The Best Christmas Present Ever, Well Almost

This year I received an Amazon Kindle for Christmas. It was a great Christmas present! Now, I can have as many books in my laptop bag as I want wherever I am at–like right now in Starbucks! Simply amazing. And you know what? I have found that I read faster.

Since Christmas I have read many books on my Kindle on the issues of marketing, leadership and branding as I work to continue applying these important ideas in the educational world of independent and faith-based schools. Of the many that I have read, I highly recommend these three books for educational leaders:

• Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
• Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz
• Made to Stick: Why Some ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

All three books are thought-provoking and practical, and can easily be applied to your school marketing strategies. In Inbound Marketing Halligan and Shah discuss how marketing has changed from an outbound approach–interruptive advertising–to the inbound world of social media that is conversational and personal. They provide many practical ideas for using this important platform for marketing and have many resources and webinars available online (go to www.inboundmarketing.com).

In Word of Mouth Marketing, Sernovitz provides many real-life ideas for how to get people talking about our brands. And finally, in Made to Stick, the Heaths provide us with a S.U.C.C.E.S.S. acronym (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Story, Significance) for developing ideas that are understood, remembered and have a lasting impact.

There is much more that I could say about these books however blogs are supposed to be brief! So, I will talk about these ideas in future blogs.

Until then, what’s on your nightstand, or on your Kindle? What marketing and leadership books are you reading?

Now, I really hope I get an iPad for my birthday…that would be the best present ever! (I hope my wife is reading my blog!)