"Guerrilla Social Media Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson & Shane Gibson

As part of my 2011 effort to read at least one book per week on average, I finished another book yesterday, "Guerrilla Social Media Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson. 

Shane Gibson has actually been a guest twice on Social Media Edge, our BlogTalkRadio show, and he is also the co-author of "Sociable", which is another book I liked.  Jay Conrad Levinson is the father of the guerrilla marketing movement, and his books have sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

I was excited that Shane sent me a free copy of the book, for two reasons:

1. 
   
2. I love marketing and books about marketing
   
3. I love free stuff
   

I found the book to be a relatively quick read, with an emphasis on specific social media tools/platforms, along with goal setting and planning.  There are lots of worksheets and step-by-step plans that make it easy to develop a solid gameplan from the beginning. 

I think this is a terrific book for beginners and intermediate users of new media.  Chapter Four alone is worth the price of the book. Titled 'The Guerrilla Social Media Arsenal', it contains 126 different sites and tools for marketing online.  Yes, you read that number correctly in the last sentence.  Although I had heard of most of them (sometimes just in passing), I have to admit that I learned about a bunch of new and interesting instruments and ideas for gaining exposure.

Levinson and Gibson did a great job of making one critical point: It's important to know whom you're targeting with your efforts.  I've seen agents in our local market who don't seem to test their marketing efforts at all, or even give much thought to who is reading their ads or posts. 

There are many ways to hone your online marketing focus, and they managed to cover most of them within the book.  One thing that I and others have struggled with is how to make the most of time spent on blogging and social media sites.  They provide some tips in this regard which I found helpful.

This book is well worth the read if you intend to make a concerted effort to leverage online tools for your own marketing plan.  Also, Shane Gibson is a terrifically nice guy, and I'm sure he would be happy if you picked up a copy of your own.  :)

You can find "Guerrilla Social Media Marketing" at your local bookstore, or at Amazon right here:

http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Social-Media-Marketing-Influence/dp/1599183838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295721507&sr=8-1

Looks like it's on sale for only $13.06 right now.  Bonus!