The Impact Equation: New Book by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan
Yesterday was the official publication date of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s new book, The Impact Equation: Are You Making Things Happen, or Just Making Noise?
They are doing some cool promotion for the book; check it out on Julien’s site. Meanwhile, I wanted to get out the word and give readers an early quick review, since I pre-ordered it and downloaded it to read yesterday.
It’s a very good book, first of all. I have always had a lot of admiration for Julien and Chris, ever since meeting them at the Trust Summit in New York three years ago, shortly after their best-seller Trust Agents had come out.
This book reminds me why I like them so much, and why I get so much out of them every time I interact with them.
The Structure
Chris and Julien have an obvious flair for being cutting-edge social media communicators; so much so that it’s easy to overlook that they are serious subject matter masters. The subject they bite off here is pretty aggressive – how an individual can have an impact in today’s emerging business world.
This is a non-trivial book; it’s way beyond how-to, and will provoke your thinking on many dimensions, if you let it.
The book has a big picture structure: think of two axes with “impact” on one dimension, and “plan” or “organization” on the other.
The “Impact” part of it I think of as coming mainly from Julien: they’ve got a very clever 5-part acronym (CREATE) which deconstructs the components of Impact. They are: Contrast, Articulation, Reach, Exposure, Trust, and Echo (echo).
Expressed as an equation, it is: I = C x (R + E + A + T + E).
Using an equation is a nifty idea (think the Trust Equation); it gets you thinking about relationships, magnitudes, and interactions. Very useful stuff.
The other dimension I think of as coming more from Chris: Goals, Ideas, Platform, and Network. Chris has a knack for organizing the world in Big-Picture, but very practical and provocative ways.
Making It Work For You
Just like Chris and Julien, these axes form a powerful combination. The book shows you how to think about your Impact in each of those critical areas (Goals, Ideas, Platform, Network). And it’s loaded with practical advice.
But that’s jacks for openers. What I really love about Julien and Chris (and I’m hardly alone in this) is that both are about as genuine, real, and sincere as you can get. Their whole approach to doing business reflects this. Their business strategy is a human business strategy. The point of social media is to serve people, not vice versa.
And it works. They are prime examples of it themselves, which is yet another reason the book is a delight.
I hope they sell a ton of books, they deserve it.