The book ‘The Art of Social Media’ has been written by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick. The book’s voice though (whenever in first person) is that of Guy Kawasaki’s. You can refer to hyperlinks of both authors to check their bios and credentials. And why their narrative in understanding this world of social media matters today.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail– Ralph Waldo Emerson

The book begins with this quote, setting the perfect tone for your understanding of social media. Authors have specified time and again that their writing is only to serve as guidelines and not words written in stone while navigating the internet space.

What are the top ten things I learned from the book?

Optimise your Profiles for five seconds

A profile picture that focuses on your face. A great cover photo given it has the most visual space on your profile. And a bio that highlights your achievements rather quickly and crisp. A user takes only a five seconds to toss or take your brand.

Social Media is never a ‘Pick me, Pick me’

You do not ask people to follow you or your blog. You do not ask people to share your posts (in exchange or otherwise) and you do no put yourself out there wanting to be picked. Social media is not pick me, pick me. It is ‘I am here and you might like to pick me’.

Promote Content on Profile

Three things I learned about Content Curation- Schedule your posts four times on profile (book has statistics backing same). Promote content of people you follow else there is no way you can justify the connection. Much rather un-follow in that case. And most importantly, promote your own content. If you do not believe in your own work, no one else should.

Be Defiant

Not that I needed to hear this. But still out there in the book it looked pretty. And so soothing. Do your own thing. break molds all the time.

You cannot defeat thousands of engineers at Google

“In our opinion most search engine optimisation (SEO) is bullshit.” Rest my case with that.

Don’t be a Pimp

I am not saying this. The book is 😀 They stress on the fact that you should not use your social media profile to only promote brands, services or posts. Every once in a while be you. Give things and ideas for free. They will be rewarding in the end.

Blogging and Social Media are complementary

Guy Kawasaki himself accepted that back in early 2000s he stopped blogging because he, like many others, thought blogging was dead. But it has not been so. Blogging is here to stay. And social media will never wipe it out, only act as the perfect partner in building stronger brands.

Delete, Block report

In our new age of trolls everywhere. And our profiles mostly public, to serve our personal brands better. These words are much needed. “You don’t have a moral obligation to engage with them and there’s little advantage to lowering yourself to their level.”

How to rock a Twitter Chat

Yes there is a chapter titled that 😀 And much needed by me of course. What was the best tip offered in it? If you want to rock a twitter chat, you better type fast 😀 And it couldn’t have been more true. I laughed a good minute or two reading it.

Don’t make assumptions

This arrive in the last chapter as some of the last bits of the book. Nothing more has been added to these words from side of authors, just a bye bye line. But to me that is the crux of the book i.e ‘The Art of Social Media’. Discover your own tune that could be social media symphony for many.

Please remember that this book standing at about 185 pages cannot be encompassed in a blog post. And hence this should in no way serve as an escape to not reading this. It has plenty left that you might find a lot more useful than these ten points. So go ahead and pick up this one whenever you have time!

P. S The views of extreme appreciation maybe a little biased given the authors have showed distaste for Facebook as a social media platform in more than one place in the book. Something shared by this blogger as well 😀

Connecting it with #MondayMusings