Book Report

Heather Miller

MARK 9057

April 3, 2014

• It was on the recommended list for the class

• It had a recent publish date – December, 2014, so I was confident the information would be current

• Available in e-book format

• Had active links embedded in the e-book

• Reputable co-author –Guy Kawasaki is former chief evangelist at Apple

Analysis

This book is accessibly written for both the new and power user, with 130 helpful and relevant hints that are well organized. However, it is full of flagrant self-promotion, which detracts from its legitimacy.

It is a “How To” book – Chapters all start with “How To”Chapters1. How to Optimize Your Profile2. How to Feed the Content Monster3. How to Perfect Your Posts4. How to Respond to Comments5. How to Integrate Social Media and Blogging6. How to Get More Followers7. How to Socialize Events8. How to Run Google+ Hangouts on Air9. How to Rock a Twitter Chat10. How to Avoid Looking Clueless11. How to Optimize for Individual Platforms12. How to Put Everything together

Organization

• The book is essentially 130 hints divided across the chapters

• The chapters, all entitled “How To…” flow logically

• Each chapter begins with a quote, which helps set the tone

• I enjoyed that the book was organized by issues such as “Feeding the Content Manager” and not by individual social media type. This is wise as it keeps the book relevant as time passes and the popular social media sites change.

• There are many active links in the book, which provide real examples if you are reading it as an e-book, but they can be distracting, as you have to leave the e-book. However, those links would be useless if reading hard copy not close to an internet connection.

My favourite Tips & Concepts

• A blog post not worth sharing is not worth writing

• If you are not pissing someone off on social media you are not using it aggressively enough

• It is Okay to repeat the same tweet in order to be seen by people viewing Twitter at different times

• Use the ideal image size for each separate social media

• SEO is bullshit; tricking Google is futile; instead create content for Google to find

• You are always “on record” on social media, put class and credibility first

• Fight only 3 rounds – 1 commenter, 2 your response, 3 commenter (end of fight), and don’t fight dirty.

• Every curated post should contain a picture or video

• Add share buttons to posts and blogs to maximize reach

• Vanity URLs are effective

• Short hashtags are easier to use (chose short over unique)

• 5P’s of Social Media –Google+ is for passionsFacebook is for peopleLinkedIn is for pimping Pinterest is for pictures Twitter is for perception

Self PromotionThe book is co-written with Peg Fitzpatrick, but uses Kawasaki’s voice, for simplification and to capitalizes on his celebrity

Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangalist at Canva, and it is mentioned in the book 8 separate times. This in my opinion is overkill, and it got in the way of my enjoyment of the book. It made me question the objectiveness of the book. It reminded me of the old soap operas with product placement of both Canvaand Holy Kaw. Even the book cover is the same colour as Canva’slogo. See image below of Kawasaki wearing a Canva t-shirt.

• Like each chapter, chapter 11 begins with a quote, but this one is by Guy Kawasaki, and he concludes it by saying “Let’s see Philip Kotler top this”. That is egotistical and doesn’t belong in a published book

• From my heatherbikegirl twitter account

- Feb 15, I tweeted a response to Mike Dyer who Tweeted

- “I’m skeptical of books on social media but @GuyKawasaki@PegFitzpatrick #Artofsocialmedia is quite good.

- @MointMenino@GuyKawasaki @PegFitzpatric I’m reading it now…Quite good except for shameless self promotion and some research gaps

• March 24 I tweeted: @GuyKawasaki My summary of book report on the Art of Social Media…Flagrant self promotion and poorly researched. I received no response.

(In chapter 3 when referring to TweetDeck he states “There are other products that provide similar functionality including Everypost, Sendible and SocialOomph, but we have not used any of them.” This, to me, showed laziness, and/or bad editing. Either don’t mention that you haven’t used them, or do some research. Making these words live links was helpful.

• A search of #TheArtofSocialMedia showed many tweeters excited to be reading the book and others mentioning that the tips were very helpful. No other tweets mentioned the self-promotion

• Kawasaki cites himself as an influencer on a LinkedIn matrix

• Kawasaki uses his Canva email address in the book. If this were more objective, he would have used a different email

Conclusion

• It is a light and informative read and the ebook format makes is simple to look things up after reading it. The book has something for the power user, but someone new to social media will not be overwhelmed.

• I would recommend the book, with the caveat that you’ve got to be prepared for the flagrant self-promotion.