Going Social: Excite Customers, Generate Buzz, and Energize Your Brand with the Power of Social Media

by Jeremy Goldman

Powerful lessons from the frontlines of social media marketing.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

JEREMY GOLDMAN, a recognized expert in social marketing, has managed e-commerce and social media for major brands, including Kiehl’s, TEMPTU, and Jurlique, and consulted with numerous others. He is currently AVP of Interactive Communications for iluminage inc., a Unilever subsidiary he helped found.

Reviews

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not normally one to read nonfiction, but I have to admit this book was fascinating. Although as a teacher I am not asked to do much social marketing, I loved seeing how "the other side" thinks. The language is accessible, and Goldman has a sense of humor very similar to my own. I loved seeing his asides/ it humanized the concerts. I also thought it made perfect sense that for a book that discusses social media each chapter has additional webcontent for further information. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, if fact I have already recommended it to the publicity/advertising committee of my local community theater!

[Kama]

Note: I am handling publicity for this book.

[Che · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference material. If you're tech savvy, some information is refresher. But overall, you'll learn something in each chapter, even if learning from other companies' experiences.

[Nina Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going Social by Jeremy Goldman

I was excited to request an advance reading copy of this book from NetGalley because there are so few genuine exponents like Jeremy who has personal experience and gives hands on examples of how he generated excitement and buzz in his business customers by energizing his brand using the power of social media.

Overall this book is an excellent primer for companies thinking of using social media to the best advantage for their customers and certainly achieves the goals in the title.

The social aspect is key- the author used direct social media engagement with the audience for his brands, combining e-commerce and online PR and focused customer service into one holistic function he calls SOCIAL MARKETING.
There are case studies in most chapters on best practices and a very useful bibliography at the end of each chapter – great!

Key learning points from each chapter

Chapter One. Social Marketing is even more important than you think

a. True Social Marketing is about developing ongoing relationships with your loyal customers rather than working on a short term small marketing campaign.
Think - Less marketing. More social.

b. The need for human contact to connect stems from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Once the basic needs for survival are met – the remaining layers of need are all related to social well being and the innate need for love and belonging.
A direct outcome from this is the growing importance of one to one chat with social recommendations for products and services – which is linked to the huge rise in e-commerce.
Through genuine conversation and collaboration, you can share trends and interesting and relevant content with your customers. Instead of talking about your book or product – have something useful and productive to say and share.

c. Flexibility and Speed of Marketing
No long term advertising contracts with big expensive companies.
No wasted efforts. Social media means that you can reach your customers fast and refine your marketing campaign in response when you see quickly what is working or not working.
No need to build an email listing. Use the power of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and your Blog to connect to customers through subscription.

Chapter Two . Devising your Strategy and Getting started

a. Ask yourself a great question – Is Social Marketing right for your business?
Certain types of product do better than others. Don’t promise what you cannot deliver and it may not add value to your customers.
Before doing anything in social media you need to ask two rather critical questions.
First, who is your target audience?
Secondly – what is your Objective?

But if you do decided that Social Marketing is right for your business – ask what kind of social media presence you need.
Then you need to develop a clear, well defined strategy.

Start by asking your customers some questions and make it clear that your aim is to improve the customer experience with your product. And offer a give away in return.
Use their feedback to chose between options.
But of course that means that you have to define your audience.
Understand the age brackets. What do they value? What are the best ways of spending time with your customers – and on what kind of social media. And why should they associate with your brand? This must be a positive win/win message.
For example, Pinterest users tend to be females between 24 and 34 yrs.
You have to focus so that you do not spread yourself too thin by being unfocused.
Chose which social media channels allow your brand to be expressed as clearly as possible.


Chapter Three. Engagement – Determine your Voice and Personality

Ask yourself - what experiences set my brand apart?
Do you have three words to describe your brand’s voice?
Do you have a specific brand identity which makes it distinctibe - typeface. lower case or different font? small details add up to a brand that resonates - a smile, a colour combination in the materials. upbeat approach - 110% positive in every message. shapes. brandmark. all work together.
Create a social voice that is IDENTIFIABLE! and unique.
Then use social mood boards such as Pinterest to demonstrate your unique style and brand.

But before you start developing your social marketing strategy - the first thing you need to think about is your customer - your audience, your readers. ask yourself - what do they need and how to they behave? What drives readers to buy a book? Purchase a product? Make that decision?
You have to understand your customers before you engage with them effectively.
AND to interact with fans in the ways they want.
What are the unique aspects of your brand? Share what is noteworthy about yourself - let that feature define you as you interact with others. How do you stand out from the others?

Chapter Four. How to develop Content that promotes Engagement

Content is king but also where you place it and the social activity around it; where do my ideal readers visit? Go there for the ideal placement.
The content should ideally encourage interaction - comments and sharing.
Encourage your audience to comment on your brand content rather than to simply like it.
Ask questions in your posts that encourage specific feedback – it should be a two way conversation.

Chapter Five. Become truly customer centric - and reap the advantages

Customers are using social media to resolve customer service issues and they expect to receive a faster more personal response from the company - the days of hanging on the phone are long gone. the challenge is there to become better at listening to those customers. but you may have to moderate. but the benefits come from customer feedback can lead to new product developments or help you adjust your priorities.

Chapter Six. How to avoid pitfalls, deal with crises and keep your brand’s reputation intact

To really transform your business you should have a robust process for dealing with customer complaints and feedback. Be transparent where there is a problem you know about. but realise that you cannot make everyone happy all of the time - you are bound to get negative customer comments. don’t respond with a heavy hand and be prepared to apologies if you have to.

Chapter Seven. How to staff your social team and organise for more effective engagement.

Surprisingly - engaging in daily social marketing conversations should NOT be the marketing director or PR head’s job. Create a post for a Community Manager who is empathetic with the audience and especially mindful of building relationships. They are not the best person to analyse the data and measure the success of the platform.
Beware of terrible automation tools.
One thing is clear - social media systems may be free but there is a real cost in time in both determining what your strategy should be and then implementing it - on a daily basis, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Think about what 3 message you want to get out. and then plan a calendar do social media - let the customers guide the conversation. Block time out to create posts and set deadlines. Also think about when the posts should go out - data shows that the response times for customers are better outside working hours, for obvious reasons - same with peaks at weekends on twitter. But at the same time watch out for hot topics which could be of use to you.
Be concise. and readers will probably read the whole post- but include a link.

Chapter Eight. Tools for producing more relevant, targeted engagement.

This chapter gave some real options when it come to chasing more contacts with the target audience. Email, Facebook follow up, Twitter and twitter lists, and targetting specific niche communities.

Chapter Nine. How to identify Influencers, Work with VIPS and Grow Word of Mouth Substantially

This chapter is geared towards companies with direct sales in my opinion and is heavily focused on what to me is very aggressive targeting promotion to select groups.
Following the Pareto rule, About 20% of your fans and followers represent 80% in active social sharing and when you develop an offer – these are the folks who will respond. And some of these will be ‘superinfluencers’ who have expert authority and/or popularity and who can make or break your campaign.
How do you indentify the influencers? By analyzing the data for your product and interactions – and then focusing your attention on engaging them through quality content.


Chapter Ten. How to Build strong relationships with Bloggers/Online Personalities

Authenticity and genuine relationships are crucial. This could be with the press/media professionals or your own circle of bloggers.
It is impossible to engage personally with the 1000s of new bloggers online every day so you have to be selective which means chosing the key influencers that fit your brand in advance and invest your time wisely by working with them.
Make yourself attractive by offering them products, giveaways, content for their websites, exclusive events and promoting them through your social marketing channels.
You must do your research so that you know what they do and how they do it.
Most Bloggers prefer you to pitch to them using email and it can feel more personal and professional. Be careful to pitch the right tone of friendliness. Get to the point and have a sense of humour. Clear and concise always works. And always set the timing well in advance.
It can take time to build credibility.

Chapter Eleven. Increase Engagement by Turning your Employees into Marketers

Chapter Twelve. How to Engage with ROI in mind

Measuring and tracking the right metrics is crucial. But what are your goals in social media? Why are your investing so much time and money on it? E.g. Do you want to launch a new product or sell more of an existing one?

Chapter Thirteen. Going Social in Real Life.

Meet ups/events/conferences.

[Serena Salvati · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book might have benefited from editing to condense. Chapter topics tend to overlap, for example (working with influencers / working with bloggers; organizing your social team / turning employees into marketers), and some of the 'interview' sections seem unnecessary, though they are formatted well in the flow of the text. Occasionally, the narrative voice becomes strangely condescending towards '20-somethings', new graduates, etc. whose input is apparently to be valued but not financially compensated.

I also disagree with the idea that any employee can take part in social media marketing as the voice of a company or brand. With too many 'official' accounts, the voice of the company becomes difficult to follow as news and updates are distributed unevenly. Furthermore, more social media marketers means more cats to herd - not every employee is social media-savvy, and even if they are, there is a difference between using facebook with friends and using it as part of your job (professionalism, frequency of engagement, etc. as elsewhere acknowledged in this book).

Overall, a thorough book - if a bit long for its topic.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have given this book a 3.5-star if I could. The book had great content and was well researched but it was written around 2010. It also centers around larger businesses. Most of the application of concepts are more geared to larger companies with marketing and sales teams with a variety of C-level executives. That just isn't the nature of my business. And much can change in 5 to 8 years in the world of technology. For those reasons, I had to give it a lower rating. It is worth a read if you are new to the social media scene or you need help thinking through social media strategy for a larger corporation.

[Raedean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has quickly become outdated; however there are a few decent foundational tips provided.

[Stephanie Jobe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The full title of this book is a mouthful, no doubt. This book actually didn't take that long to read I just spread it out. When I first started I was shocked to realize just how quickly I moved through it. In some ways that subtitle is a pretty good summary of the book.

Goldman did a lot of things well. He covered everything from the front line interactions to the more gritty business side and he did it in such a way that even I, who did terribly in the my one undergraduate business course, understood pretty much everything he was saying. Okay yes I got a little zoned out with ROI but that has more to do with the fact that it is less relevant to me than Goldman's actual coverage of it. He covered a broad range but with good distribution, trying to give a basis of everything without getting hung up on a favorite topic. There was also a good variety of examples and an emphasis on the fact that there is no easy answer in Social Media. The fact that the book is filled with personal experience and personality also makes everything feel more applicable and more achievable.

I suppose the most important question is "Was it useful?" Well I marked a great many pages for reference later so I would say that it was very useful. There are parts that are less relevant to me but even those were interesting. Ben and I had conversations about the marketing of companies we like. I found myself aware of companies with frustrating social media interaction. I observed a Facebook page this week where the company Likes every comment to show that they read it but they almost never actually reply to a comment publicly, even when it is a question that others might have. It was supposed to make them look engaged instead in showed that they were better at button clicking than having an open conversation.

So some examples of things that I found interesting... To my shame I was completely ignorant to the fact that you could change your Twitter handle, but I started thinking about it when the book discussed real estate and claiming the relevant names on new channels. So now my Twitter actually matches everything else, so it already has had an impact. Information on which channels are better for which types of interaction. Thinking about making a plan that gets the customer involved instead of just throwing information at them. How to identify your influencers and promoters. I even marked some services and companies mentioned that peaked my interest.

There are certain portions of this book that will age well. With a subject like this there are the unavoidable technical items that will change, like Facebook mechanics. This book was published in November 2012. In the past I have seen technical books that are often outdated by publishing especially if there is resistance to continual updating deep into the process... here that was not the case. I did not find a single section where I felt like it had been written months or years before and hadn't been updated to the current data. That makes me a raving fan, I will admit. There is no telling how long the technical details in this book will be accurate a while longer at least, but either way my recommendation is to go ahead and read it now. Okay you may say that you know how to use social media or that you don't really need details like this, to that I would say that this book is amazingly relevant across the board whether you are a blogger, just a citizen who needs personal branding, or someone who works with social media. I think my most recommended populace would definitely be small businesses that are still kind of stumbling into the massive world of social media.

Source: First Reads giveaway from Goodreads.

[Brandon Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty useful on social media, works as an introduction if needed but also gives pretty intermediate tips and advice too. Still fresh and relevant.

[Peg Fitzpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really appreciated all of the case studies and real world examples in this book. Jeremy Goldman is not just a author writing about social media but a social media professional who is an author. This important distinction creates a truly useable book.

My favorite chapter in the book was "How to build strong relationships with bloggers and work with online personalities" which explains how brands can work with bloggers and social media professionals.

There's plenty of practical tips that brands and community managers can implement to really excite their customers and generate buzz with their social media programs. I highly recommend this book for people wanting to learn about how social media works today with tips on creating your brand's voice and creating the necessary social media strategy.

[Walt · Rating 4 out of 5]

RECEIVED FREE FROM GOODREADS FIRST READS. A well written and as importantly, fun to read, comprehensive look at the all-encompassing world of social media and how it fits into real world activity. Going Social is well worth having on hand; it explores so many subtle ins and outs of the social world that no matter what you have or haven't yet done yourself, you're bound to learn something new from Mr. Goldman. He's a funny, insightful, enthusiastic writer who clearly lives and breathes social media. An excellent read all around

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is highly beneficial for anyone looking to truly grasp the concept of social media and what it can do for your business. For those who have more experience in the field, he presents a lot of great topics and concepts for wisely managing your social presence in ways that are professional but not overbearing.

If you are in anyway involved with social media for work or business, then this is a must read. This is also the perfect book for anyone who can't understand how social media is an ever important aspect of your business.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just stepping into the business side of social media and would highly recommend this book. Jeremy provided thorough real life examples from reputable companies that were helpful to explain things to a newbie. The only thing I was left desiring was more information about service based companies rather than product but that said, the book was still a wealth of information.

[Everyfittoread · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that has turned my small review company into the giant that it is becomming. I knew the web had changed but how to take my simple reviw blog and grow it was not something I knew how to do. This book shows you and most of all it is simple and fun.

[Bettye · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was very informative. I was able to take away some great information and apply it to my business…. that sounds so generic. but its true. and i started following jeremy goldman on twitter, thats even better. its like an extension of the book.

[Dave Snell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Learned very little from this book, and I'm far from a social expert. Far too many of the points were obvious and the examples were not very compelling. Although it's very dated, Groundswell offers a far better set of principles for developing social strategies.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book with some good insights. It started slow, with a high-level overview that didn't contain many insights, but as the book progressed, the author began to address some more detailed tactics.

[Ann Hoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book kept my interest long enough that I finished it, but will I do any of the suggestions she ha,d probably not. It was a good overview to see if I was missing anything with social media for my company, and what areas of my platform I could flesh out a little more.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, especially the focus on what to look for in a social media/community manager, and how to handle brand negativity. There is also a section on word of mouth marketing via happy customers, and engaging employees to boost social media efforts.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confession, I actually read this a while ago. But, it's so good I think I need to read it again. Jeremy Goldman practices what he preaches so it's well worth connecting to him on Twitter.

[BLACK CAT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Be approachable.
Encourage engagement.
Be a friend and give them something useful.
Don’t overload your audience.

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Maybe 2 stars. This is best read by more clueless folks and those who intend on having PR teams and large brands. It also covers a lot of basics, and I am looking for something different.

[BeeRaylyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is already out of date.

[Michael Zelek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got two or three really good ideas from reading this book that I can use to engage an audience on social media. A few chapters did not really resonate with me at all and I thought the examples could have been much better and relevant.