Social Media 101 plus some
In this book the title promises the reader that reading this book will help you to "master" business social media, which is a huge claim since mastery of anything implies that you are the best of whatever it is. Reading this book will not do that unfortunately. But what this book will do is provide creative and sound fundamentals to start implementing a social media practice into your business right now.
As I mentioned in previous book reviews, I judge a book's value by the number of colorful little tabs I have marked in the book while reading. These tabs represent new ideas or concepts that I want to make a special note of or parts of the book that I would like to visit again to research further. This book had a large number of tabs! Many of these tabs introduced me to a new idea or a tip, which is great. However, in the case of this book many of these tabs represent concepts that are already widely known but still a fundamental idea I wanted to note.
I'd like to give the author a break regarding subject matter complexity since you never really know what level of expertise the reader has on social media. It is always good to go over the fundamentals, which Gitomer does, but he also gets about as complex as you can with this topic as well. As someone who has been studying social media for quite some time, I understand going over fundamentals like this get's tedious and boring, but it is still worth revisiting. There is very little new in the book but Gitomer does add a few fresh ideas to tackle your social media plan. I particularly liked the chapter dedicated to LinkedIn which is, in my opinion, an important social site for business. LinkedIn often gets left out of other social media books or is just barely mentioned, but in Social Boom the features and approaches for LinkedIn networking are outlined well.
Social Boom reads well for a motivational business tool book. The chapters are short, the tone is aggressive (sometimes a little arrogant), and the author provides breaks in the reading with special hints, tips or single page power messages. The flow and organization of the book is perfect for a learning tool because it's a fast paced read. The author uses highlighting, shadow boxing, large fonts, and bullet pointed lists to the max, but it works on a topic like this where the learning strategy is about repetition and focus, rather than in analysis.
Summary
Overall I liked the book, specifically for getting refreshed and re-motivated with my social media plan. There was nothing earth shatteringly new but nevertheless a good fast paced approach to cover the basics and Gitomer does bring some fresh perspectives and ideas to the table. The book only took me one evening to read, so it moves fast due to the salesy big font styles and short, but valuable, chapters. This is a great book to give to your employees or just get for your own library. Keep it on the shelf, place mark your favorite highlights and re-visit from time to time to pick up a little motivation.
Joleen Halloran is an executive for ZoomIT Marketing, an internet, mobile and social marketing company. Additionally, Joleen has extensive business experience in project management, leadership and specializes in motivational techniques and corporate culture.
Beyond Joleen's professional life, she is an avid reader and researcher of books and other materials related to her profession, but also to her special passion, which is metaphysical and spirituality topics. Ms. Halloran has read over 100 books on metaphysics, spirituality, Western and Eastern religion, and law of attraction. Joleen is currently working on her own book, Finding Home - Breaking Free from Limits, which she hopes to have completed later this summer.
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