Personality Not Included is a new marketing book for entrepreneurs, marketers and all businesses about the importance of personality and a guide on how to use it.
Personality Not Included - The Official Book Website
May 29

Below is the update I sent to the Facebook Official Reader’s Group for PNI. If you have not yet become a member, I suggest you join as that group is where you can get exclusive first access to bonus content, invitations to events, and participate in a conversation about the book:

Hi everyone,

It’s time for another update on Personality Not Included! I hope you have all had a chance to pick up the book, and if you haven’t, there a few good reasons in this update to buy it now. Starting on next Monday, I am launching a BIG promotion for the book which includes a featured discussion on Slate.com, a new campaign with BzzAgent, and front table placement at ALL Barnes & Noble locations across the US for two weeks.

Everyone who buys a copy in the next two weeks (or has already bought a copy) will get a sneak preview copy of a bonus PDF to be released next week (just send me your order number). I’ll send it to those who send me their order details first, then release it to the entire Facebook group 24 hours later, and then publicly launch it on my blog two days later. Here’s the detailed update:

- PNI continues to sell well and has excellent distribution and placement. It is now making it outside the US (people have seen it in Hong Kong and the UK). If you see the book in a store, I would LOVE if you could take a photo and either tag it “pnisighting” on Flickr, or send me the photo and I can do it. I’ll be creating a gallery on Flickr soon.
- If you have the book and liked it, please POST A REVIEW! I created a promotion with a great incentive for you to post a review on Amazon.com. Read more at www.personalitynotincluded.com/backcover
- The Reviews & Buzz section of the website has been completely redone, including new sections for podcasts and video interviews: www.personalitynotincluded.com/reviews
- I am speaking at the IAB event in NY on Social Media next week (6/2), a Networking Event for Entrepreneurs in the DC area on 6/4, and doing a featured keynote presentation at the Speaker’s Dinner the night before BlogPotomac in DC. In the next two months I will be in SF, NY, Detroit, and Chicago.
- I participated in my first international event, speaking at mesh in Toronto last week and met a lot of wonderful Canadians (I’m partial to Canadians since I married one!). The book has had excellent media in Canada, being featured in the National Post and several other publications and should be in most local stores by now.
- I just launched the bonus content promised on the last page of the book, so for those of you made it that far, go to the URL mentioned on that page and you can download your very own printable diploma and be an “M.P.”
- A really exciting piece of bonus content I have been talking about for a long time is finally near completion and will come out next week. I’ll be using the same list of folks who let me know they have purchased the book to release this to, so be sure to let me know when you do get the book.

That’s it. Once again, thanks so much for being a part of this group. As I have said before, my intention with these updates is to share the latest about the book and to have a conversation with all of you about everything happening around the book. I promise not to spam you or send updates any more frequently than once every two weeks … and to continually offer you first access to bonus content and exclusive events.

Look for another update in Mid-June and please email me at rohitaustralia@gmail.com if you have any thoughts or suggestions about the book!

May 27

Paul Dunay, a fellow marketing blogger and creator of the Buzz Marketing For Technology Podcast just published an interview we did together a few weeks ago. His show is one of the best for BtoB technology marketers looking for a great professional interview series - I highly recommend subscribing to get all of Paul’s updates.

Below is the transcript and notes from our show:

May 22

I’ll be speaking on a very interesting panel as part of mesh08 in Toronto today. The event is one of the largest interactive marketing events in Canada and has a wonderful gathering of smart folks, including many that I have not yet met (making this an event that stands out from many others here in the US that attract the same speakers and attendees to every conference). Here’s a description of our panel:

Building a Brand on the Web
As the reach and efficiency of traditional media for marketing purposes continues to decline, companies and marketers alike are questioning how they can build a brand identity without any of the usual tools. What strategies make sense for brands when they move online, and how should they be structured to take advantage of the medium? What are some of the pitfalls of trying to use social media to do so? Join a discussion about these and other issues with Rohit Bhargava, author of the new book “Personality Not Included”, Maggie Fox of The Social Media Group and Michael Garrity of CommunityLend, with Mark Evans, moderator.

Afterwards that evening, social media monitoring firm Radian6 is hosting a get together where I will be giving away several free copies of PNI at The Pogues Irish Pub in downtown Toronto. Here are the details in case you happen to be in Toronto and can join us.

May 21

I had the chance to make it out to the iconic Strand bookstore in NY last week and launched a search for PNI. I found two review copies in the Reviewer section of the store … a place where they sell the review copies that the store gets for 50% off of retail. So PNI was selling there at Strand for about $12 - definitely the cheapest I have seen it for sale so far. There were only two copies left when I was there a few days ago, so if you want to save a few bucks and live in NY you better get there fast!

May 20

The tenth entry on The Personality Project is now live, Andy’s post about why you need to focus on something that makes people talk about you. His book and point of view are worth considering. Check out the post here:

http://www.thepersonalityproject.com/andysernovitz/

May 19

Since I launched my new book PNI, I have been getting emails, Facebook messages, Twitter updates and live feedback at events about what people liked and didn’t like about the book. These comments are a wealth of insight, but no one aside from me is getting the benefit of seeing them. Amazon reviews are the most visible way right now of sharing this type of feedback, but most people will not bother to go to the effort to write a review on Amazon - unless they have the right incentive. That’s what this post is about.

If you have read Personality Not Included and have some thoughts about it, I’m asking you to post your review on Amazon.com (or on an international version of Amazon if you happen to be outside the US). To offer an incentive, I also agreed with my publisher that we will be taking one quote from an Amazon review and featuring it on the outside back cover of the next edition printing of Personality Not Included (McGraw-Hill makes the final call). That means anyone who picks up the book in a bookstore or searches it online will see your name and organization name or URL. So before I start, I want to clarify a few things.

First of all, I am NOT in any way asking you to lie or share opinions about PNI that you don’t personally feel. If you read the book and hated it, go ahead and post your review to that effect on Amazon or anywhere else. I probably won’t use it for the back cover (obviously), but I’m not trying to stop you from doing that. Instead, my goal is to reach the many people who have read the book, but have not posted a review on Amazon because there is no tangible reason or benefit. Hopefully, this idea gives you a reason … visibility. You don’t need to be a blogger or a CMO to participate. My goal is to take a piece of REAL feedback from one of you and feature it on the back cover of the second edition, and encourage some useful book reviews on Amazon.

If you have already posted a review, don’t worry - you’ll be included in this competition. If you haven’t, but had some thoughts after reading the book, please share them on Amazon. And if you think this idea is just a cheap stunt to get more Amazon reviews, post a comment here and let’s talk about it. As an author, asking for reviews is a minefield because you don’t want to manipulate people, but you do want them to review the book so more people hear about it. Successful or not, I’m considering this an experiment in doing that.

Admission: For the more astute, you probably noted an assumption in this post - which is that PNI will actually get a second edition printed. All expectations from the publisher are that we will do one … but it does depend on sales of the first edition, so I don’t want to mislead anyone to thinking its a done deal. The chances are pretty good, though.