Social Media Bookreport

Likeable Social Media

How to DELIGHT YOUR CUSTOMERS,
Create an INTERESTING BRAND,
and Be Generally
AMAZING ON FACEBOOK
(and other social networks)
Written by Dave Kepren, Edition 1, Published by McGraw-Hill (May 17, 2011)

Likeable Social Media, written by Dave Kepren, was an outstanding book. Dave is defiantly an expert in social media and word of mouth. He has his own business, Likeable Media, and uses it to illustrate his points throughout the book. The book begins by talking about how to define your target audience and goes right into how to communicate with them. Dave will go through and show you how to, very effectively I might add, communicate with your friends, fans, followers, or even employees with common situations that might give a person pause. This includes comments (both good and bad), questions, and authenticity for whatever social media site you might be using. Not at any point will this book “teach” you how to use social media sites. What it does is give you a bit of an overview of all the major players. He is literally trying to show you how to be likeable and build relationships with these major social media tools.

The author is a very talented writer and compliments his discussions about what it means to be a “likable” brand as he says, with both positive and negative, and yet quite funny, anecdotes. I love the fact that the book is only 260 pages. This is including the actual book, the appendix, and even the index. It makes it a very quick read for the amount of information you get from it. He has very easy to reference content headers all through the book, screenshots from Facebook and easily-digestible highlights to share with others. One of my favorites is “10 Reasons Why Consumers Like Fan Pages on Facebook”. I never thought about this, but the number one reason, “To receive discounts and promos”, is something that I find myself doing all the time. The last reason however, “For education and company topics”, I NEVER do. Gimme free stuff, I don’t care how many people Nike helps throughout the world, I just want some discounts on my shoes.

I got this book from the library, and now I am seriously considering purchasing it. No matter what might happen in the next 15 years, the concepts in this book will be credible and useful. Knowing how people think, and how to use that make them want to know what you are all about is priceless. If Facebook gets replaced next year by some other amazing social networking site that revolutionizes the way we can communicate with others, it will still not help with the WAY we communicate with that new media. Knowing what people like is not always common sense and the author gives you many examples on how to help with just that.

I think this book would be as beneficial to someone who is just getting into social media sites such as Facebook, as well as those who might want to double-check on the knowledge they already have in this market today. Those already familiar with social media will find that the Dave discusses many nuances and intricacies that they might not have realized before. You will learn many things about Facebook you might not have known before picking up this book, and at the least will gain a new appreciation for the way this author cover some of the material. One example is Facebook Ads, and who they target. The author explains through the use of case studies and specific examples of the ways you will choose your target audience. This is GOLD for anyone who is not necessarily new to this concept, but is to new social media networking.

A few, somewhat negative, things I would say are, to begin with, the lack of anything that was REALLY earth shattering for me. At times, Dave will repeat himself, especially when you get more than half way through the book. When I was done with the book, or at any time throughout reading the book, I did not change anything that I was currently doing with any of the social media sites that I use. That does not mean it will not be that way for someone else who has less experience with social media applications, it just was that way for me.

All in all I think this book was worth the time I put into it and I would recommend it to anyone that was interested in the betterment of their marketing strategies for Social Networking. Also, it would be an obvious choice for those who are looking to broaden their knowledge of making Social Networking move their business forward in the market as it stands today, prepare for what might be available in the future, and to help strengthen an employer’s training materials, cross group communication, and online help. This book is by no means a “one stop shop”. There are other books out there that can help with the same subjects. This book however is written well, very informative, and easy to follow. Just for those things alone, I would have to give it two big thumbs up.

Had no idea what to make a ScreenR video on...

I must admidt, this assignment had me STUMPED. I looked EVERYWHERE for my photos that I had taken back when I started making Raw Food, but all I could find were ones that were the end result of the dish, and none that showed the process of making the food. So what I decided to do was a quick run through of Windows Movie Maker for Windows 7. I had spent a TON of time making these videos for my wifes mother and thought it might be something interesting to go through. So I made a ScreenR video of a video editing/movie making software. (0.o) It is rough, and this was by far the best version of the video. I kept deleting and starting over, deleting and starting over. Scripting it made it worse and I finally just relaxed and tried to fit as much info in a 5 minute video. So here it is. Hope you all are not too bored out of your minds.

The Slideshow of Good Stuff

So this is a slideshow of the photos that I have uploaded to Flickr. Most of these pictures were taken with our Camera and one is a piece of Art, drawn by yours truly. As I thought about what kind of photos expressed the way I am trying to move in my pursuit of healthy living, I remembered all the photos I took of the food that my wife and I were eating as we became Raw Vegans over three years ago. Since then, I have let my diet lax and now am trying desperately to get back on track. As I remembered all the time and effort that went into these foods, and also the many hours of design and creative thought that went into the art, it gave me more momentum to keep moving in the direction that I need to for myself, my wife, and my children. I decided to add the Art because my wife and I had been trying to have children for over 6 years before going Raw Vegan. One year later, my wife got pregnant. I will always believe that what we put into our bodies is what we are, and it struck me that it is also what our children will start from as they grow in their mother’s womb. Pretty deep yo!