Customer Reviews

The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've been reading social media marketing books for about a year, and most of them over-promise and under-deliver. This one is different. For the first time, I feel like I "get" it.

It's filled with no-nonsense, practical tips that actually work instead of pie-in-the-sky talk about what social media "can" do.

I started reading the ebook on an airplane, and wasn't quite done when the plane landed -- so I made my husband drive, so I could finish it. If you'd ever ridden with my husband, you'd know that meant I just didn't want to stop reading.

If you want a step-by-step guide to what to do -- and what to avoid -- this is the book for you. I've been a marketer for a long time, so I have some habits to unlearn according to this author. She explained why in a way I can understand, so I might actually follow her advice.

When I sat down to enjoy Shama Kabani's new book, the Zen of Social Media Marketing, I was expecting to absorb a couple chapters a night during my quest to take my online marketing prowess to the next level.

I read the entire thing in one evening.

Not since Claude Hopkins' 1923 classic Scientific Advertising has a marketing book held my attention so intently. Shama, a lively and personable genius in her own right, didn't see any need to fluff her book up with generalities and useless anecdotes. Rather, every word, every case study, every personal story is crafted to bring the reader into a deeper understanding of how to lay an effective social media marketing foundation.

I like authors who respect my time and give me exactly what I need. Shama does both.

It's no surprise that digital marketing guru Chris Brogan chose to write the book's foreword. Brogan's philosophy of putting people over platforms aligns perfectly with Shama's style of nurturing very real, human relationships through online mediums. She sees the internet as an extension of (not a replacement for!) community and draws on common real world interactions like coffee houses and office-networking events to illustrate her point.

Chapter one is all about the philosophy of online marketing. "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time" is what my mother always says. Shama writes: "online marketing is the art and science of...leveraging the internet to get your message across so that you can move people to action." The message is clear: you don't do social media marketing because your competitors do; you do it because it has the ability to "convert strangers into consumers and consumers into customers."

"Strategy should always come before tactics."

Shama evidently prefers her readers to know where they are going and why they are on the journey before she expends any energy on telling them how to operate the car.

The rest of the book is packed with tactics on how to relate to your audience using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and web video. I pride myself on being a decent online marketer, and even I found myself taking notes on when to engage people through Facebook Groups and when to encourage the following of a Facebook Page. Should I care how many Twitter followers I have? Shama says I should, but not in the ego-stroking way I may be inclined to.

The only disappointment I faced was that my tech-savvy, Star Trek watching side wasn't fed. Not because the material wasn't solid, but because...

Shama speaks the language of small business.

You may not be a marketer; you may sew quilts or manufacture plantation shutters. Shama understands, and she writes with you in mind. Easy to remember acronyms and formulas, like Visability + Credibility = Success, and succinct, numbered checklists will help you implement her recommendations immediately.

I should quit talking before I begin to ramble. The bottom line is: social media marketing is something you, a small business owner, can participate in quite successfully. Shama Kabani's book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, will show you how.

This is my tenth time reviewing this book! The author has an in with Amazon to take down her bad reviews. This book, in my opinion, has been review stuffed! I find it hard to believe that 44 people decided to write their first book review, and just by LUCK it's the same Book!!! and all 44 people gave it 5 stars!!! WOW! - Note to the author: If you write a good book, you don't have to write (or ask someone to write) unethical reviews!!! Grow up Kid!!!

The subtitle of the book is ...Build Credibility...LOL!

Many sections of the book were not even written by the author, and these so called experts give bad advise! limit the number of people that follow you on twitter, don't use Youtube, and don't worry about SEO! Yea, Great!!!!

I have read over 67 books on social media, and I have to tell you this book is at the bottom! and i've read some bad ones. When it comes to why i don't like it - there are too many things to list, way too many! In my past reviews i went into detail why, but they were just wiped away from amazon for no reason other than the authors influence!

If you want good books on the topic try these because, their written by people who know what their talking because they obtained the knowledge themselves. - help you take steps to reach your goals, - know the topic form a-z, - they don't try to solicit your email every other page, etc-etc

Social Media:

Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah

Social Media Metrics by Jim Sterne

The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott

Twitter Power by Joel Comm

The Facebook Era by Clara Shih

Social Media Marketing an hour a day by Dave Evans

Twitter Marketing for dummies by Kyle Lacy

Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day by Hollis Thomases

SEO:

Search Engine Optimization by Stephen Woessner

Seo Made Simple by Michael H. Fleischner

Other:

KaChing by Joel Comm

Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk

Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz

Content Rich by Jon Wuebben

I Need A Killer Press Release: Now What? by Janet Meiners Thaeler

I enjoy reading blogs because they are usually short, informative, and get to the point quickly. Blogs have to be short and sweet or else people will click away. THE ZEN OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING is written like a blog. I love to read outlines, bullet points, and small dialogue boxes, just like an academic textbook, except ZEN is actually engaging.

It's a great reference book as well, because there are entire chapters devoted to one social media platform. The chapters on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are fantastic. Tells me everything I need to know about those sites: how to start a page, success tips, everything.

My favorite chapter is the one about video, where Dave Kaminski of Web Video University is the guest author. I follow Kaminski's podcasts, which are the best and only source for web video, and his contributing chapter in ZEN summarizes the state of web video right now and how you can take advantage of it.

I can't say enough about how good this book is.

I read this book in a a few hours and I learned a lot. I am not a complete novice at Social Media and know quite a bit about technology and the web, but I really got a great sense of how to make Facebook, Twitter and Linked in work for a business.

I think for a business owner looking to utilize this new media, this book would be better than hiring most consultants. Even if you are going to hire a consultant to help, this book would help you vet them and maybe even teach them a thing or two.

It was mostly the basics and I didn't quite get the Zen feeling, but it certainly made me think hard about clarifying my value propositions on my website and then working these sites into the mix.

Very pleasant style too.

After reading Book Yourself Solid, a substantial and useful book about marketing principles by Michael Port, this little "zen of" pamphlet by Shama Hyder Kabani comes across to me as an insubstantial and basically worthless book. Unbelievably touted as "the last social media guide you'll ever need," Kabani's book features a section on Facebook that boils down to a rudimentary how-to for people totally unfamiliar with social networking. It's the same story with Twitter and LinkedIn. Overall I found the book's content to be ironically inconsistent with its marketing pitch and devoid of usefulness beyond rudiments that could be easily found via Google search. Steer clear, I'd say.

I really hate to give this a bad review, and actually I am not....the content is excellent. But I bought it digitally and had it downloaded to my phone with a Kindle version. The problem is, there are huge grey blocks cluttering the pages with no text graphics or anything in the grey blocks. Also, the tables and text in picture blocks is so small it is not readable, and there is no way to increase the size to make it readable. (You can adjust the book text, but not the text in the graphic boxes.) I was hoping for a great opportunity to buy books on the fly and read them on my smart phone...but alas, it appears the technology is not perfected.

In addition their is no satisfying resolve from Amazon or Kindle. Their response is they will look into it.

I would have liked for them to say they would send me the hard copy of the book immediately and then deal with their issues as they can. I am not looking to get two versions, just one that I can use and read without expense or delays. This is their issue and they should find a way to satisfy their customers while they are sorting it out.

As a small business owner, social media is a huge concern for my business. And I'm sure most of you out there are in a similar position as I am, or involved in online marketing. These concerns led me to purchase a copy of this highly rated book, largely to my disappointment.

Where Shama shines is by being distinctly likable. Her writing is approachable and she is genuinely interested in helping the reader. However despite her best intentions, the book falls short of telling you how the "zen" is achieved in a thorough and comprehensive way.

Even for a novice social media user like me, I found the book to be a complete basic primer on social media. It understandably covered the bases of the social media channels (facebook, twitter, etc.) but did not extend very much further from very simplistic uses of these channels. If you are serious about your business and taking social media marketing to the next level, this book is probably not going to help you. Quotes by several "guest experts" were vague anectdotes which seemed to be a filler for the book, a common trend amongst serial self help writers these days.

I found little advice that reached further than simple common sense. And I didn't realise how basic Shama's book was till I read "Likeable Social Media" by Dave Kerpen, which was written with great detail and depth.

Amazon's book rating's rarely disappoint, but I am sad to say this was not the case with this book. As a restauranteur with a new facebook and twitter account, I found little value in reading this book. If you really care about your business and your marketing skills, I suggest you try Dave's book instead.

I think she does a very good job of giving you an overview of how to use social media to market yourself or your business. She covers almost all the bases and it's a very easy quick read.

The only critique I have is that it doesn't appear that the other has a strong foundation in traditional techniques. I think this is a benefit in being able to view social media with a fresh eye but it's a also a detriment because in the end there is no replacing experience. Again though I'd highly recommend this book.

If you already possess a basic knowledge of social media marketing, you won't gain much additional insight by reading this book. It's really geared for beginners. It provides only the most basic information about how to market on Facebook and Twitter, the two cornerstones of any social media strategy. It also throws in only cursory information about websites, blogging, SEO and LinkedIn.

If you're new to social media marketing and are looking for a good primer on the subject, then this book might do the trick. But if you already have a Facebook fan page or Twitter account, or even if you don't, but know that you should, skip this book and read any of the several good books out there devoted specifically on how to market on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, in that order. Save your Zen for something with more depth.