I just finished reading Clout by Colleen Jones, and I am amazed. In 11 jam-packed chapters, Colleen explains the landscape of web content in our world today, underlines the principles of persuasion and rhetoric that should guide our content decisions, and later gives practical strategies that anyone can apply to their web strategy. But this comprehensive guide to content is not all theory; Colleen provides countless case studies and examples that bring her arguments to life. And, she has a great sense of humor.

While I don´t want to give the entire book away so you can go read it for yourself, I will share some things I learned about creating websites, advertising campaigns, and social media profiles that will influence people and get results.

1. Content is what people want. Colleen shares that in a study of how people read on the web, results showed that people read more deeply on websites that on other content. I was first perplexed by this idea, but then realized that the difference between reading online and reading offline is motivation. Most people go to the internet to find out about something, be it health advice, or what shoes are in style this season. In the light of this information, it is incredibly important that organizations carefully manage and edit their content online!

2. To get people to act, they must be motivated and feel able to make a change. I was most interested in how we can encourage ability online. Colleen explains that instructional videos are key to helping an online customer feel able to use a product, and thus, more motivated to buy it. A great example of this is the Dropbox website video which definitely converted me to the product. While reading this book I was thinking about buying a digital SLR camera, which I had NO idea how to use. I went onto the Canon website to get more information, but I was really discourage to find they had no promo video I could watch to familiarize myself with this new camera.

3. Using web forums. Colleen defines a forum as a place on the web where you can put your content. The most common forum is an organization’s website, but facebook, twitter, youtube, and wikipedia are also common forums. One interesting point that Colleen makes is that instead of worrying about covering all of the forums possible, know which forums your audience is most present on, and focus on those.

4. Identify with your audience through content. Its a bit counter intuitive, but Colleen makes a strong argument for enabling user generated content on your site in order to identify with your audience. If you think about it, people writing on your site probably will have the same needs and desires as other people visiting your website. With their comments and reviews on your site, your users may be able to convince a consumer to act without the organization having to do one thing!

5. The last issue that Colleen addresses that is really important in today´s hyper-communicative online community is how to deal with mistakes. All it takes is one tweet, fb status, or youtube video to change the reputation of a company, and with devastating results. Colleen relates the tale of one airline provider whose stocks plummeted overnight because of a youtube complaint video that went viral. Colleen advises having an action plan before disaster strikes, and following up quickly and directly with your consumers. Transparency and communication are the keys to surviving the storm.

In all, a wonderful book that can be read by all. Colleen Jones is a great mind in Content Science and I know that her ideas communicated in Clout will influence my decisions when confronted with how to influence and persuade through web content.