28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best social media book out there, June 22, 2011
I've read and reviewed a lot of books on Social Media and this is the first one I've given five stars. It's that good.
I'm a marketer, specializing in the digital realm and I've become increasingly annoyed at the self proclaimed Social Media Experts (SME's) out there. Most are full of hot air and sell snake oil. This is not the case with Dave Kerpen.
This book is clearly written with great examples by someone who has a vast knowledge of this area. Even better, he uses examples of his actual work within the book for us all to learn from (most social media books don't). Each chapter also ends with exercises for you to start considering how to implement the concepts into your business.
There are two aspects that separate this book from the rest. 1. Dave comes at it from the point of the user receiving the marketing and 2.Dave can easily be found on all social media sites giving out free advice, using the methods he describes in the book to grow his readership and business along with it. He walks the walk.
While I don't agree with every element of the book, my quibbles are not worth your time. Just understand that this book is worth purchasing.
I will be suggesting it to everyone I work with that suddenly wants to enter the social media space, but isn't sure why.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book from McGraw Hill.
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32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Business Owner's Dream, June 15, 2011
As a business owner, this book is just what I want. it cleared up all the confusion I was feeling about social media. Like 95% of small business owners, I'm so clueless about using social media for my business (I'm great at posting photos of my kids and me hiking) that I would not have even read any book on social media if I didn't know Dave (full disclosure - we're good friends, but no one is making me write this review, and I'm being 100% honest, which is easy in this case, thank goodness. Silence was always an option). I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the same man who machine guns concise tweets and posts all day long can also write long-form so engagingly and informatively. The book is easy to read, complete with useful action items at the end of every chapter, and loaded with real-world examples. From Verizon Fios to United Airlines, practical stories of real-world online successes and failures fill the book. His explanation and definition of how a company needs to be engaged with it's customers is worth the price alone. It's part 21st-century marketing manifesto and part social media owners manual. If Anthony Wiener had read the appendix on using Twitter, he might not be in trouble today.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For anyone trying to understand Facebook and how it can change your marketing efforts, buy and read this book, June 2, 2011
This review is from: Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (& Other Social Networks) (Kindle Edition)
I responded to a request from the author to review this book. And I am really glad I did.
I, like most marketing professionals honest enough to admit it, am constantly trying to better understand how to use new platforms like Facebook, Twitter and other "social" networks in marketing. While I had heard some of what is covered in this book before, there is a lot I had not, and Dave's writing style is easy to digest and learn from as I went through the book.
Highlights for me were the sections on:
"Likes are more important than links" and how a strong Facebook strategy can drive a lot of traffic and attention to your core messages. Ten years ago, it was all about building a web site, optimizing for SEO and driving cross linkages. Dave makes some great arguments about how a holistic approach to Facebook can drive far more reception and attention to your core marketing efforts today. Interesting and thought-provoking.
"The Brilliance of the Facebook News Feed" and the pages on how Edgerank works to drive notice of your messages and how it all works together around likes, time of day, etc, etc. Very clear explanation of how Facebook algorithms work, and what this means to a marketing pro. These few pages are must reads!
And the areas around creating your company's own Facebook presence; what works and what doesn't; etc are all thought-provoking and already causing some discussions inside our own company about our strategy for Facebook and how we should (and should NOT) use this as part of our overall efforts.
Great book. Well written. Must have for anyone trying to navigate Facebook and understand how to better apply it in the marketing mix. I'm sharing three more copies with others on my team.
Gary Lee
CEO, mBLAST
[...]
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