While on a flight from NYC to Atlanta yesterday coming back from APS, I decided to read one of the new books I had heard about from fellow colleagues in social media.
I had a chance to read “The Art of Social Media” by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick. I have done several book reviews over the years and I have recommended them to use for classes or to add to your own personal social media library.
What I have tried to do here is offer my thoughts on what the authors did that was pretty good, and other points on where they could improve or even address on for the next book.
There were a few good things from the book I was able to take away:
- Good beginner foundation for hosting Twitter chats and event planning. I do think this is good to share with fellow colleagues and making sure to have a short hashtag that can cross over to other branded events and the importance of the timing of promotion before, during, and after the event.
- Integrated checklist for brand online: I do think there are some good check points on what people can do to start creating content for themselves and expand their digital presence online. This is a good check list for beginner users of social media.
- Overview of each platform and how to use this platform strategically: I do like the emphasis of using each platform to create and host your online brand presence. This is a good beginner overview of what each platform can do for you and what you can do to establish yourself as a media channel in your respective field. This would be good to share with students. While I do think scheduling content is important to a certain degree, we have to consider quality of content versus quantity. We may be overdoing the scheduling/broadcasting/content pushing mechanisms of social media rather than getting back to the relationship management, conversation platform, and engaging in storytelling. Social media is first and foremost social.
- Emphasis of creating and writing content: Another point professors who teach social media try to emphasize in our classes is the importance of writing and creating content. There was a good checklist of content that needed to be created not only in blog posts, LinkedIn Posts, or tweets – but also Slideshare and other platforms as well. Very useful.
- List of tools and hyperlinks: I got the ebook for this book and I appreciated the list of tools available to me as I was reading the book. A good list of resources is always handy to have to explore, test, and experiment around with content monitoring and search.
- Highlighting a range of professionals using platforms: I got a chance to see some of the more established professionals in the field highlighted in the social media industry (ex. Jay Baer and Mari Smith) here in the book, which is always good to see here.
These were some of the good points I was able to take away from the book. However, like all books, they are not perfect and there were a few things I noticed in the book that surprised me. Here are a few points I would like to share:
- Having two authors, but one voice: This was a little off for me – if you have two authors here for the book, there should be a collaborative voice. There was a more “me, me, me” rather than “we” feel to the book. I think there is a way to have a balanced approach and voice that could work here next time.
- Focused on promoting content rather than creating content: While I think it is important to go over the fundamentals, I was expecting to see more discussion about creating “art” on social media rather than promoting ways to create content. The book has good information, but I thought it was going to be something different. It may have been the title that threw me off just a little bit.
- Making the point about not listening to someone that has less followers than you: I am not sure what to say with this point. What if this person is just starting out in the field and is looking for mentorship? Are you going to tell this person you will not listen to them just because of their follower count? You can learn something from any one. This would not be the approach I would take to handle a community online. On a personal note, I actually stopped following Guy on Twitter in April 2013 because he made a tweet about this very point to another professional in the community during the wake of the Boston Bombing. This was not the time or place for this conversation and I think it could have been handled differently.
- Not consistent with listing of tools: When you consider the title of the book is the art of social media – there are other programs that do pretty much the same features as Canva that were not used. Yes, Guy works at Canva, which is totally understandable and they have a great service and product to offer to the field, but you have to be balanced when you are looking at the tools and services you have here in the book. Listing a TON of tools to use for analytics and specific platforms is one thing, but only having one for image creation is limiting. You have to have a balanced approach in my opinion. Also, there are a lot more academic resources available to look at scholarship on social media than Google Scholar. I’d be happy to share some of these resources with you in case you would be interested.
- Missing next steps and importance of mentorship in social media: While it is important to look at current industry leaders, there was a big missing question mark for me here that I think Guy and Peg may want to address in future books. The social media world is much bigger than just the list of professionals mentioned in the book and there are a TON of great professionals who are great content creators, curators, and professionals in the field. Where does the role of mentorship for the next line of social media professionals come about? How can we use the art and science of social media for mentorship of young professionals entering the field. This is a HUGE opportunity to showcase the young talent coming into the industry. “Mentor,” “mentorship,” or “pay it forward” did not appear once in this book, which spoke volumes to me as a professor.
Initially, this book would be a good addition to your social media toolkit and bookcase.
So, the question is – would I have this required for my social media class?
To be honest, the answer is no. I wouldn’t use this as the main book for my class. However, I usually provide a list of books for students to explore and look at in case they would be interested in further reading on the subject. It’s always good to get different perspectives and experiences in social media to share with students and colleagues.
In summary, I do not believe I will get a response back on this review of their book from Guy or Peg for several reasons. First, based on the point I made above that was noted in the book, I have much lower number of followers as they do on social media. However, I personally believe we can all learn something from anyone – no matter how big or small their following is. That’s just my opinion. Second, I’m a professor and not a practitioner working in an agency or large global company (even though I do consult in social media and crisis communications), so I am not sure if they would view my review as being aligned with what others are saying working in the social media field.
However, I may hear back from them – and if that is the case, I welcome any thoughts both Peg and Guy have about my review and start a conversation about it. I am completely open to have a conversation about it and how we can all come together as a community of professionals to continue the dialogue on the art and science of social media.
Hope you all are having a great day.
Best Wishes,
