FIR Book Review: "Naked Conversations"

In this edition of For Immediate Release book reviews, Neville and Shel discuss "Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers," the new book on blogging and businesses by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, to be published in January 2006.

The Book:

"With a foreword by Tom Peters, author of such business bibles as 'In Search of Excellence,' this book uses more than fifty case histories to explain why blogging is an efficient and infinitely more credible method of business communication. Blogs are easily linked, allowing information to spread rapidly, and blog readers are active, not passive, participants in the communication. Business and marketing decision-makers will find themselves excited about the possibilities after just a few pages." (Promotional text.)

The Authors:

Robert Scoble is a technical evangelist at Microsoft and maintains the popular blog Scobleizer. Besides blogging, Scoble is part of Microsoft's Channel 9 videos team producing educational and evangelist mini-films targeted towards students and professional developers. He is Microsoft's best-known blogger whose blog is read by millions of people annually and is the top-ranking business blog among Technorati's Top 100 blogs.

Shel Israel writes and speaks about blogging, communications and innovation. He also consults with startups as a senior strategy and communications advisor. He is editor-in-chief of Conferenza Premium Reports, the leading newsletter covering technology industry executive conferences. A self-proclaimed recovering publicist, Israel spent more than 20 years as a PR executive specializing in technology startups. He played a key strategic role in introducing some of technology's most successful products, including PowerPoint, FileMaker and Sun Microsystems workstations.

The Review:

Download the 32-minute conversation here (MP3, 12MB), or sign up for the book reviews RSS feed to get it and future reviews automatically. For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you'll also need a podcatcher such as the free Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon. To receive all For Immediate Release podcasts including the twice-weekly Hobson & Holtz Report, sign up for the full RSS feed.

• 00:22 Shel and Neville introduce the review
• 00:45: The story behind the book's development and the role of the book blog
• 03:47 About Robert Scoble and about Shel Israel
• 05:06 What the book is about and the nature of its content
• 11:52 A concise run-down of the table of contents
• 13:14 Neville describes what he likes about the book
• 16:00 Shel and Neville discuss the international focus
• 16:39 More likes
• 17:28 Blogging with passion
• 18:02 The 'doing it wrong and doing it right' contrast
• 19:11 How the authors recognized others who contributed to the book's development
• 20:17 The book's not perfect, says Shel
• 21:18 No issues to criticize, says Neville
• 21:58 Here are some examples, says Shel
• 25:46 The acid test for what book buyers will think
• 27:16 When the book's coming out and where to buy it online
• 29:21 Our overall conclusion
• 29:48 About this podcast and where to find For Immediate Release.

Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
Publisher: Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Hardcover, 272 pages.
ISBN: 0-471-74719-X
Publish date: January 3, 2006 (UK), January 17, 2006 (USA).

Podsafe intro and outro music - On A Podcast Intrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)