A Review of "The Art of Social Media"

I would suggest "The Art of Social Media" by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick for anyone working or planning to work in the public relations field. The book is tailored toward people using many different platforms of social media to promote a company or a brand. Some of the tips in the book can be applied to personal use but this is not a book that teaches you how to use social media tools. The book gives tips for optimizing the use of different social media platforms and creating the best content for each platform. 

The book is a quick read and offers over 100 tips which you may or may not use. When I read the book, I found there were some tips that seemed like common sense and I feel they did not need to be stated in the book. An example of a common-sense tip is asking yourself if other people would reshare your post before you post. To me if you don't think other people would repost it than why would you be posting it in the first place? However, the book is full of tips I had not even thought of when considering different platforms of social media. An example of this is to wear solid colors and avoid stripes when you are on a platform such as google hangouts where you are on video. The stripes can create an optical illusion where the image looks wavy instead of clean.

The book doesn't cover every type of social media platform currently available, but a lot of the principles are used on other types of social media platforms may be applicable for platforms not covered in the book. For example, Snapchat is not a topic covered in the book, but it is a tool some business can use for promotion such as making a filter with the company’s name for an event being held. The tips the book gives for videos and pictures could apply to the use of Snapchat for your organization or business. 

"The Art of Social Media" will guide you through the best way to optimize your profile so it is attractive to other viewers. The book will give tips on how to gain more followers. There are tips for naming your blog so it will attract readers, and tips on how to find interesting content if you are running short on ideas. A main focus of the book is to gain more followers, the more followers you have means more people will be reading your content, sharing it, and creating a larger brand awareness. There are also tips on how to deal with your followers and handle their comments. The book not only gives tips on how to use specific social media platforms, it also gives tips on using different platforms for events being held and can be used to promote your business.

Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick did a good job of creating a simple book that covers a broad spectrum of topics. The book is a quick read and will provide you with many tools for the job. No book can give all of the information required to be the most successful user of social media because the field is constantly changing. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just dive in and learn some lessons yourself.