The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani

the zen of social media marketing An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue by Shama Hyder Kabani.

This is very much a motivational book combined with a social media book. It is designed to convince you to go out and join social sites. The first part very much feels like a motivational speech.

After the initial pep talk, when the writing starts to describe social media sites, it becomes quite practical. The book focuses on three main sites, Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook. The writing convinced me to update my Facebook profile as well as my Linked In profile. It has clear steps on what to do and what to avoid without any pie in the sky promises.

It does not just cover pure social media sites. It also reminds you that if you are in social media you should take the time to learn how to include digital photography and digital video. Podcasting and pictures are very important to build an online social presence. The pep talk was convincing enough for me to consider getting a digital camera as a first step.

Shama Hyder Kabani includes a lot of screen captures of pages from Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In to show you what she is doing with the social sites. The descriptions are extremely easy to follow. They also lead to a very clean, professional look.

Because this book is very much a business book, she also discusses policies for using social media inside companies as well as gives a number of two page case studies of how people successfully improved their business with social media.

The motivation to convince me to update my site was useful. The description of how to use the tools was at a beginners level. This would be useful for someone starting out in social media. I recommend this as an introduction to using social media for business. The author clearly has a fairly large online presence.

Shama Hyder Kabani is using her book to sell her social media business. The motivational style with a strong sense of sweetness might not be for everyone. I found it interesting and very convincing. http://zenofsocialmedia.com/

Daily Thoughts 7/9/2010

Bruno Liljefors, Portrait of Father, 1884, Oil On Canvas

Daily Thoughts 7/9/2010

I wonder sometimes if there were other options than a layoff and demotions like furloughs, one day reduced hours without loss of title. The loss of title is very hard because it limits future motion. It would have been nice to hear about other options.

If you are in Mount Vernon, New York please go to the upcoming City Council meeting this Wednesday, July 14th at 7:00pm to show support to the library.

Today, I looked for books for the books mobile and placed reserves for the bookmobile. I had a list sent in to us from the senior center. I have been using this list as an additional way to look at what we need to order. Three popular books which people wanted more than one copy were Pops A Life Of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout, High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto, and The Worst Case by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.

I am also compiling a list of all the things which I do as a collection development librarian. This of course makes me a little nervous in a layoff situation. I am going through my email and my files to create something extremely comprehensive. This is a good reason to save your emails and old file folders, they keep a track of record of actually work done, not just what you think you are doing. Sometimes it is good to go through your files and email to get an exact sense of how you spend your time.

Most of my time was spent at the reference desk today answering peoples questions. I may have to ask some advice to get a better sense of what I am doing from other collection development librarians.

There was a small amount of donations I had a chance to look at also. There were a few Harry Potter books which looked like they could be added.

I have to thank my lucky stars I am not in California right now. Things are getting scary. http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/08/news/economy/california_pay_cuts/index.htm

Read some more of The Zen of Social Media Marketing. Once it gets into specific social media sites it gets better. It motivated me to update my Facebook page with a few things. The section on Twitter is not bad at all. She seems to be less fluffy once she gets to more specific information.