Book Review: Viralnomics: How to Get People to Want to Talk About You

Going viral is the goal of any company. After all, viral content can change the entire landscape of your company, propelling you from small time news to global headlines in the matter of mere moments. The trick, of course, is finding a way to create that buzz or, if you’re lucky, of harnessing buzz generated elsewhere to your advantage.

Jonathan Goodman’s book, Viralnomics: How to Get People to Want to Talk About You, aims to solve that problem for companies. Goodman is up front about his experience — which doesn’t include much in the way of traditional corporate experience. But that’s what makes his approach so refreshing. His background is in personal training and he brings a certain amount of that discipline into this book.

Viralnomics demands work and effort on the part of people who want to make the program work — a tenant Goodman knows well thanks to his physical fitness background. He also knows how to play the long game and doesn’t promise easy or quick returns on investments. While this goes against the formula for many business books, it’s an approach that makes more sense and is thus more appealing to many.

There’s plenty of actionable tips and tricks packed into Viralnomics and Goodman does a great job of making the information easy to understand and simple to use. There are no eureka moments and he doesn’t get into advanced techniques or the deeper workings of social media. But that doesn’t hurt the overall impact of the book. It’s meant to be accessible for those new to social media networking and marketing.

Overall, Viralnomics does a good job at what it sets out to accomplish. It offers a good general overview and simple, actionable items that people with little or no experience on social media can easily use. For a first time social media marketer, Goodman’s book is definitely worth the buzz.