These days, it seems like almost everyone has a book out. After all, new technologies and new routes to market have made it easier than ever for people to get their words into the hands of readers, and social networking sites and corporate blogs have provided new ways to promote books and to pick up sales.
Of course, there’s plenty of competition out there, and releasing a book effectively creates another product for you to bring to market. It’s a huge challenge, but it’s also one of the most effective ways there is to create a personal brand and to promote thought-leadership.
Better still, it works for both B2C and B2B marketers – although arguably, it’s B2B marketers who benefit the most thanks to longer buying cycles and higher margins on every sale.
Here are just two thought-leaders who are proving that marketing and writing go hand-in-hand.
Avinash Kaushik
Kaushik is responsible for one of the snappiest quotes on social media marketing that you’re likely to see: “Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it’s not better.”
When he’s not musing on the impact of social networking on our life and times, Kaushik works as a digital marketing evangelist at Google and as the cofounder of Market Motive. Really, though, it’s Kaushik’s expertise with analytics that turned him into a thought-leader – and which inspired him to write his books.
That’s right – Avinash Kaushik is no one-hit wonder. His first book, Web Analytics: An Hour a Day, was released in 2007, back when most companies were still treating digital marketing as a carbon copy of more traditional, offline approaches. He followed this with Web Analytics 2.0, which focuses largely on the idea of continual improvement through marginal gains – a strategy which has itself led Kaushik right to the top of the industry.
Find out more about Avinash Kaushik.
Guy Kawasaki
Kawasaki is literally all over the internet, so if you haven’t come across him before then you haven’t been looking hard enough. His main role is that of chief evangelist at Canva, a powerful tool for marketers which allows them to create stunning visuals for social networking sites without needing the help of a graphic designer.
But Kawasaki’s career encompasses much more than his latest gig at Canva. He started out as one of the original Apple employees in charge of marketing the Macintosh in 1984, and he’s acted as an advisor for companies like Motorola, Google and Wikimedia throughout the years.
Kawasaki has written over a dozen books, starting with The Macintosh Way in 1990, and we’re not going to list them all here. Suffice to say that each of them has been simultaneously topical and influential, examining the current state of the world and correctly predicting the future. He’s recently started co-authoring books with Peg Fitzpatrick, his assistant – and now Fitzpatrick is becoming a thought leader in her own right. Keep your eyes peeled for new insights from both of them.
Find out more about Guy Kawasaki.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.