Super Cool: "Citizen Marketers" co-author Jackie Huba talks to our class

Today in class we were lucky enough to have Jackie Huba, co-author of "Citizen Marketers: When People Are The Message," visit our class to talk to us about using social media in PR, marketing and in the corporate world. She showed us clips and examples from points brought up in the book then generously took several questions from us students.

We discussed the ethics of companies and bloggers working together, such as when companies send free gadgets to bloggers asking them to write about them - do they keep the gadget? Can the bloggers give an honest review? Will the blogger need to add a disclaimer to the post?
When asked about reasons why a company may be hesitant to have a public blog, she said the concerns she heard most frequently were that they were concerned about consumers using the blog as a soundboard to vent all of their grievances on, or that having a blog would take up to much human power to monitor it. Ms. Huba suggested that while it is true that readers may leave many negative comments on the blog, at least these issues are being told to the company's face. Consumers are already voicing their issues and concerns about products and services anyway, so you as the company might as well hear it straight from them so that you can decide what to do with all of the instant feedback you'll receive, for better or worse.

The hour with Ms. Huba passed quickly - she was engaging and had intelligent, insightful comments and answers for us. I really appreciated her coming to talk to us, as well as for signing a copy of my book. :)

Google Book Search allows users to share their bookshelves

Google Book Search offers users to catalog the books they have in their personal collections and organize them by category (which is a great way to keep track of what you’ve read and own!). Users can then share their collection pages with each other to see what their friends are reading.

According to Google’s Book Search page: You can now create personalized libraries on Google Book Search where you can label, review, rate, and of course, full-text search, a customized selection of books.

Google Book Search is also actively promoting its benefits for book publishers:

By matching the content in your books with user searches, Google Book Search connects your books with the users who are most interested in buying them.

Links to bookstores, online retailers, and your website make it easy for users to go from browsing to buying -- with new ways to buy and access your books coming soon.

A book link will also be featured that tells the reader where they can purchase the book online, which provides more traffic to online booksellers inspired by user-driven lists that can be searched and saved using RSS Feeds to your favorite list-makers.

Using Google Book Search can benefit PR professionals in the publishing industry by promoting its use to readers. Encouraging this book networking can lead readers to discover new books via lists made by friends, celebrities and featured users. Most importantly, it's already working to help authors and publishers based on their success stories.

MySpace also features a user-driven book search engine, but based off the top-rated books, it also seems to be more teen-centered - which would be significant to publishers in this market.

Learn more about Google Book Search here, and check out their blog to make your own book library to share with others.