Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content

Foreword

The web is all about action verbs. We click. We search. We navigate. We make choices. Alone among other forms of media, we’re the ones who control our experience.

When organizations try to connect with their customers online, one of the first things they always want to know is “how can we get our users to do what we want them to?”

There’s an answer to this question, but it requires a change in mindset. Marketers typically want to build awareness for their products, and they try to replicate this broadcast approach on the web. They create static designs that recall print ads, flashy microsites that replicate TV commercials, and email blasts that resemble nothing so much as a street-corner barker, yelling loudly while he tries to press ...