Book review: Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Paul Gillin

This is Paul’s second book on this topic after his bestseller The New Influencers. Secrets of Social Media Marketing you can read very quickly in case you are already familiar with most social media marketing trends. In fact you probably won’t need to read the book then as it is mostly written for people who are new to this subject. Not surprisingly the social media networks he talks about are 99% based in the US also simply because that’s where most of the action happens on this topic. I read the book because I thought I could find some ideas on how to promote a soon to come out Extendance-sponsored  e-book on European high-tech marketing tips and tricks. And I found a few things that we will try out now and see if it helps the goal of making the e-book known to a special target group. Paul’s book is full of “secrets” which are displayed as side notes. See from the sample list below if you can learn anything and if so then the book is certainly worth your time or maybe you get it for your employees whom you think should catch up on this. I will buy it as a gift for some clients and prospects. Here now some samples of Paul’s “secrets”:

• “When marketing on MySpace, get a kid to help.”
• “The most popular social networks in overseas markets are almost unknown in the U.S.”
• “Social networks resist marketing messages and they are currently some of the least effective social media marketing platforms.”
• “A safe approach to blogging is to answer frequently asked questions.”
• “Blogs are your best bet for controlling the conversation.”
• “Use “site” and “link” to drill down on search.”
• “Podcasts work well in b-to-b communications.”
• “Photo-sharing sites are one of the great underused resources for finding influencers and groups.”
• “Use Twitter to broadcast limited-time specials like temporary discounts.”
• “Regularly scheduled online events keep community members coming back.”
• “A tiny percentage of your members will contribute most of the content.”
• “Engage, don’t sell.”
• “Google is the great equalizer. You are potentially as important as source as The New York Times.”
• “No one has figured out a formula for “going viral”. Don’t even try.”
• “Give video a homegrown feel to make it look more genuine.”
• “Syndicate everywhere.”