A Book Review

Social Media is quickly becoming the new marketing tool for generating real and ongoing business in today’s uncertain economic world.  So this new “Idiot’s Guide” by Jennifer Abernethy couldn’t have come at a better time.

Jennifer, the CEO of The Sales Lounge, holds very little back in her breakdown of how she advises businesses engage in social media marketing on the web.  Like most “Idiot’s Guides” it is more of a guidebook or textbook that a novel to read, and at 333 pages it is not too overwhelming.

The tag line for the book is – “Discover how Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube and other social sites give you a marketing advantage”.  And she approaches these four networks in a straightforward and easy to understand manner.

One thing cannot be denied though – social media is serious business, and hard work, and not the fun, laid-back social networking avenue a lot of people make it out to be.  It requires strategy, careful planning, dedication, and long-term execution.  And luckily Jennifer is very upfront in making this clear to readers.

Book Sections

The book is broken down into 5 Parts:

1. The World of Social Media and Social Networking
2. Let’s Begin Marketing your Business on Facebook
3. Twitter
4. LinkedIn and Other Social Network Options
5. Streamlining and Expanding your Program

Like any published IT book, this one is also slightly out of date since the time it was written.  And Jennifer acknowledged this possibility in the beginning, as she clearly understands how these new marketing technologies work.

Abnormal Revisions

Updates to this book would include:

• Facebook has changed the way the Groups and Business Pages exist
• Twitter has a new interface
• LinkedIn has recently changed over many aspects of its interface and introduced new tools.
• MySpace has relaunched its image
• Mentions like MyBlogLog are about to become irrelevant as Yahoo closes the network.

However the fundamentals remain the same.  And looking at the detailed and dedicated work required to manage a business’s social media marketing, I am not surprised that many companies are starting to hire a person in their marketing department, who will be exactly doing this role.  And once you get to the end of Jennifer’s book, you do get the sense that a lot of education, and practice is needed to implement a social media marketing strategy correctly to achieve the best results.

If you are a business owner who wants an introduction to the nearly current world of social media marketing, or if you are planning on a career as a Social Media Marketer, then I highly recommend reading this book.  It’s a great overview, and shows why social networking is serious business.