A complete waste of time

What would have made Content Rules better?

For a book whose title extols the supreme value of content, this book, besides being worthless, is self-contradictory. It is full of cliches, contains no recommendations a content creator with two hours of experience hasn't already figured out, and is so condescending, listening to it makes an ice-cream induced brain freeze preferable. The authors chirp in an annoying sing-song tone reminiscent of a cheerleading rally and for supposed content experts, they mispronounce words from their own book (e.g., primer, obfuscate, Waltham, PA). Pure schlock.

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14 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Average at best, narration needs a lot of work.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I listen to most of my audio books while driving to and from work. I find that my attention to the audio is a great gauge for the interaction provided from the narrator. Unforunately, Ms. Handley is a dreadful narrator. I found myself tuning her out numerous times regardless of the value of what she was saying, which is unfortunate. Ms. Handley really needs some coaching to perfect her narration, otherwise the next book is going to suffer equally. I felt as if she was reading from a book in a 12th grade English class. Very few inflections, and when they were present, they were very obviously over the top as if the text on the page read (read with intent here.) Mr. Chapman was average in terms of holding my attention, but he did manage to bring some life to the recording. His speech was a bit more conversational, which helps to keep the listener interested and engaged.

In terms of information, I have to say this was one of the more desireable aspects of the book. They covered a diverse number of topics and gave great detail as to how one might endeavor to put these plans into action. Unfrotunately, once again I need to focus on Ms. Handley, as her portion of the book had some rather inane concepts. For example, there was an entire section devoted to word substitutions. At the risk of sounding arrogant, who are YOU to tell me what words my audience will appreciate? Several buzz words that you suggested were just as aggregious, if not more offensive than the originals. It seems to me that this was wasted filler material that is highly subjective and serves no benefit but to prop up the authors as some sort of authorities on what will or will not fly. Let's be clear, this book is just another in a series of social marketing tools, and the fact that it exists only goes to show that you're trying. Let's not take ourselves too seriously and assume that we know for a fact what will and will not work. This is a dangerous precedent to set.

All in all, it's not a bad book. There were some good nuggets of information, some filler and minor repetition. And by the way, I think I'm noticing a trend here. Much like websites work to get backlinks from other sites, it appears that books (or audio books) function much the same way, with authors often mentioning other authors in their readings....and those other authors just happen to have books for sale during the same period of time. Coincidence? I'll leave you to figure it out.

What three words best describe Ann Handley, and CC Chapman’s voice?

Amatuer

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11 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Good

Although a lot of stuff was not new for me, it's because I've already done a lot of research on the subject. Still it helped me refresh what I already knew along with learning new stuff. I would recommend this book. If you are new to the world of blogging and content generation for whatever genre, this book is for you. If you are an experienced writer, I'm sure you'd still get new tips and your existing knowledge refreshed from this book.

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5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Narration absolutely horrible

The content of this book is pretty good but the narration was woeful. They both spoke way too fast, almost unintelligibly at times. DO NOT BUY THE AUDIBLE VERSION unless you want to be thoroughly annoyed and disappointed.

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4 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Great listen, probably best as a reference book

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I enjoyed it but it was clear that I would have read it and been able to see a lot more

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4 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Definitely recommend for novices !

Ms Handley and CC have put together one of the better books on social media tips I have seen. I have listened to their book three times now. I have employed –along with our company- many of their “social media stew” recipe tips on facebook and website content suggestions successfully. One of the best compliments I could give them and this book is that I have used facebook successfully the first time in a business sense.
We use a medical protocol that many persons found helpful by reading and exercising the applications direct from facebook that we would not have believed if we had not seen the results-in a week’s time! Their clear cut and direct suggestions are easy to understand and use. Even if you have struggled in the past with your product, service, or just ‘talking’ with your friends on facebook, LinkedIn or any of the other ways they mention in their ‘bible’ for social channels, you cannot help but improve with just 2 or 3 of their helpful hints.
We will soon employ their advice and recommendations on our first “YouTube” video and anticipate nothing but success!

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4 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

A must read

I suggest all businesses listen to this book. It is a fantastic guide to adapting content for the web.

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2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Very useful

I got a lot of tipps on how to start marketinhg our startup. Very simply and efficiently put together.

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1 personne a trouvé cela utile

energetic performance and awesome guidelines

don't let the little bit of outdated references for you - very insightful content rules!

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Basic but good for beginners

I liked the content, helped me refresh on some key themes, but wished it was more in-depth

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