The Social Media Marketing Book [Paperback]

Dan Zarrella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2009

Are you looking to take advantage of social media for your business or organization? With easy-to-understand introductions to blogging, forums, opinion and review sites, and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, this book will help you choose the best -- and avoid the worst -- of the social web's unique marketing opportunities.

The Social Media Marketing Book guides you through the maze of communities, platforms, and social media tools so you can decide which ones to use, and how to use them most effectively. With an objective approach and clear, straightforward language, Dan Zarrella, aka "The Social Media & Marketing Scientist," shows you how to plan and implement campaigns intelligently, and then measure results and track return on investment. Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to the social web, this book will take you beyond the jargon to social media marketing mastery.

• Make sense of this complicated environment with the help of screenshots, graphs, and visual explanations
• Understand the history and culture of each social media type, including features, functionality, and protocols
• Get clear-cut explanations of the methods you need to trigger viral marketing successes
• Choose the technologies and marketing tactics most relevant to your campaign goals
• Learn how to set specific goals for your campaigns and evaluate them according to key performance indicators

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Let Zarrella take you to social-media marketing school. You'll learn more from reading this book than a month of research on the Internet."
--Guy Kawasaki, co-founder of Alltop.com

"If I could be any other person for a day, it would be Dan Zarella. Either him or Brad Pitt. But Dan's smarter. This book is why I say that."
--Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs

"This book demonstrates a beginning to the endless possibilities of the Social Web."
-- Brian Solis, publisher of leading marketing blog PR 2.0

"Overall, The Social Media Marketing Book is an extremely valuable resource on understanding and applying social media for both the individuals, and business. The book is a great introduction that can help you to get started. Once done, you can move onto the next level. Hopefully, Zarrella is working on that book now."
--Ben Rothke, Slashdot.org

"If you are new to social marketing and want an easy to understand book to break it all down, then I highly recommend The Social Media Marketing Book."
--T. Michael Testi, Blogcritics.org

"After poring over The Social Media Marketing Book you may not come away with a master marketing strategy, but you'll get a good briefing on tactics."
--Thomas E. Weber, Smart Money

About the Author

Dan Zarrella has written extensively about the science of viral marketing, memetics and social media on his own blog and for a variety of popular industry blogs, including Mashable, CopyBlogger, ReadWriteWeb, Plagiarism Today, ProBlogger, Social Desire, CenterNetworks, Nowsourcing, and SEOScoop.

He has been featured in The Twitter Book, The Financial Times, NYPost, The Boston Globe, Forbes, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, Mashable and TechCrunch. He was recently awarded Shorty and Semmy awards for social media & viral marketing.

Dan has spoken at PubCon, Search Engine Strategies, Convergence '09, 140 The Twitter Conference, WordCamp Mid Atlantic, Social Media Camp, Inbound Marketing Bootcamp, and The Texas Domains and Developers Conference, and he currently works as an inbound marketing manager at HubSpot.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (November 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596806604
• ISBN-13: 978-0596806606
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.5 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Management > Social Media for Business

More About the Author

Dan Zarrella is a social, search, and viral marketing scientist with a background in web development who combines his programming capabilities with a passion for social marketing to create applications like the social URL shortener Votrs.com, Link Attraction Factors keyword tools, as well as TweetPsych, TwitterBrandSponsors, TweetBacks and TweetSuite.

His Link Attraction Factors report helped readers determine which topics, days, times, and keywords attract links in social media stories for semantic content optimization, while his Viral Content report details the motivations, preferences and habits involved in online content sharing.

Dan has written extensively about the science of viral marketing, memetics and social communications on his own blog and for a variety of popular industry blogs, including Mashable, CopyBlogger, ReadWriteWeb, Plagiarism Today, ProBlogger, Social Desire, CenterNetworks, Nowsourcing, and SEOScoop.

He has been featured in The Twitter Book, The Financial Times, NYPost, The Boston Globe, Forbes, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, Mashable and TechCrunch. He was recently awarded Shorty and Semmy awards for social media & viral marketing.

He has spoken at PubCon, Search Engine Strategies, Convergence '09, 140 The Twitter Conference, WordCamp Mid Atlantic, Social Media Camp, Inbound Marketing Bootcamp, and The Texas Domains and Developers Conference, and he currently works as an inbound marketing manager at HubSpot.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor even for a starter June 5, 2010

By YuriBCN

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been moving around social media for some time, though I am by no means a pro, either in marketing or Internet tech.

I appreciate this will be useful for anyone who has not even come into contact with social media networks, but anyone who has dabbled even slightly will find this *extremely* basic. I just cannot understand how anyone can even suggest it might be useful for a pro, never mind recommend it! If you are seriously looking to develop a social media strategy, it means you have a basic appreciation of what it's about, and that's how far this book goes, no further. In any case, don't do serious social media strategy based simply on the know-how in this book!

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, complete, compeling November 30, 2009

By Manny Hernandez HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

I just finished reading Dan Zarrella's book and I am very impressed. If you are new to the world of social media or wondering how to make it fit your marketing strategy, this book is a perfect starting point. Dan lays out all the dimensions of social media in an easy-to-understand way, outlining the do's and don't's for each of them. It doesn't pretend to be a Bible of the topic: for in-depth tactics for each leg of your social media marketing strategy, you will need to pick up other titles. But it gives you a very complete feel for what lies ahead, should you want to market your brand through social media, something that you will soon realize not to be an option but a must.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Highly Informative Introduction to Social Media Marketing January 3, 2010

By David J. Perdue

Format:Paperback

In the increasingly complex world of social media, how do you begin to successfully engage in social media marketing for your business? Dan Zarrella has responded to that question with "The Social Media Marketing Book." It's a quick read. But the small book is packed with useful information for those itching to jump into the social media marketing fray.

The book's organization is quite user-friendly and begins with a brief introduction to social media. The bulk of the book then focuses on presenting a concise history, definition, and description of the various types of social media: blogging, Twitter/microblogging, social networking, media sharing, social news and bookmarking, ratings and reviews, forums, and virtual worlds. I found each section both helpful and interesting, especially appreciating the author's conciseness.

The final two chapters--one on strategy, another on measurement--are some of the most important. As I went through the strategy chapter, I was highlighting different bits of advice and enjoyed his discussion of "call to action" (CTA) in which you, the marketer, try to engage visitors on your website. The measurement chapter stresses the importance of goals and describes several tools you can use to measure return on investment and engagement as a result of your social media marketing efforts.

Overall, I found Zarrella's guide a helpful resource on understanding and applying social media for business. Note that the book is an introductory guide, so don't expect to find profound social media strategies if you're already an experienced social media marketer. Nevertheless, I appreciated the nuggets of wisdom throughout this survey of social media marketing.