Customer Reviews

Facebook Marketing For Dummies

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I normally adore Dummies books. I have several of them on my shelves. Facebook Marketing for Dummies is the first in the Dummies series that I did NOT like enthusiastically. I really feel this book is not up to the Dummies standard of helpfulness.

First, this book is supposed to be about MARKETING - but over half the book is about the very basics of Facebook. There are plenty of other books out there on how to use Facebook - including one by the Dummies group! It seems silly for this book on marketing to rehash the existing information and spend so much time on things covered elsewhere. It means that only a small portion of what remains is actually helpful information on Marketing.

They cover a few basics about the areas of Facebook to use for marketing - how a fan page is better than a regular "personal" account because a person can only have 5,000 friends while a fan page is completely unlimited. Fan pages are also "anonymous" - while a group makes it clear which person is the administrator, with a fan page the administrator is private. So you can run a fan page for your company or project without worrying about people tracking down and bugging your personal account.

But in terms of actual MARKETING information, the pickings are very slim. They tell you to post relevant info onto your account. Was anyone really going to post a lot of IRrelevant information? They say to post enough to keep people interested, but not so much that you bombard your users with too many messages. But they don't provide any examples or information to help newbies get a feel for which numbers fall into which ranges! They tell you not to use a "hard sell" and turn off people - but again, no examples, no further information.

In terms of drawing in visitors, they focus primarily on paying Facebook to use their ad system, and that's about it. They mention putting a Facebook tag in your email and on your site, and again, that's it. That's all you are learning about marketing your Facebook fan page?

There's an entire section on pushing contests - about how you can do them with random winners, or with the judging of submissions, and how this is great for traffic building. But NOWHERE in that entire section do they even mention legalities of doing all of this! How about the legalities of taking personal information from winners who are under the age of 13? How about the legalities of having a winner who hails from South Africa or other countries which have strict rules about entering online contests? Some countries have quite serious penalties for companies who offer contests and sweepstakes to "their residents" without doing legal paperwork first! It was completely shocking to me that a book in the Dummies series would offer seriously flawed legal advice like this.

In their "why do marketing on Facebook" section, one of their top ten reasons is "to run promotions for fans". This doesn't make sense to me. This is one of the things you use Facebook FOR but it's not a reason TO have a Facebook account. Reasons are things like "to get a higher ranking in Google" or "to get free word-of-mouth mentions by people in Facebook's network". It's as if they ran out of real reasons and they had to stick something in there to fill out the top 10 list.

When they finally hit issues which ARE important in Facebook marketing - like dealing with irate fans posting on your public business area, there is hardly a few lines dedicated to the topic. If anything, this is the sort of thing that the book should be covering in great detail.

And how about their commandment of "don't drink and Facebook"?? I run a wine site! My wine site page is ALL about drinking wine, and that is what all the members do. Many of them come online when they're drinking wine and we discuss what we're drinking. If what the book was trying to say is "don't post when you're drunk" then that is a COMPLETELY different issue and one they should have been more clear about.

I just can't state how disappointed I was with this book. Looking at other reviews on Amazon, it seems like half of them were primarily swayed by a "$50 Facebook ad credit" they got - but I don't see that credit ANYWHERE in my book. I even went back and re-read the entire Marketing chapter to see if I missed it somewhere. I still can't find a free credit. If it's in here somewhere, they didn't make it very obvious.

Not recommended. You could get far more out of their regular Marketing book, and simply apply that great knowledge to the Facebook world.

UPDATE: I talked directly with the "Dummies" publishers. The book currently DOES NOT HAVE ANY GIFT AD CREDIT. So if you are buying the book based on those "ad credit" promotions on Amazon, you will NOT GET IT.

This book is short on plot, long on value. Immediately got paid back 3x the cost of the book via the included $50 Facebook Ads credit. This excellent primer is suitable for a range of readers from the FB-curious newbie to the seasoned marketeer seeking to leverage every facet of the Facebook service.

Unlike other books on this topic, these authors go beyond the platform capabilities for marketing via Facebook, and do a particularly good job of providing much-needed social context about Facebook norms, and do so with good humor. By providing simple guidelines, and "Do's and Dont's", this book can save marketers from themselves and unintended backlash from their communities of interest.

The Dummies format makes finding useful bits easy - the TOC and indices are quite good. Like all books about online applications, certain page views are rapidly obsoleted, though in this case, the same social media marketing principals will apply, even as the Facebook platform evolves.

Overall, a very helpful volume that I will reference ongoing, and will keep paying returns well beyond the $50 credit. Suggest the next edition include an electronic format (Kindle or included disc) to make it easier to access links referenced in the print version.

i agree with one of the other reviewerss who found the book covered too much of the basics & not enough about marketing. most of what i found in the book i can access simpley on fb in the help center. it was frustrating to have the second half the book, which has deeper, more informative content, still miss the mark & leave me as the reader feeling like i need more info. i don't if it's just my book but i'm missing pages 225 & 226. details & legal considerations in addition to how applications can be executed to be effective fall short of being helpful. sorry i made this purchase

I bought this book about two weeks ago, thinking that it could help my business. I read it, it seemed very logical and made a lot of sense, so I decided to use the free $50 credit which came with the book. It is amazing what happened with the information the book had to offer. I followed the steps to make a page for my company and bought some advertising space with the free credit. The next day when I woke up I went to check on the results and I was stunned, my website had 150 more page views than it normally gets in a day and I had 4 more sales than I normally get per day; and the credit had not even been completely used up! With the simple tips in this book, my website not gets twice as much traffic as it did before I followed its steps. I highly recommend to anyone who ever wants to help themselves and their business.

The name is a bit of a misnomer. In the 4P marketing mix equation all marketers are taught (promotion, price, place and product) the book is heavy on promotion, light on place, and offers nothing on product or price. It's better called "Facebook Promotion".

It is a good overview of Facebook and its promotion potential. It progresses through the basics to the special features of Facebook that will make it a wonderful and inexpensive tool for marketing purposes.

I would have liked to have seen more examples of use in marketing and better illustrations with larger print and color. Facebook is not a very intuitive environment to work with and the effects of making changes are not always clear until one encounters problems. The book mentions there are "over 52,000 apps" developed for Facebook but I only see 2000 on the site. Just where are the other 50,000 located?

There is nothing about setting-up SEO to optimize Facebook marketing. As a matter of principle, your Facebook Page should be carefully crafted, before going live, to appeal to Google . The "Facebook Marketing Bible" does address this, and does so quite well.

Some info is out-of-date. For instance, it should be made clear that a Facebook Place is a _type_ of Page (to set it up, select "local business", not "company"). This has a domino effect on other marketing maneuvers one may be able to use(e.g; geolocation and Deals app) so you must know about this before hand. (I have not been able to make the geolocation function work on my Blackberry, even though I know the GPS is working).

The book discusses Facebook Insights (the answer Facebook has to its competition, Google Analytics) and does a good job of explaining how to use if to monitor marketing campaign performance. It's role in online market research is unclear.

I am unsure of how this book is different from "Facebook Advertising for Dummies". Part III of this book is called "Engaging in Facebook Advertising".

"Facebook for Dummies" (2008) talks about "syndicated ads" and "social ads" but this book (2011) does not. I assume Facebook changed things and it's all one paid ad now.

P.164 "Targeting your Audience" touches on the topic of demographics and psychographics. To me this is the great marketing strength of Facebook over Google Ads; the ability to segment target markets.

Yet the book could discuss this more. The potential for low-cost market research with Facebook is huge but this is never touched on. Ads can be used to direct select target segments to a Page (or a Website) then to a survey website(I use professional sites like Surveygizmo, which even has a template that looks like a Facebook webpage) to do fundamental research. This allows the market researcher to determine product and price.

I do not use the "Facebook Polls", a popular app, as it behaves too much like a game. The book could have discussed Polls in the context of online market research.

Overall, the book does orient one quite well and if you have a good understanding of marketing, Facebook in general, and SEO, it may be all you really need. Because Facebook changes things constantly it will out-of-date soon.

I love dummies! The dummies series offers lots of practical advice, and Facebook Advertising for dummies is no exception. As someone who teaches Social Media and SEO (just Google Jason McDonald or click on my profile), I am always reading up on the latest and greatest. Facebook is currently the "in" medium, and advertising on Facebook is a bit of a mystery.

Dunay, Krueger, and Elad lead us through the maze of Facebook advertising from start to finish. I especially liked that they discussed "non traditional" ways to promote via Facebook and had some case studies of successful ads on Facebook. Paging a party of one - an ad targeting just one person - was a hilarious and clever example, as was the "Can You Solve the Riddle" strategy. It's not just about the mechanics of putting an ad on Facebook - it's what you want to say, who you want to say it to, and how to structure the message so it "stands out" amongst the crowd.

My only beef - I have advertised on Facebook and found the click thru rate terrible vs. Google ads, plus the conversions to actual registrations also rather weak. People are on Facebook to have fun, and if your product or service doesn't fit with that mindset, it may not be the best medium. But that's Facebook's "fault" not the authors; it can clearly be a great medium for some advertisers, you just have to figure out if that's you!

This review is long over due! I had the first version of this book and received the second shortly after it came out. It sits with in an arms reach of my computer at all times. It is a great tool for Facebook marketers and I refer anyone using Facebook as a marketing tool to get this book for their collection. Not to mention you should start following the Paul Dunnay on LinkenIn to get his daily words of wisdom! Mr. Dunnay is a great resource for anyone who is in the online marketing world with great ideas and always supplying the latest trends and topics. I would recommend this book for anyone who would like to better their business through Facebook.

I am a big fan of Dummies books--and this one did exactly what I had hoped. They assume a basic knowledge of Facebook and build from there. I was able to build a Fan Page, conduct promotions, understand traffic (advertising) reports, increase visits, convert visitors to customers and the basic necessities for creating a business presence on FB. If you are looking for a hardcore Marketing book, this isn't it. If you are looking to build a platform and understand the logistics and how to-s of that--this is the book for you. I LOVE this resource and recommend it to anyone is making a virgin voyage into the world of creating a FB Business image.
Cheers!

Facebook is notorious for making radical changes. Beware: This book is already out of date. Even the names of the buttons have changed. Tabs instruction is no longer available. This will just end up being more frustration than help.

Facebook Marketing for Dummies is the most useful resource I own as an independent music producer! If you are developing a new media plan for a band, which is as important as the music these days, you need a broad perspective as well as specific tactics to support the strategies you develop. There are so many opportunities that you might not think of. I often just crack it open to a random page and get ideas about what I can do to better to maximize, based on the specific the data I am gaining. Great book!