Comments on: Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business

By: Rakshit Joshi

Rakshit Joshi — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:13:25 +0000

This is the first book on social media that I had the opportunity to read and I must tell you it was an absolute pleasure. I read each and every word with relish.

The author (Larry Weber) has a great way of putting his thoughts across and it shows that he has done a lot of research both inside the marketing community and outside it. A book replete with relevant examples, it has a basic message: Just do it! It explains how to work with social media networks rather than just ponder over. It changed my mindset that one can learn social media just by going through a textbook. The saying `Learning by doing’ was never more apt for a subject.

It explains that social media is only a tool to help you reach new customers, communicate with customers, and build a good relationship with customers. If you don’t have a clear picture about customers, social media won’t help you. Weber points out that communication through social media is very different from that of traditional marketing. It’s a different communication style. Customers are demanding to be more engaged with the companies that affect their lives and they want to be asked and be involved.

Weber puts in a lot of real industry examples to explain the various advantages and pitfalls of doing marketing through Web2.0. For example he explained why the CEO of Whole Foods was wrong in using an alias and not his real name to post notes on an online message board related to the company performance. This touched off quite a controversy which led to the CEO reverting to his original names while making online comments. It shows transparency is critical if you want customers and stakeholders to trust you and engage in a dialogue with you.

This book is divided into three parts: 1) Introduction to the social web; 2) Ways to build your own customer community on the social web (explains in 7 lucid steps); 3) How to best implement strategies. In fact due to the huge popularity of the book Weber had to come up with a second edition within a year and half.

I highly recommend this book for beginners and marketing professionals alike, which should greatly benefit from the treasures concealed in this book.

Rating: 4 / 5

By: Jerry Saperstein

Jerry Saperstein — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:38:29 +0000

Are you old enough to have lived through all the marketing hype of the 1990s? Remember "disintermediation" and all the other instantly fashionable buzzwords? How about the instant "experts" on how to turn your front lawn lemonade stand into a world straddling colossus because you put up one of those new-fangled websites?

Well the Dot Com boom went bust, but fear not: now we have Web 2.0, 3.0 or whatever and a whole new crop of experts who are ready and willing to tell you how to ride the "social media" wave. Note I did not add "able" to ready and willing.

Larry Weber, we are told, "has spent the last three decades building global communication companies". One of those claims to be "a global marketing services ecosystem that helps CMOs in their new role as builders of communities and content aggregators". In short, author Weber has a dog in this fight. He benefits by establishing a reputation as a "with it" expert.

For anyone with experience in using the web for marketing, there is little new to be found here. The book is a collection of snippets from press releases, magazine and newspaper articles, other books on web marketing and so on. It is typical of the kinds of books authored by advertising, marketing and PR firm honchos to establish their "expertise" and drum up business.

There's nothing wrong with this. David Ogilvy and Rosser Reeves, truly giants of advertising and marketing, wrote books that are still topical several decades later.

Larry Weber, however, is no Ogilvy or Reeves. "Marketing To The Social Web" is a lightweight collection of hints and tips gathered from various sources and peddled as a nostrum for all that ails your social media marketing.

Someone who is almost completely bereft of knowledge about web marketing and social media may find the book illuminating to a degree, but it certainly does not live up to its title.

Jerry
Rating: 3 / 5

By: Christopher Perish

Christopher Perish — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:13:13 +0000

Larry Weber, founder of the MIT Technology Exchange, shares his 30+ years of knowledge from owning communications companies to discuss what it takes to succeed in this new age of marketing. His book boils down the social web marketing process to seven steps.

The book is divided up into three sections. The first section discusses the changes that the world of marketing has changed over the past decade. The age of TV caused people to interact less and just sit at home, but the age of the Internet has caused people to gather together and interact with each other. This changes the way that marketers must target their potential customers. Instead of just putting advertisements in front of viewers, the company must create a channel of communication with the customer.

The second part of the book talks about the seven steps that Webber created to building a customer community. The steps involve researching customers, creating a place for them to gather, helping encourage conversation, and finishes by evaluating for future improvements.

1. Observe and Create a Customer Map
2. Recruit Community Members
3. Evaluate Online Conduit Strategies
4. Engage Communities in Conversation
5. Measure Involvement with New Tools, Techniques
6. Promote Your Community to the World
7. Improve the Community's Benefits

The final part of the book is the most interesting; it discusses four online strategies that will help your site succeed in the future using social media such as Blogging, Facebook and Twitter. It then goes into the changes that the web will see in the future with more and more users, more interaction, and the increased content rich atmosphere that Web 4.0 will provide.

This is the 2nd edition of the book. Although it was updated and expanded to include Facebook and Web 4.0, it still seemed to be a little outdated. It is a book about technology so it is bound to become outdated, but it was published in 2009 so I would expect more from it.

As an informative book I would give this book a 7/10, but as an enjoyable read I would give this book a 4/10. On the Amazon overall five star scale I would rate it a three. I feel like this book could have been slimed down to about half the size, a lot of it seemed to be just filler. The technical aspect of the book was lacking; it would tell you the tools to use, but not how to use them. This book would be great for someone who has never used the Internet, but for most people it would be a little repetitive. Majorities of the people looking for an Internet marketing book don't need to be explained to what a blog is. More technical material and less filler would make this book a lot more resourceful.
Rating: 3 / 5

By: Alberto Ponsa Talavera

Alberto Ponsa Talavera — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:43:26 +0000

OK – Good introduction to emarketing.

– Provides a basic approach to the main emarketing concepts:Ecommunity, buzz marketing, bloggers, etc.

– Enough examples.

– 7 steps to build a e-marketing approach.

KO – Not a deep-inside view. Good introduction as a incomer, bad for

incumbents.

Rating: 3 / 5

By: Terry Cunningham

Terry Cunningham — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:01:57 +0000

this is laughable. These guys have the balls to publish a book about marketing to the social web and yet they have not released a Kindle version!!!!???? I was going to buy this book but out of principal I am not going to. Clearly they missed the concept that people who live in the social web want stuff online not in hardcover.

Rating: 1 / 5