Today I will kick start a new column: the book review. These days I am reading around two books per month, and most of them are related to marketing, social media and the Internet, so I figured that you guys could like to read reviews about them. I will use Amazon affiliate links on the posts, but all the money earned will be re-invested in new books. I will also try to be as transparent as possible on the reviews, using four elements to evaluate each book.
The first book that I want to talk about is titled The New Community Rules. I got it around four weeks ago, and I finished reading it this weekend. The author is Tamar Weinberg, one of the persons who better understands social media marketing (in fact I invited her to be the social media mentor on my Online Profits training program).
1. The book: The New Community Rules has 332 pages. The design and typography are very clean, which makes it easy to read. Since it talks extensively about websites and online tools it also comes with many screenshots and illustrations.
2. The content: Social media is much broader than MySpace or Facebook, and Tamar is well aware of that. Throughout the book she coves pretty much all aspects of marketing on the social web. Here are the chapters that you will find inside:
- Introduction to Social Media Marketing
- Goal Setting in a Social Environment
- Networking and Implementing Strategy
- Participation is Marketing: Getting into the Game
- Using Blogs to Communicate, Influence and Learn from your Constituents
- Microblogging Magic: How Twitter Can Transform Your Business
- Getting Social: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Other Social Networks
- Informing Your Public: The Informational Social Networks
- Leaving Your Mark: How to Rock the Social Bookmarking Space
- Social News Brings You Pageviews
- New Media Tactics: Photography, Video and Podcasting
- Sealing the Deal: Putting it All Together
Tamar assumes that you have no prior knowledge on each topic, so even beginners should be able to follow and understand the information presented.
On each chapter you will also find real examples that illustrate the concepts and give you ideas to implement on your own projects.
3. What I liked: I liked the structure of the book. Since social media is such a broad and new term, it is important to have rigor when talking about its different facets, and Tamar did that well. For example, she makes a separation between social bookmarking and social news sites. The differences are small, but they can be important if you are trying to promote your business using those channels.
I also quite liked the fact that Tamar mentioned me and Daily Blog Tips under the blogging chapter (page 116). That is a surefire way to grab my attention!
Finally, there are plenty of footnotes and references that you can use to expand on each topic.
4. Who would benefit from this book: People who want to learn more about the Internet, understand all the facets of social media and use social media marketing to promote a product or business. I would also recommend it to people who are just getting started with their blogs or websites, as social media marketing can be very useful to promote it.
