After finishing “The Art of Social Media” last week, the
next book to read is “Social Media Marketing Workbook” by Jason McDonald. The
humor in Chapter 1 made reading less miserable. It read less like a workbook
and more like a friendly conversation.
Chapter 1 uses the analogy of hosting versus attending a
party to best explain the difference between marketing on and using social
media. The example may not have been necessary for every reader to grasp the
importance of what was being said, but it helped me to better connect the ideas
to the messages. McDonald stated that invitations to a party are like
promotions for a company, entertainment is like content, and hosting is like
on-going management. It is a very clever comparison that is informative enough
to learn from while also being enjoyable enough to forget how dry the material
could be.
Continuing with the party analogy, McDonald explains the
illusion behind every great party and social media marketing page. At first
glance, things seem effortless and random, but there are several people constantly
keeping events and plans on track while making sure it looks great. I believe
this is important to keep in mind when looking at different companies on social
media platforms. There is an agenda the company has to grab attention, and
nothing happens on accident. We must be able to emulate these approaches to best
get results for the company.
I appreciate the book being up-to-date. While “The Art of
Social Media” was knowledgeable and informative when it came out, it has since
become outdated. A noticeable chunk of information has become, what I believe
to be, common knowledge among social media users. With the “Social Media
Marketing Workbook,” the author uses humor to introduce the basics of the
internet. Having to include the tips is necessary as a foundation to lay future
information. While most know the magnificent search engine that is Google, McDonald
introduces it to further explain its importance as a tool some may overlook for
social media marketing.
Being up-to-date is an important part of understanding how
to effectively use social media. The previous book was unable to contain
relevant interests to most consumers on the different platforms. Seeing memes
in the “Social Media Marketing Workbook” was a shock. It was surprising for me to
read the author believes using memes could be advantageous to a company’s
social media pages. Memes are often seen as unprofessional or inappropriate,
but McDonald has a great point. In order to best reach the broadest audience on
social media, you have to post things they would be interested in. As the one deciding
what to post on the company’s pages, you must be able to keep up with the
everchanging interests of the consumers.
The use of memes touches on a later topic discussed in the
chapter about using and considering emotion when posting. McDonald writes that
you have to be able to consider the emotions of readers to better gauge their
interests.
Chapter 1 covers many topics in a shortish span. There are
many useful tips to be found in the chapter. Hopefully, this is a running theme
throughout the entirety of the book.
