I read this in one night, if that gives you any idea :)

There are some good points in this book; however, it is massively outdated as of 2025.

Though I'm not a fan of this type of book, I will admit I enjoyed this one, probably because Mr. Stratten has a fun, conversational way of writing and is mostly humorous. I didn't start rolling my eyes at his ego and general ridiculousness until page 66 - a huge accomplishment considering I'm usually over the author by the end of the introduction.
I would argue that the topic is not actually "unmarketing". There is no lack of marketing or branding in this book. It's all about creating one's business image through social media - his favorite it Twitter. Oh how he loves the Twitter.
There are no ground-breaking, amazing ideas being shared; there's really nothing new at all. However, there are plenty of good reminders throughout the book and I think a lot of them come down to simple manners. Many of the manners our mothers taught us are applicable in a business setting, such as "When someone talks to you, you should respond" or "Smile and pay attention to people around you".
I think this book is less about not-marketing and more about not heeding the advice given in the past thirty years in books of the same genre. Being cut-throat, having your cheese and your parachute, going from good to great, or anything else in popular business books, could get you ahead in your company, but it's not going to win you a loyal following of customers.
Customer service often boils down to simply paying attention to the customer and this book is full of little reminders on how you can do just that using simple tools from the internet.

I liked:
much of the humor ; the reminders to have good manners ; reading about how social networking can enhance a business

I disliked:
the constant stream of "this happened to me once" stories (they seemed awfully contrived after the forty-seventh one) ; the general arrogance (a MUST for this genre. I guess successful people with small egos probably don't publish) ; the over-use of repetition (I know it helps people memorize stuff, but it's not actually useful to start and end paragraphs with the exact same sentence over and over again).

Ok, I do also have to point out that the viral marketing chapter, the one Mr. Stratten touted as being so incredibly important, seemed to have been written as the book was going to production, never edited and perhaps composed during an inebriated conference call. That one chapter should probably be removed from every copy of every book so that it can be revised to make sense. It was pretty awful.

Loved his snarky comments just as much as the book. Enjoyed the stories and practical advice.

I'd put this as a cross between 37 Signals' books and How to Win Friends and Influence People.

I kind of want to get this in paperback form now to scribble and dog-ear.

When I first heard of this book I was intrigued. I’m always looking for new and fun marketing books to give me ideas for work and life.

The first thing I read in this book was exactly what I was looking for: “Marketing is not a task. Marketing is not a department. Marketing is not a job.”

I came away with pages and pages of great information and I don’t even know where to begin but in essence this book was one of the best marketing books I’ve read in a long time. There are many ideas for your Facebook & Twitter pages, such as the 30 day Twitter challenge, the seven deadly social media sins, and how to create a Tweetathon.

If you are at all interested in marketing, for work or pleasure, run your own business, or are just curious, this book ROCKS!

Picked this up from the library to brush up on my marketing skills and to get some fresh ideas for building an author platform. As one of those oft-despised Millennials (albeit an old one born in '85), I pretty much instinctually knew all of this — but I expected that. I wanted to read it because sometimes you know something so intuitively that you can't explain it to other people, and therefore, you struggle to implement it. That's how I am with social media. It's easy for me, but not effortlessly easy.

Anyway, I picked up 3 key things (or reminded myself of 3 key things?) to look further into while skimming through this book today:
- Twellow Pages - need to see if this still exists
- Twitter Grader - same
- Is the old truism 'People need to see things 7 times in order to buy' really true?

Enquiring minds want to know.

It’s giving: man with a newsletter who writes Twitter threads about how to write newsletters, but there are good nuggets about creative marketing campaigns.

One of my absolute favourite business books ever. Scott Stratten is hilarious in his writing, and this book just says it like it is. So many practical tips and invaluable business lessons he shares through his own experiences as a consultant and just as a regular consumer and participant in social media. Couldn't have loved it more.

Ordered this on Amazon. A recommendation from my boss at Candeo Creative.