- ISBN13: 9781935251736
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Social media is a crucial tool for success in business today. People are already talking about your business using social media, whether you’re using it or not. By becoming part of the conversation, you can start connecting directly to your customers, as well as finding new ones, easily and inexpensively spreading the word about your products or services.
But social media marketing isn’t like traditional marketing-and treating it that way only leads to fr… More >>
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When it comes to the world of Social Media, I am prone to consider myself up to neck with the discipline (pardon me if I sound a bit inflated). However, Shama Kabani’s book The Zen of Social Media Marketing proved me wrong. There were many tools that were totally new for me. I am thankful to young Shama for giving us a treasure trove on Social Media.
I read the book in one sitting during road travel from Lahore–a provincial capital of Punjab to Islamabad—capital city of Pakistan. The book is simply `unputdownable’. Every paragraph is full of tools and techniques to fully leverage the potential of tsunami of Social Media that is upon us and there is no running away from the grip of its rapacious waves.
The Zen of Social Media Marketing deals in detail about Social Media Channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and video sharing sites and the world of blogging. On each top, Shama unfolds the best practices, valuable protocols and etiquettes and set of dos and don’ts.
The book is a holy grail for beginners, intermediates and experts as wells. Whether you are entrepreneur or Social Media geek or a CEO managing your personal brand or a maverick marketer, Shama’s The Zen of Social Media Marketing is a must.
The world of Social Media is evolving at dizzying speed. Today’s `in’ thing is tomorrow’s blasé, I was just fearing that Shama’s book will look like a product of stone age within, may be, six months. But she is intelligent to set up a system of topping up with latest trends and tools with her site. Thanks Shama for taking care of this aspect.
You may read more about The Zen of Social Media Marketing at its blog.
Recently, I spoke at Conference of Secretary Generals of Chambers & Commerce of Pakistan on “Policy Advocacy through Social Media”, Shama’s book helped me a lot to make my address effective. Thank you Shama for giving us such a wonderful gift. Look forward to its sequel very soon.
Review by Ashraf Chaudhry: Sales & Marketing Trainer/author/Social Media Strategist from Pakistan (ashraf (at) [...]
Rating: 5 / 5
Shama (@shama) breaks down the reasons why you may need to incorporate a social media marketing plan in your business. She addresses different questions and how social media marketing can be useful for all types and sizes of business. But wait, just so you know that is not all theory, she has included 12 case studies with real life examples of businesses using social media marketing to improve their businesses.
The section in which I like the most is the back part of the book. Shama has included a “practical” section. I am impressed with how easily she takes something that can seem so theoretical and communicate it in terms of the practical. That is a skill that is rare, and Shama is one of the best I have seen.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a most amazing book. Delightful in fact.
How appropriate that Shama and I met on twitter? I have had the privilege of watching her career evolve over the last few years and I can assure you that the purchase of her book is a sound investment in your future. At retail of $16.95USD I can also assure you that she will not get rich from royalties!
A “must own” for the small business owner or entrepreneur that alone must fashion their SocMedia efforts. There is a lot of material and yet Shama covers it quickly and thoroughly. Much I already knew. However, there is some great insight into facebook that I simply had not considered. That chapter alone would be worth the cover price. Or the one on twitter. Or the chapter on LinkedIn. Or the Case Studies.
Get the idea?
I expect this book alone to double my SocMedia effectiveness in the next 90 days. How many other books can make that claim? Too few (of course, my own Purple Curve Effect does come to mind). {grin}
The AHA Zen Moments are a nice touch. And the mnemonics like ACT and BOD help drive home critical components of the framework that have elevated Shama into that rarefied atmosphere where she was named, “One of BusinessWeek’s 25 Under 25 Entrepreneurs for 2009.”
Having trouble making sense of SocMedia?
You are not alone.
The answer is close as the nearest bookstore.
Rating: 5 / 5
Shama has decoded the new rules of social media in an engaging and usable manner. She makes it simple and guides you through the process of getting on twitter, etc. and making it manageable and doable. She also convinces you that you cannot afford to avoid this new revolution and must get on board and that it will pay off. I have read a lot of books on this topic and this is the book that I am recommending to all my executive and entrepreneurial clients who need to connect and prosper in this new age.
Gail McMeekin LICSW–Creativity coach and the author of The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women and The Power of Positive Choices
Rating: 5 / 5
Shama Hyder Kabani’s book “The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue” provides a comprehensive, actionable and very accessible guide to social media for anyone (or any organization) seeking get started with social media as part of their marketing mix.
By far the most impressive (and comforting) aspect of “The Zen of Social Media Marketing” is its voice: rock-solid, real-world information delivered with authoritative ease and grace. At a time when social media marketing is becoming overrun with so-called gurus add no value to the platitudes they recycle (much as internet marketing was in the last decade), Shama’s obvious ease with her subject, combined with her unambiguous, straightforward advice makes the reader feel that they are not just reading a book, but are listening to a trusted advisor.
As a business growth consultant who needs to understand social media both from the perspective of how it fits into my own marketing strategies, and how it can and will impact my clients’ businesses, I chose “The Zen of Social Media Marketing” as my go-to reference book as a direct result of Shama’s “been there, done that”, real-world experience – experience that seeds every chapter of this book with straightforward, common-sense advice.
Don’t let the title of this book confuse you. Despite the ‘zen’ reference, apart from a brief contextual reference in the introduction and opening chapter to ‘letting social media work for you’ (rather than trying to shoehorn it into doing what you want it to do), this is no woo-woo dissertation on the ephemeral aspects of social media; it’s a hard-hitting, streetwise book with real-world strategies and tactics that come from someone who obviously understands the realities of business (Kabani Hyder has a Masters degree in Organizational Communication from the University of Texas at Austin, and has run three companies so far).
Packed with intuitive, insightful tools (like ‘ACT’ – how your web site and blog can ‘Attract, Convert and Transform’ clients and customers), brief, pointed ‘AHA!’ moments in sidebars, and dotted throughout with entertaining and highly informative ‘directors-cut’-like commentaries from other luminaries and practitioners in social media, “Zen” starts with the foundational basics (the need for a web site and blog as your ‘base camp’), moves through intermediate advice (e.g. the use of Facebook Groups and domain name forwarding) and includes some advanced techniques (like how to use LinkedIn Groups to access a premium feature – InMail – for free).
Wisely, Kabani Hyder doesn’t try to cover the waterfront of every social media tool (Plaxo, anyone?) but instead concentrates exclusively on the foundational need for a web site and blog, then focusses on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Throughout, the author explicitly refuses to engage in “gee-whizzing” – the (unfortunately very common) current tendency to overhype what social media can do. Quite the opposite – we are regularly entreated to be very realistic about what the likely outcomes might be from our social media activities.
The final two chapters (a Q & A with other social media advisors and practitioners and an FAQ-like series of questions the author answers herself) provide an opportunity to see other perspectives on some of the issues the book discusses, and acts as a catch-all for some topics that don’t readily fit into any of the preceding chapters.
“The Zen of Social Media Marketing” might not deliver anything new to a seasoned social media practitioner (they’re not the primary audience for the book), but for any busy neophyte, or someone paddling in the shallows of social media who is looking for just one resource to pull from the cacophony of books, courses and boot camps currently available on the topic, this might well be the exact resource you’re looking for. It certainly was for me.
Rating: 5 / 5