Social Media 101 Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online by Chris Brogan

Social Media 101 Tactics and Tips To Develop Your Business Online by Chris Brogan.




This book originates in tips from the blog http://www.chrisbrogan.com/  . Chris Brogran is giving 87 actionable steps for business to use social media. Each step gives specific tactics to improve outcomes for business.



On most of the pages of the book, there are footnotes with links to website or online articles. This makes it easy to find interesting social media sites. For example, Chris Brogan sites meetup http://www.meetup.com/  and upcoming http://upcoming.yahoo.com/  as places to look for events.



In each of the 87 different sections there are many bulleted lists with things you can do with social media. This creates a large volume of ideas to draw from. It is very hard not to find something useful. For example, he suggested that a thin header for a blog makes a site more visible.



The book is designed so you can easily pick and choose what you are interested in. For example, I am not that interested in photoblogging or doing youtube videos, but I am interested in tips on what to do at social media gatherings and how to build a loyal, consistent readership. Chris Brogan suggested that I get a business card on heavy paper stock with my blog name on it to hand out at meetings. He also reminded the reader to post almost every single day.



Social Media 101 is a very upbeat book. Chris Brogan is using the tech evangelist style. This means he smoothes over some of the rough spots in social media. He does not go into how to protect your privacy, or secure your site from hackers. There is no mention of that twitter spammer taking over your account, or that denial of service attack because you posted something that another blogger didn't like. He does tell bloggers to accept negative comments if they are not derogatory.



He wants you to have headshot, put down your cell phone prominently on your site, and link to a lot of different sites. Maybe, I need to be enigmatic and not post my photograph and prefer to contact people via email. It is easier for me. 



If you want a book that is focused on branding, marketing, public relations, sales, and customer services this book is for you. He is very much writing about how to reach out to people using popular networks like twitter, facebook, linkedin, flickr, youtube, and meetup. He even includes a lot of smaller networks like meebo, tumblr, and reddit.



The book was very easy to read. Chris Brogan is writing in an open style that focuses on self disclosure. His layout uses lots of bullet points, lists, bolded headings, and numbered sections. It is very action oriented. The writing is meant for people who produce content online.  I found it useful.