In addition to using Facebook to promote my business, Organized Assistant, I create and manage Facebook pages for many of my clients, so I am always eager to learn new tips and techniques. After attending Mari Smith’s two sessions on Facebook at Social Media Success Summit 2010, I found myself hungering for even more information, so I ordered a copy of Facebook Marketing an Hour a Day, which she wrote with Chris Treadway.
Before reading the book, I had thought it would explain how you can maintain a strong presence for your business in only 60 minutes a day, but that’s not quite what it’s about. It is actually a sixteen-week program, taking you from planning to implementation and evaluating your results. Every day has an assigned task which should take approximately one hour to complete, making it ideal for readers who prefer a practical, structured approach to learning.
The “course outline” is as follows:
Month 1: Create the Plan and Get Started
Month 2: Establish Corporate Presence with Pages and Groups
Month 3: Create Demand with Facebook Ads
Month 4: Advanced Tactics and Campaign Integration
The principles are the same whether you are a solo entrepreneur or in charge of marketing for a major corporation, however, it is my impression that much of the material in the book would be more relevant to the latter. Quite a bit of space was devoted to how you can justify to management why Facebook marketing is important, and although this might be useful to me if I’m trying to sell the idea to a client, most of the people that I deal with simply can’t relate to a $10,000 marketing budget, and simply scaling down the numbers doesn’t necessarily make sense.
I was hoping that this book could teach me how to create the beautiful custom tabs you see on so many Facebook pages. It did not address that, but it provided enough insight that I have been able to learn the basics on my own and create a simple one for Kathy Stinson, and I’m looking forward to doing more in this area.
Even though it wasn’t quite what I expected, I am pleased to report that there is a wealth of valuable information in this volume, much of which is not limited to Facebook but is relevant to any form of social media marketing. As was discussed at WordCamp Toronto 2010, it’s next to impossible to talk about any component of social media in isolation, because they all work together so closely.
Facebook changes so often that no one can know for sure what the future will hold, so the Appendix containing the opinions of six industry experts on “The Future of Facebook” was particularly fascinating. It is clear that social media in general, and Facebook in particular, are going to continue to play a major role in people’s lives, so it’s going to become increasingly important for businesses to get involved if they don’t want to get left behind.
Whether or not you choose to follow the daily steps, this book is an excellent guide for anyone wanting a better understanding of how Facebook works and how they can leverage it to promote their business.