The New Community Rules – Marketing on the Social Web is a book by prolific blogger and all around social media expert Tamar Weinberg. The back of the book claims to help you “understand how social web technologies work, and learn the most practical and effective ways to reach people who frequent these sites.”
When first picking up the book it is a lot thicker than you would normally expect for a non-technical text. Weighing in at a healthy 346 pages, it is a weighty tome – the reason for this seems to be that the book is designed and written to cater for the majority of different potential users. Rather than just devote the text to those already working in the field, looking to brush up on their knowledge – the book assumes that you have no prior knowledge of the social web technologies discussed and holds your hand through the very basic right up to explaining the more detailed reasons why you might engage with users in a particular way, through to methods for quantifying success and setting targets. Although most of this introductory text was not directly applicable to me – I did use some of the information to help me explain the benefits of the various technologies to other people – and this is where the book really comes into its own. If you work within digital marketing already, but sometimes have a hard time explaining the reasons behind your recommendations or persuading clients to commit to digital marketing campaigns then this book will become a very useful part of your arsenal.
The book covers all the current major players in social web technology; Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and others – all in good detail to the point that if you had never used any of these services before, it would not be too long before you had the knowledge (and to an extent the confidence) to go ahead and start marketing yourself, your business or your products simply and effectively.
In addition to explaining each of the technologies, additional chapters include information on how to work with social bookmarking, building an overall social marketing campaign, etiquette for social marketing and setting goals.
All in all I felt that although I was not really the target audience for this book, I found it very useful. Anyone working in marketing in a sales or account management role would be well advised to give this book a thorough look over – it will really help you engage your clients and back up your assumptions that social marketing is a growing trend that can succeed. Without knowing the basics it will be impossible to sell these services (if you are agency side) or make use of the social networks to your best advantage (client side). There is also something to be had from the book if you are looking to build your own personal brand and promote yourself as an expert in your particular field.
So in summary, if you want to know about social marketing online this is the book for you.
The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg. Published by O’Reilly 2009 ISBN: 978-0-596-15681-7
