Social Media: Dominating Strategies for Social Media Marketing with Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Instagram Paperback – January 29, 2015

I have been doing social media management for about three years and given the emergence of the field, I have learned most of my skills by trial and error and by studying what others do. As a marketing professional who deals with traditional advertising media, I have not been able to delve into the whole spectrum of social media platforms, limiting my focus to Facebook and Twitter. Thus I have been feeling a strong need for a good source of relevant information.I've attended some social media marketing seminars but practically all of them have been extremely superficial and seemed like I was throwing away money in enrollment fees.So, I downloaded several books on the subject and after an initial disappointment with a book by another author I came upon Michael Richard's book and was extremely satisfied with it. Finally I found a very comprehensive book that not only describes in detail every social media platform out in the web but also provides plenty of tips and tricks to get the most out of each and every one. This is definitely a very useful reference for the marketing professional whether you are an experienced marketer or advertiser looking to further your social media skills or are taking your first steps in the field and need guidance to succeed. Excellent!

I liked this book. It is a very complete one and it has a lot of useful information about social networks, for example how to improve your experience and make the most of every one of them. Reality is that social networking has increased his value in companies since some time ago, and people, in order to survive, should try to adapt themselves to this new competitor’s environment. I am currently working as a Marketing analyst, so I have found this book interesting, and have already put in action some of the strategies it contains. I’m also glad because I could buy it at a great discount price, it was a real bargain!

This is a fairly good, quick overview of social media marketing. That all it promises to be, and in that it delivers. The only problem I had with it is how badly it needs some editing. There are a lot of awkwardly constructed sentences, more than a few that made me literally cringe.Like this paragraph:"Although photos as mentioned above have more engagement, it h as been proven that videos usually have a greater effect in building relationships with followers. As such, you will find that videos can help you nurture followers until they become customers. You don’t have to post a very complicated video; simply posting a photo of yourself doing something in your business could be all you need to start engagement."Beyond the lack of proper punctuation, what is he saying here? Are photos or videos better? I can figure it out, but I shouldn't have to.Here's a more representitive example:"With this option, it will be a lot easier for people to navigate between all your videos, which in turn results to more views."That should say "results *in* more views". He does that all over this book.

I admit that I was a bit skeptical at first. I wasn't sure how the author planned on covering all of the social media outlets in a short e-book. And after reading through everything, I found out that the author is very good at getting straight to the heart. He provides specific and practical tips in each social arena, but Facebookis the most in-depth part of this book. Me having a Facebook page for myself, I realize that I haven't been optimizing my brand and content to reach a wider audience.I agree with the author that it is better to use paid advertising in Facebook earlier than later because more and more people are beginning to utilize paid advertising, and it will eventually be less effective the more people incorporate it into their business or hobby. Some social media I do not currently use such as Pinterest and Google plus, but it will serve its place in the future. This is surely not only an entertaining read, but it is a deeply valuable one that I will keep coming back to as a reference in expanding my brand.

I’ve seen a greater command of the English language in the essays of high schoolers. I’m using this book for a college course on social media and I have a suspicion that it is making me dumber. I hope my school gets rid of it “in future” (to quote the book itself). The irony is not lost on me when I say that it’s essentially the textbook equivalent of a poorly written Facebook comment. In both scenarios the writer asserts their intellectual dominance of a topic without first proofreading their error ridden ramblings. This ultimately subverts whatever pseudo intellectual argument they were making and is only valuable as comedy. Spending money on this book isn’t even worth the occasional laughs. I’m not the best editor or writer but even I know that saying, “In that case, if you create a centralized hub for your business in Facebook, don’t you think people will find it easier to access all that information in just one place?” is the incorrect way to ask a question. Assuming English is the authors first language, the butchering of said language is enough to question how this ever became the required text for a college course. Save your money, save your time, and help save the English language by not contributing to this atrocity.