Book review fro #InSoMe

1. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith

2. Who are they? Chris Brogranis currently president of Human Business Works, and online education and community resource for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. Julien Smith is a consultant and speaker.

3. Why Trust Agents? With the online community creating an increased level of transparency, Brogan and Smith wrote the book to help us learn how and who to trust. Trust Agents is meant to help us be real, genuine and open with people as well as to help us understand that is we can think strategically and understand certain principles, we can master any new advances in technology.

4. Main Ideas/Points Trust agents are defined as being “non-sales-oriented, non-high-pressure marketers.” “They are digital natives using the Web to be genuine and to humanize their business.” The crossroad between trust and technology affects how we do business. Therefore, transparency is an asset for doing business. Technology influences trust. What happens on the web, stays on the web and has a lasting impression.

5. Six Characteristics of Trust Agents Make You Own Game: Find a skillful way to stand-out One of Us: Do you belong to the community of people you are trying to reach? The Archimedes Effect: Leverage – use knowledge, people, technology, or time to enhance what you do immensely. Agent Zero: understand that building relationships go beyond business transactions – having a wide network is very powerful, it grants you access. Human Artist: having an understanding of human strengths and weaknesses – knowing how to work well with others as well as empower others. Building as Army: the web is vast and we are small, learn how to develop mass.

6. Did I Learn Anything ? Yes! This book was quite enlightening. As an aspiring Public Relations practitioner, Brogan and Smith are helping me to overcome my fear of the Web and social media by learning how to master it as a tool that can be used to better share my strengths and passions. It also reinforced the importance of transparency not only on the Web, but in my own personal relationships.

7. What I’d Like to Learn? I’d like to learn more about living trust agents. How they went about building as they called it, “building as army.” I’d like to learn more about what it takes to reach out to people of different cultures on the web, outside of normal business transactions.

8. Who Could Benefit? My mother has been a great skeptic of social media and the Web. I’ll be connecting her to my Google account so she can read this book this summer. I also believe young entrepreneurs can greatly benefit from reading this book and applying the lessons taught by Brogan and Smith.