What am I reading? Fast, Cheap and Viral: Book review



In case you are a marketer, you know the drill. Understand the target audience, jump through hoops, produce content [that’s the easy part] and then sit back, in anticipation.
When is it going to go “viral”?
Why are the views so less?
Addressing questions such as these and explaining the dynamics of video marketing to folks who don’t work in this area and trying to make them understand the mechanics is sometimes more challenging than the actual video marketing itself. This is why I feel this book needs to be read by a wider audience, to make them more appreciative of what truly goes behind the scenes of “viral" content.

Authored by Aashish Chopra [whom I have been following for quite some time on LinkedIn], the book is a veritable storehouse of practical tips.
What I really liked about the book was its refreshing take on marketing: plain talk, no fancy jargon and easily comprehensible techniques. I found myself nodding my head in response to some key challenges faced by marketers, articulated at key points in the book.
The book is divided into 3 sections, namely Part I: The Big Picture, and Part II: Method to the Madness and Part III: Kick Start your Engine
The first section details opportunities and challenges for marketing. The second section captures topics like Make it share-worthy, How to pick share-worthy topics, Move fast and engage, Story-telling beats production value, Make for mobile, Think conversations before campaigns, Distribution is everything, Don’t make an ad, Experimenting and return on investments. The third section covers topics like What about B2B?, Personal Branding: Kill Job Insecurity.
What I liked about this book?
The book is well-organized, replete with practical examples (the best part), and is useful for marketers across all stages of their careers - early stage, specialists or generalists. I felt the best sections of the book were “How to pick share-worthy topics” and “Story telling beats production value”.
How can this book help you?
In this era of the twin whammies of decreasing attention spans and increasing content overload, standing out with stellar content seems like an obvious strategy, but isn't. Many of us struggle with content marketing strategies, and subsequent distribution challenges. Multiple factors decide the success of any campaign nowadays and this book helps put some structure to the overall chaotic world of content marketing. 
SummaryRefreshingly honest and sans any BS, this book’s greatest utility is in its practical value - gift it or hand it over to anyone, and you’d be sure that you have gifted something of value - that will enable the reader to learn and pick up implementable techniques.

About the Author



Aashish Chopra is an award-winning viral video marketer, having made and marketed videos with millions of shares and gazillion views. His videos have hit 350 million views, with one becoming Asia's most-shared branded Facebook post and another hitting 40 million views in a week. He is a sought-after speaker on viral video marketing and was featured in Forbes. He heads content marketing at Ixigo.

You might want to read more reviews of books like:
Contagious by Jonah Berger
Crushing It by Gary Vaynerchuk
Trust me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday



Till next time, keep reading!

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