Book Review (Part 2): Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

Robert Scoble: Naked Conversations : How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

OK it is time for part 2 of my review of the book: Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

Well, as they say – the proof of the pudding is in the eating – and for me – this book has proven what it says.

If you read my part 1 review – you will notice that a comment has been posted about the review. It was posted 2 days after I posted the review and it was posted by the author of the book.

Impressive. Very impressive indeed.

In the book the authors talk about search engine rankings – but what I wasn’t really expecting was the speed in which people start to find you. This post was found within two days of posting.

Also in the book, the author talks about monitoring what other people are saying about you and joining in – so the author did, and posted a comment about my review. Great!

So as I began to read the second part of the book from posting my review – I had in the back of my mind that that author posted a comment on my blog. He had credibility as I read and he proved to me, at least in someway, that blogging does work and that “blogging gives such small business global reach at extremely low cost”

So I have been a fan since.

I enjoyed the second half as much as the first, and learned a lot about blogging. Now this is actually hard to admit, because I run a web company – I should know about blogging. But to be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention to blogging and this is one of the reasons I got the book.

The Five Success Tips were extremely helpful, and then they donate a few chapters to showing how blogging has helped specific people such as consultants and publicists. They talk about blogs and national cultures, but only devote one sentence to England…”Blogging has taken off in England with the general public…” (well, I suppose I should be grateful that we were mentioned).

They are honest and candid about the pitfalls and dangers of blogging but as you can imagine concentrate more on the benefits – it seems that in most cases the benefits out weigh the costs.

Blogging does take time and energy. Is it worth it? Time will tell. I enjoy writing on blogs, and I am getting better and more confident as time progresses. I enjoy reading blogs and I don’t really class it as a waste of time. I have seen my rankings go up and a few comments start to appear.

I think it will be a while before I can truly answer this question – but for now, I am a converted blogger to the point that I am prepared to evangelise it.

For anyone involved in blogging, and for anyone wanting to find out about blogging – I can highly recommend this book. Have a pen with you so you can write notes all over it, read the blogs they refer to and put into practice what they say. I am sure newcomer and seasoned user alike will learn a few things.

A great investment – thanks for writing it. My only request – next time, more cartoons!

I do have one question though – on page 96, the second paragraph states: “In technology, three large companies have experienced the significant proliferation of blogging into their culture: Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. The two cultures…”

Who was the third?

Click the link below to order this book from Amazon.

Robert Scoble: Naked Conversations : How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

To view the author's blog, visit: http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/