I just finished reading Meatball Sundae, Seth Godin’s latest book. It is mainly an account of what happens when old school companies try to use social media to sell commodity products.

Commodity products (the meatballs) and social media (the frosting and the cherry) don’t mix very well and the result is a mess (a meatball sundae).

The book, however, goes deeper than that. It talks at length about the new rules of marketing and the fourteen trends that are shaping the way products and ideas are communicated and sold:

• Direct communication and commerce between producers and consumers
• Amplification of the voice of the consumer and independent authorities
• The need for an authentic story as the number of sources increases
• Extremely short attention spans due to clutter
• The Long Tail
• Outsourcing
• Google and the dicing of everything
• Infinite channels of communication
• Direct communication and commerce between consumers and consumers
• The shifts in scarcity and abundance
• The triumph of big ideas
• The shift from “how many” to “who”
• The wealthy are like us
• New gatekeepers, no gatekeepers

Some of these trends deserve a more comprehensive treatment, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they end up as main topics of future books by Seth.

In Meatball Sundae, the author draws heavily from three of his previous books: Permission Marketing, Purple Cow and All Marketers are Liars, and successfully explains how the concepts covered in those books are now more relevant than ever thanks to the multiplying effect of new media like blogs and social networks.

For example he describes how, due to information overload and the possibility of getting almost anything at the click of a mouse, scarcity is shifting from product to attention. He then emphasizes that the best way to adapt to this new reality is to build a “permission asset” (basically the privilege to deliver anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them).

Another clear point made in the book is that social media have the power to amplify word of mouth like never before, and that a product or idea is only going to spread in social networks is if it is truly remarkable (a Purple Cow). Press releases of boring products will never show up in Digg…

Seth also cites a couple of well known examples: George Allen’s infamous “macaca” incident, and the case of the sleeping Comcast repairman, to emphasize the importance of telling authentic stories. Whether you like it or not, blogs and Youtube will keep you honest, since anything you say or do has the potential to be seen, heard or read by millions of people almost instantly.

Meatball Sundae is an engaging read, full of case studies and examples that give support to the author’s main points. There is also a helpful executive summary, and each chapter is preceded by a takeaway box containing its main highlights.

Early in the book, Godin confesses that his short books usually outsell his longer ones, and that he made Meatball Sundae long on purpose. Why? Because he wants us to understand that just dabbling in New Marketing is not going to cut it, and that companies and products must now be built from scratch to adapt to the New Marketing and not the other way around. But, most importantly, he wants us to act on it.

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