Customer Reviews

Social Persuasion: Making Sense of Social Media for Small Business

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Jerry Zyskowski, Normandy Park, WA. Volunteer counselor to small businesses. My extensive background (18+ years with: [...]) helping small business owners gives me a good understanding of their needs, and this book will certainly be beneficial to them in the effective use of social media to propagate their business.

This is an excellent book for small business people to help them connect with potential customers in a more efficient manner via digital social media. This is not a book about sales, but is focused on connecting the parties leading to future sales.

Robbin first takes us through the social media mix, what's out there for us to use. Describing each and how they might be used to help us connect with customers. She then goes on to identify target audience types that have a need for our products/services. Target audiences are better than target individuals; we get the word out to a larger group. Digital social media is one choice among many to do the job, and it needs to be considered as complementary to our more conventional methods. The idea is for our business to get exposure to potential customers using a mix of tools. Initial exposure is a step toward deeper involvement with customers and eventual sales of our products. That's what Social Persuasion is all about.

The book is heavy reading, and I actually put it down for a week or so when half way through in order to adequately digest what I had read.

To help in your understanding, Robbin takes us through the social persuasion process with the case of an Interior Designer. I found this application to be very useful in relating the text material to a real world situation.

As you read the book, new terms will come up. To help you recollect what the terms mean, Robbin has included a very good Glossary in the back of the book. Since the social media technology is constantly changing, her list of Sources may become dated with time. Hopefully, she will augment these with periodic updates on her website: [...].

I consider Robbin's book an excellent addition to the field of social media application, and it should be a valuable aid to small business owners.

There are two things that keep me up at night - one good and one bad. The good is reading a great non-fiction book with a high yield of helpful information and resources, and the bad is wasting precious time that could have been used productively elsewhere.

The `Social Persuasion' Book fell into the `GREAT' category!

New small business entrepreneurs like me have no choice but to leverage everything we can get our hands on - in order to get our businesses going and social media clearly plays a critical role in those efforts. The biggest problem that I have is I am not well versed in the business aspect of social media, nor in the marketing and branding areas as well.

Robbin's book was the perfect fit for me! It is geared towards helping readers understand social media, marketing and branding, but also How To effectively choose the right `recipes for success' for each unique business. I can't imagine all the wasted time and money I would have spent investing into the social media game without first reading this book. I will refer to it often as I continue to grow with my new business.

Whewww!

For an expert Robbin uses language that it easily understood and as a person who is eager to begin my small business this is very much needed. I am in the middle of digging through the mounds of paperwork necessary to begin a small business in Washington state and to finally read something that can be easily understood by me or anyone requiring the use of Social Media, is a welcomed treat! Thanks Robbin!

Social Persuasion is easy to read and trust from a knowledgable and passionate writer in the Northwest. Block's style is straight forward as she guides the reader through the maze of understanding about when and who should be doing what with social media and how. She covers the bases.

Highly recommended!

Social Persuasion is a great resource(book)I had the intention that marketing online was the only way to get the word out. What I learned is that is should be part of your marketing plan/business plan. I currently have an event driven business and have used strategies in this book such creating a marketing calandar for the year. My marketing plan is now community based marketing and using social media as tool to reach and connect with my customers. If your new to business or been in business for many years this book is excellent really opened my eyes about social media.

Regards,

aarong

The time you spend reading the book will be well spent. You will have the tools to plot your strategy for how you engage your small business in this social media frenzy. One can jump in and spend hours and days friending, tweeting and blogging. Or one can read the book, come to an excellent understanding of the business value that can be derived, determine your intended outcomes, create and implement a strategy. Consider the book a consulting engagement and service. And the service received is an excellent value where the $20+ becomes one of your wisest investments for your small business venture. Time is money and what you get from this book allows you to immediately focus on where you need to place your time.

Robbins Block's book Social Persuasion - Making Sense of Social Media for Small Business had filled a real void in my understanding of Social Media. The book is clear, concise and often entertaining.

Prior to purchasing this book the concept of Social Media was only a "term".

With Robbin's insights and her communication style I have been able to determine what part of Social Media is valuable to my travel business

Thank you Robbin for you vision of meeting a REAL need!

Dan Smith - Travel By Dan - "price is what you pay, value is what you get"

Robbin Block's SOCIAL PERSUASION is a veritable jet stream of tips and tools for a small business owner's utilization of the web for purposes of getting known and/or making products visible in the marketplace. It's easily readable, succinctly written, and chocker-Block full (pun intended)of specific web sites to engage. The numerous Try It Now take-away lists offer action items even for the uninitiated entrepreneur. Tidbits of advice found throughout help one avoid road bumps. Unquestionably, SP's a must-use reference for the toolbox of the small business owner operating here in techno-century. For discovering web methods to help me determine potential for a new product idea, SP is a life-saver start point. Oh, yeah, I'd recommend this gem!

I found this book to be well-organized, well-researched, and eminently readable. Robbin Block has obviously been around the block when it comes to Social Media and marketing in general. The book is extremely timely and thorough, covering all the elements of social media, from blogs and microblogs, to social networking sites, to social applications, and everything in between. Ms. Block's conversational style is easy to digest, but there is plenty of meat here - despite focusing on social media, she always has one eye on the bigger marketing picture and strategy, which is, as she points out, should not to be lost sight of. I also appreciated the "Try It Now" sections at the end of each chapter, which provide an opportunity to put the insights into action, taking the book from an academic exercise to a real-world manual for execution. If you're a small business owner, or even just a general reader interested in learning about the ins and outs of social media, particularly as it pertains to marketing, I'd recommend picking up this book.

Robbin Block's new book, Social Persuasion-Making Sense of Social Media for Small Business, is an excellent discussion of social media and its application in new ventures and small businesses. I am encouraging my students, both graduate and undergraduate, to add this book to their reading list for my courses in Entrepreneurial Marketing and New Venture Marketing.

I found the book easy to read, yet comprehensive and thorough in the discussion of social media. I really like how Robbin has made a complex topic, and one little understood by many, interesting and also practical. Entrepreneurs and others can benefit from the discussion of how to effectively use social media. I also like the perspective of the book that social media is just one tactic in an overall marketing strategy, but an increasingly important one.