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AaronConway
11-16-2010, 09:37 AM
Hi all,

This weekend, I went to a couple bookstores and couldn't believe the number of books I saw dedicated to Facebook and/or Twitter. I looked at the copyright date and they were all 2010 but why would anybody buy one of these books? Within a month, if not sooner, of the book being published there's new information regarding these subjects. Has anybody bought one of these books?

Aaron

Harold Mansfield
11-16-2010, 10:41 AM
No I have never purchased a book on Social Media but I can see why some people may. You have to understand that most people do not spend a significant amount of time learning about the web and keeping up with trends, using webmaster tools and so on.

For most "regular" people who have non web jobs and businesses, this stuff is just as foreign to them as whatever their jobs are to us.
Why would they have any in depth knowledge of any Social Media? And getting a lot of information on the subject in one book would be easier than the amount of blogs, websites and docs that we read to keep on them.
Also some people are just more comfortable if you package the information into something that they are familiar and comfortable with. A book is an easy way to provide that comfort level, as opposed to a bunch of links to T.O.S's, F.A.Q's, Press Releases, and White Papers...the stuff that we read.

They are also easy targets since Twitter and Facebook frequently get press, the promise of using them to leverage some kind of new marketing technique that will make you all kinds of new money is attractive.

I am sure that a lot of those books have some useful information, if nothing else to give people an overview of how Facebook and Twitter actually work and the basics of using a social network.
But in the same breath, I also know that tons of "Social Media Exerts" have popped up in the last few years to take advantage of the latest bandwagon. Just go to Twitter and you will see 1000's of Social Media Experts all over the place. There are so many that it actually turned me off of Twitter.

If you think a few years back, there were a lot of books out about making money online ( there still are) and E-Bay. You couldn't swing a dead cat in a book store without knocking over a "Making money with E-bay" book.
Now the hot trend is Facebook and Twitter. Very soon, it will be something else.
As long as how the web actually works is a mystery to the average user, these will always be hot topics.

KristineS
11-16-2010, 03:37 PM
Facebook and Twitter just happen to be the new trend, as eborg said. Those venues are also be touted as the places to make money right now, and a great place to do free advertising. A lot of people are looking for opportunities to make easy money, so they'll buy the books.

Personally, I would think a book would go out of date pretty quickly, but I spend a lot of time online so I know how quickly things can change. Plus, I suppose, there would be strategies in the books that would stay relevant for a while.

greenoak
11-16-2010, 04:45 PM
i did buy one....and it seemed out of date...
facebook seems pretty entrenched to me.....bigger than a fad,...more like google than my space.....it seems kind of like a BIG DOG and not just for one little niche of users....

GoingLocal
11-16-2010, 08:01 PM
your absolutely right about that. Facebook is planing on squishing Google... And seem to have them in a death grip already.
Why? Social interaction.
It's the reason they released "Buzz" .. but like most things that come second, it never really got noticed.

Google is still huge, and I suspect will continue to hold the "webpage search" market, but everyday facebook is referring more people to websites by referrals, and Google is flatlined here.

The "like" button on webpages is what's really killing Google. It ties the entire web into a social forum.

Harold Mansfield
11-16-2010, 08:12 PM
I really don't see Facebook as any kind of Google killer because they are two completely different things. I think it is more likely that Google will launch a social network to compete with Facebook, than it is that Facebook launching a search engine that can compete with Google.

Facebook video will never compete with You Tube. Facebook "like" button will never take the place of search. Webmasters will never spend time trying to rank in Facebook.
Facebook itself is just one English language website, where as Google is the website finder with hundreds of millions of websites all over the world in every language.

No one is going to go to Facebook to surf the web, or to find anything other than what their friends had for lunch or how drunk they got the night before.

When people want stuff, they will still go to a company's website, before they go to their Facebook page...and they will likely search for that website with Google.

Considering that 7 of the top 20 trafficked websites on the web are all Google properties and Facebook ,although #2, is only one website and that #2 ranking is surrounded by Google.com and You Tube.

When they compare traffic stats, they are only comparing Facebook.com, with Google.com. Google is an international company. If they added all of the Google traffic worldwide together it wouldn't even be close.

AmyAllen
11-16-2010, 08:30 PM
I love how-to books but not-so-much when it comes to web stuff. The technology changes so quickly, by the time a book goes through editing and publishing, the content is probably already out of date. I think if you want to learn you're better off reading online resources like Mashable or Social Media Examiner. They update their content almost daily so you can read quick articles/ how-tos to stay on top of trends.

greenoak
11-16-2010, 10:53 PM
gosh i think we must use facebook differently.......i find a lot of new web places on facebook....its not about breakfast to me.... just tonight on a friends page she had a link to averys website where i can custom make pricetags....
one place i know is totally packed with web experts talking to each other and
fishing for people needing them....i get little notes from bob dylan, peterman, i find out about cool antique shows on my buddys page in minnesota.... all with links if want them...and i get lots of ads just aimed at my desires...
i use google so much too...i dont see them as competing....but it wouldnt suprise me in the future.they do s eem to be overlapping a bit.....
.oh, and if i wanted to read about working my social media i would probably check in on grandma mary or we teach facebook on fb instead of google and then go to their website or blog.......
and i can research my industry in a good visual way... thru the great stores ive LIKED....my political friends put all kinds of sites on their pages....
my dh thinks its about breakfast too, or rather used to before the customers mentioned it over and over.....

ebusinesstutor
11-24-2010, 06:25 PM
This is one of those cases where books cannot keep up to the rate of change in social media. You are better off to follow social media blogs and forums to learn this field.

Some useful blogs include:

Social Media News and Web Tips ? Mashable ? The Social Media Guide (http://mashable.com/)
Socialnomics – Social Media Blog | Socialnomics is a blog designed to cover how social media is changing the way we live and do business. We interpert the latest social media news and summarize what it means to users and companies. (http://socialnomics.net/)
Social Media Blog (http://soshable.com/)

Or ask your Twitter and Facebook followers for input. :)

Harold Mansfield
11-24-2010, 11:22 PM
Or ask your Twitter and Facebook followers for input. :)

Oh man, that just sounds like an invitation to get DM spammed into submission. Maybe not so much Facebook, but Twitter is full of "Social Media Experts". You can't ask a simple question on there anymore without a thousand people throwing self promotion links at you.