The days of old-school direct marketing techniques – e-mail blasts, direct mail, TV and radio – are over thanks to the rise of Google, blogs and social media.

Hubspot founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah discuss the evolution of marketing and share their online marketing and web analytics expertise in their new book, Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, And Blogs.

In 200-plus pages, Halligan and Shah take you through a Web 2.0 crash course in how to help your company “get found” through budding online channels such as Facebook, Twtter and the blogosphere as well as more established ones such as Google.

The book provides excellent tips and pointers in how to utilize these burgeoning platforms through well-placed keywords and compelling content. With Inbound Marketing, you learn how to:

• Spend your marketing dollars more wisely
• Improve your ranking on Google to get more web traffic
• Utilize social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Hire “digital citizens,” who can help grow your company

Most importantly, the book explains how to convert web visitors to leads and nurture them into eventual customers. The section on lead grading includes important information on how to ensure you are receiving quality leads.

Halligan’s and Shah’s chapter on social media is especially helpful. It teaches you how to properly engage customers through Facebook advertisements, LinkedIn Groups, Twitter Updates and other social media tools.

Perhaps the book’s most insightful comment on social media involves the commitment one must possess to the building of a social media presence. The authors state that, “social media is a long road and a way of doing business; it needs long-term funding, support, and organizational commitment.”

While the information on social media is great, Halligan and Shah shine in their discussion on “Getting Found in Google.” In it, they discuss the power of inbound links and the importance of strong headings and keywords.

Halligan and Shah met as graduate students at MIT in the early 2000s. The experience taught Shah, in particular, how to pull people from Google to other websites. Combined with Halligan’s expertise with venture-backed startup companies, two went on in 2006 to create HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company.

Inbound Marketing provides the lessons Halligan and Shah learned along the way in building HubSpot into one of the premier online marketing companies.

The book includes excellent analogies and diagrams to help wrap your mind around Internet marketing. Inbound Marketing is loaded with tools and resources to make this a book you reference again and again.

We recommend this book to anyone that is looking to get found online. This book is a great investment for your company and your career.

Book Details:

Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Length: 256 Pages

Price: $24.95