Mental Monday: The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg

Good morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today’s book I am very excited about is  The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg, this book only came out in April 2010, I found it after reading Tamar’s blog – Techipedia.

I have to say I looooooooooooooooooooove this book, it has so much info it in that I am going to review it in two parts, because I don’t think one will do it justice.

The book starts with explaining what social media marketing is – but in a detailed way that even expert Rabbits (like me) can get something from it, it goes onto look at goal setting then into the actual doing looking at Facebook, Twitter, blogging, bookmarking, podcasts and then pulling it all together.  This is a one stop shop book that I would say is suitable for complete newbies as well as more experienced people.  I like that it has case studies, website suggestions and pictures

Below are my favourite bits from the first 5 chapters of the book (all direct quotes),

• The first 10 years of the Internet Revolution were all about getting computers connected to the World Wide Web.  But the next 10 years are going to be all about getting people connected to each other
• The big idea behind social media marketing that you are focusing on is communication
• social media marketing can achieve one or many of the goals listed:
• Bringing traffic to your website
• driving relevant links to your website
• making consumers brand-aware
• driving conversations
• triggering conversations
• social media marketing facilitates natural discovery of new content
• social media marketing boosts traffic numbers
• social media marketing builds strong relationships
• Conversations about your product are happening online regardless of whether or not you are participating in them
• Gary Vaynerchuk, host of the popular online TV show Wine Library, uses a more appropriate slogan: content is king, but marketing is queen (and the queen rules the household)
• Consider social media marketing your modern day public relations
• Listening is required
• Individuals who post negatively about your product are those who are passionate enough about it to share their dissatisfaction with their readers;they also are looking for people willing and ready to listen
• Blogging can give a struggling company much-needed visibility
• All individuals in the company have a role in communications
• Use a site like www.knowem.com to see which websites you should register your brand name with so that you can then start to claim your reputation on the internet
• As a tool for direct communication, blogs help reinforce faith in your brand
• Blogs are very powerful because they allow you to be more direct with readers and build real relationships with them
• Appeal to your readers on an emotional level and use your blog to present yourself as human and approachable
• When you’re a blogger, your audience is your biggest asset, so it’s important to encourage the audience to participate and also to enlist your readers’ assistance
• Blogging is one of the oldest and most successful approaches to social media, as there are hundreds of thousands of content creators and consumers

That’s the first 5 chapters of the book, so there are 7 more to come.  I really recommend this book it is bumper packed full of resources, ideas and case studies with something for everyone.  If you’ve read it tell me what you thought below….