Are You Enchanting? A Book Review

What Next Gen Researchers can learn from Guy Kawasaki

What Next Gen Researchers can learn from Guy Kawasaki

Even though I get several requests, I hardly ever promote books or other products here on the NGMR blog. I will make an exception from time to time. One of our 10,000+ NGMR members in particular, Guy Kawasaki, though not an active participant in our LinkedIn discussion board, has been truly helpful in teaching me about social media and marketing. He has in a way become my virtual mentor in the use of Twitter as well as entrepreneurship in general.

I’ve blogged a few times in the past about things he has done for NGMR and for me personally, such as adding the “Market Research” section to AllTop, helping to drive traffic to some of our Facebook Applications (The Kawasaki Bump), and generally offering advice and inspiration from the other side of the marketing spectrum.

So today I’m happy to mention Guy’s most recent book Enchantment which, as with most of his efforts, is very much in line with the essence of social media and NGMR.

So often we market researchers (especially the ‘Quants’ like myself) focus on the details and the measureable. We forget that there is so much more to understanding consumers and our fellow colleagues. As Guy puts it, “This book is for those that see life for what it can be rather than what it can’t, and are bringing to market a cause — that is, a product, service, organization, or idea– that can make the world a better place.” it is for those who “realize that in a world of mass media, social media, and advertising media, it takes more than instant, shallow, at temporary relationships to get the job done.”

If you’re curious in measuring how much you know about Enchantment, Guy (a master of social marketing) has provided a 23-Question Enhancement Aptitude Test here:

I’d be curious to know how you score!

If you’re a data visualization junkie like most NGMR researchers, and you’d like to know how to achieve Enchantment in five minutes or less, Guy was nice enough to provide the InfoGraphic below:

If you have more than 5 minutes though, I’d highly recommend the book instead. Guy has a light and humorous style which I always enjoy.

@TomHCAnderson