Your Next Favorite Book: The Now Revolution

I struggle to read books sometimes. The only ones I fly through are those with some modicum of engaging writing style and about baseball. Some books it takes me months to get through just because I have the attention span of a gnat.

But on Tuesday of last week I picked up my hot-off-the-presses copy of The Now Revolution by my friends Amber Naslund and Jay Baer. I started reading on a flight from Tampa to Austin. It was 3:05. I put it down, completely read, cover-to-cover, at 4:45. I didn’t even stop to pee.

The Now Revolution is required reading for businesses and organizations, large and small, to realize how to operationalize, hire for and become a social business.

It’s not another social media book. It’s a business book that looks at a 30,000-foot view of seven fundamental shifts your operation will need to make to truly embrace and become social.

I was honored to be in the audience for the book tour’s first kickoff presentation, at MarketingProfs Digital Forum in Austin last Wednesday. The talks that Jay and Amber will give over the next six months at locations dotted around the globe will help you understand why the book is not just important for your business, but required reading.

After their MarketingProfs talk, I dragged them both to the speaker ready room and drilled them on some of the concepts in the book. Here’s my interview:

Yes, Jay and Amber are close friends. Yes, I’m inordinately proud of this book more than probably any other I’ve had the pleasure to read as a result. I got a little misty-eyed at the end of the interview there because I love those two like a brother and sister.

But if the authors were Random She and Random He but the content was the same, I’d tell you The Now Revolution is about to become one of the most significant business books of 2011. It’s that good.

My only criticism of the book was that the chapter on measurement was a little thin. I break social media marketing down into six purposes (or business benefits). Jay and Amber broke it down into three. While my six fit into their three, I felt like there needed to be more delineation and detail there. But as Jay told me, “We didn’t want it to then become a measurement book.”

He’s right. This is a high-level conceptual book that everyone from the CEO to the community manager needs to read. For people who don’t “get” social media, it will be a Godsend. For those who do, it will become your new favorite book to recommend.

If you don’t agree, come back and tell me why. I’m buying a box of copies for clients and friends as we speak.

NOTE: All the book links here are affiliate links. If you buy a book through Amazon as a result of them, I get a cheeseburger. I like cheeseburgers.