Internet Marketing Top 10 Summer Reading

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Since this post re-ignited the Internet marketing experience vs. degree debate I started a fun “Summer School” today on ScentTrail Marketing. For the next six weeks I will post real life test cases to help Internet marketers hone their knowledge or help rookies begin to think like Internet marketers. Do you have what it takes to graduate from Internet Marketing Summer School (hope I pass LOL).  Good luck and have fun:

Internet Marketing Summer School

Hope you are reading this post on a mobile device as your children splash in the waves. It is almost too HOT to be in the office. That sounds like a good excuse, right? “Jon I would have knocked that thing down but it was too HOT.” Doubt it, so decided to share a quick Top 10 Summer Reading list to begin to think like an Internet marketer or increase your understanding of how the biggest mystery wrapped in the strangest enigma (the Internet) works.

Atlantic BT continues to receive a lot of traffic on the question of if Internet marketing can be taught in a classroom. I’ve also weighed in on this issue with a firm NO. Here are those links:

Experience vs. Internet Marketing Degree (on Atlantic BT blog)

Internet Marketing Degree – Do I Need One? (on ScentTrail Marketing)

The problem with learning Internet marketing and ecommerce in a classroom is much of what you need to know will never appear in a text book. You need to understand emergence, viral marketing, the battle for hearts and minds and technical things that change all the time such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising (PPC or SEM). Classrooms are too static, to yesterday’s news. By the time what we do for a living is in a text book it helps no one. Internet marketing moves at light speed and requires knowledge you wouldn’t know unless you are doing it.

Since the web and ecommerce is one of the shinning lights of an economy that can only be described as tepid many are interested in becoming an Internet marketer. While I don’t believe any classroom can match the speed things happen in Internet marketing I always ask job applicants what books they read. If you’ve read and can use any 2 of these books in your next interview you will get the job even without an Internet Marketing Degree:

Mobile Firstby Luke WroblewskiThe most influential book on Mobile development leads my list because the mobile tsunami is here. Watching Atlantic BT’s metrics we’ve seen a steady increase in mobile traffic. From nothing to 5% on some days means mobile is here. Mobile is here because:* Phones are curating emails.* Smart Phones are 50% in US.* Social and Phones go together.* Death of free time – we don’t stand in line with checking our phones now.*We don’t want to miss out.* Marketers are creating more mobile content.Add these and about five other things and you understand why the VC community is already moved over to mobile.The next time you look at your site’s metrics don’t look at the absolute number of mobile visitors look at the tend line. If, after reviewing your data, you don’t think mobile is important staying at the beach may be the best idea.If, after reading Mobile First, you come away with a renewed commitment to understanding mobile, and make no mistake it is a different gig, then your time in summer school will make your fall classes (Holiday 2012 will be the first “Mobile Commerce Holiday selling season”) easier and more profitable.Note: It is a pain to buy Luke’s book on Amazon so don’t. I’ve linked to an independent book seller A Book Apart.Luke’s Site Luke on LinkedinSummer Reading Rating:

Made To Stickby the Heath BrothersReread one of my favorite Internet marketing books yesterday and it holds up well. Made To Stick’s ideas including simplicity beats complexity, not burying the lead and use visual clues and “schema” such as the duct tape on the cover to help readers quickly GET your ideas are beyond critical for Internet marketers.I started selling bar soap person-to-person for P&G. Now we have to create the same intimacy and familiarity without being face-to-face.Fastest way to have someone understand you is to build on what they already know. This is not to say you can’t introduce THE NEW, it means to introduce the new via known analogies and metaphors, or schema.This book you can and should buy from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.Heath Brothers site. Summer Reading Rating:

The MeshBy Lisa GanskyLisa’s “Meshed” world isn’t quite here yet, but it is coming fast. The Mesh explains how the world is being changed by Moore’s Law, the power and cheapness of integrated circuits and our ability to take advantage of OPP (Other People’s Platforms).6,000 “Meshing.it” companies have signed up already on Gansky’s site and look for that number to grow. Lisa, a successful entrepreneur, notes how much less expensive it is to start companies today than a little as five years ago.Beyond an important text book for entrepreneurs, every company should be thinking of ways to mashup content, curate from existing sources while providing unique perspective that reinforces your brand’s core values. Read the Mesh and you will think of new ways to present your brands online.Quick easy read, so perfect for iPads at the beach.Buy The Mesh on Amazon or Barnes and Nobleand good ebook.Lisa’s Site: Meshing.itSummer Beach Reading Rating:

Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and SoftwareBy Steven Berlin JohnsonEverything Bad Is Good For YouWhere Good Ideas Come From I strongly recommend reading Steven Johnson. He has a way of organizing and explaining difficult concept that is perfect for the beach. The concept of emergence, how things happen in a decentralized way, is important to understanding the organic, almost sentient network your website lives on. When you see a content or tribal bloom, something getting a lot of attention that usually doesn’t, you need to build on it, curate around the bloom and contribute new ideas and food into the network.Your repayment for watching the weather that is the World Wide Web is a virtuous cycle. You get more followers and link juice faster and faster. Understanding what and where blooms come from requires a passing understanding of the biology of emergence and Johnson will have you there after a few days reading at the beach.Other important books by Johnson include Everything Bad Is Good For You And Where Good Ideas Come From. Steven Berlin Johnson’s Site .Summer Reading Rating

Linked:How Everything Is Connected To Everything Else and What It Meansby Albert-Laszlo BarabasiBursts:The Hidden Patterns Behind Everything We DoI owe this recommendation to my friend Nathan from last summer. I could hardly put Notre Dame network research Barabasi’s book down (but I am a bit strange when it comes to my obsessive love for all thins Internet marketing). Barabasi’s book explains so much about how the largest content network man has ever created functions it can be a page turner for the right audience. Concepts such as proprietary linking and how any network the size of the Internet will form hugs will create real light bulb moments. The book isn’t easy or a fast read.I had to read several sections more than once to get all of the meaning, but its importance in understanding how Internet marketing works can’t be overstated.Bursts is the easier summer read, but bursts is less strategic and tactical (so you make the call).Summer Reading Rating Summer Reading Rating Burst

The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google Have Redefined BusinessPhil’s book is both great history lesson and prescient view to what is next. Websites are dead as I noted a few month before Phil’s book was published on ScentTrail Marketing (Platforms vs. Websites).If you are about to create a closed loop 20 page website good luck. Good luck competing with Etsy.com (100M pages in Google), Amazon (600M pages in Google) or any other competitor smart enough to know PLATFORMS RULE in a social age.Phil is a good guy who answers his email and appreciate comments and involvement. His book is an easy read and gets faster as you go. I wouldn’t skip the history lesson since knowing what is around the next corner is hidden in there somewhere.Buy on Amazon or Barnes and Noble(leave some shipping time in there)Phil’s Site: AgeofthePlatform.comSummer Reading Rating:

Mind of the Market: How Biology and Psychology Shape Our Economic Livesby Michael ShermerThis is one of my secret weapons. Shermer’s book walks the same path as Brainfluence by Dooley and has at least a passing understanding of NonZero by Wright, but Shermer’s cut through the clutter approach is perfect for the summer. I just returned from the Conversion Conference in Chicago and they were all talking Shermer’s language.Mind of the Market discusses what we know to be true – we can spot BS a mile away now and we want to help each other. Mind of the Market was behind my thinking a few weeks ago when I wrote People Not Things Sell and that post has looped around the world twice now. Shermer helps you see the web design you need and the weakness in the one you have.Michael Shermer’s, former editor of Skeptic, websiteBuyMind of the Market on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Summer Reading Rating

Atlantic BT Summer Reading Summary
Reading any 2 of these books will help you understand what happens behind the Internet marketing curtain. Read all 10 and you deserve some kind of special prize (we will think on that). In the meantime, have a great summer of reading by the pool or at the beach.  Remember Holiday 2012 is around the corner (sorry about that but force of habit for an old ecommerce guy like me).

Marty