The Facebook Era Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff

The Facebook Era Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff by Clara Shih.

Clara Shih works for salesforce.com, she also designs widgets for business that are used on Facebook.  Her background is both technical and sales focused.  She is of course advertising her book on Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/thefacebookera




The author describes how there is increasing convergence between social networks and business networks.  Companies are using sites like Twitter and Linkedin to manage their interactions with their customers.  Recently Apple announced that they were creating a new network called Ping for iTunes which connects its customers with music and musicians.  This is an example of the interconnecction.  http://techpinger.com/2010/09/apple-announces-itunes-10-with-ping-music-social-network/ 



Clara Shih  has specific chapters on marketing, recruiting, customer service, innovation (this surprised me), sales, and networking.  She introduces the book with how social networks came into existence.  It is a step by step overview of the development from mainframes  to computers to the internet to social networking.  I especially like her description of the "social graph"-- the map of how people are connected to each other on the internet.




This book does not have a bibliography at the end.  What it does have is numerous computer screen captures depicting different activities on social networking sites as well as many urls for websites.  It is quite visual with charts, graphs, and lists.  There is an index at the back of thebook.




The best part of this book was the concepts it introduced; the social graph, the convergence of social networking and business networking, and the sense of innovation available to people who are willing to try new things with social networks. I niticed after I finished reading it, that they just came out with a new second edition on July 31, 2010.

Daily Thoughts 8/30/2010 (the Facebook Era, Tragedy of the Commons )

Drawing of Elizabeth Siddal, June 1854, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Public Domain, From Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 8/30/2010

On the train to work, I finished reading the Facebook Era which of course is on Facebook under http://www.facebook.com/thefacebookera .  I also started reading Common As Air.  The main focus is on intellectual property and what is in the commons for everyone to use freely.  This is a very interesting topic because it touches on genetic maps, seed crop genomes, media, law, fair use, and copyright.  On the way home, I read some more.  He describes the feudal commons in England.  It is a very different interpretation of the history of the commons than what you might read in the seminal essay, The Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/162/3859/1243 . 




Another book came in for me to read today, Self Esteem, A Proven Program of Cognitive Techniques for Assessing, Improving, and Maintaining Your Self Esteem by Matthew McKay, Ph.D. and Patrick Fanning.




Today has been a day to write reports.  I am writing something on shelving materials, preparing some material for the monthly report, and making some suggestions about a vendor.




I also did a little bit more looking around in the storage area.  I like going downstairs sometimes to look at the old books. Books catch your eye like Waverly by Sir Walter Scott or Jurgen by James Branch Cabell.  It is satisfying handling older material.  I also sat down with a colleague and looked at some of the old black and white photographs of our building in the local history room, the reading room in 1909, the reference desk in 1938, the technical service area in 1975.  In November it will be the anniversary of our library.



I decided to finally break down and bought a domain name.  I bought http://www.bookcalendar.net/ It should go into effect soon.  It will be a process to include metatags in my next submission to search engines.  I want to confirm the difference between having my own domain and not having my own domain.  I also want to have a chance to add some stronger meta tags. 

Daily Thoughts 8/29/2010 (The Facebook Era, The Oxford English Dictionary )

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) studying the cycloid, engraved on the tablet he is holding in his left hand; the scattered papers at his feet are his Pensées, the open book his Lettres provinciales. Exhibited at the Salon of 1785; the plaster model was exhibited at the Salon of 1781, Louvre, PublicDomain, From Wikimedia
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blaise_Pascal_Louvre.jpg  
Daily Thoughts 8/29/2010

I read another chapter in the Facebook Era by Clara Shih.  She was writing about social media as a recruiting tool for business.  Businesses are looking for candidates through Facebook, Linkedin, Ryze, and other networks.  If you are a recruiter who is interested in the social media side of recruiting, there is http://www.ere.net/  Electronic Recruiting Exchange network which has a very nice set of articles on the subject.  They also have a national conference every year.  I still get invites to it, even though I haven't been in recruiting for many years.




I think I might be working on some bookmarks and a flyer next week for small business books.  We are having a five session long program on entrepreneurship in September presented by the Womens Enterprise Development Center, the mayor is doing a small business expo part of it is going to be held at the library, and we have been purchasing quite a bit of material on small business lately.  Plus it coincides with my own interests.




I added some more book reviews from August 2009 to my book review list. This is a steady long term project.




The Oxford English Dictionary is moving online only.  The last time I used this was to find the etymology of some words for someone.  It is not very practical for modern usage.  I can understand why it is going online.  Still, I think it should be available through print on demand for a considerable fee if someone wants it. http://www.nwcn.com/news/Oxford-English-Dictionary-may-be-going-online-101756313.html 

Daily Thoughts 8/27/2010 (online classes, publishers weekly)

nisse writing

Daily Thoughts 8/27/2010

I read some more of the Facebook Era on the train to work.  It is describing how to use social networks as a way for businesses to manage their customer relations.  The main focus right now is how sales people can qualify leads and prepare better presentations before calling people.




This morning, I did some more spot checking of the shelving sections from which I am ordering for damaged material, orderliness, and other things.  I also checked the storage area to see that it was in order and spent some time talking about shelving.  I also checked the displays to make sure they were in order.  We try and display material that can be checked out.  This increases our circulation.  We have been trying different ways to increase circulation.  We are starting to list items in our catalog as on order so more people will place our books on hold. 




We are also putting the September Is National Library Card Month public service announcement on our website.
http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/card/index.cfm





I have been reading the latest issues of Publishers Weekly.  There are a lot more novelists who are writing for graphic novels now.  Two graphic novels that were highlighted were The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Nigffenegger and The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel by Diana Gabaldon.  Another book which caught my attention was The Box: Tales From the Darkroom by Guntner Grass.  This looks like it will be an excellent collection of short stories.  Another book which caught my attention was Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus.  This should be interesting.  The author is a Brooklyn author plus there is a connection to graphic novels and rock music. There also was a release of Jorge Luis Borges On Writing in June of 2010 by Penguin. We have a 1973 edition of Borges on Writing which should be very similar.




The book Common As Air Revolution, Art, and Ownership by Lewis Hyde has come in for me to read.  He is talking about the cultural commons.  Looking in the index, he does mention copyright and creative commons which are two reading interests of mine.




I registered for the October Fundamentals of Acquisitions class from ALCTS.  Hopefully, it should be useful, it is my third online class this year.  I took Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management and Readers Advisory 101 both of which were very good.

Daily Thoughts 8/26/2010 ingram, the facebook era, acquisitions

KAST kast designed by Marcel Douwe Dekker in 1992: The KAST kast is a interior sculpture build with the letters K, A, S, T on their side (This picture was first published in Viva magazine The Netherlands, 18 sept 1992), Creative Commons Share Alike Attribution 3.0




Daily Thoughts 8/26/2010

It is interesting times again.  My library is going to be open on Sundays for half a day instead of a full day Saturday.  http://www.lohud.com/article/20100826/NEWS02/8260346/Yonkers--Mount-Vernon-public-libraries-may-remain-closed-on-Saturdays-in-fall




Today I talked to two other libraries about Ingram which is a distributor.  People have used them for standing order plans and to get new books.  Apparently, they have very fast turnaround time in delivering new material.  It is something to consider.  Ingram uses BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications)  for their classification scheme which is what is used by the publishing industry and bookstores. Public libraries tend to use the Dewey Decimal classification scheme, and academic libraries in the United States use Library of Congress classification.




I also spent some time updating the Bookletters web page for recommended widgets, created a form for tracking missing items and made sure the new book displays were in order.  Today went very smoothly.




I read a little more of the Facebook Era.  The author is writing about how to create connections in networks like Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter.




I am considering taking the Fundamentals of Acquisitions Class in September.  It is a four week course.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webcourse/foa/syll.cfm

Daily Thoughts 8/25/2010 (Bring On the Books For Everybody, the Facebook Era)

English: Interesting Story, 1898, Laura Muntz Lyall (1860-1930)

Daily Thoughts 8/25/2010

I have been reading more of Bring On The Books For Everybody.  I like Jim Collins description of many of the newer womens novels being "romantic consumerism".  It fits nearly perfectly with books like The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger.  He also uses another term postliterary novel for books like The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Jay Fowler which has a nice ring to it.  He is showing how books and films are tied in knots together.  I can see how shows like Sex and The City are a natural extension of modern "chick lit". 



On the subway home, I finished reading Bring On The Books For Everybody. Jim Collins excerpts a paragraph from The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon in the final chapter of the book.  It is about the "cemetery of forgotten books" one of my favorite places in literature.  The author is challenging the idea of Fahrenheit 451 in the final chapter, offering us a vision of popular culture which combines literature with visual mediums like film and television.  It is much closer to my own view of the future of books.








Today was another quiet day.  We discussed vendors today.  I am going to take a look at Ingram.  Ingram has slightly better discounts than the other vendors for hardcover and paperback books.  We also discussed how we are going to keep track of missing books.  I spent quite a bit of time on the floor helping patrons with reference. 


Last night was kind of interesting.  I had to work on cleaning up a trojan on my machine.  There were a lot of attacks on computers focused on companies spoofing other peoples machines and asking them to buy their antivirus software.  The warning comes as a popup, then says your machine is not properly protected.  I went through Computer Associates, Microsoft, and another company to get my machine back up.  It took many hours to clean up.  Microsoft had me use a company called Esoft to finally clean up my machine.



I also had a chance to read a bit of the Facebook Era.  There is a concept which is introduced called the "online social graph" which is a map of all the people on the internet and how they are connected.  Clara Shih reminds us that the internet is about people.  In her view social and consumer networks are beginning to merge and old fashioned advertising is no longer working.