The Social Media Mind: How social media is changing business, politics and science and helps create a new world order. [Paperback]

David Amerland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2012

Like any medium of communication social media has its own tropes which must be mastered in order to use it properly.

In The Social Media Mind David Amerland illustrates how Social Media is a game changer. It challenges us to rethink our assumptions on almost every sphere where it is applied. Whether communicating through the web with potential clients, increasing the exposure of a business brand or collaborating with colleagues on shared projects, it demands that we rethink the standard responses which have guided us in the past and come up with new ones, for a new age. 

In carefully laid out arguments, backed by evidence and examples he answers questions like: 

• Why do some social media marketing campaigns fail and not others?
• Why is social media so radically different from traditional marketing?
• How are social media success stories created?
• How can social media help save costs in business?
• Why is social media changing so many aspects of our world?
• What does it take to develop a social media mind?

Over the next five years social media is going to change the nature of education, politics, business, science and even the arts. Its imperatives for greater transparency, responsiveness and engagement are behind the trends which are changing our world. 

This book is key to understanding how to prepare, what to do and how.

From the Author

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

As the author I am obviously going to say only good things about my book. Still, it is either a very naïve or very inexperienced author who is going to say great things about a book in the expectation that this is all it takes to sway a potential buyer. I am neither.

 

What I am is passionate about the opportunities the web offers to truly change things. The ability it frequently gives us to do things which before had been the province of the few and the power it offers us to make our voice truly heard. I have been working online ever since there was an online to work on and never before have I been as excited as I am now. We are entering a truly remarkable age. Social media is becoming the layer covering all our activities, insinuating itself in every corner of our online world and from there it is slowly seeping into our offline one. The result is change which is unexpected, opportunities which were unlooked for and developments which are surprising. Depending on how you look at all this it may sound either chaotic or intoxicating. I believe it's both and we are being given an unprecedented opportunity to actually be there right at the start and be responsible for some of the outcomes which will result from all this. That's why I wrote The Social Media Mind. Now, how good it is, really, is up to you to decide. 

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: New Line Publishing (January 13, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844819841
• ISBN-13: 978-1844819843
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.5 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,773,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Amerland helps multi-national clients and start-ups to organize their SEO and Social Media strategies. He is a business journalist, author and international speaker. He blogs about social media and search engine optimization, writes for a number of prominent websites and advises a handful of corporations on their social media crisis management techniques.

His books on SEO and Social Media demystify the complexity of the subjects they cover for readers around the world providing an accessible blueprint to better understand and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the connected economy.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Social Media is a tool to build trust, engage, communicate, listen February 29, 2012

By Shaker Cherukuri

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Social Media Mind: How social media is changing business, politics and science and helps create a new world order by David Amerland.

That says it all. Need I go on?

At first glance, the title "The Social Media Mind" would conjure up an immediate assumption on one's part that it is yet another how to guide about social media.

Then as you read the rest of the title "How social media is changing business, politics and science and helps create a new world order", you would assume that this book is probably more than just a social media how to guide.

You would be correct in your assumption as was I. Be sure to get the digital version. I got it on my kindle. There are lot of very useful hyperlinks that provide a nice backdrop to the ongoing story presented by Mr. Amerland.

The two examples that stood out in my mind were Ford and Domino's. How Ford's CEO, Mr. Allan Mulally practically let Scot Monty orchestrate Fords message via social media. Domino's social strategy is just mind boggling. They just fessed up. We were bad and now we are good. Who does that? Brilliant! It worked. Mr. Amerland explains the details well.

Blackberry maker RIMs saga and its social media blunders are contrasted with examples of things done right by others. RIM was the original cloud player. They should have been the ones with half a trillion market cap right now.

The biggest aha moment for me was the assertion that social media is not just another channel of distribution like the website, e-mail, brochures, physical store etc. It is a tool to build trust, engage, communicate, listen.

The fundamentals of marketing are Segmentation, Positioning and Targeting via the 4Ps - Product, Price, Place and Promotion. So were does social media fit in here?

Mr. Amerland explains that it is about identifying the Signal among all the Noise. Data. Analytics. This is from the sellers/corporations perspective. I liked the analogy of the crowded market in Greece where the vendors with a unique and clear message is heard. The best example in the consumer space today is of'course Apple.

From the consumer's perspective, there are lot examples of how the outreach and communication made possible by social media parlayed into many uprisings of late.

Another huge eye opener for me was how the social aspect of online collaboration is being used in Science. There are several examples presented about breakthroughs achieved using crowd sourcing and social collaboration online.

The book itself meanders a little and I got the feeling that it lost its focus in the middle part of the book. However, it finished strong. Especially chapter 7, 8, 9, 10.

The comparison with Georgian era and how it empowered people and brought about rapid change and progress was brilliant. I can see how social media is going to be the key enabler of rapid change and progress of even greater magnitude.

It is not about the corporations selling to consumers. It is about people being able to collaborate without the corporate umbrella. The ability to collaborate online with great people via Social Media has changed everything.

Fasten your seat belts and get ready for the ride of your life!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A message that engages us February 14, 2012

By Teresa Mustelier

Format:Paperback

David Amerland has taken an anthropological look at social media and gives us, in this expansive book, an understanding of the power of this tool. This is not a "How to Market with Social Media" book though before you begin any marketing effort you should read "The Social Media Mind".

Social media is much more and much less than you think it is and until you read this book you will be navigating in a sea that you probably do not understand. Mr. Amerland explains to us that people who are trying to market there goods on social media and do not know what they are doing are a lot like people who pick up a guitar and strum it. He reports that strumming a guitar is simple and anyone can do it but actually getting music out of the thing requires a much more thorough understanding of the instrument. And so it is with Twitter, Facebook, Google + and the like.

Social media is described here as many things but the most succinct description that I took from the book is that social media, at the end of the day, is a collective narrative. For the narrative to be effective, from a marketing stand point, or to be an effective guitarist with this instrument, you must above all know:

How to tell as story
What story you want to tell
What story your audience wants to hear
Why someone would want to repeat your story

The author sites numerous examples of situations where the narrative worked using social media and many instances where the social media attempts were consummate failures. Best of all, the author uses these examples of success and failure to demonstrate the points that he is trying to get across.

One of the most interesting observations that I found in this book was the comparison of social media to the two other great innovations of our time, email and internet search. The author explains that the sheer number of email and search activities that the average person engages in far outnumbers the social media activity that this same person participates in but that the importance and significance of social media has less to do with levels of participation and more to do with the impact of the context of this participation. The context is powerful because it engage us in a way that the other two do not.

Amerland's writing style is conversational and flows with the ease of a good story teller. He clearly has examined this topic with a more critical and analytical eye than most. We have much to learn from him and I can see myself "Liking" and "Following" just about any conversation that he starts on this topic.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars HIGHLY RECOMMENDED / EXCELLENT INFORMATION April 17, 2012

By V. Madison

Format:Kindle Edition

This is by far the best book on social media that I have read. None of us deny the phenomenon of Facebook, Google and Twitter. This book gets to the heart of what IS social media exactly and what should we do with it? Not only does it explore the impact of social media but also how social media can be used as a tool for small and large businesses. The author is very good at giving examples from his own experience in business as well as statistics from popular companies. I am fascinated by social media and I liked that the book was two-fold. There was a plethora of information for me to glean for my web business but also tons of interesting ideas for me to share down the pub.

Would I recommend it to a friend? YES

Would I read it again? YES--I will dip in and out to suit my business needs.

Would I go to the cinema to see the film version? ABSOLUTELY--Bring on the documentary version of "The Social Network"!