My new book, The Age of Engage, has launched. Heralded by Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Wikinomics best-selling co-author Don Tapscott, the book is off to a great start. And with the book is a new website, AgeofEngage.com and my new blog Engage Daily.

It’s been an incredibly busy time getting the book out and doing the book tour. I’ve been featured on the Public Relations Power Hour (WTSU) in West Palm Beach, Florida, Popp Off with Mary Jane Popp (KAHI) in Sacramento, California, Talkzone’s syndicated show Tracking Business Leaders, and The Financial Review and Afternoon Commute (KFNN) in Phoenix, Arizona, among many others.

Reviews are starting to appear such as this one from Jeb Blount at SalesGravy.com, and this interview on ChiefMarketer.com.

If the emails I’ve been getting from folks who have read the book are any sign, the age of engage is a great time to be in business. The personal touch from “friends” (actually strangers), the power of your own voice to speak up and get companies to change, and the opportunity for marketers to truly effect people’s lives is amazing.

The Age of Engage talks about what has changed on the Web (all about Web 2.0 and new media) and what strategies are critical to succeed, and offers hundreds of creative ideas, examples, and anecdotes to help marketers create authentic, interactive, and engaging marketing.

You can find the book on Amazon. Take a look at the great book reviews people are posting!

Have you implemented a wiki inside your company yet? Wondering what it’s like to collaborate using a wiki? Well, here’s your opportunity. I set up the Marketing Plan Wiki at MarketingReinvented.com so that we could all get a little experience using wikis.

My good friend Amanda, CEO of Amanda’s Restaurants, agreed to be the guinea pig and develop the marketing plan for her new restaurant in an open, collaborative forum. Anyone who joins can give advice and ideas on her marketing plan.

The Marketing Plan Wiki is designed to help marketers organize marketing strategy, planning, and executables with the approach required by Web 2.0 and social media. So, you can also comment on the wiki itself and marketing in this new media era. Show me more »

Here’s a link to CRM’s post on where to find most everything you need to know about Facebook, The Facebook Marketing Toolbox.

How many different ways can you slice up news? Well, it appears at least 47. Maki at Dosh Dosh writes this post listing 47 social news web sites. Show me more »

The biggest objections I hear to Facebook are the amount of time it takes to mine the conversations (feed), and the confusion over how Facebook can add value to a business. These objections are commonly coming from folks over 40. Baby boomers (like me) are set in their ways. We have become addicted to email. We built our careers gaining knowledge and sharing it with a select few. We protect our privacy and can’t imagine sharing our personal lives with thousands of strangers.

To gain a following on Facebook, Ning, MySpace or any other site you have to immerse yourself in it. Spend some time daily posting, responding, joining and creating. And if you’re thinking I just don’t have time! Well, think about how much time you spend on email. In many ways, Facebook is the new email. And baby boomers who need their email fix every few minutes are struggling to make the transition.

Today, to gain a following for your business, you must expose who you are and what makes you believable. You must interact with people you don’t know (even though we call them “friends”) and share information because that builds trust. Facebook and others make it easy to do all of these things while encouraging people to find out more, partner with you, and advocate for your business (by connecting to you, getting involved and spreading the word).

The Web-effect of information sharing with your friends, and they with their friends, and so on allows you to reach people quickly who you might not otherwise contact.

If the business you’re in has lots of competitors, then it’s a good idea to focus your groups, conversation, message to an idea or point-of-view that stands out from the pack and will draw people in. The only way to learn is to set up an account and get started. At a minimum, you’ll find people you haven’t talk to in years who are happy to get back in touch.

Best of all, it’s free. Show me more »

If you haven’t discovered Widgetbox yet, go check it out. The site makes it easy - and free - to create your own widget. They also created the blidget - a blog in a widget, which is perfect for getting more visibility to your blog.

Widgets are small chunks of code that are easily embedded in a blog, website, Facebook or almost any social network page, or on your desktop. Widgets can be clocks, calendars, the weather, or a notepad. The YouTube video player is a widget.

You post a widget and others can download it to get a regular stream of information from you: tips, daily discounts, blog posts, pictures, recipes, videos - pretty much anything you can think of.

Widgetbox puts your widget in their gallery for anyone to find and download (based on the tags you give it). They also enable others to create widget formats and make them available (for example the scrolling blog widget). You can also find developers like Widgetnest to create a custom widget for you (for a fee).

Best of all it’s free. So you have every reason to try it out and see how your ideas spread. Show me more »

How are college kids different today than baby boomers of 20-30 years ago? You might think it’s that they want more from work than a paycheck. Or, that they expect companies to be human, care about humanity, and treat employees as if they are human. Or that GenYrs just want more free time and flexible schedules.

I don’t think so. Baby boomers wanted all of this too. But instead of demanding it, speaking out about it, or creating it for themselves, they buried these desires and went to work for 12-16 hours a day.

GenYrs are braving new territory. And they view the world differently. In no time, they will be our employees, our bosses, our customers, and every marketer’s most important audience.

See what some GenYrs have to say for themselves. A really great video…

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Check out Peter Russell’s World Clock here. It’s simply fascinating. Click on “now” and watch it change for a minute or two. This program would make an excellent widget.

The site gives credit to Poodwaddle.com. They’re an interesting little company that appears to provide the ability to mash or create simple applications using information from Google maps, Amazon, eBay and others. Show me more »

ADXDirect.com sent me a press release last week. I took notice — not because of the headline or content, but because the format was exceptional. Instead of a flat, boring press release with a link to a PR person at the bottom, they produced a newsletter-style document. There was a menu of corporate links for additional information, links for contact information, and links specifically for publishers and advertisers. They turned the press release into a marketing vehicle for a fairly broad audience.

This is easy and cost-effective to do today using iContact, Constant Contact, or another online service.

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If you aren’t a wiki aficionado yet, Socialtext is offering a set of free whitepapers that will get you up to speed. Even if you have already gotten started on your first wiki, the documents include best practices and case studies to give you ideas of what to do next.

Click here to get to the download site.
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