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Book Review: Conrad Hall's Business Owner's Guide to Social Media: Friends, Followers & Customer Evangelists
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Social Media is critically important to most small businesses, yet it can be an overwhelming maze of websites and strategic considerations. Conrad Hall bills himself as the Social Media Un-Expert, and in his new book overviews not just the big three - Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter - but a cornucopia of social media micro website. We liked the book - it's not perfect, but it is a useful companion to building your social media strategy.
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By Jason McDonald
Senior SEO Instructor - JM Internet Group.
Posted: June 11, 2010
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Social Media: Strategy, the Big Three, and Microsites
There are many books and websites that track the overwhelming proliferation of Social Media sites - Mashable, for example, being one of my favorite blogs on Social Media. I eagerly awaited
Friends, Followers, and Customer Evangelists: the 2010 Business Owner's Guide to Social Media. This book, looking for some guidance and theory as to how to encourage the relationships and conversations that are the core of Social Media. Its title intrigued me: friends, followers, and customer evangalists. I certainly want more of those!
As a business owner, and teacher online of SEO and Social Media, I definitely seek to encourage and build business relationships. The trick is to do that in a non-threatening, productive way - to really participate in Social Media, but still 'get something out of it.'
First of, kudos to Mr. Hall - his book DOES do some of this. It addresses Social Media strategy, but the title promises more than the book delivers. Much of the book is a list of not just the primary social media sites - Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn - but the hundreds of micro social media sites that he recommends. Not a bad idea, but not exactly the theory I was looking for.
In addition, for most small businesses, Yelp and Google Local are major social media sites - reviews are critical, yet he doesn't give Yelp or Google Local the pre-eminence that they deserve. We just concluded a huge free webinar on Google Places and Yelp, and our students were desperate for clear guidance on how to manage these local search / social media venues. It's too bad Mr. Hall didn't explain those venues in book form, as we at the JM Internet Group have seen and taught to the clear demand for that topic!
Your Social Media Strategy
Returning to Social Media strategy, the book does have a nice chapter on your 'Social Media Plan.' This is very useful for anyone seeking to strategize how to leverage social media. But in his discussion on blogging, for example, he doesn't explain how to SEO a blog - how to make your blog not just beautiful, but highly visible to Google and the other major search engines. If a blog falls down in the wilderness, does it make a sound? Does anyone care? There is still an SEO and searchability issue in blogging, and he doesn't explain this critical feature.
On the other hand, in terms of using social media to promote social media - the book excels. It has a nice case study of a 'Blog off,' which can give you food for thought about how to use competitions and blogs to promote.
Wrapping up, the strengths of the book are its pretty complete index to the micro sites out there in the Social Media universe, and its nice chapter on Social Media Strategy. The weaknesses of the book are, besides Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn -
- too much attention to too many micro sites without a clear focus on the major sites like Google Places or Yelp that are really critical; and
- a laundry list of sites that lists items without really telling you how to use them.
If you are starting out on Social Media, I would recommend buying this book. It won't solve all your issues, but it does solve some and is a nice index as well.
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