Bloody Book Review 7 “Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves” by: Adam L. Penenberg

This book is a fun read at the beginning, but the chapters quickly become repetitive and not much more relevant information is added after you reach about the half way point (maybe even sooner).

I really feel like this book could have been cut in half. Most of the later chapters were very boring and did not bring much insight for the reader. In fact, I felt like these later chapters were just there to make the book seem longer…. and that’s exactly what it felt like.

Furthermore, there is no good ending to this book. No clear “a-ha” moment or clear understanding of what all the information means. What we can expect in the future or what we should really know from all that he said. Though I was glad that the book finally ended (the second half of this was really boring), I was disappointed in that there was no well drawn out conclusion for this read.

On the good side, a good analogy at the beginning of how Viral Markets really began. Adam L. Penenberg compared online viral markets to the early Tupperware market where consumers would have a Tupperware party and invite all their friends. This was the early version of what we know now as a Viral Loop.

Also, Adam L. Penenberg gives good examples and explains clearly why Twitter, Hot or Not, Ning, Ebay, Paypal and other viral websites succeeded. Though again, towards the end, he really runs out of things to say so pretty much just repeats himself over and over again… kinda like what I’m doing right now.

I recommend finding a website that can summarize this book and just get the key points from it. There’s a lot of good stuff to be learned but going through that whole book wasn’t a lot of fun nor was it very useful. Or, you can get this book off some second hand website and just read the first half of it.

2 1/2 stars out of 5 for the book with the long title – “Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves” by: Adam L. Penenberg

I only have three rating scales for my book reviews-

1. Must read
2. OK read but you’ll live without it
3. Don’t bother

Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves by: Adam L. Penenberg is a 2. Half of it is an ok read but you’ll definitely live without it.