I read the Kindle edition of this book and reviewed it a few weeks ago on Joan Slings Words, my other blog. However, I think it may be of interest to readers of this blog too.
Title: How to Make Money with Social Media: An Insider's Guide on Using New and Emerging Media to Grow Your Business
Authors: Jamie Turner and Reshma Shah
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 990 KB
Print Length: 224 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (September 20, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B003ZUYIZU
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews)
Disclaimer
I believe, as Danielle Steel once said: "A bad review is like baking a cake with all the best ingredients and having someone sit on it." I never want to demolish anyone's best effort so I carefully compose a book review.
Based on the long descriptive title of this book, I simply can't give the content of this book a glowing review. However, there's still a lot of basic information about traditional and online marketing that may make the book valuable to beginners.
Amazon Product Description
"Want to earn big profits from social media? Now, there’s an authoritative, up-to-the-minute resource you can trust–and use.
This in-the-trenches guide is written by experts who’ve developed money-making marketing campaigns for many of the world’s largest companies. Jamie Turner and Reshma Shah, Ph.D., combine practical strategies and proven execution techniques to show how to avoid crucial pitfalls that other companies have encountered, how to make the most of limited resources, and how to strengthen your brand instead of placing it at risk.
Turner and Shah present realistic guidance for setting objectives, assessing competitors, crafting strategies, selecting platforms, integrating social media into broader marketing programs, and effectively measuring results. Whether you’re a marketer, executive, or entrepreneur, this book will help you drive maximum business value from social media–starting right now."
Praise
The book is written in a conversational style that makes it accessible to just about anyone. Much information is presented about traditional marketing concepts, contrasting them with online marketing concepts.
For someone not currently on Facebook, Twitter, et al, the book is a primer that will acquaint the non-user with social media.
Room For Improvement
I'm afraid the book just doesn't live up to its title. The text is a bit redundant. Innumerable times, we are told that social media is a dialogue. That's repeated often, like sound bites from a TV infomercial. In fact, the text rather reminds me of an infomercial in that you're repeatedly told that you'll learn how to make social media work for you, but the concrete, step by step, details are never revealed.
Most of the book reads like a teaser: tells you what you're going to learn, tells you about traditional marketing facts, theories, and concepts, tells you why those don't work, tells you again that you'll learn about using social media, gives some generic information about social media, then seemingly repeats the process in the next chapter. You get pulled along, looking for the solid information that the title leads you to expect. Unfortunately, you never get a payoff of specific ways to make money with social media.
In Conclusion
There's no doubt that the authors know social media, but they don't effectively transfer that knowledge to this book. I think if the authors changed their slant and marketed the book to beginners that they'd get far better feedback and reviews.
For a beginner who wants to dip a toe into the pool of social media, this book would provide a good, general overview of the subject, enabling those new to social media to grasp the concepts and get started. Unfortunately, for someone who already possesses general knowledge of social media, this book just doesn't deliver what the title says.
Like I said, I read the Kindle Edition of this book. (Love my Kindle! I seem to get so much more reading done with this handy little device.) Want your own Kindle? Just click here.
Takeaway Truth
A good business book should be a treasury of easily assimilated knowledge, presented in an engaging format, that will help you achieve your goals.
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