I’ve started my summer reading early this year, with a round of books on social media and influencer marketing. Please speak up, if you can recommend other books in these areas.

Groundswell - Winning in a world transformed by social technologies, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. “It’s a book by two Forrester analysts with practical, data-based strategies for companies that want to harness the power of social technologies like blogs, social networks, and YouTube. Featuring 25 full case studies, a complete road map for social strategy, and data from around the world.” - excerpt from the book microsite

The New Influencers - A Marketer’s Guide to Social Media, by Paul Gillen. “The New Influencers is a book for corporate marketers and executives who want to understand and engage with the vast new channels of influence that are emerging online.” - excerpt from the book microsite

Influencer Marketing - Who Really Influences Your Customers, by Nick Hayes and Duncan Brown. “The book demonstrates clearly, authoritatively and with numerous real examples Seth Godin’s widely accepted view that it’s ‘useless to advertise to anyone except connectors with influence’… For all those involved in marketing and sales this book will be an essential analysis of how to identify who has influence, how they apply it, and how you can turn it to your advantage.” - excerpt from the book microsite

Dr. Efrem Mallach has released the 20th anniversary edition of his original and definitive guide to high tech industry analyst relations. His new book, “Win Them Over: A Survival Guide for Corporate Analyst Relations/Consultant Relations Programs” (ISBN-10: 090637801X, ISBN-13: 978-0906378014) is described and sold at Amazon. I’m inclined to think that it is even better than the original. However, I’m stunned by the lofty price and annoyed at the stealth-like release.

The list price for Win Them Over is $500. New and used are priced at $427.07. That’s completely out of line with the other analyst relations books available today on the market. Each book has earned solid reviews by outstanding analyst relations professionals as an excellent source of information on AR best practices, terminology and basic strategy for vendors and agencies. These books include:

• Getting Results from your Analyst Relations Strategies by Louis Columbus (about $12.00 for hardcopy)
• Influencing the Influencers by Bill Hopkins (about $50 for hardcopy)
• Maximizing the Value of Analyst Relations by Geoff Roach and Lisa Perri (about $41 for PDF).

I have decided there are three ways to resolve the Win Them Over price tag:

First, the $500 list price is a typo that has been promulgated across the online bookseller sites. Lighthouse AR should sue the Internet and refund any easy marks who actually paid $500 for this book.

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Bill Hopkins, founder and CEO of The Knowledge Capital Group, has translated his company’s popular high tech industry analyst relations workshop into a thorough and well-organized book, “Influencing the Influencers”. KCG formally launches the book at an event it’s hosting in conjunction with Gartner’s Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando next week. Advance orders can be placed now.

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