Unique: Telling Your Story in the Age of Brands and Social Media

"Unique" by Phil Cooke aims directly at faith oriented people and organizations and offers simple yet powerful perspectives on branding. By setting up the concept of a brand as simply, "...what people think of when they think of you," he effectively defuses some of anticipated resistance that faith oriented people might have to the notion of branding. Then he helps the reader understand how inadvertently we create a confusing story that makes it difficult for others to understand who we are and what is unique about what we are doing. Perhaps best of all, Cooke stops us many times along the way and asks us to reflect on what we are digesting. "Unique" is in book form but because of these reflection points and the easy to follow steps Cooke offers, it functions more like a manual. It gives you the necessary hooks on which you can hang the information and then shows you exactly what to do with that information."Unique" is a thorough rewrite and update of Cooke's 2007 book, "Branding Faith." He has gotten over his earlier grumpiness about the pervasiveness of smartphones and other electronic devises and has also readily grabbed onto the hows and whys of social media. While "Unique" is not a substitute for the professional assistance that most faith oriented people and organizations need in their branding processes, it thoroughly prepares them so that they can better understand those processes, more fully participate in them and maximize their impact. The result can be that the great story faith oriented folks want others to think about when they think about them is in fact the consistent story that others think about, pray about, give to and share with others.

This is a great overview of branding strategies for Christian ministries from one of the leading voices in that discipline. I am looking forward to using it in a Visual Communications class for upper-level undergraduates I will be teaching this fall. Highly recommended.Note: if you are considering reading Cooke's Branding Faith, you will want to read this instead because it's an updated version of Branding Faith.

I found Dr. Cooke to be enthusiastic, funny, informed and likeable. I had attended a class where Dr. Cooke was the professor and we had his book as required reading. I loved the class and the book is an extension of his class. He is a smart man with lots of proven ideas on branding, digital and social media for ministry of the 21st century. I found his class and book to be refreshing and exciting because he made learning this information seem possible to implement in ministry. I told Dr. Cooke that Jesus had a brand too, Jesus was branded a rebel, blasphemer, worked on the Sabbath, and ate with sinners. That was His brand, not too positive ay? I do not believe pastors should have their brand, because it draws too much attention to them and not to the purpose of the ministry which is Jesus. Branding is really a new buz word for Advertising and Marketing which must be dirty words, so they had to re-name it I guess. All in all, Dr. Cooke is one cool guy, and he knows his stuff and I would hire him in a New York minute if I had enough money to hire him. This book is a must read for all Church Media leadership. We will be implemting some of the ideas in his book for our ministry.Robin, Minister of Evangelism

If you read Phil Cooke's books in the order they were written, you will get even more out of this excellent and entertaining author. I recently read 'One Big Thing' and then launched into this one - kind of a 'figure out what you want to do, then read this next one to make it work for you.' Mr. Cooke has a lot of personal experience to draw on, and fearlessly draws on the mistakes of others to spare you from stepping in it too. Only the names have been changed to protect the predictable. It's hard to write a book that covers the 'social' aspects of vision and business, but 'Unique' grounds itself in thinking that transcends 'Facebook trends' and the size of your PR budget. This book makes you ask 'why am I doing this' and once you get your motives sorted, the methodology becomes easier to understand. I encourage anyone and everyone to read this - though reading 'One Big Thing' first may enhance the experience.

Great book to get you thinking but there is much to be desired in the "So Now What" department. The ares are clearly identified and the void is pointed out without giving the reader any helpful, "here's what you need to do's." Also the even though the words social media are used in the title, it feels like they took an old book, revamped the cover and added half a chapter or so to mention social media without really giving the reader any helpful handle on the next step. I enjoyed it still and I think there is some good info submitted.

I first read this book coming out of college, and now work in the non-profit world. This by far has been the most helpful books I've read on developing a social media brand, and telling your story/communicating in a digital age. Even if you aren't the one making the play calls for your organization (I'm not), the book is hugely helpful on a individual level for thinking through how you want to use your social media platforms for personal or professional purposes.Anyone can hire someone to build a website or learn the mechanics of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc... this book teaches you how to use those strategically in a way that helps connect with the audience/community you want to reach.

"Unique" by Phil Cooke is a clear-eyed story of what it means to communicate your "why" to the culture at large, whether you are an individual, a for-profit, or non-profit organization. Similar to the well-worn story of Vince Lombardi beginning the first practice of each season by holding a football aloft and telling rookies and seasoned veterans alike "Gentlemen, this is a football," "Unique" shows us the basics of understanding not only who we are but how others see us.A compelling and enjoyable read, this book is a must-read and a handbook for everyone who wants to communicate the why of their person or their organization.

I've recently moved into a marketing required role in my organization - it's a branch dependent on donations rather than confirmed funding. This book has awesome insights that will help me in my approach, and has articulated well the reasoning for some of the 'gut decisions' I've already been part of. Thanks for writing it!

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