If you are looking for a book to show you how to get on, get started and make a social network work for you, then this is it! I found this a compelling read as I could apply it easily to my every day life.
It explains thoroughly how the Micro-celebrity leverages their amazing power and how you could achieve worldwide impact in the niche that matters to you. Transforming social and cultural capital into financial capital is also featured in the book. Explaining how it pays to be generous and build your trusted personal networks for a return. I truly believe at the end of this book you will understand how to profit from the knowledge you never knew you had by opening your organisation’s own social networking channels inside and out.
Aside from my degree in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and being a team member at Crowd, I am also an entrepreneur in the retail business. I thought back to my introduction to social marketing and wondered if I had applied it in the correct way, or if I actually understood the reasons why I had applied it in the first place. For me personally, I was 19 and had set up an online business, I regularly used Facebook for my personal use and would shout about the business for all of my social connections to see. It just seemed the most logical way to spread the word. It wasn’t until Pages were introduced on Facebook, that the brand gained its own identity. 5 years on, and with the brand becoming stronger every day, I am astonished at how many businesses are only now starting to contemplate the use of social media in their marketing strategy. I truly believe that without the use of the social media platforms I wouldn’t have had the courage to open the first store here in Guernsey. Anywho, less about me and back to the book.
So reading the book, I tried to forget all of my previous experiences using social media and tried to think of myself as a new business contemplating it (As many are at the moment) The book starts by introducing you to the different networking sites around the world, providing you with the vital statistics and explaining what they are mostly used for. It explains them in the way that any reader can understand, using TV channels as an analogy to make it more easily relatable.
The book heavily accentuates the idea that you have to build your own social networking bridges to succeed in building a brands social networking bridges.
I had never thought of this before and it made me consider my own brand once again. Is it popular on networking sites solely because I am popular? (Yes, blowing my own trumpet slightly, but what can you do) Are the ‘likes’ and followers just there because my personal friends feel they should, or are they actual consumers who like and follow because they believe in the brand? A great quote in the book really stuck in my mind;“First they were grade school friends. Then they built a company together. Eventually, they became millionaires, thanks to a little help from their friends. Their LinkedIn friends, that is.” Juliette talks about how you influence people on your personal profile heavily affects how you can influence them about your business, logically she is correct. Why would somebody shop in my store if they didn’t believe I had any interest in the fashion industry, or style for that matter. I had never thought of it this way, to me, my personal profile is the part of the day that I can just connect with others and share the things I enjoy. I have never really thought about what influences I am making on other people, or considered what they think of me because of the things I post and tweet about.
A compelling read for those that already use social media in their marketing strategy and those that are considering using it.
It gave me plenty to consider, reconsider and analyse about myself. Each case study made me think about myself and the use of social media in a completely different way, I couldn’t put the book down. Once case study that stood out in particular for me was the one of Gary Vaynerchuck. So compelling that I actually went on to ‘like’ his Facebook page and check it out. The way in which he shares how he made it to the stage of being a micro celebrity was intriguing. And I shall continue to follow him in the future. I believe there is a lot to learn from this guy!
Further into the book another case study came up, one of Jeff Pulver. Juillette went on to talk about how he has made his fortune from taking the contacts he has online (10,000Plus) and bringing it offline.
From this he created a community. I actually went on to message him on Facebook, told him i’d come across him whilst reading this book and that I thought his case study was inspirational. (Waiting for a reply back, but watch this space)
After a number of interesting case studies, one being that of the social media craze surrounding Barack Obama during the election, the book continues to grip you and explaining different ways in which you can build your own community, and explaining about individuals who have implemented these ideas and been successful because of it. Experimenting is the key it seems, as no case study is the same as another. Every business is different and so their social media strategy should be so too.