cover image The Impact Equation: Are You Making Things Happen or Just Making Noise?

The Impact Equation: Are You Making Things Happen or Just Making Noise?

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Portfolio/Penguin, $26.95 (271p) ISBN 978-1-59184-490-7

Instructive and motivational, Brogan and Smith (True Agents) offer a magic formula for marketing products and services online while building credibility and trust among customers. The authors have been involved in online communities for more than a decade and offer a simple, social media-driven equation to draw consumer attention and gain trust: Impact = C x (R+E+A+T+E). The letters stand for Contrast, Reach, Exposure, Articulation, Trust, and Echo. The authors state the book is not about Twitter and Facebook, though they do occasionally discuss the platforms' use. Their goal is going beyond social media: forming ideas; using appropriate, visible platforms; and building strong human connections are also key components of their system. Whether it's creating YouTube videos or using Twitter to promote products and services, the examples and analogies offered for each element of the impact equation effectively make their mark. Success is not just about "being seen" on social networks, but nurturing genuine relationships with the audience as well. Individuals, small group of upstarts, or big organizations will relish learning how to apply the impact equation to their own blog or ad campaign in order to figure out what's working and what's not. (Nov.)