- ISBN13: 9781884956850
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Secrets of Social Media Marketing is a handbook for marketers and business owners to use in deciding how to employ the new social media for online marketing. Social media has quickly moved from the periphery of marketing into the forefront, but this is a new and quickly-evolving field and there are few established formulas for success. Building on the lessons set out in Gillin’s acclaimed and oft-reviewed The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social… More >>
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#1 by Arthurone on June 13, 2010 - 5:47 am
What you don’t know who Paul Gillin is ? If not it is time to learn. Mr. Gillin is the Guru for the use of Internet based social media.
In discussing his newest book I can safely use a very common phrase “you will learn everything you need to know” about interactive media and most of all how to use it to your advantage and fully. I defy anyone to find any topic or Website or technology related to social media today that is not included in “Secrets of Social Media Marketing.” Let me save you some time. There aren’t any. He covers the field completely.
If you are new to marketing yourself, your company, organization or cause on the Internet this new book is the indispensable guidebook you do not want to be without. If you are an experienced hand Paul Gillin’s book is the tool you need to benchmark yourself against the best and find out IF you are really doing it as well as you think you are.
I could wax on and on about this brilliant Internet age sage but all I will do is delay you from placing your order. Do yourself and the larger world a favor do so right now right here and within days you will be smarter than anyone you know about fully utilizing the Internet as a communications platform.
Let me close by relating the challenge Mr. Gillin concludes his book. He recommends take one of your good ideas. Probably one of many you have thought about but never done anything to develop it. Use it as the basis for a simple Website, or blog. Apply all you will learn from carefully reading “Secrets Of Social Media Marketing.”
Mr. Gillin is confident as you should be that with his book as your personal consultant you will do very well indeed. If that is not an absolute guarantee from Paul Gillin certainly consider it a guarantee from this very impressed reader who is going to do exactly what Mr. Gillin recommends
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by C. Chambers on June 13, 2010 - 6:44 am
Secrets of Social Media Marketing is an excellent read for business owners and marketers trying to gain an understanding of the changes taking place due to the force of social media. Paul Gillin has combined credible examples of success and failure with relevant statistics to build a straightforward, persuasive argument for taking action and joining the conversation. I found myself taking notes on maximizing discoverability, search optimization, blogger relations, branded communities, and syndication, none of which I had previously considered. While the flow of the book is a little awkward at times causing some redundancy, the numerous anecdotes and easy pace kept me engaged.
Gillin’s writing is very accessible and the outline of tactics and secrets helps to break down the overwhelming amount of information that we encounter online. “The social media landscape is seemingly endless… No one can keep up with it… If you make it a goal to explore one new network or search engine for a few minutes ever day… you will make steady progress.” Gillin encourages readers to use the tools they have and invest the time to create trust and communication with their constituents. “There’s nothing about social media marketing that we don’t already know. It’s merely that art of conversation and relationship-building taking to a new medium.” Social media is about thinking differently and acting strategically.
While the book is a quick read, I warn that it also leads to additional time researching social media. For instance, as I read Chapter 8 on Niche Innovators, I was introduced to many sites that I had never visited. After reading, I spent hours looking up the various networks mentioned and even became a user of StumbleUpon and ThisNext. Gillin also includes many resources for newsletters and reports that document trends in social media throughout the book, which are invaluable to readers active in social media marketing.
However, for those in the industry there are times when it becomes quite obvious that Gillin’s background is not actually marketing, but rather that of an information technology journalist. While I believe his advice to “do something outrageous” to get viewership does work, it also completely ignores the corporate barriers within which the majority of today’s marketers exist. On the other hand, his background also provides a unique perspective on certain topics such as podcasts, the mediums best suited for B2B, and media production.
The amount of metrics offered in analytics tools is daunting, and I appreciated the simple approach to metrics Gillin took in Chapter 15. He expresses the belief that metrics are truly dependent on your objective and should vary accordingly. He outlines metrics he values most and stresses, “it’s better to understand a few indicators well than to have only a cursory knowledge of many.” However, I would have benefited greatly from a little more discussion regarding tactics for tracking integrated campaigns. He introduces some large concepts like the use of tracking codes, unique landing page addresses, and analyzing visitor paths, but doesn’t go in depth. I was left wanting more.
Secrets of Social Media Marketing closes by asking readers to “find the low-cost, low impact ideas that no one has ever tried and take a risk with them.” Gillin sees only two unpardonable sins in the current environment: fear and inaction. After reading this book, you should have neither excuse and be willing to enthusiastically accept your social media mission.
Rating: 4 / 5
#3 by E. Tsakirellis on June 13, 2010 - 9:04 am
Before picking up this read, I thought for sure I had known all there was to know about social media. Being a member of Generation Y, I supposed I just inherited a natural ability to utilize all social media platforms. Once I was immersed into a corporate environment and had to begin to apply my knowledge to the business setting, I realized all I thought I had known was wrong.
Gillin does an excellent job of organizing social media marketing from start to end. He first starts by explaining why there is a need for this new type of marketing and whether or not it is going to be worthwhile for your organization to make the investment. To myself, I viewed this method of marketing to be a cheaper way to reach your target audience. However, Gillin convinced me that while it is cheaper, it is also a matter of investing TIME and effort, which may or may not be viable.
Then, if you choose to read further, Gillin does an exquisite job of acknowledging the different tools and platforms an organization, or individual, can use to meet the desired objectives. Gillin instructs you to take initiative to set objectives first then find the most effective tools to use to achieve those objectives. A great table can be found on page 24, which lists appropriate tools for some example objectives. Then, he describes what to do to tap into social media to decide what platforms will work best- how to listen to and influence your target audience and then engage with the most effective target audience.
One of the highlights of this “how-to” is the lengths Gillin takes to describe the different platforms that are available and what to do once you are using them. He pays special attention to the key players in the field, and the platforms that are currently most effective. For those of you who have not yet immersed yourself into social media, you will now have a glossary of the top platforms and will be able to learn how to market your organization in the most effective way on the chosen platforms. From content, conversation, engaging, and measuring your success- Gillin describes it all. Gillin is sure not to forget to mention that technology is ever-changing. You have to prepare for this inevident change, and be able to adapt your social media marketing to the changes. What is “in” now is sure to be “out” very soon.
What makes this book different from the infinite amount of other books authors are scurrying to write before the next wave of “in” trends arise? This is a book ANYONE can read. You don’t need to know a thing about the social media marketing phenomenon, and by the time you are through you will have a foundation knowledge to build off of. Even if you do know a thing about it, this book acts as a great guide to further your knowledge, especially with Gillin’s various “secrets” layed out on the pages in bold to point out the key take away factors. If that’s not enough to convince you, Gillin offers pop-up mini cases of organizations throughout the book, as well as website links to apply what he is writing to real-world situations.
As a marketing executive, and grad school student, I highly recommend this book to you.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Bhaskar Koukuntla on June 13, 2010 - 11:42 am
Paul Gillin’s Secrets of Social Media Marketing covers all aspects of social media campaigns, right from inception through measurement. This book has 16 chapters that walk the reader through the entire process of starting a campaign using Social Media. Not only does it explain the processes involved with great examples and secrets but also helps with a clean and efficient structure to start and run your own campaign.
I strongly suggest and recommend reading this book (takes only a few hours to read it) to learn all the secrets to run a successful campaign using Social media.
These are the simple and various steps involved in the structure proposed by Mr. Gillin
Start your campaign by “making the case for getting involved with Social Media” and understanding why it is necessary to embrace change followed by choosing the appropriate tools to match your objectives. The book provides a wonderful chart with examples of business goals and the various social media tools that are appropriate for that goal and reiterates the importance of “using your objectives to find matching tools”
Gillin goes on to explain the importance of listening to what people have to say in online conversations i.e. “Ear to the ground” and how this helps “it means knowing where to focus your energies” with real examples. Gillin also goes a step further in explaining the secrets for getting information on such conversations. Using advanced search on blogs i.e. blog-specific search engines, micro blogs, websites, and using social bookmarking sites. Gillin also cautions about the vast amount of information and how one should mine it for the nuggets that will be of most use. This will help you “learn from online conversations”.
Once you have identified your business goals, chosen the appropriate tools and listened to online conversations, it is now time to “court online Influencers”. Gillin also explains the caveats (secrets) involved in contacting such influencers.
The next step in the process is “Picking your spots”. Gillin explains the secrets on crafting an effective communication and how you can be found online. Gillin goes onto explain the importance of “Engaging the audience through Interaction” and the secrets involved in getting the job done.
The final and most important steps are promoting thyself and measuring the results. Gillin reveals the secrets involved in promoting your message and explains how and why “the consumer has become the brand advocate and not the marketer”. Gillin finally caps the book with how results need to be measured and explains how “most useful measures are often intangibles, involving factors like learning or testing new ideas”.
The book is fun to read (worth every penny) and provides a lot of useful information aka secrets to run a successful campaign using social media.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Farsh Askari on June 13, 2010 - 2:28 pm
Secrets of Social Media Marketing is a practical handbook not only for marketers and business owners already well versed with the now many social media tools online, but also a guide for those who may have a peripheral exposure and understanding of these tools work and want to learn more in deciding how to employ the relatively new phenomena of social media for online marketing. Social media has quickly moved from the periphery of marketing into the forefront, but this is a new and quickly-evolving field and there are few established formulas for success.
This book provides practical advice on strategy, tools, and tactics. It is a hands-on manual that will educate all level of marketers on how to extend their brands, generate leads, and engage customer communities using online tools.
Gillin acknowledges that at the current pace of change, some of the social media marketing tools he describes and the strategies he espouses could become relics and interesting historical perspective in a few years’ time. But as we find ourselves in an economic downturn that has been espoused to be deeper than anyone younger than 80 probably remembers, Gillin provides some sage commentary on social media marketing that applies equally well to general business strategy. Indeed this book is a call to action and affords easily applicable measures of starting and engaging in social media marketing. As Gillin writes, “There are only two unpardonable sins in the current environment. One is fear…That leads to the other unpardonable sin, which is inaction.” That quote well encompasses one of the primary aspects I liked most about this book, that being the tone of the narrative. Gillin gives a straight-forward account of the social media marketing phenomena in layman’s terms so that it’s understandable to the everyman and not just savvy marketing types. Gillin notes at the beginning of the book, “This book isn’t intended for the 10% of marketers who are on the leading edge. It’s for the 90% who are still figuring out how to start.”
Along these lines, Gillin contextualizes his book as a beginner’s “How To” guide to get into Social Media Marketing. I think this step by step approach is exactly what most aspiring brand managers need and it is something that has been missing from most social media books out there.
The book is filled with interesting data presented in an entertaining way. The following are some of the many interesting notions and statistics included in Secrets of Social Media Marketing:
“Embracing change is the only sure success strategy in a business world that is evolving faster than we have ever known.”
“[Marketers] spent decades refining tactics built around messages…they are now being told messages don’t matter. They need to become Chief Conversation Officers.”
“It took 40 years for the TV to reach 2/3 of homes in the US. The Internet did it less than 15 years.”
“Many marketers measure their importance and influence by the size of their budgets. Social media campaigns are so cost-efficient that marketers may actually see their budgets – and their status – fall over time. While this doesn’t make much sense, it is a fact of corporate life.”
Rating: 4 / 5