How to Measure Social Media – Book Review
I am a huge fan of social media and use it constantly for promoting my content and personal brand. Social media is a multifaceted beast, and there are as many uses of it as there are people who engage with it. For companies and other organizations it has been a very mixed bag. For the most part they’ve struggled to understand how social media can help them with the traditional marketing objectives – brand exposure, lead generation, conversion, etc. There are currently hundreds of books out there that try to teach you about social media, but most of them are more fluff then substance. This is decidedly not the case with “How to Measure Social Media.” It is by far the most substantive and to-the-point book on the subject that I’ve come across.
Most of the book deals with the rationale and the effectiveness of various approaches to the social media. It explains very clearly how to go about your goals and how to persuade the executive team in your company to approve and invest in various forms of social media marketing. I found the last couple of chapters very useful in particular as they give examples of various software packages and services that can help you with your social media strategies. Most of these are geared towards the use by large corporations, but there is also a chapter on how to use a particular low-cost alternative. The book is very critical of various aspects of these services, and it tries to give you the best information on what really works for your social media purposes.
This book is clearly geared towards the use of social media for in large businesses. I would have liked more info on the use with small businesses, non-profit organizations, or individuals who are trying to build their own social brand. Some of the insights and techniques in this book can be extrapolated to those situations as well, but for the most part they would be an overkill.
If you are involved with the marketing strategy for a medium to a large company then this book is a must. Today you cannot afford to ignore the social media, nor can you afford to experiment and improvise with the social media strategy. This book will provide you with important insights and ideas that will greatly help you and your company with devising a measurable social media strategy.
About the Author
Bojan Tunguz
Bojan Tunguz was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he and his family fled during the civil war for the neighboring Croatia. Over the past two decades he has studied, lived and worked in the United States. He is a theoretical physicist with degrees from Stanford and University of Illinois. Tunguz has taught physics at several prominent liberal arts colleges and has been writing about physics, science and technology for more than a decade. He also has a wide spectrum of interests, and reads and writes about current events, society, culture, religion and politics. Over the years he has reviewed many of the books that he has read, and posted his reviews on various online outlets. In 2011 he had become a top 10 reviewer on Amazon.com, where he continues to be very active. Aside from reading and writing, Tunguz enjoys traveling, digital photography, hiking, and fitness. He resides with his wife in Indiana. You can follow my review updates on the following pages as well: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tunguzreview Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tunguzreviews Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104312842297641697463/posts
Bojan – Thank you so much for taking the time to post such a thoughtful and thorough review of my book. I agree the book could do more to talk about small business and the non-profit space, however I’ll admit that isn’t a world I travel much in. Perhaps if we update it in the future I will bring in a small business expert to assist and include supplements to the chapters targeted just for them.
Again, thank you so much for the feedback. I’m thrilled you enjoyed the book! Keep rockin’ the awesome.
Nichole
Thank you Nichole – I really appreciate your comment. As I said, I really enjoyed the book, it was the first one I came across that didn’t treat social media marketing as some kind of magical “black box” but gave informative, quantifiable and actionable advice. It really showed your wealth of real-world experience. If you ever come up with something more geared towards individuals or small businesses please let me know – I would love to read it (and review it!)
Bojan