SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate
Who Wrote It?
SocialCorp is written by Joel Postman, currently the Chief Enterprise Social Business Strategist at Intridea, a social app development company. Joel frequently blogs on social media marketing and other related topics at www.socializedpr.com.
What’s Covered?
In today’s web, a company’s online presence extends far beyond their website. Thanks to the rise of social communities like Facebook and Twitter, and the incredible reach a simple blog post can have, consumers are discussing company products and services, both positively and negatively, all over the web. This presents an incredible opportunity for companies to interact with their customers in ways that can feel a bit foreign to people accustomed to traditional marketing.
That’s where SocialCorp comes in. Joel has written a fantastic book to give to anyone looking to get started in, or relatively new to using social media for marketing for corporate companies. Joel writes in a very engaging, conversational tone, and covers a lot of ground in this fairly short book.
SocialCorp introduces the reader to examples of companies that have had tremendous success with social media (like Dell, HSBC and GM for example) and to some examples of companies whose social campaigns missed the mark or backfired. In fact, that’s one of the best parts of the book. Joel is willing to discuss both how social media can help if used correctly, and how social media can hurt a company if used improperly.
The truth is, social marketing is a better fit for some companies than for others, and SocialCorp tries to help you understand the difference. There’s even a handy social media readiness quiz intended to help you identify if a company is ready to effectively use social media to interact with their customers online.
Should I Read It?
Like I stated above, at under 200 pages, SocialCorp is a short read. Don’t let that fool you, as there is no shortage of helpful information. SocialCorp provides numerous case studies of how companies today are making use of social media, and points you in the direction of numerous tools online to help you to best utilize and measure your social campaigns.
The book is intended to be a very practical introduction to social marketing, and it accomplishes this goal very well. Social marketing requires a significant change in mindset from conventional marketing, and as a result, it can be a bit difficult to grasp at first. SocialCorp provides a gentle way to help understand the how’s and more importantly, the why’s involved with social media.
The Final Verdict
SocialCorp is a great book to share with co-workers, bosses, employees, and corporate executives who are interested in social media, but could use a little extra information to get them truly engaged. There’s a lot of value offered by social media that is just waiting to be tapped into, and SocialCorp does a great job of explaining how you can do just that.