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Sams Teach Yourself Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes: Covers Facebook Places, Facebook Deals and Facebook Ads
Sams Teach Yourself Facebook® for Business in 10 Minutes gives you straightforward, practical answers when you need fast results. By working through its 10-minute lessons, you&;ll learn how to profit from Facebook&;s powerful new business Facebook Pages, Places, Deals, Ads, and more! Tips point out shortcuts and solutions; Cautions help you avoid common pitfalls; Notes provide additional information. 10 minutes is all you need to learn how to&;
- GenresBusiness
234 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 2, 2011
I was very excited when Bud Smith's Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes (SAMS Teach Yourself, 2011) became available through my Amazon Vine gig. I've wanted to get my business Facebook account going and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that while reviewing his book. I've been putting that task off because I expected it to take hours, but if I could really do it in ten minutes, all the better. So, book in hand, I sat down at my computer and started.
Smith begins with a solid introduction to Facebook and a nice offer to explore the online edition for FREE for 45 days as part of the purchase. I know a lot about Facebook--I have a personal page--so I skimmed the overview first chapter to get to Chapter 2--Setting Up a Business-Friendly Profile Page. Turns out this chapter was mostly about getting onto Facebook, though I did learn you can't have a business Facebook page (what used to be called a 'fan page' and is now simply called 'Facebook Page'. Who forgot to mention that was confusing when they made that decision?) without attaching it to a personal one. That explained a lot about my past FB set-up failures. I hurried onward and arrived at Lesson 3--Finding and Installing Apps.
Which is where I discovered two nasty habits of Smith's. First, he finds it difficult to stay focused on FB for business. He keeps wandering into the personal FB territory. For example, he starts his discussion on Apps with the personal page. I angrily explained to the chapter pages that this was supposed to be about business, but as I got into the book, I realized this was probably because FB for business doesn't exist without being the stepchild of a personal page. He even warned me--"Installing apps on your business fan page is a bit different and is covered in Lesson 7." That brings me to the second nasty habit: Smith introduces an idea and then says he'll cover the steps later. Same thing happened with Places. This jumping around takes half my ten minute allotment before I even get started.
And about that ten minutes. I guess you can sign up for a Facebook page in ten minutes, but each task takes much longer. Smith begins each with a thorough discussion, including how it relates to the personal FB account before even introducing the business FB steps. Maybe this is important because of the critical differences, but it ended up confusing me. My guess: readers who spent a lot of time setting up personal accounts will find this less confusing, but I'm just speculating. I only spent about an hour setting up my personal account. To be honest, each STEP in this book took about an hour. I found the descriptions not as thorough as I needed and a bit confusing. Adding apps , creating tabs and claiming my Place--I never did figure these out (though that could be me). I think I got on the wrong page, mixed up between the personal mother page and which of my three business fan pages I needed to be on to accomplish the task.
My conclusion: Facebook is a good business tool, but still awkward for that purpose. I get lots of visitors to my business blogs and websites from FB so I know it works. I wish they'd allow businesses to sign up as account holders. That's not Smith's fault. He tried to write a book to maneuver these minefields. For that, I applaud him. Despite the many ten minute increments (more like hours) I spent getting a rudimentary page established, if not for Bud Smith, I wouldn't have my business FB page at all.
Smith begins with a solid introduction to Facebook and a nice offer to explore the online edition for FREE for 45 days as part of the purchase. I know a lot about Facebook--I have a personal page--so I skimmed the overview first chapter to get to Chapter 2--Setting Up a Business-Friendly Profile Page. Turns out this chapter was mostly about getting onto Facebook, though I did learn you can't have a business Facebook page (what used to be called a 'fan page' and is now simply called 'Facebook Page'. Who forgot to mention that was confusing when they made that decision?) without attaching it to a personal one. That explained a lot about my past FB set-up failures. I hurried onward and arrived at Lesson 3--Finding and Installing Apps.
Which is where I discovered two nasty habits of Smith's. First, he finds it difficult to stay focused on FB for business. He keeps wandering into the personal FB territory. For example, he starts his discussion on Apps with the personal page. I angrily explained to the chapter pages that this was supposed to be about business, but as I got into the book, I realized this was probably because FB for business doesn't exist without being the stepchild of a personal page. He even warned me--"Installing apps on your business fan page is a bit different and is covered in Lesson 7." That brings me to the second nasty habit: Smith introduces an idea and then says he'll cover the steps later. Same thing happened with Places. This jumping around takes half my ten minute allotment before I even get started.
And about that ten minutes. I guess you can sign up for a Facebook page in ten minutes, but each task takes much longer. Smith begins each with a thorough discussion, including how it relates to the personal FB account before even introducing the business FB steps. Maybe this is important because of the critical differences, but it ended up confusing me. My guess: readers who spent a lot of time setting up personal accounts will find this less confusing, but I'm just speculating. I only spent about an hour setting up my personal account. To be honest, each STEP in this book took about an hour. I found the descriptions not as thorough as I needed and a bit confusing. Adding apps , creating tabs and claiming my Place--I never did figure these out (though that could be me). I think I got on the wrong page, mixed up between the personal mother page and which of my three business fan pages I needed to be on to accomplish the task.
My conclusion: Facebook is a good business tool, but still awkward for that purpose. I get lots of visitors to my business blogs and websites from FB so I know it works. I wish they'd allow businesses to sign up as account holders. That's not Smith's fault. He tried to write a book to maneuver these minefields. For that, I applaud him. Despite the many ten minute increments (more like hours) I spent getting a rudimentary page established, if not for Bud Smith, I wouldn't have my business FB page at all.
September 30, 2012
"Sams Teach Yourself Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes" by Bud E. Smith is an excellent book for beginners wanting to learn how to make Facebook pages, places, deals, ads and more. It is a very detailed and user friendly book to guide you along in using Facebook's business tools and making Facebook work for your business purposes. In a practical and straight forward manner, this book teaches you just what to do, step-by-step. The book is aimed at business owners who want to create a Facebook fan page for their business, who want to have a Places page and Deals, who want to do Facebook advertising - or all of the above.
First, I want to mention that you can't do everything in ten minutes. This is part of a series, and what the title refers to is the lessons being chunked into ten minute lessons. (Each chapter is a lesson.) Even this might be a bit of a stretch. I think some of the lessons here will take longer, especially if you are a beginner. This takes nothing away from the book, but just realize that some things might take longer. Your business is worth it, so don't sweat it.
The book is easy to read, logically organized, and contains amble screen shots to help you follow along with what is being taught. There are boxes that point out important notes and tips, and each chapter has a short summary. Some might not need everything in each chapter, but the lessons are there for those who do.
After the introduction, the chapters, or lessons, include: 1. Introducing Facebook for Business. 2. Setting Up a Business-Friendly Profile Page. 3. Finding and Installing Apps. 4. Choosing Your Facebook Business Strategy. 5. Planning Your Fan Page. 6. Creating Your Fan Page. 7. Setting Up Your Business Fan Page. 8. Expanding and Promoting Your Fan Page. 9. Claiming Your Places Page. 10. Creating Facebook Deals. 11. Planning and Targeting Facebook Ads. 12. Pricing and Creating Your Ad Campaign. 13. Promoting Your Facebook Presence. 14. Tracking and Performance of Your Facebook Presence.
As you can see, the book covers everything the beginner needs to know to get started with this social media platform for business. If you are wanting to implement a social media on-line business strategy, this book will help you with the most popular of platforms. I definitely think this book can shorten the learning curve and help a person achieve results much faster than figuring it all out without guidance. The book will also help the user avoid common Facebook business mistakes that could hurt, rather than help, sales. Very good book for the business owner who wants to learn how to enter this social media arena.
First, I want to mention that you can't do everything in ten minutes. This is part of a series, and what the title refers to is the lessons being chunked into ten minute lessons. (Each chapter is a lesson.) Even this might be a bit of a stretch. I think some of the lessons here will take longer, especially if you are a beginner. This takes nothing away from the book, but just realize that some things might take longer. Your business is worth it, so don't sweat it.
The book is easy to read, logically organized, and contains amble screen shots to help you follow along with what is being taught. There are boxes that point out important notes and tips, and each chapter has a short summary. Some might not need everything in each chapter, but the lessons are there for those who do.
After the introduction, the chapters, or lessons, include: 1. Introducing Facebook for Business. 2. Setting Up a Business-Friendly Profile Page. 3. Finding and Installing Apps. 4. Choosing Your Facebook Business Strategy. 5. Planning Your Fan Page. 6. Creating Your Fan Page. 7. Setting Up Your Business Fan Page. 8. Expanding and Promoting Your Fan Page. 9. Claiming Your Places Page. 10. Creating Facebook Deals. 11. Planning and Targeting Facebook Ads. 12. Pricing and Creating Your Ad Campaign. 13. Promoting Your Facebook Presence. 14. Tracking and Performance of Your Facebook Presence.
As you can see, the book covers everything the beginner needs to know to get started with this social media platform for business. If you are wanting to implement a social media on-line business strategy, this book will help you with the most popular of platforms. I definitely think this book can shorten the learning curve and help a person achieve results much faster than figuring it all out without guidance. The book will also help the user avoid common Facebook business mistakes that could hurt, rather than help, sales. Very good book for the business owner who wants to learn how to enter this social media arena.
May 7, 2012
I think I was kind of looking for a step-by-step to-do list just to help me know where to start even though I already know Facebook pretty well. I was greatly disappointed with this book. Not only is it already outdated with the new timeline look, I often had the feeling that the author was kind of too old to really understand the younger generation's views of Facebook, and I scoffed out loud and pretty much discounted anything he said after reading that he thought the Facebook app for the iPhone is an excellent app. (Oh my. Most people with any sort of sense about UI/UX would agree that the app needs major help.) In the end, I think I wrote down to-do items, but nothing was really new.
December 20, 2012
Eighteen months off the presses, and Smith's Teach Yourself guide is already at least half obsolete - see, the dated screenshots, death of Deals, renamed features, and (oh yeah) Timeline. That's hardly Smith's fault, but it is something to take into account when looking for a reference guide. There are still useful tips here, as well as a sensible approach to marketing, but the never ending engine of change that is the internets has pretty much left this one behind.
March 2, 2012
I flipped through this very quickly because I'm pretty proficient at Facebook already but I did pick up one good idea. Overall, this book is pretty useless to anyone already on Facebook, but I think a beginner may find it helpful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews