The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success

The Social Media Bible will show you how to build or transform your business into a social media—enabled enterprise where customers, employees, and prospects connect, collaborate, and champion your products, your services, and your way of doing business.

Using the systematic approach presented in this comprehensive guide, you'll learn how to:

• Increase your company and brand value by engaging people in new forms of communication, collaboration, education, and entertainment
• Determine which social media tactics you should be using with your customers and employees
• Evaluate and categorize the tools and applications that constitute the rapidly evolving social media ecosystem
• Make social media tools like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, blogging, podcasting, and hundreds of others a part of your business strategy
• Do a social media analysis inside your company to improve internal operations and outside your company to create and monetize relationships with customers and prospects
• Implement social media micro- and macrostrategies to give your business the competitive edge it needs to survive and thrive

Virtually every business can use social media to increase sales and profits, and The Social Media Bible will show you how. Part One introduces you to social media, and gives you a helpful framework, and presents practical and tactical tips for using some of these tools. Part Two introduces you to over 100 social media tools and applications in fifteen different categories, giving you a quick rundown of the features and functions of the tools that should become part of your social media strategy. Part Three offers mini exercises and assessments to help you conduct a social media audit of your company, your competition, and your customers, so you can craft the perfect strategy for your business.

If you want to grow your business, you have to stay connected to your stakeholders- whether you're a big corporation, a small business, or even a nonprofit. The Social Media Bible will show you how to harness the collective wisdom and viral value of your stakeholders and stay ahead of your competition.
www.TheSocialMediaBible.com

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

a good overview, 2010-07-28
knowing nothing about the topic - it was a stab in the dark. The book delivered! I learned more than I anticipated and it created a platform for my evolving interest and learning. VERY GOOD.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

A big book on an even bigger subject, 2010-07-17
The authors tackle a mighty big subject here. But I didn't know how big until I saw at the size of this book. And the thing is, most of the chapter subjects - social networking, blogging, vlogging, microblogging, Search, Gaming, etc - could easily merit several entire books unto themselves.

The authors rely heavily on what are probably recorded statements from industry leaders in the various fields, and verbal transcripts tend to ramble on a bit when committed to paper. The transcripts could have used some heavy editing, which was probably impossible due to bruised corporate egos.

I wouldn't call this book a "bible", mainly because the subject is much too large for any one book to cover in-depth. But this book is the best attempt yet to cover the scope of the rapidly growing and evolving social media phenomenon. And as someone in the search marketing field, the book really opened my eyes to exactly how big the Social Media field really is, and for that, I give the book 5 stars.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

The Social Media Bible - Safko & Brake (Wiley), 2010-05-14
Want to develop a social networking strategy but need the tools to accomplish the job? Sure you have a Facebook page and maybe even a Twitter handle, but where do you go from there? Well Lon Safko and David Brake (with the help of numerous, well known and not so well known social media players) have devised an `everything you need to know about social media in a box' book.

Unlike a lot of the new social media books out there, the SM Bible is the best completist's volume that not only explains contemporary social media strategies, but also covers a lot of ground as to the nature and origins of various social media platforms thus giving the reader more of an in-depth slant as to which methods are best for what purposes.

The authors divide their book into a number of main categories including the usual areas of blogging, wikis, SEO, SEM, RSS, Livecasting, etc. What makes their book a useful reference is two-fold; a) they feature interviews with true experts in the field who actually know how to utilize the specific tool and best practices around said tools, and b) they have a checklist of each product as to how to determine if this is the most useful to achieving your goals based on your type of business, the type of interaction required, etc. Experts from everything from Twitter founder Biz Stone to Mashable's Pete Cashmore to a whole host of other social web influencers are featured in each appropriate chapter.

If you are looking to expand your social media presence, the Social Media Bible is a fair and even handed and comprehensive look at the platforms and tools currently deployed in the market in service of the online social need. Like many books on this ever-changing topic, the authors provide an up-to-date website for staying abreast of the changes and additions to the basics described in this book. At 818 pages, this `bible' is a fairly essential reference guide for nearly any meaningful pursuit of the social media agenda. A recommended reference for the modern age.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Good Reference Tool for beginner in Social Media Marketing, 2010-04-08
Reviewer: Social Media Marketing Student_Harvard Extension School
Description: This is a practical book and is well referenced with additional readings and resources for the user to explore. The book is arranged into three parts, from the basics and tactics through to the strategy. A chapter each on Social Media SWOT Analysis and Your Implementation Plan are appropriately included.
Purpose: To be a comprehensive guide on the tactics, tools, and applications that make up the world of social media. The book is designed to guide the reader on the history and present use of various social media marketing tools to increase brand value and engage an audience with new forms of communication, collaboration, education and entertainment. Additionally, it takes it a step further and shows how to incorporate social media into one's overall business strategy to improve internal operations and monetize relationships with customers and prospects.
Audience: This book is written for the student, business owner, marketer or Internet user simply interested in what social media is and how it can be exploited to increase company and brand value. For the savvy social media user or consultant- it could be a reference tool to have on hand to give your teams a place to start and lead them to the right places online to do the real learning.
Features: The book covers all of the current significant areas on the topic of social media or Web 2.0. It features real and relative examples that help the user relate the to the Social Media phenomenon enabled by modern technology.
It also includes Expert Insights, which is a conversation provided by a renowned expert in a particular field of social media marketing.
Assessment: This is good book for the beginner in social media. After reading the book I realized that it's not really a "how to" book or a "hands on" guide, but rather a collection of thoughtful interviews and history by the founders on some of the tools that everyone is using today. But no matter how comprehensive, the adage remains true, you can't learn social media through a book.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Everything you need, 2010-04-05
The Social Media Bible provides everything you need to know about Social Media. I'm using the chapters at the back to set our organizational strategy for online presence and Social Media at the moment. One of the best SM books I've seen.

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