Innovation is spelled "R-e-n-e-g-a-d-e": A Book Review of Amy Jo Martin's "Renegades Write the Rules"

My favorite college professor, Dave Kukurza, once gave me a pearl of wisdom I will never forget:

"If you want to do something, go out there and make it happen. No excuses. Make the executive decision and go for it. Because if you don’t, either somebody else will or it will never happen."

This piece of advice stuck with me while reading Amy JoMartin’s new book, Renegades Write the Rules  out today. Amy Jo Martin founded Digital Royalty, a social media agency in 2009 to help companies, celebrities, professional sports leagues, teams and athletes build, measure and monetize their digital universe. Named one of Forbes’ Best-Branded Women on Twitter with over 1.2 million followers in 2010 (@amyjomartin), her clients include Shaquille O'Neal, DoubleTree by Hilton, FOX Sports, UFC, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

This book is a how-to roadmap on the ever-changing frontier to where Amy Jo Martin has been, what she’s learned, and how to utilize social media in a world where the idea of collaboration has exploded beyond traditional marketing. There’s no reason to be alarmed if you don’t “get” social media. Martin notes the presence of skeptics upfront and makes it her mission to win them over as well. Yes, the bottom line question all skeptics have of how to monetize social media is answered, but through new measures such as “return on influence” (ROI), a measure that combines traditional cold metrics (total number of fans/followers, impressions, reach, etc.) and warm metrics (engagement, affinity and sentiment). She provides a great example:

           

Data showing that twenty of one hundred customers communicated the same problem with their shoes is far more conclusive (not to mention useful) than data that merely show twenty of one hundred customers returned their shoes. Would you rather know how to fix a product flaw and save future sales? or know only the number of returns per one hundred sales and try to figure a way to bring the number down?

 This book not only provides best practices for successfully gaining influence using social media, but case studies of how Amy Jo Martin and other successful entrepreneurs experienced  social media success through innovation. Martin clearly remedies different “innovation allergies” you might have with eight vital Renegade rules to follow and relevant success stories.

One of my main takeaways from the book is that listening is the heart of any successful social media strategy. Loyal relationships with your audience regarding you brand are rooted in the human qualities that you express. It’s a two-way street: you and your brand provide your target audience with the rewards of innovation and they provide you with honest, constant feedback.In a way, the conversational tone of Martin’s book serves as a working example of what she preaches: innovation through collaboration and social media. For example, she provides a couple of “what-if” examples to think about how not utilizing social media to define and humanize your brand is a crucial mistake.The example that was most relevant to me, being a resident of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland area, was LeBron James’ handling of “The Decision,” his televised announcement of leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat. Of course, his decision to leave was understandably up to him, but Martin points out that the intent behind the message was what caused his brand to take a hit. She invites the reader to consider a constructive question along with her: what if he involved and engaged his fans throughout his decision process instead of keeping everyone in the dark? Having been two years since it occurred, I set down the book and took a couple minutes to consider the answer myself. In my opinion, that was the worst part: he left his fans and audience in the dark. We knew nothing and that clearly attributed to the negative reaction it created. He provided no access to his thought process, and it ultimately hurt his brand valuation once the decision was made. Martin provides her take:

LeBron’s message boomeranged back at him. The conversation between him and his audience was nonexistent. His communication was a self-promotional monologue. People were left to critique him since their closest connection to LeBron was hearing him talk about himself.

By presenting these “what-if” examples, Martin works to unleash the reader’s inner “Renegade” and consider lessons from the past to continue rewriting the rules and brainstorming how innovation through social media could have helped a brand. She wants her relationship with her readers as a brand to be humanized and a two-way connection.

This book confirmed something for me: I’ve always been living the “renegade” way of life, whether I knew it or not. And there’s a good chance you are as well if you’re an entrepreneur or have done anything entrepreneurial. I used the lessons from Amy Jo Martin’s book to reflect on my own case study using social media: I successfully created and ran a grassroots Facebook campaign that has been credited with getting Peyton Hillis on the cover of the EA Sports Madden NFL 2012 video game using their inaugural Madden Cover Vote campaign. If you’d like to watch the story of my campaign filmed by the Cleveland Browns, you can check it out and learn more on how it was accomplished here. My drive came from noticing the opportunity presented to utilize the passion of fellow fans for our city and sports team: this was our opportunity to “go out and make it happen” and achieve something nobody thought was possible, and I wanted to rally the troops. Many offered congratulations at the campaign’s end, including Senior Director of Athlete Relations at EA Sports, Sandy Sandoval:

@teverette11thank you for YOUR support.We don't make it without people like you my friend.
— Sandy Sandoval (@sandysandovalEA) April 27, 2011

The calculated risk EA Sports took with creating this voting campaign and opening it up to the fans of their Madden video game franchise is a prime Renegade example. The end users of their product had a valued say. It wasn’t the number of “likes” compared to other Facebook fan pages of other players in the contest (Michael Vick, the other finalist, was personally campaigning using his personal fan page of over 1 million fans), it was the domino effect of members of the fan base for the Cleveland Browns/Peyton Hillis to do whatever it took to spread the word. For example, one kid told me that he motivated his entire eighth grade class went to use every computer in the school library to vote daily. Now that’s dedication! People resonated with Peyton’s hard-nosed, blue-collar work ethic and passion for football. It’s those human qualities behind his previously-not-well-known brand that aided the cause in getting him on the cover of one of the most popular sports game franchises. Not only was he featured on the cover as a Cleveland Brown, our city’s skyline was featured as well.

After taking the time to read this review, I hope everyone goes and reads this book. Whether you’re in a marketing/branding career, an entrepreneur, or just someone looking to better establish your own personal or professional (or both) brand in life, this book is for you. It brings me back to the wisdom I received from my college professor at the beginning of this review. If you won’t involve your audience and keep them constantly engaged, your competitors will. Everybody has the opportunity to join the new world adventure that the social media frontier has created, and Amy Jo Martin wants YOU to continue innovating and rewriting the rules.

If you do read the book and want to discuss (currently coming up with a giveaway for an autographed copy for you to enjoy) or want to just simply connect with a fellow social media advocate on Twitter, I invite you to follow me at @teverette11. I am a proud member of #TeamRenegades (join in the conversation!) and would love if you joined me. Color outside the lines with me and let’s continue to go out and “make it happen.”