Customer Reviews

Facebook Fanatic: Explode Your Popularity, Secure Your Privacy and Buzz Your Band on Facebook

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I'm afraid this book was probably an early brain dump by the authors, back when Facebook was still new. You're probably better off just getting an account on FB and trying it out. The layout of the book is a bit clunky--it's set up like a how to, but seriously, you should easily be able to figure out how to set up an account or how to install apps, how to set up a group, join a group, etc. I just didn't find it all that helpful.

I wanted to learn about Facebook in particular and social networks in general, so I did what usually do - picked up a bunch of books on the subject.

With a cover pitch of "Explode Your Popularity, Buzz Your Band and Secure Your Privacy on Facebook" and a photo of what appears to be a young teen girl on the cover, I didn't think "Facebook Fanatic" had much to offer.

Wrong.

The book is clearly written by someone trying to appeal to teens. Far too much of the book is given to "protecting your privacy". The appeal to teen fantasies of being discovered by record labels and such appear throughout the book. Not really an irritant - more humorous than anything else. "Getting signed with a label is easier said than done. . . . Never fear. Facebook and what it is doing for bands is huge."

However once it gets into the mechanics of using Facebook, the book is loaded with tips and techniques. Some of them are outmoded, of course, because of changes to the Facebook User Interface, but the concepts are still useful.

The chapters on promoting a band, a film, a book or a politician are surprisingly thorough and well done. While I am sure you could find all these tips and tricks online, the editors of "Facebook Fanatic" have done the job for you - and done it pretty well.

Overall, for the person wanting to become familiar with the features Facebook has to offer without expending significant effort, "Facebook Fanatic" is a not only a good place to start, but it may be the only resource you need.

Jerry

I'm old and I read books. But in this case, I prefer online help. As a reader and editor, I'm used to certain conventions of book design and copyediting. This book strays too far from those conventions. In terms of design, no headings (chapter, section, subsections) stand out because they all look the same. Procedural steps that require numbered lists are treated with arrow-shaped bullets. Overuse of horizontal lines are too intrusive and stifle the flow of easy reading. In terms of editing, there are too many mistakes. Too many for this editor. But if you are a master of reading text messages, typos may not bother you.

This may be a self-published book produced by an author who didn't want to spend money on a designer and editor. (Note that there is no author listed for this book. Done by committee, I suppose.) But that's no excuse. Furthermore, some of the privacy information is out of date; this edition was published in 2007.

I couldn't finish this book after getting to the halfway point. I recommend trying a different book or using the online documentation.