The Social Media Marketing Book
April 30th, 2010 by admin | Filed under social.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 yo [Read More...]
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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.
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.