I learned about this book from Amit Klein, and was curious to know what it was about. So I borrowed his copy about a week back, and I must say it has been an entertaining read. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith explores the concept of trust on the Internet. They do a very good job of explaining how trust is created or earned in online social communities and how a brand can successfully leverage this trust in its favor. They go on to present a series of cases that illustrate how businesses can build relationships with online communities or even other people and utilize them to build better products.
Both Brogan and Smith are established bloggers. This shows in the light, almost conversational style that the book is written in. It makes reading the book a breeze and you almost never find the text becoming drab or boring.
While I don’t think the concept of “Trust Agents” is particularly new, with Malcolm Gladwell doing a good job explaining the power of trust agents or “Mavens” in his 2000 book Tipping Point, Chris and Julien do a fantastic job in explaining and fleshing out the concept in the context of the web.
I think anyone who wants to know more about how trust in the digital tribe functions and how it may impact their business, should give this book a read.
Just finished reading Kishore Biyani’s It Happened in India. It’s a decent read, largely autobiographical in nature. The book traces Kishore Biyani’s journey from a garment seller to a retail mogul. Kishore Biyani (KB) for the uninitiated, started off a successful chain of stores (Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar) in India and was one of the first to move into the organized retail segment. Today his ’small’ retail empire is worth over $2 billion.
I'm Elroy Serrao, a technologist, photographer, and part time blogger from India.
I love to design web sites, program in php and rails in my free time and of course go trekking and clicking pictures in the great outdoors.
I'm from Mumbai, and am an alumnus of Mumbai University and NMIMS.