Book Review: The Art of Social Media

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

By Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick

The title was the first thing that attracted me to this book. Specifically the first three words “The Art of…” I look at most things involving the Internet as an art form not a science. In the grand scheme of things the Internet is SO new that there hasn’t been enough time to write all the rules and turn it into a science.

If the rules ever do get written Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick are probably two of the people who will help write them. In less than 200 pages they lay out the best practices for anyone who is taking their social media seriously.

Guy Kawasaki is the “chief evangelist” at Canva a role he also played at Apple. He is an executive fellow at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and was special adviser to the CEO of the Motorola business unit of Google. Peg Fitzpatrick is a social-media strategist and director of digital media for Kreussler Inc. and spearheaded successful social-media campaigns for Motorola, Google, Audi, and Virgin to name a few.

To get the most from “The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users“ a basic understanding of the major social-media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc…) would be a help, but no in-depth knowledge is necessary to understand this book. By the time you finish you will have more than a basic understand of several social media platforms.

The 12 chapters are broken down into 123 easy to digest segments. I bought the hardcover book, but in hindsight I wish I had gotten it the Kindle version. There are lots of hyperlinks in book to various, examples, apps and services mentioned in the book. I can, and did Google and found the ones I was interested pretty easily, but it was an unnecessary step if I had the digital copy. The book itself is 5” x 71/4” and is very easy to carry around with you. I kept mine in the front pocket of my briefcase for the week it took me to read the book.

I will say, I have read several of the tips before, free on-line. You could probably find most, if not all posted someplace free, but it would take a lot of time and bother to find them all. If you are planning on using social-media for than to kill time at work this book is a great first step to doing things right. If like me you have used social media for business for a few years this book will help you to refine your approach and improve your results.