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There Is No B2B or B2c: It's Human to Human #h2h
As marketers, we've been trained to speak "business to business" (B2B) or "business to consumer" (B2C). But instead of this creating a simple framework for dialogue between humans, it set forth an unnatural language for marketers, using words like "synergy" and "speeds and feeds" to tell the stories of products and services to their buyers and partners. The fact is that businesses do not have emotion. Products do not have emotion. Humans do. Humans want to feel something. And humans make mistakes. In Human to Human #H2H, Bryan explores the many facets of why and how communication today needs to be adjusted to keep up with our ever-evolving and fast moving social and digital world. Through anecdotes from his own experiences as president of a Silicon Valley marketing firm, he both inspires new ways of finding commonality in our humanity, but also practical tools to think like a human marketer again. Specifically, you'll learn: - The Four Rules of Social Context - How Human Sensory Building will make you a better Marketer - The Secrets to Making Ideas Crowd Worthy, with real world examples - How to be "Delightfully Disruptive" - Insights into building a Social Business - What it means to have a "Focker Moment" and why they should be celebrated Embedded are short intimate video conversations with some of today's most forward-thinking humans; Jonathan Becher, CMO at SAP, Charlene Li, author and co-founder of The Altimeter Group, and Kare�Anderson, Emmy Award-winning journalist and founder of the Say It Better Center. If you're looking to bring back the human side of communication, in all its imperfection, empathy, and simplicity, Human to Human #H2H is for you.
68 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 13, 2014
17 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 27, 2025
There was nothing profound in Human to Human: #H2H. There was nothing even new, and that’s the way it should be. Human to Human: #H2H by Bryan Kramer is the hot business book of the summer.
For the few of you who haven’t heard about Human to Human or seen the #H2H tweets, it’s a book dispelling the B2B and B2C sales concepts. After all, we’re all humans.
Those who know me are familiar with my rants on this. I can’t recall if I’ve mention it on here, but I kind of, may have, rudely called people out-of-date when they’ve suggested we need to have B2B or B2C focuses. Now I can just send them the link to this book and be done with it.
For an example, here’s the introduction:
“Communication shouldn’t be complicated. It should just be genuine and simple, with the humility and understanding that we’re all multi-dimensional humans, every one of which has spent time in bot he dark and delightful parts of life.
That’s human to human.”
In a short 68 pages, Bryan explains why. Using recent and public cases, and even one of his own projects that went astray, he describes human behavior and what we need to do as communicators and marketers to appeal to our audiences, regardless of their segment.
Short videos embedded through the ebook have experts explaining their experiences. If you’re like me and don’t like video, you won’t lose anything by skipping them, but you will gain a lot from watching them. I didn’t make many notes through #H2H (it is rather short and reinforced my existing beliefs) but these did stand out:
“we all need to speak more human”
lines between B2C and B2B are blurred (paraphrased)
context and understanding your audience
rules of social context
Yes, once again my notes make no sense on their own.
Who is Human to Human: #H2H for?
Any marketer or communicator that needs a reminder that they’re appealing to humans, irrespective of the purchase context. Oh, and all who need a kick up the butt to get up to speed.
Go, read it now. You’ll regret it otherwise.
Originally published at: http://tapdancingspiders.com/2014/08/...
For the few of you who haven’t heard about Human to Human or seen the #H2H tweets, it’s a book dispelling the B2B and B2C sales concepts. After all, we’re all humans.
Those who know me are familiar with my rants on this. I can’t recall if I’ve mention it on here, but I kind of, may have, rudely called people out-of-date when they’ve suggested we need to have B2B or B2C focuses. Now I can just send them the link to this book and be done with it.
For an example, here’s the introduction:
“Communication shouldn’t be complicated. It should just be genuine and simple, with the humility and understanding that we’re all multi-dimensional humans, every one of which has spent time in bot he dark and delightful parts of life.
That’s human to human.”
In a short 68 pages, Bryan explains why. Using recent and public cases, and even one of his own projects that went astray, he describes human behavior and what we need to do as communicators and marketers to appeal to our audiences, regardless of their segment.
Short videos embedded through the ebook have experts explaining their experiences. If you’re like me and don’t like video, you won’t lose anything by skipping them, but you will gain a lot from watching them. I didn’t make many notes through #H2H (it is rather short and reinforced my existing beliefs) but these did stand out:
“we all need to speak more human”
lines between B2C and B2B are blurred (paraphrased)
context and understanding your audience
rules of social context
Yes, once again my notes make no sense on their own.
Who is Human to Human: #H2H for?
Any marketer or communicator that needs a reminder that they’re appealing to humans, irrespective of the purchase context. Oh, and all who need a kick up the butt to get up to speed.
Go, read it now. You’ll regret it otherwise.
Originally published at: http://tapdancingspiders.com/2014/08/...
March 16, 2015
An Inspiring Beginning
Bryan Kramer hits upon the central question for business in our time: Will marketers allow their work to become distant and automated, or will they use the new tools of digital media to craft a profession of marketing that it finally human? There are some terrific insights in this book, but most of them remain undeveloped. It's up to the rest of us now to take the Human To Human banner forward, and explain what marketing for human beings will really look like.
Bryan Kramer hits upon the central question for business in our time: Will marketers allow their work to become distant and automated, or will they use the new tools of digital media to craft a profession of marketing that it finally human? There are some terrific insights in this book, but most of them remain undeveloped. It's up to the rest of us now to take the Human To Human banner forward, and explain what marketing for human beings will really look like.
June 19, 2014
Good quick work read. Great reminders.
July 14, 2014
Intéressant livre pour remettre à sa juste place les "réseaux sociaux" : des relations humaines !
Le Cluetrain Manifesto avait tout prédit dès 1999 !
Le Cluetrain Manifesto avait tout prédit dès 1999 !
September 4, 2023
Gives you a different perspective on how each person within the company represents the company brand (FedEx driver). How important it is to know your customer is and how important it is to listen to them and to respond even quicker. This is a very good book to cause you to rethink how you approach social media.
July 21, 2024
Un mensaje muy necesario. Unas reflexiones interesantes. Sin embargo, no es un libro. Es más bien una charla ted extendida. Esperaba más… en cualquier caso es bueno
March 3, 2016
I had the pleasure of seeing Bryan Kramer speak at a recent marketing leadership summit I attended, and he gave a fantastic presentation keynote to kick off the event. At the end of the talk he gave out complimentary copies of this book as well as his other book, Shareology - which was a very welcome gesture as I had already decided during his talk that I wanted to read the books he'd written.
This book is a very short little piece on the importance of understanding and remembering that communications, especially now via social media, are always between two or more real people. The whole notion of communicating differently between businesses or consumers or just other people is silly (my words, not his) and to grow the strongest relationships we need to be human in our interactions. This includes focusing on the hierarchy of needs as well as embracing our flaws as humans.
So, although the main text comes in at under 50 pages, it's still a book I recommend all marketers have on their bookshelf. I plan on taking my copy to work and encouraging my team to read it - ideally going back to it regularly to keep the human-ness of communication constantly at the forefront of our minds.
This book is a very short little piece on the importance of understanding and remembering that communications, especially now via social media, are always between two or more real people. The whole notion of communicating differently between businesses or consumers or just other people is silly (my words, not his) and to grow the strongest relationships we need to be human in our interactions. This includes focusing on the hierarchy of needs as well as embracing our flaws as humans.
So, although the main text comes in at under 50 pages, it's still a book I recommend all marketers have on their bookshelf. I plan on taking my copy to work and encouraging my team to read it - ideally going back to it regularly to keep the human-ness of communication constantly at the forefront of our minds.
June 19, 2016
This book speaks directly to marketers, but if you touch anything that considers an end user - you should read this. It's short and packed with things that are just SO TRUE.
As the title implies, it's about being human. A concept that is all too easily forgotten if you work in a corporate environment.
As the title implies, it's about being human. A concept that is all too easily forgotten if you work in a corporate environment.
August 29, 2015
I love this book by Bryan Kramer, not because I know Bryan and the story behind it but because of its message. Storytelling and connection are so important for marketing and simply life. A great inspiration for any business.
May 6, 2014
Quick read; a great reminder to all of us to stop and think about what we're doing, tune out the noise, and just be human. Thanks, Bryan!
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November 23, 2014Content could be good if
September 1, 2015
I love the concept but the book is pretty unstructured and does not give any general insights on how to apply #H2H in any business situation.
November 22, 2020
Was expecting more
It’s interesting how he simplifies it. Not sure at what point I felt like it was simple communication. But I guess that was the main message
It’s interesting how he simplifies it. Not sure at what point I felt like it was simple communication. But I guess that was the main message
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews