Shelly, thanks for liking and linking my post- the specific content that sparked it was not this book, fwiw, but the idea of creating context around the people as well as the content itself stands.
As for Jay’s review, the aspect I truly like and share is the intention to make us all better than what we are- even if what we are and what we do is already pretty damn good. A lot of us do this stuff for a living, so rather than talking about it amongst ourselves in blank praise, let’s be critical- and thick-skinned about it.
It’s good toi question our peers- and good to take questions from our peers as constructive
Seems to me to be a case of blaming the bacon for being a part of the pig… and I’m not being facetious here. We have how many thousands of people trying to make their name in SM ‘expert’ circles just as we have people attempting to add their expertise to the ‘branding’ advice industry. All’s fair. But it does get tiresome…
To quote a very wise person, listening to the constant banter regarding social media is like listening to a granny telling you her life story…. over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and again…. I get it granny - and It’s not that interesting.
Appreciate the comments here Jay. Your eight points are well considered and not spiteful at all - or at least from my POV.
Thanks Rand. This is just my opinion, and you can factor this is from the mind of someone who came up with a social media bacon cat and is amused by other people drawing them.
Completely understood Jay! We’re all bozos on this bus! Bemused I am as well!
Loved this review, and honestly, am more likely to read the book as a result of it than I would be reading a glowing “it was great!” cookie-cutter review. People buy books for lots of reasons, and not all of them are because they heard the book was great. Look at that Tiger mom book-you think it would have sold as many copies if everyone just talked about how great and right she and her parenting methods are?
So true. We do live in an age when Snooki became a best-seller.
Wow Jay,
You are SO refreshing! I like the way you write…it is like we are old friends having a beer. THANK you for your refreshing insight.
madmediagal
My goal is to one day be the PBR of bloggers.
Of all people, those in “social media” should know there is no such thing as bad publicity!
I’m sure there is somewhere. Let me go look on Facebook for a few hours.
Jerome - I think Gerald Ratner would disagree:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ratner
Wiping 500 million off your company stock and almost causing its complete collapse? Not a great bout of publicity (and this was before social media would have taken it widespread in minutes).
Kinda like the BP fiasco in that league I suppose but nonetheless these groups or entities appear to survive no matter what. It’s better to be hater or loved than simply ignored (at least for a brand) provided the hate doesn’t put you out of business of course BUT even then you can always change the brand name!
As a Blog World attendee I received an advance copy last fall, so I read the book in October.
In a nutshell. I didn’t “get” it. It left me feeling like “OK, yes…I knew that. And so?” Thanks for reminding me that I’m not the intended audience. Why didn’t I think of that? {face palm}
The language and grammar drove me nuts, too, by the way, but I assumed the advance copy hadn’t been edited.
Shelly makes an excellent point that most reviews are written by the authors’ BFFs, and, frankly, this book is no exception. The bloggers solicited to be reviewers are part of Jay’s and Amber’s communities; otherwise they wouldn’t have known about the quid pro quo offer.
I don’t know anything about the relationships, biases, and preferences of the other reviewers, so I take them at face value.
Hey all -
Thanks for the continued comments. Let me just be clear about one bit: I’m more than happy to have the criticism. It’s disappointing to let someone down, but I absolutely have no illusions about whether something *anyone* does should please everyone. That isn’t the point, is it?
So the commentary, criticism, whatever else…it’s all good. It’s all welcome. It’s all part of the adventure of content creation and the mass of information that’s out there to help folks read and decide for themselves what works for them. It’s not like someone said something nasty about my mom or something.
Amber
I knew I left something out of this review.
Jay, thanks for the candid review of The Now Revolution, which I am a little less than halfway through reading (yes, I did buy it). Even though I’m already well into it, I still appreciated your review. I am in fact someone who is paid to ‘do’ social media, and as such realized pretty early on that I am not the primary audience for the book. That being said, I have learned still learned some ways of explaining things to those farther up the pay grades about why some things need to be done certain ways.
In any case, I agreed with you on some things, and disagreed with you on others, and respected your opinion either way. And since I am not artistic and already paid for a copy of the book, I will refrain from drawing any bacon cats this week. The exercise will only serve to make me hungry.
I’m hungry for more bacon cats.
Wow, what a great comment thread. You should write a post on this about what is engagement! Reading this comment thread did get me confused about which Jay was speaking, but a well spirited discussion to say the least!
But at the same time it reminds me why i’m not a huge fan of business books. if you are already a subject matter expert they can be tough to read. You may have already formed different opinions of some judgement and strategies, which is fine. It’s almost like reading your kids school books. Those that are just starting need more background and explanation of the rules and playing field. While experienced readers want more deep down tips and tricks to take them to the next level. The problem is that the experience readers don’t find that in books as much as blogs that can give them specific instructional or demonstrative information in a faster timeframe.
Amber and Jay I do plan to read your book when I see you on the book tour later this Spring. But I think I’ll get more out of meeting you and listening to your ideas. Plus I still have to read my last business book, UnMarketing, which I really want to read but just have not devoted the time.
One point I do agree with Jay is that some of the blogger turned author books I’ve read are different from the more research based books I’ve read in the past like Good to Great by Jim Collins or The World is Flat. The earlier authors wrote more and sometimes had larger amounts of data to work with outside of social media. I do like “blogger books” as a faster read that I can take one chapter at a time.
Hey-thanks for the review. I love your stuff. Having said that, I loved the book. I have read very few books in my life that were 100% useful. Every chapter was not for me-I am a consultant and not a business owner or a corporate. But, I like the fact that people like Jay and Amber are out there ringing the bell-letting the mainstream know that business as usual won’t cut it anymore. I don’t think the book will be earth-shattering to people who are already on the bandwagon of real-time, but it is a good primer on the urgency of real-time and how to do it. I also liked the tags. It took me a whole 30 seconds to download the tag reader on my Android and allowed me to read the book while on a road trip and access the added content. Yeah, some of it was just graphics from the book that you could save on pdf, etc. but I enjoyed trying out the new technology. I never would have taken the time to go back and look up a URL. Thanks for the review, and thanks for the book.
Will you trash my next book, too? Seriously, I will sen you a copy of Welcome to the Fifth Estate electronically before its released. I found that I learned the most from the critics of Now Is Gone, not the ones who said, “Yay, social media!”
Always helpful to spell “send” right, too.
Shitdiot.
Some people are just masochists.
Ha! Piss off, wanker.
If you really want, sure. But be warned, I’ve been known to hurt feelings, say nasty things, and be grumpy in the pursuit of artistic excellence.
E-mail me at jay at theantisocialmedia dot com
I haven’t read the book yet, and I’m probably not going to for one simple reason.. I am so tired of seeing ads for it EVERYWHERE! That’s all