A New Guide to Social Media Marketing

I've resisted many of the tools of social media because they appear to be a huge time zapper. Yet repeatedly as I've experimented with the tools, I've found huge benefits and returns on my investment -- often in surprising ways. Paul Gillin is an expert in this medium and you can learn a vast amount of insight from the pages of Secrets of Social Media Marketing.

And my resistance? It is rooted in my resistance to change. Gillin writes in the introduction, "Embracing change is the only sure success strategy in a business world that is evolving faster than we have ever known. Students of the information technology industry know that failure to adapt to change can obliterate even larger and successful companies with blinding speed. In this book, I'll make the case that the changes now roiling the marketing world are the best thing that's ever happened to the profession. Start embracing these changes now, and you'll propel your company and your career to new heights. Deny them, and you'll watch as the skills that have served you well for many years move rapidly toward irrelevance."

That quotation rings true from my experience in the market. It's a small sample of what you will find inside this book. Throughout the book, various secrets are emphasized in simple words. He refers to many websites and tools to help you streamline and be effective with the various social media possibilities. For example, in the chapter Basics of Social Media Content, Gillin writes, "Keep it simple, make it personal and give people a reason to pass it on." (Page 189)

Make full use of this book and return to it over and over. Read it with a highlighter with flags so you can spot the relevant places to apply for your own marketing efforts. My book is lined with these markers from reading this well-crafted book.

I resonated with what Gillin wrote toward the end of his introduction, "Writing a book about a market that's changing so fast is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Any book about this topic is out of date the moment it is published, so I've attempted to distill the lessons learned from the early successes of social media pioneers." He has more than fulfilled this promise.

Throughout this book, Gillin refers to numerous websites and tools. He's made the process of using these tools simple with a website which captures every detail with clickable links and referenced throughout the book. If you can't tell, I got a great deal from reading this book which I will be attempting to apply to my own writing life in the days ahead. You can do likewise if you get and read Secrets of Social Media Marketing.