Many books written on the topic of social media spend the majority of their time persuading readers why they need to incorporate social media into their marketing campaigns. However, what these authors fail to realize is that the majority of readers no longer need to be convinced about the power of social media marketing, but
how to effectively leverage these tools to spread the word about their product or service. I suspect many people might have given up in their quest to find a social media marketing book that combines the
why and
how to use social media marketing.
Therefore, it brings me great pleasure to inform you that such a book does exist! Shama Kabani, author of
The Zen of Social Media Marketing truly does live up to the claim of “…being the last social media guide you’ll ever need.” Kabani is President of The Marketing Zen Group, an online marketing business, and is extremely well known in the social media arena for her ability to provide advice that allows others to be successful in using social media to promote their business.
This book immediately captured my attention because she starts off with a story I am sure many people that are in the startup phase of developing their online presence can relate to. Kabani immediately empowers readers to embrace the belief that they too can become “Zen marketers.” She quickly addresses the frustrations that many new to social media experience. Kabani enables readers to realize that many “…people fail at social media marketing [because] they don’t have a solid foundation…They don’t have a brand…they have absolutely no way of differentiating themselves from the competition.” I was happy to see her raise this issue near the beginning of the book because many people have a tendency to get wrapped up in the tools and fail to evaluate whether they have a product or service that people desire.
Once this issue has been resolved, Kabani dives right into offering various components that enable one to experience social marketing success and even provides helpful acronyms such as ACT, BOD, etc. that will aid readers when formulating their social media marketing strategies. Kabani does a terrific job in explaining how the social media marketing conversion process occurs and leaves readers with a “…solid understanding of how social media fits into the bigger scheme of things.” Those under the impression that social media marketing is the best way to convert customers may be shocked to discover that the best conversion tool is your website.
She walks readers through the process of how important it is that your website or blogsite provide quality content that is frequently updated. Kabani stresses the importance of
SEO and gives detailed instructions that will enable you to have the confidence to try it yourself. When readers have completed working on the true conversion tool—their website—she launches into social media etiquette and the social networking sites that offer the “…best ROI on your time and effort.”
She concentrates on explaining how to use the largest three social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. She does a fantastic job of explaining the terminology used on each site and provides numerous shortcuts and tools that enable you to determine how and when to use these sites. In addition to explaining these sites, she shares how video can serve as a complement to your social media marketing endeavors. Kabani gives you all the information you need (i.e. equipment, tips, video sharing sites, etc.) to make an amazing video.
Armed with the knowledge of how to efficiently use these tools, she offers tips on how to create a social media policy along with a variety of methods to measure your efforts. Throughout the book Kabani shares tips and case studies from other business owners that are reaping the benefits of promoting their business by using social media. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe the depth and amount of information shared in this book will no doubt leave readers feeling Zen.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
This book was published in 2010 and contains 200 pages. The price of this book is $16.95 and can be purchased on Amazon.
Click here to buy this book!
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BOOK REVIEW - The Zen of Social Media Marketing
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