"Join the Conversation" - not for you, Mr./Ms. Social Media Champion, but maybe for someone you know
January 23rd, 2008 by Doug
When someone you know asks you to review a book– or you volunteer– one feels a responsibility to be unbiased. The more you think about it, the harder it becomes.
So I come to a look at Join the Conversation by Joseph Jaffe. It is not so much that I have a bias towards Jaffe himself– I have never met him, though I know him well enough through online conversations– but towards yet another book coming out of the so-called “fishbowl” of people who already know social media well, live and breathe it, and can’t imagine why companies would hesitate to use it.
Well, the point is, many companies do hesitate. Many social media tools are brand new, companies don’t understand them, and there is a real danger that a rush to use them with out a strategy in mind will result in disaster. that, coupled with the fear that any venture into “conversational” marketing will result in disaster, is enough to need resources that attempt to explain how to do it.
So, the book: Join the Conversation. One phrase for the social media crowd:
Don’t Read the Book.
JTC is not for you. If you are in the active social media marketing crowd, then you read his blog or listen to his podcast “Jaffe Juice.” Maybe you even drop in on his company crayon’s virtual headquarters in Second Life, for their regular “coffee with crayon.” What struck me reading the book was, There is nothing here I haven’t heard already. This book is not for me.
Well, do I recommend the book? Yes, but not for you. If you are trying to convince someone — a client, your boss, a friend — to use social media and engage in conversations as part of an overall marketing plan, and you are convinced yourself this is a good idea, then by all means pass the book along. It has:
- Examples of successful social media brand engagements
- Examples of poor implementations
- Input from other members of the social media community, researchers and analysts
It doesn’t have:
- Dissenting voices, but there are lots of warnings of the pitfalls of doing social media poorly
If you are passing this book along, also familiarize yourself– and the reader– with Jaffe’s prose style. He does not spare the epithets, and is very comfortable with calling people idiots or losers (or worse) if he doesn’t like what they are doing (listen to his podcast sometime).
So:
Pass the book on. It may help your case.
Note: Joseph recently offered to give away copies of Join the Conversation to marketing bloggers who promised to review the book. I actually paid for my copy, though as i disclosed above, I know him, and told him I would publish my thoughts.
Category: News & Commentary, Social Media | 1 Comment »
