The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media [Hardcover]

Paul Chaney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2009

Practical applications for using social media to boost your business

Even today's most successful businesses are seeing shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing dollars. The Digital Handshake explains why advertising and marketing are losing their effectiveness and how to solve the problem using social media to corral elusive consumers. It explains the best practical business applications in current use and how you can use them to ramp up your business.

Using case studies gleaned from real businesses, author Paul Chaney shows you how companies both large and small that can tap social media to mitigate market changes and reap valuable business benefit in the real world.

• Explains how you can use social media to grow your business and connect with consumers
• Author Paul Chaney is a leading authority on blogging and social media
• Covers practical, effective business applications for blogging, social networking, online video, microblogging and much more
• Shows how to design a comprehensive marketing strategy using traditional and new media platforms

Today's technology can either undermine your marketing efforts or enhance them. The Digital Handshake helps you make sure the Internet grows your business for the long run.

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘…provides insight into what a successful social media strategy looks like…gives examples of how various organisations have taken advantage…' (TechCast Network, January 2010)

From the Inside Flap

Traditional marketing tactics aren't bringing in customers like they used to, and even today's most successful businesses are suffering shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing investment. The Digital Handshake explains this phenomenon and reveals seven effective, proven strategies for using new media and online tools to find new customers and keep them.

Marketing is no longer a one-way street, but an engagement in a conversation with customers and potential customers. The Digital Handshake shows you how to introduce yourself to the online world and engage customers via new media tools like blogs, social networks, online video, podcasting, mobile marketing, customer ratings systems, and Twitter.

Using real case studies, social media authority Paul Chaney shows you how to design a comprehensive marketing and advertising campaign that enhances traditional marketing efforts with an entire suite of new media applications. He provides practical Web 2.0 solutions for real-world business problems, including how to counter negative perceptions about your brand or company, reward those who speak well of you online, and generate brand awareness and positive impressions.

Social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn are growing by leaps and bounds, connecting people in profound new ways and changing the way communities and individuals buy. Tomorrow's best companies will be those who can most effectively use social media to connect with consumers, ramp up branding efforts, and grow their online presence.

New technology can either undermine your marketing efforts or enhance them. Don't be left behind. The Digital Handshake is a tactical and practical guide for non-technical business leaders who want to leverage the new media tools like social networks to positively affect their bottom line.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470499273
• ISBN-13: 978-0470499276
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,066 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Chaney is Internet marketing director for Bizzuka, a Web design, content management and Internet marketing company based in Lafayette, LA.

Prior to joining Bizzuka Paul was co-founder of Blogging Systems, a blog software company that significantly impacted the real estate industry by encouraging Realtors to adopt blogging as a marketing strategy. He is the co-author of Realty Blogging: Build your Brand and Outsmart Your Competition, which similarly impacted the industry and which was the first blogging book to target a specific industry vertical.

Paul serves as president of the International Blogging and New Media Association (IBNMA), an organization dedicated to advancing the growth of blogging, podcasting and social media as an industry. He sits on the board of advisors for the Women's Wisdom Network, the Social Media Marketing Institute, and SmartBrief on Social Media.

He is a feature writer for Practical Ecommerce magazine on the use of social media for marketing purposes and blogs for MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog. Paul has led numerous blog and social media workshops and seminars, including the first ever such seminar to be held in Asia. He has also blogged professionally with Weblogs, Inc., as well as with Allbusiness.com.

Paul has served as Technical Editor on a number of For Dummies series books related to blogs and Internet marketing, and was contributing writer on Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies, published by Wiley.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Relevant to Small Business, September 8, 2009

By 

Caroline Barry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed reading "The Digital Handshake" and learned quite a bit about how to use Social Media to grow my business. I've read other books about Social Media before but they were geared toward corporations and very large businesses.

I found there to be much more information that was relevant to my small business. This book not only gave me specific ideas about how to use social media for marketing my small business, but also taught me more about the nuts and bolts of each medium so that I can better understand how to create content.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical and Tactical: The Digital Handshake is good read for most, September 30, 2009

By 

Simon Lee "@simonslee" (Little Rock, AR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media (Hardcover)

Paul Chaney, president of the International Blogging and New Media Association, has done a fine job with The Digital Handshake, Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media.

While I find his book to be much more practical and tactical than strategic, anyone who is relatively new to SM and the tools required will find The Digital Handshake and extremely approachable read, with wonderful references, case studies and guidance. For those with a little more experience, the book is full of reminders, tips and tricks that you will find helpful.

One of the things I liked most about Paul's book is the way he pulls from the theoretical, such as the concepts in The Cluetrain Manifesto, and brings them to life, with real-world how-to. I would still suggest everyone read Cluetrain, but for business owners and marketing executives who are the run, The Digital Handshake becomes a solid "Cliff's Notes" with the added benefit of telling you how to use the theories now.

His summary of the five consumer trends that are shaping the marketing world we live in now is spot on, as is his well-researched and survey-filled section on media and audience fragmentation.

His seven "strategies" with detailed practical application for each include:
Business blogging
Social networks
Online communities
Microblogging
Online video
Podcasting
Social media new releases

Being from South Louisiana, Paul even tosses in a lagniappe for his readers with a catch-all "Other Social Media Marketing Tools" with practical applications to keep you acting now and thinking ahead.

His plans of action for each strategy are invaluable, if for nothing else than to see how others in your business are using the tools available. That's priceless.

The Digital Handshake is available at most big-box bookstores, including Barnes & Noble, and at Amazon. And, yes, you can also get it as a digital book for your Kindle!

Enjoy it, and if you have any of your own thoughts on the book or suggestions of another, please let me know! You can also follow discussions about the book at Twitter, using the following hashtag #digishake.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Go To Social Media Book for Small Businesses, September 12, 2009

By 

Gregg Morris (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media (Hardcover)

I have read most, if not all, Social Media books on the market today. I play in that space so to speak so I feel that it's in my best interest to read as much as possible. I came across Paul quite by accident and started following his blog and consequently his writing and thoughts on new media marketing. I was instantly drawn to his knowledge, gained first hand, and his no nonsense approach. When I learned that this book was about to be published, I got excited. If it was anything like his blog posts, people were going to be in for a real treat. Well, it turned out to be even better than that. Paul has a real gift for writing in a very conversational tone. Instead of talking down to us as an expert about topics, "Consumers are increasingly skeptical...", Paul is one of us, "We consumers are increasingly skeptical..." That's a real gift and he continues it throughout the book. If you are new to Social Media strategy and tactics, Paul will guide you through the maze of tools and techniques and if you are a practitioner, you can learn a thing or two from his writing style that will help you when talking with your clients. There's an almost overwhelming number of books beginning to appear in the Social Media Marketing space. This is one that definitely deserves a spot on your bookshelves. After you have thoroughly dogeared it from reading of course.