Book Review Archives - Zer0 to 5ive

The Six Rules of Outstanding Content for Social Media

In today’s digital-focused world its hard to find someone who isn’t on social media – whether it be your grandfather using Facebook to check in on the grandkids or your teenage niece posting every chance she gets. As of 2017, 81% of the population had at least one social media profile, so leveraging these channels is a must for every business’ marketing plan. Social media is a fast communications channel that may be overwhelming to marketers trying to grab attention. Gary Vaynerchuck, author of the book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How To Tell Your Story In a Noisy Social World, argue...
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Sep 27

Book Review, Branding, Social Media

There’s an Art to Pitching Business? Presentation Skills You Need to Know

For many of us, presenting in front of large groups can be a daunting task. Just think back to your school days – you dreaded getting up in front of the class to present your book report or science project. All you could think about at that time was “I can’t wait until I’m an adult and I don’t have to give presentations again!” However, little did we know that for many of us presentation skills could make or break you in business. Just ask Peter Coughter, the president of Coughter & Company, which consults with leading advertising agencies around the world. Coughter is al...
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Sep 21

Book Review, Pitching, Public Relations

Content That Converts: Advice for Developing a Profitable Content Marketing Strategy

“Because you can’t eat brand equity, and can’t pay a team with it” – Laura Hanly, Digital Marketing Expert and Author, “Content That Converts: How to Create a Profitable and Predictable B2B Content Marketing Strategy” When done correctly, content marketing can serve as a powerful arm to your overall marketing strategy – it establishes you as an authority and has the potential to increase your revenue and profit. That’s why CMOs at the largest technology companies report that building out content marketing as an organizational competency is the second most important initia...
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Feb 27

Book Review, Marketing, Strategy, Uncategorized

What Does Leftover Turkey Have to Do with Public Relations?

In Jason Miller’s 2014 magnum opus, Welcome to the Funnel, he riffs on several high-level concepts related to marketing, including the Big Rock, the blogging food groups and the 6 golden rules of social media. While each one of these concepts can stretch well beyond the world of marketing, one in particular carries over to public relations better than the rest: the Leftover Turkey analogy. Imagine your typical Thanksgiving. You cook up a giant turkey and serve one glorious meal to your entire family. Afterwards, you proceed to slice and dice the remaining meat for weeks, repurposing the b...
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Feb 07

0to5 Blog, Book Review

How to Be UGLY: Finding Your ZAG with Marty Neumeier

Crocs. Cake Pops. Uggs. Snuggies. What do all these have in common? Well, you probably hated them before you loved them. Uggs were ugly, Cake pops were foreign, and Crocs were for geezers.

Turns out, these products had some genius behind them. That genius is called ZAG.

So, what is ZAG? Marty Neumeier describes it in his book, Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands, as the embodiment of what it means to be different.

Today, we all have a need for speed. Amazon ships overnight, Seamless delivers everywhere, messages send in seconds, and what used ...
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Sep 12

0to5 Blog, Book Review

Finding Your Creative Confidence

Have you ever been told you that you weren’t creative?

Maybe it was an art teacher you had in 6th grade who shook her head in pity when she reviewed your work, or a classmate who made fun, or possibly even an old boss who told you, “stick to your day job.” Whatever it was, being told we aren’t creative can scar us for life. It instills the kind of fear that makes us hesitant to do anything outside the box or raise our hand when we have an idea (even a great one!).

A lot of us have stories like that, which is why companies and individuals often assume that creativity and i...
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Aug 02

0to5 Blog, Book Review, Creative, Tips

Fearless Innovation: How to Be Creative in the Face of Fear

What does it mean to be creative? Do you always need to think outside the box, or can you be creative within a set of rules you need to abide by? Are you born creative, or is it a learned skill? In PR, you have to be creative much of the time, which can be scary to some. Ed Catmull explains in his book, Creativity, Inc., that it’s okay to be scared if you learn to overcome it. Being creative and innovative, as he describes it, is an earned right. You need to fail early, fail fast, and fail fearlessly. Every early failure is a door that closes on future wasted time, allowing you to focus on ...
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Jul 17

0to5 Blog, Book Review, Creative

Crossing the Chasm: 23 Years Old and Still Going Strong

Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey Moore, is held in high regard at Zer0 to 5ive. In fact, it’s required reading for the account teams and some even refer to it as the “Company bible.” Moore’s book focuses on the specifics of marketing disruptive high-tech products during the early start up period, giving organizations a roadmap on how their products can successfully “cross the chasm” into the mainstream market.

One of the most vital aspects of Crossing the Chasm is positioning. Moore states that positioning is the most discussed, yet least understood, component of high-t...
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Mar 25

0to5 Blog, Book Review, Strategy, Technology

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The “Zen” Approach to an Effective Social Media Strategy

2013 turned out to be a big year for social media (SM) events. From Twitter going public, to new social media networks popping up, such as Vine and Snapchat, to PR executive Justine Sacco being fired for a racist and inappropriate Tweet. While SM certainly had it ups and downs this year, one thing is for sure – companies must have a solid SM strategy in order to be successful.

SM news website, Top Ten Social Media, listed the best SM Marketing books of 2013, including “The Zen of Social Media Marketing” by Shama Kabani. The book provides a nice overview of the difference be...
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Feb 24

0to5 Blog, Book Review, Social Media, Tips

Solving One of the Most Painful Problems in Business: Death by Meeting

I recently read the national best-selling book “Death by Meeting” by Patrick Lencioni. The book is a “leadership fable” about how a man named Casey, the CEO of a company called Yip, helped revamp and refocus the structure of the executive meetings in his company to help move his business forward. The book opened my eyes to the many pitfalls of bad meetings. There are very simple, basic ways to make sure you are using your team’s time productively and accomplish what is in front of you. Meetings can be painful, long, and sometimes, even pointless. Technical solutions like Skyp...
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Jan 16

Book Review, Teamwork

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