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Product Details

Binding:

Hardcover

EAN:

9780071768252

Label:

McGraw-Hill

Feature:
Publisher:

McGraw-Hill

Studio:

McGraw-Hill

Editorial Reviews

Build a powerful social media strategy to increase buzz—and the bottom line

“Whether you’re Fortune 500 or a small business owner, if you’re looking for success in this field, you owe it to yourself to read this book.”
—George G. Smith Jr., Social Strategist, PepsiCo

“After working with hundreds of organizations in their efforts to adopt social technologies, I can safely say The Social Media Strategist is the best guide available. Christopher Barger elevates the social media conversation with an experienced pragmatic insider’s discussion about real adoption. This book should be on every corporate and agency practitioner’s shelf.”
—Geoff Livingston, author of Welcome to the Fifth Estate and Now Is Gone

“This book is an absolute must-read for anyone seeking to better understand how to plug social media into their business from both a strategic and an operational standpoint, and should be required reading for communications and business management students around the world.”
—Olivier A. Blanchard, author of Social Media ROI

The Social Media Strategist is refreshing because it has substance amidst a sea of social media superficiality. It will help you think strategically and realistically so you can act efficiently and creatively. If you’re serious about business and committed about leveraging social media, you need to read this book.”
—Esteban Contreras, Social Media Marketing Manager, Samsung USA

“Christopher offers a refreshing point of view as a seasoned practitioner and leader in the earliest days of the social media evolution. He describes the challenges of large-scale internal change and the rewards of integrating social media business planning, and he shares real-world examples of successful campaigns.”
—Shauna Causey, Head of Social Media, Nordstrom

About the Book:

In today’s fast-paced professional climate, large companies are learning that launching a website and taking a wait-and-see approach to engaging customers is not enough. Competition is fierce, and those who master the social media space are the ones who come out on top. There is greater urgency than ever before to establish a vibrant social media program—and it all starts with a key strategist who can best organize and leverage all of the organization’s resources to cut through the bureaucracy and get real-time results.

This is where The Social Media Strategist comes in. Before tackling specific social media programs, you first have to get your own organization—and everyone in it—on board with making social media a business strategy priority.

Christopher Barger, the award-winning former social media director at General Motors and IBM’s former “blogger-in-chief,” describes all the challenges particular to getting a comprehensive social media program off the ground in a large firm. The Social Media Strategist teaches you how to:

  • Manage internal office politics, from your legal team to the policy makers to the human resource department
  • Present new ideas to lawyers and executives in a compelling, convincing way
  • Teach your employees the guidelines and protocols they’ll need to represent your company
  • Turn your organization into a true media outlet, publishing content that is generated by in-house employees and is truly engaging to an outside audience

“Telling a company from the outside what it should do is one thing,” writes Barger. “Actually making it happen from the inside is quite another.” Here, he takes the bold step of starting where all successful endeavors begin: by planning well, by putting all the moving parts in the right place, by constructing a solid foundation.

Consult The Social Media Strategist and build the best-suited social media infrastructure for your company. Then, and only then, can you begin to raise your profile, connect with customers, and increase your profits using the most powerful new business tool.

Customer Reviews

I thought the book would be simplistic, but there are a lot of great insights here. The author takes lessons he learned from GM and IBM and really makes them relevant to anyone (most of whom would not be at a mega-company like those two). It's well-written and interesting. If you're interested in the topic, you'll get a lot out of this book.
If you've been frustrated by other social media books' inability to give you actionable insights on how to introduce, manage and measure social media at large organizations like yours, then you'll be happy you read Barger's book. He's been there and done that at IBM and GM, navigated the internal politics, inter-department turf wars and ingrained social media into both those huge companies.

This isn't theoretical "what social media COULD do for your company" stuff. This is "what social media HAS DONE" for two of the biggest brands in the world by a fellow who was there. Barger's the ultimate social media insider and you'll more from him in the first few chapters than you will in many other books combined.
It's rare in today's digital world the social media expert has real-world experience. Christopher Barger built a social media presence for GM, using strategy and results to drive the use of the social tools. Making use of brand ambassadors, loyal customers, and a willing team, he built - and delivered - real results for his company. Now he teaches you how to do what he did in a way that isn't overwhelming and is easy for you to sell to your bosses because you can demonstrate a lift in sales. Large, medium, and small companies can learn something from The Social Media Strategist.
I highly recommend this book. Barger has the real-world experience in building and managing world-class social media campaigns. With this book, he is sharing what is has learned through doing in his decade plus involvement with social media as function. A go-to book.
 
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