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The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users Hardcover – Illustrated, December 4, 2014
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But there’s no one quite like Guy Kawasaki, the legendary former chief evangelist for Apple and one of the pioneers of business blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, Tumbling, and much, much more. Now Guy has teamed up with Peg Fitzpatrick, who he says is the best social-media person he’s ever met, to offer The Art of Social Media—the one essential guide you need to get the most bang for your time, effort, and money.
With over one hundred practical tips, tricks, and insights, Guy and Peg present a bottom-up strategy to produce a focused, thorough, and compelling presence on the most popular social-media platforms. They guide you through steps to build your foundation, amass your digital assets, optimize your profile, attract more followers, and effectively integrate social media and blogging.
For beginners overwhelmed by too many choices as well as seasoned professionals eager to improve their game, The Art of Social Media is full of tactics that have been proven to work in the real world. Or as Guy puts it, “great stuff, no fluff.”
- Print length208 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPortfolio
- Publication dateDecember 4, 2014
- Dimensions5.21 x 0.87 x 7.3 inches
- ISBN-109781591848073
- ISBN-13978-1591848073
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Peg Fitzpatrick is a social media strategist innovating the world of social media. She’s spearheaded successful social-media campaigns for Motorola, Google, Audi, Canva, and Virgin. When she dies and meets Saint Peter, the first thing he’ll say is, “I follow you on Pinterest.” Visit www.pinterest.com/PegFitzpatrick
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.
READ THIS FIRST
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Guy Kawasaki
Peg Fitzpatrick
July 2014
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.
1
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Let’s start with the basics. All social-media platforms provide a “profile” page for you to explain who you are. This is for biographical information and images. An effective profile is vital because people use it to make a snap judgment about your account.
The goal of a profile is to convince people to pay attention to your social-media activities. Essentially, it is a résumé for the entire world to see and judge. This chapter explains how to optimize your profile to maximize its effectiveness.
1. Pick a Neutral Screen Name
Before we work on your profile, let’s pick a good screen name. Today’s clever name, such as @MartiniMom or @HatTrickHank, is tomorrow’s regret, and you’re not going to work for the same company forever, so @GuyMacEvangelist is risky too. Imagine it’s two years from now and you’re looking for a job. Now pick a name.
You probably already have a screen name, but the longer you use a lousy one, the harder it will be to change it later, and the more negative effects it will cause. Our recommendation is that you use a simple and logical screen name. In my case, that’s “Guy Kawasaki,” not “G. Kawasaki,” “GT Kawasaki,” or “G. T. Kawasaki.” This is not the place for cleverness or complexity, so make it easy for people to find and remember you.
2. Optimize for Five Seconds
People do not study profiles. They spend a few seconds looking and make a snap decision. If this were online dating, think Tinder (swipe right for yes, swipe left for no) versus eHarmony (complete the Relationship Questionnaire).
Your profile should give the impression that you are likable, trustworthy, and competent. Platforms provide space for this information:
• Avatar. This is a small circular or square picture of you or your logo.
• “Cover” (Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn) or “header” (Twitter). This picture is the largest graphic element in a profile and visually tells your story.
• Biographical text. This is a summary of your education and work experience.
• Links. This is a list of links to your blog, website, and other social-media accounts.
3. Focus Your Avatar on Your Face
A good avatar does two things. First, it validates who you are by providing a picture, so people can see which Guy Kawasaki you are. (God help us if there is more than one.) Second, it supports the narrative that you’re likable, trustworthy, and competent.
Your face provides the most data about what kind of person you are. Thus your avatar shouldn’t show your family, friends, dog, or car, because there isn’t room. This also means you should not use a logo or graphic design unless the avatar is for an organization.
Here are three additional avatar tips:
• Go asymmetrical. Symmetry makes a picture less interesting, so don’t stick your face exactly in the middle. Divide a picture into thirds and place your eyes near one of the vertical lines.
• Face the light. The source of light should come from in front of you. If the light comes from behind you, your face will probably be underexposed unless you force a fill flash on your camera or use a photo editor.
• Think big. When people scan posts and comments, they see your avatar at a postage-stamp size. When they click on it, however, they should see a big, crisp photo, so upload a picture that is at least 600 pixels wide.
4. Stick with One Picture
If companies used different logos in different places, mass confusion would reign. Your picture is your social-media logo, so use the same one everywhere. This will help people recognize you on social-media platforms and reduce questions about whether, for example, @GuyKawasaki on Twitter is +GuyKawasaki on Google+.
5. Craft a Mantra
Most platforms enable you to add a tagline to your profile. Make this a mantra—two to four words that explain why you or your organization exists. For example, my mantra is “I empower people.” Here are four theoretical mantras for companies:
• Nike: authentic athletic performance
• FedEx: peace of mind
• Google: democratizing information
• Canva: democratizing design
Finally, for the sake of consistency, ensure that your tagline/mantra is the same on every service.
6. Tell Your Story
In addition to an avatar, platforms permit a second, larger photo, called a “cover” (Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn) or a “header” (Twitter). Its purpose is to tell a story and communicate information about what’s important to you. This is where you can show a photo of your family, dog, car, product, or passion.
Platforms change the optimal dimensions of avatars and cover/header photos all the time, so we monitor what the platforms do and regularly update in a blog post called “Quick Tips for Great Social Media Graphics.” Refer back to it whenever you want to know what’s optimal.
The cover is also a place where you can blow your social-media credibility by not changing the default design that platforms provide. If you don’t add a custom photo, you are screaming that you are clueless about social media. (There’s an entire chapter about cluelessness coming up.)
You can have more fun and display more creativity with your cover photo than with your avatar. You can also change it more often. With my cover photo, I’m trying to tell a story that I am significant enough to make speeches.
7. Get a Vanity URL
You can get a vanity URL for your Google+, Facebook, or LinkedIn account. That means people will see this kind of link:
https://plus.google.com/+GuyKawasaki/posts
If you don’t get a vanity URL, people will see this kind of link, which is much harder to remember:
https://plus.google.com/+112374836634096795698/posts
Here are the instructions for Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Like domain names, it’s too late to get many vanity URLs, but almost anything is better than twenty-one random numbers. Also, coming up with a vanity URL is a good test of your cleverness, so an inability or unwillingness to do so impugns your intellectual prowess.
8. Finish the Job
People will make a snap decision based on your avatar, tagline, and cover/header photo and will subsequently follow, learn more about, or ignore you. If they decide to follow or learn more, they will read the rest of your profile. That is why you need to complete your profile. Google+, for example, enables you to provide introductory text, contact information, and links.
9. Go Pro
Everyone and everything on Facebook has an “account.” Each account has a personal “Timeline,” and it can also manage “Pages.” Your personal Timeline can have up to five thousand “friends” and unlimited “followers” who can see your public posts. Pages can have unlimited “likes,” and they support more types of ads. You can read about the differences between Timelines and Pages here.
Google+ has similar conventions. “Profiles” are for individuals, and “pages” are for commercial entities, celebrities, and artists. You can read about the differences between these “identities” here.
If you’re going to use social media for business, you have no choice but to use a Page/page on both platforms—for example, Facebook’s terms of service warn that using a personal Timeline for business (as opposed to a Page) can result in the closure of your account.
Fortunately, Facebook enables you to convert a personal Timeline to a Page. You can also convert a Page back to a personal Timeline should you change your mind. Google+ enables you to create a new page from an account, but not to convert a profile to a page without an act of God.
Generally speaking, you should go pro with a page if you’re using social media for business, because of added capabilities such as multiple administrators and extensive analytics. For Google+ in particular, sharing posts with external services such as Buffer, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite is much, much, much better with a page.
10. Go Anonymous
When you’re happy with your profile, our final recommendation is that you view it in an “incognito window.” This is a browser window that hides your identity. Viewing your profile this way means that you will see it the way other people do.
To get an incognito window in Chrome, launch “New Incognito Window” from the File menu. There’s a way to do this in every browser. Search Google for “anonymous” plus your browser name to find out how.
2
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.
MARK TWAIN
The biggest daily challenge of social media is finding enough content to share. We call this “feeding the Content Monster.” There are two ways to do this: content creation and content curation.
Content creation involves writing long posts, taking pictures, or making videos. Our experience is that it’s difficult to create more than two pieces of content per week on a sustained basis, and two pieces are not enough for social media. Helping you master content creation is outside the scope of this book.
Content curation involves finding other people’s good stuff, summarizing it, and sharing it. Curation is a win-win-win: you need content to share; blogs and websites need more traffic; and people need filters to reduce the flow of information. Helping you feed—indeed satiate—the Content Monster is the purpose of this chapter.
11. Make a Plan
Product details
- ASIN : 1591848075
- Publisher : Portfolio; Illustrated edition (December 4, 2014)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 208 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781591848073
- ISBN-13 : 978-1591848073
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.21 x 0.87 x 7.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #961,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #369 in Social Media Guides
- #1,119 in Web Marketing (Books)
- #1,689 in E-Commerce (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Meet Peg Fitzpatrick, a bestselling author in social media who guides small businesses with practical and effective marketing strategies. As the co-author of “The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users” alongside Silicon Valley icon Guy Kawasaki, Peg brings a wealth of knowledge in entrepreneur-focused social media strategies.
Get Pumped for Peg Fitzpatrick's Latest Book - The Art of Small Business Social Media: A Blueprint for Marketing Success. Please add to your TBR lists!
Peg's career includes impressive collaborations with brands like TJMaxx, where she shared platforms with influential figures such as Laila Ali and Barbara Corcoran. A notable milestone was serving as Canva's inaugural head of social strategy. Her expertise in orchestrating successful social media campaigns is evident from her past projects with prominent names like Audi, Motorola, Google, and Virgin. Moreover, Peg has been a dynamic brand ambassador for companies such as Kimpton Hotels and Nestle.
Her expertise and real-world application of her teachings set her books apart. She's pre-tested every social media tip and tool, so you don't have to.
Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. Formerly, he was an advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and chief evangelist of Apple. He is also the author of APE, What the Plus!, Enchantment, and nine other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book provides straightforward information and useful tips for social media. They find it a practical guide that gives a great foundation for social networking. The text is simple and easy to read, with helpful links to resources. Readers consider the book worth the price and appreciate the step-by-step approaches to tasks.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book provides straightforward information and practical tips for designing and launching effective social media. They say it's an easy-to-understand guide that helps them refine their approach and improve results. The book is described as a good set of techniques and processes for taking action.
"...This book has a wealth of information you will refer back to from time to time as needed...." Read more
"...of Social Media provides great insights and clear direction on implementing a social media strategy that gets engagement...." Read more
"...It included a wealth of information and power tips that generated an inexhaustible stream of ideas...." Read more
"...social media for business for a few years this book will help you to refine your approach and improve your results." Read more
Customers find the book provides practical guidance on social media. They say it's a great foundation for social networking and provides tips for designing and launching effective social media campaigns. The book is described as a mini-social media for beginners, with step-by-step instructions.
"...It will be your go-to resource for social media and will put you ahead of many, especially those who choose not to get their own copy and digest the..." Read more
"The Art of Social Media provides great insights and clear direction on implementing a social media strategy that gets engagement...." Read more
"...The book is the quintessential blend of what works on Social Media and what doesn't work. It is a treasure chest of one gem after another...." Read more
"...anyone interested in connecting, engaging and building relationships on the social media platforms. Yes, it's that good!" Read more
Customers find the book easy to read and digest in 2-3 hours. They appreciate the straightforward approach and practical tips on managing social media. The presentation is good, and the book is accessible and useful.
"...This book is straight forward, and I love that about it...." Read more
"...heard Guy Kawasaki, you have been missing out on his smooth and funny writing style. My review headline is accurate...." Read more
"...Quick, easy to read and would recommend to anyone interested in learning more about how to use social media!" Read more
"...things -without the links- would be desparate! The book reads fine and fast, and requires no more than 2-3 hours of your time...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's links. They find the hyperlinks useful for exploring each platform. The Kindle version is packed with hyperlinks, making it a valuable resource.
"This is a pretty good source for those trying to become social media savvy...." Read more
"...I was shocked by the many web links to "free" resource information provided by the author...." Read more
"...There are a TON of hyperlinks with no explanation - so you completely miss out on whatever was trying to be illustrated, and almost everything..." Read more
"...Having said that, I can honestly report that I picked up many new valuable resources, tips and approaches that I didn't know (or forgot about)..." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's value for money. They say the third-party resources alone are worth the price of purchase and more.
"...This alone is worth it's weight in gold. The book is the quintessential blend of what works on Social Media and what doesn't work...." Read more
"...And the "How to 'Peg' Your Blog Posts" checklist is worth the price of the book alone." Read more
"...easy to read, it takes you abou 1.5 h. Worth the 99c price I paid but I will doubt anything higher than that" Read more
"...So far, I'm learning a lot and feel that it was totally worth the price...." Read more
Customers find the book provides step-by-step strategies that are easy to implement. They appreciate the practical advice and real-time links.
"...is like a mini- social media for dummies in that it contains rather step by step approaches to the following tasks...." Read more
"...they were in this book making it a great 'how-to' and it is easy to follow. They also include an appendix of apps and services...." Read more
"Do-able, practical information, advice and real-time links to more details/examples from the first page and all through the book...." Read more
"This was a great, easy, read. Guy and Peg lay it out for you in a step by step manner how to make your social media get engaged." Read more
Reviews with images
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Your Social Media Library is Incomplete Without this Book!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2015I read a lot of mix reviews about this book. A lot of the bad ones refer to the fact that Guy Kawasaki has already a growing fan base were is "fairly easy" to try and experiment with the way content goes, and it's not really helpful for people just starting, and that he only advices about pages he has already tried and/or he works for.
- I don't think going viral is easy. Nor predictable. So I appreciate when someone offers his advice on how he does things, although it doesn't relate completely with what I do. Guy does posts on technology and social media. I have an architecture based page, but I can apply his advice to my situation.
- Tips and advices are not to take literally, its not a science where 2+2=4. He does say in the book no one can be called an expert, because you can't predict how social media is going to be.
- He does advice to use Canva, for instante, a company he works for, and I think for someone who doesn't have a design background is a great app. But If you don't want to use, then don't. Simple as that.
- Of course he has a huge fanbase... Would you take advice of someone who doesn't have a huge fanbase?
- Yes, there's a lot of books about social media. I've read a few and I can honestly say that is really hard to find someone that says things so clear. I want to know how to do things. I don't want definitions of what is social media or whatever. This book is straight forward, and I love that about it.
- Nobody seems to be talking about Peg Fitzpatrick, the best discovery of this book.
- And finally, I believe this book is for someone with a small to medium size fanbase, and its a great tool to engage those people even further.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2015Is social media a science or is it an art? Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick contend it is an art and make a strong case to support that in The Art of Social Media. It is true there are tools that can and should be used if you are going to maximize your presence and reach on social media today. You will learn about many of those but applying and using those tools along with your own common sense is more of an art.
Take, for example, this quote from the book,
“At its foundation, social media is simple: if you share good stuff.”
But how do you find good stuff to share and how then do you share it and when is the best time to share it and how many times do you share it? All of these questions are answered in The Art of Social Media.
This book has a wealth of information you will refer back to from time to time as needed. It will be your go-to resource for social media and will put you ahead of many, especially those who choose not to get their own copy and digest the information for themselves.
I love this advice given regarding comments.
“I have a one-strike rule: I delete inappropriate comments (profanity, racism, and off-topic rabbit holes) and flag trolls and spammers on the first occurrence without hesitation. Life is too short to deal with orifices.”
Were you aware how many pictures you can share with a tweet?
“You can add up to four pictures to a tweet, which is sweet.”
And, in those photos…
“Tag People in Your Photos You can tag up to ten people per photo, and the tag doesn’t affect the character count of your tweet.”
You will learn how to optimize your posts for most of the major social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, SlideShare and YouTube.
There is much too much information in this book to try to even hit the highlights in a review. Let me just give you my recommendation. I have read it and think it is well worth the cost if improving your presence and engagement on social media is something you desire either for your personal blog traffic, much like me, or for your business. This is an invaluable resource that will help you achieve that goal. Get yours today!
- Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2015The Art of Social Media provides great insights and clear direction on implementing a social media strategy that gets engagement.
Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick lift the hood on what works from big picture concepts down to very specific guidelines like picture size, number of characters in your post, and how often to post.
If you have never read or heard Guy Kawasaki, you have been missing out on his smooth and funny writing style. My review headline is accurate. I devoured this book in one day and will refer to it again and again.
As a marketing professional, I appreciate that Guy and Peg validate the advice I've been giving to my clients.
Here are just some of the gems:
"Do you want to be NPR or QVC?"
"My theory is that if you're not pissing people off on social media, you're not using it right."
"If a blog post is not worth sharing, it's not worth writing."
"If you want more followers, earn them with the quality of your posts."
"If I had a choice of someone either following me on a social-media platform or subscribing to my e-mail list, I would pick the e-mail list any day. This is because I am more confident that a person will read an e-mail than see a post."
Do yourself a favor and buy this book today.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2015This is a pretty good source for those trying to become social media savvy. It's not very thorough in practice or theory, but it does get you started.
I would, however, like to point out that this book does a little too much self-promotion; to the point where it makes me queasy. Guy likes to drop links for his other books, talk about his meetings with other 'important' people and generally use examples that make him look good. It can be a little annoying for someone who is starting at social media score '0' to see a guy with thousands of followers dropping self-important breadcrumbs in his own books. It begs one to ask, "Why do you need to be promoting yourself? I've already bought the stupid book, ok!"
Top reviews from other countries
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Jeremy BorotReviewed in France on January 21, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent et pertinent
A rééditer d'urgence en version française imprimée. Peut-être en mettant à jour la partie sur Google+. Je voulais en acheter 200 exemplaires pour toutes mes équipes de vente... Mais il n'y a que la version Kindle. Dommage. Le contenu est top cepdendant. Guy Kawasaki est pertinent et divertissant. Comme d'habitude.
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Manuel AntonioReviewed in Mexico on June 29, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
Como todos los otros libros de este visionario, es un manual para todo aquel que quiera dejar al grueso de personas y volverse alguien de elite
- ThoshalReviewed in India on January 14, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars ... this book would be my life's one of the best book and first priority goes to this book
I must say this book would be my life's one of the best book and first priority goes to this book. This book is really interesting and helpful to the people who wants to succeed in the social media field. And it would be really helpful to implement the things in real time as well. I just started reading this book a month back but i feel that this book will be really helpful to me in Future.
Thanks Guy & Peg :D
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BertholdReviewed in Spain on September 24, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy recomendable
Lo he comprado como regalo para mi mujer, y está encantada con el libro. Dice que el contenido es muy interesante y actual y lo utiliza para mejorar sus estrategias de SMM
- Greg SilasReviewed in Canada on November 21, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars how-to book for social media marketing
Detailed methodology (step by step) on how to post on each main form of social media. Very good content but the actual book has small font and lacks colours...but that's a small point. This book is the how-to for social media marketing