Marketing

The title of this book suggests it is about how to set up a viral marketing campaign. In reality, it is a very lengthy history of viral marketing. If viewed in that light, it is somewhat interesting and might merit at least a three star ranking. If you are looking for a "how to" book, this is not the one for you.

The narration by Richard Allen really drags the book down. Yes, I know he has a familiar voice and I know he has been nominated for awards. However, Mr. Allen has an almost comical tendency to mangle words. If Mr. Allen does not know how to pronounce a word (or someone's name), he just mispronounces it and goes on. And he mangles a lot of words. This leads to a really shoddy production value that, to me anyway, is pretty irritating for a premium-priced audiobook.

If the producer had reviewed Mr. Allen's work and had him re-record the mangled parts, it would have greatly helped the audiobook. Apparently, however, no one cared enough to do this.

There is a lot of really good information in this book. Very good ideas about how to achieve great marketing results on the Internet. Words of warning: Scott has a tendency to repeat content in his books. You will find repetition in Tuned In and World Wide Rave. Not my favorite narrator; smooth, but a little monotone.

There is some good information in this book about LinkedIn. Even as an experienced LinkedIn user, I learned a lot. That said, the substantive content of this book could be presented in an hour.

The remainder of the book basically consists of the author telling us about how great he is. I have rarely seen an instance of someone so often and loudly patting himself on the back. For instance, I do not know how many times Gowel refers to himself as a "LinkedIn Jedi" (a title bestowed by a Boston technology writer), but it could be turned into a college drinking game. Wouldn't two or maybe three references be enough?

I'm not saying I'm not impressed by Gowel's background. Hey, just tell me (once) you were an Army Ranger and I'm impressed. Tell me (once) that you started a successful tech business and I'm impressed.

Unfortunately, this self-congratulatory approach appears to be gaining traction among Gen Y authors. For me, it is a lot better to show me how good you are than to tell me again and again how good you are. But maybe I'm just an out of touch curmudgeon!

Oh, and about the narration. Sean Pratt is a go-to narrator. I have listened to many books Sean has narrated. He is smooth and polished. However, he sometimes has a tendency to sound like Niles Crane, the foppish younger brother from "Frasier." In this case, this tendency made the content even a bit more irritating.