Hack: "The Art of Social Media"

My initial thoughts before reading "The Art of Social Media" by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick;

-how can they fill an entire book with tips for social media?? Are there really that many fancy/powerful tips for social media...??

-I will probably already know most of these "tips"... I'm a millennial... i think i know how to use social media...right??...

WRONG.

I was so wrong. This book had amazing tips regarding social media stuff that i wouldn't have thought about before. Granted, i didn't always agree with everything Kawasaki said, but i definitely learned a lot from reading this little handbook.

Chapter 2 - "How to feed the content monster"

This chapter had a ridiculous amount of tips on how to constantly be feeding your brain with stories and posts. Kawasaki listed so many resources that i had never even heard of before. It was almost a little overwhelming how many different websites and resources he uses to read content. The whole "Twitter Lists" and "Facebook Lists" i had never heard of before reading so i will definitely be checking those out to see what those are about...

Chapter 3 - "How to perfect your posts"

I LOVED when he talked about being BOLD. I thought this was really awesome of him to give the advice of not being afraid to voice your opinions and say what you want. I think this is SO important. People are too afraid of what their "followers will think" if they post certain things....but it's like who cares???? Voice your opinions! Social Media is all about getting your voice heard!! If your followers don't agree with you then they can unfollow you...that is the beauty of social media!!

ALSO, the list of "clever blog post title templates that work" was very amusing, because it is SO true. I always click on articles that have some kind of countdown title so you know it will be a list and easy to scan.

I didn't necessarily agree with him when he was talking about how he would much rather have higher click rates on his posts and piss off followers and lose followers from posting repeat posts too much because at least the post got a lot of views. I feel like this would eventually come back and bite you in the butt....? Wouldn't you eventually lose SO many followers from posting repeats so much to the point where it became significant how many followers you lost?

SO, i don't know if i agree with posting over 20 posts a day....that seems way too extreme.

Chapter 4 - "How to respond to comments"

I thought this chapter was extremely relevant to read tonight, with the uproar occurring all over social media because of this election. My two favorite pieces of advice from the chapter - that i am trying SO hard to stand by right now, but it's tricky - are:

Stay Positive

and

Agree to Disagree

Sometimes, when it comes to commenting on social media, you just have to take the high road (easier said than done obviously)

Chapter 6 - "How to Get More Followers"

I liked the advice to jump on new platforms and how it helps you gain followers. When platforms are brand new that means not a lot of people are using that platform yet so it's a lot easier to stand out and be a "star" if you are one of the fist people to use the platform.

I loved how concise this chapter was. Only two tips for gaining more followers, keeping it simple, i love that.