Social Media for Business: The Small Business Guide to Online Marketing
Social Media for Business is an insider’s guide to online marketing for the small business owner, manager or entrepreneur who wants to build the right multidimensional Web presence. Guaranteed to boost your social networking IQ, this book invests in your future with tips for sustainable tactics and savvy communications that are proven to deliver the real social media ROI – higher levels of customer engagement. Co-authors Martin Brossman and Anora McGaha speak from experience in educating small businesses and solo-professionals in the everyday strategies that drive social media results. In all, more than twenty experts contribute their perspectives on Web marketing and social media management. Social Media for Business: • Explains the competitive advantage for small and micro-business owners • Clarifies how businesses attract, engage and retain new customers • Demystifies social media strategy, implementation and content creation • Helps you define and evaluate your social media management program • Alerts you to the risks of not monitoring the online conversation • Discusses the value of fully integrating social media into your business • Guides you through the exciting cultural changes and paradigm shifts
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A great place to start,
Full disclosure: I’m a contributor, a friend of both co-authors, and business associate of most of the other contributors. I am a touch biased. On the other hand, I am also a prolific reviewer–you can see what I think about a range of books by clicking on the “see all my reviews” link. Didn’t just duck in here to promote one book.
Social Media for Business is written for the solopreneur and micro-business market, where you (mostly) are doing most of everything yourself. I teach classes on social media in the local Chambers and Community College system, as does Martin Brossman. If you’re likely to take those classes but can’t get to one, this is a good book for you.
Social Media for Business steps you through the theory of what’s happening in this space–primarily LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter–and then provides you with specific activities you can do, in a reasonable amount of time, to promote your business. The book touches on Mobile (phone apps for smart phones); GooglePlus did not make it into the printed copy but we anticipate online updates at the website, accessible to people who buy the book through QR codes and a password.
I’ve read some other books about social media marketing that open with, “Start with a small test budget of no more than $200,000.00.” Brossman & McGaha will not take you down that path. If you’re overwhelmed by all the online marketing you are being told you should be doing (especially by people who want you to pay them to do it for you) and need to get an understanding of the whole field before you start spending marketing money, Social Media for Business is a good place to start.
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|Don’t You Want to Understand Social Media??,
I enjoyed this book because it was very informative and an easy read…. It explained the complexities of social media in a very simplified manner. Brossman and McGaha lay out a solid foundation for businesses on some of the following concepts:
Blogs
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Press Releases
Articles
Directories to Use
Video Platforms
Email
Advertising
Forums
& much more
The inclusion of over 20 other experts with their own take on the different aspects of social media marketing made the book that much more valuable. Their contributions and insights are a prime example of how social interaction can and does work. Then at the end, they provide you with a checklist (cheatsheet) for your own business to follow to help implement your plan. If you want a book that provides you with the exact steps to execute your own “social media strategy” for a business, then YOU NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK! Thanks, this will be a great resource for me to put my own plan in place…
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|A contributor’s opinion,
I’m a contributor for this book, but I did not see anyone else’s contribution until the book was released. So I want to share my thoughts on the final product, and why I contributed at all.
The book itself is a great primer for people who don’t even understand what the words “social media” mean. And I was given that instruction when they invited me to contribute my article – “How can you explain this so a complete beginner would get excited, and understand?” No article was to be complicated, or focus on making ourselves look like gurus. We were all in your shoes once – and that’s where we wrote from.
I saw the amount of work that they put into the finished product, and it did NOT disappoint. From how to use LinkedIn “hidden objects” to land your next client to understanding the basics of WordPress, to how to grow a collaborative mindset while you participate online, the book runs the gamut without telling anyone they are ‘stupid if they don’t get it,’ or ‘need’ any of the contributors to do it for them for money. Had I seen a finished product that basically ‘sold services’ of every contributor, I would not be writing this today, but writing a private note to the authors instead.
The amount of contributions, from contributors that care as much as Martin and Anora do about the super-small business owner, are worth far more than spending weeks on Google trying to figure it out, paying someone thousands to set up a Facebook page, or losing valuable, billable time trying to go it alone and figure it out as you go.
I proudly include the image for this book all over my own web site because I’m honored to be included in it. In the two years Martin and Anora have worked on the 1st and now 2nd (current) edition, not ONE person has been heard to say the book didn’t provide thousands of dollars in value – dollars that these business owners saved and were able to allocate wisely after they had been taken through such an easy to understand, soup-to-nuts primer about what social media is, what they can get out of it, and how to approach it so that it works for them, not against them.
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