Had a chance to hear Rohit Bhargava speak last night about his new book Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back at the Barnes and Noble in Clarendon, VA. Ok, so I'm not a photographer :-)

While I haven't read the book yet (so can't formally endorse or review), I do like the premise very much. Namely, that if a company insists on maintaining a 'sanitized' and 'distant' rapport with its customers, it will lose out in the long run. His example of an airline that charges $1000 to fly someone from DC to NYC was poignant.

Sure, that airline will make money..in the short term, but in the long-run, the customer will feel wronged and, there's a good chance, s/he will choose another airline. He called it "empty profits."

Right on.

What I liked even more about his premise is that he didn't just jump on the social media bandwagon. Instead, it's more a play off of the Seth Godin concept of "Be Remarkable." Do something worthwhile to inspire people to talk about you...and part of that is to have a personality.

It's also a guidebook, kind of like Groundswell is for Social Media, in the sense that it goes beyond theory and offers case studies and practical advice.

I'm looking forward to reading it, but right now, I'm working my way through (well, it's not work, b/c it's a GREAT book),Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds [review soon]

And I owe a big thanks to Josef Katz (a great marketing blogger) since I won the contest to get a free copy of Rohit's book on his blog.

(Don't worry, as a transparent, authentic, and credible Web 2.0 blogger--how's that for cliche, I told Rohit straight up! His answer (right on the money): "no problem, the goal is to get the word out there!", which is of course what I am doing now.)