Power Friending by Amber Mac (Read via Physical Book)
This book is about everything social media. I actually would consider it a modern introductory bible of how to build an online presence. I do admit this book is mainly geared toward businesses, but still can’t be ignored for personal use. That is the thing. Amber goes into everything from websites, to twitter. On top of that, a good potion of the book is quick case studies of some of the more famous blunders, and some success stories as well.
This books does go hand in had with Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush it. Both are equally as good for different reasons. You really should read Gary’s book just for the level of passion he has, and what impact that has. Then read Amber’s book and use it as a blueprint to start defining your online identity.
The only note I have is I believe that this social media world is just in its infancy. As a thinker, I am still not sold on company brand as a real person that people what to directly interact with. The key is how to you obtain personal communication from a brand? I don’t like it when a company randomly tweets me something without knowing who it’s coming from. I guess there are two types of communication. One of a mass, generic one. Where we interact in broad strokes. To continue the twitter example, it would be a generic Comcast account. Then you have a more intimate direct layer of communication were you have you technicians sending out messages directly to solve problems. On this second tier of messaging who owns these accounts? Because as a Employee, I would want to keep my following but then as company, I consider that company property. Then again how valuable is the following, they they are only following you to get support.
I guess this goes back to the classic ‘Client list’. Especially when a valuable person leaves the company as takes his clients with him. There in lies the dilemma of a suggestion Amber made. Putting all of your Social media contacts in your footer. It’s a built in conflict of interest. I can put in my linked in, twitter, and facebook. Why not my personal email address then? I have business then I have personal. This is the same thing with a Cell Phone. Who owns the cellphone number? It’s the question of ownership… Would a company allow me to put my personal Twitter ID in my Company twitter description field if I wanted to? I really don’t know how its going to balance out, but I do see it slowly changing. A person I follow with great interest is Julia Roy. She now is a senior manager at Coach and seem to be really rocking that balance well.
10/10
