No Bull Social Media

No Bull**** Social Media: the All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers is a good book for taking a big-picture view of the idea of social media for business. Falls and Deckers look at how social media serves businesses for branding, reputation management, and increasing sales. They compare social media with traditional media, suggest tools for tracking and measuring the value of social media to your company, and they give suggestions for developing a social media plan and policy for your organization.

This is a big-picture book. It gives excellent, clearly referenced data on the power of social media in comparison to traditional marketing methods. It examines the usual social media advice (be sincere, really be part of the community, develop relationships with people) and rephrases it to make it more comfortable for people who want to be sure all this touchy-feely stuff benefits the bottom line.

It doesn’t give you directions on how to do anything with social media. Their suggestions are spot on; check out this list from Chapter 4:

• Set goals and objectives…
• Create a strategic plan…
• Measure the results…
• Commit to the process…

That is exactly right, from our perspective as professionals. If you can’t figure out how to change your background on Twitter or where to go to make a G+ page, you still won’t know after you read this book.

That’s okay. This book is not about how to follow people on YouTube or how to make your LinkedIn profile effective. It’s about the big picture. And it brings up some very interesting points. What kinds of goals are reasonable? What will it cost to reach those goals? Who is using social media, really, and how do you know? How can you control your company’s message (hint: you don’t control it now)? Who should be in charge of social media efforts?

If these are the kinds of questions you’re concerned with, or if you’re just trying to wrap your mind around the concept of social media for business, this will be a very useful book for you. Falls and Deckers aren’t shy about making claims, but they back them up with quantifiable evidence, as well as detailed case studies. It’s an enjoyable read, too, and should give you ideas or new directions even if you’re already engaging in social media for your business.

We encounter people who disapprove of the use of social media for business (usually on social media platforms, and we totally get what they’re saying) and people who don’t think it has value. We’d like those people to read this book. If you are one of those people and you’re beginning to feel like the world is passing you by, you might want to read this book and reevaluate your position. You may still hold the same views when you finish, but you’ll be approaching the question from an informed stance. And you might change your mind.

[Disclosure: The publisher of this book sent me a copy for review. I am not paid for reviews, and you know I always tell you the truth.]