I first read The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani in bits and pieces during the early Summer but then this week sat down in the sun on my balcony and read it again – cover to cover.

With a Foreword by Chris Brogan, the book contains chapters on:

• Online marketing basics
• Websites, Blogs and SEO
• Social media marketing : what you need to know before you start
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Video: the Next Frontier
• Creating a social media policy for your organisation
• Tools for attracting even more business (this includes social bookmarking and how to measure the results of your efforts)

These are followed by:

• A section on some of the questions asked by the readers of Shama’s blog
• A section with case studies from companies in a variety of sectors.

The Zen of Social Media Marketing is somewhat unusual in that Shama has posted all of it on her website so that readers can access updated chapters.

I’ve been tracking Shama for a couple of years now but any social media newbie buying this book will probably have no idea who she is. However she rapidly demonstrates her impressive knowledge and expertise and reinforces her credibility by having Steve West write the section on SEO and handing over the chapter on Video: The Next Frontier to Dave Kaminski who she acknowledges as her number one source for online video information.

Quotes from social media practitioners are sprinkled throughout the book. Exceptionally I found them all to be highly valuable. I read many books on a variety of topics and typically the quotes just reinforce what the author is saying whereas Shama used quotes that really added value.

It’s a very easy, relaxing book to read – it’s just as if Shama is sitting there with you telling you all about social media. The pages just turn themselves. But make no mistake – this book contains no fluff and is absolutely crammed full of useful information. I would definitely recommend having a pen to hand to mark the things to action. Whilst I’m by no means a newbie to using social media for business – I teach it as part of a course on Strategic Communications at Webster University in Leiden and give talks on it back home in Montreal – I still found lots of things to put on my To do list. So whilst The Zen of Social Media Marketing paints a broad canvas and in a very accessible style making it a must read for the social media newbie, it’s still worth a read for the more seasoned social media folk.

The Zen of Social Media Marketing is available from Amazon (my affiliate link) and no doubt a good bookstore not far from where you live.

Having written this review I then read some of the reviews on Shama’s website and at Amazon – interestingly everyone has commented on how easy and gripping a read it is packed full of useful information and no fluff, just like Shama sitting there talking to you. Think Shama has clearly demonstrated that not only is she extremely knowledgeable about social media but she is able to write about it and share that knowledge in an accessible way.

For the record, Shama is the president of The Marketing Zen Group (previously known as Click To Client), a full-service web marketing agency serving clients around the world. She was tagged by Business Week as one of North America’s Top 25 Under 25 entrepreneurs. She holds a master’s degree in organizational communication from the University of Texas at Austin.

With so many smaller businesses and solopreneurs creating a Facebook Page I thought it was timely to provide some information about Facebook pages and serve up some of the great posts about Facebook Pages out there in the blogosphere. 

But first of all – what’s the big deal about Facebook Pages ?

Well –  the Page option allows you to create a presence for your business, web site, product, whatever and promote it.  With a Page you have “fans” rather than “friends” and no restrictions on how many. You can send them updates, engage with them in discussions.

You can feed your Blog Posts onto your  Page  (use the Facebook Notes application) and you can import your YouTube videos using the YouTube Video Box application.

If you have more than 25 fans you can have a vanity URL.

Pages are indexed by Google.

You can gather user analytics and data.

 The coolest thing of all is that you can enhance your Facebook Page with the use of HTML – a rare thing on social media sites. You can rearrange and rename the tabs. You can upload an image (your photo or logo or a poster about your organisation) measuring 200 x 600 pixels (now that makes an impression). You can create a custom landing page using the Static FBML (Facebook Mark up Language – a sub-set of HTML) application.

But first of all you need to create a Page so …..

Setting up your Page

Go to your Home page, in the left hand column click on Adverts and Pages, then click on Create Page (see the screen shot below as this is a tad obscure).

Then you need to decide how you want to classify yourself. If you’re a bricks and mortar business look through the drop down options to find the one that fits best. If you’re a business, organisation or web site with a national or international presence, look through the “Brand, Product or Organization” options. Of course if you’re famous then it’s a no-brainer.

So having settled all that let’s go take a look at the posts I checked out on setting up and enhancing your Facebook page.

Enhancing your Page

As I said, the Static FBML application that allows Facebook page administrators to create custom boxes and tabs on their pages. For me the best post on this is from my big favourite the Social Media Examiner.  In How to Customize Your Facebook Page Using Static FBML, Nick Shim provides a how-to guide on adding the application to your Facebook page and making effective use of it.

Meanwhile Darren Rowse over at Problogger adds some further details that are worth reading : How to Create a FaceBook Landing Page for Your Blog

Ching Ya again at the Social Media Examiner looks at  9 Ways to Enhance Your Facebook Fan Page including “testimonial page” to “ newsletter opt-in” – great stuff !

In How to create a bootylicious Facebook Page  John Haydon (who focuses on social media for not for profits) provides some great tips for creating a Facebook fan page to stand out from the crowd.

There’s a load of stuff out there – if you want even more check out the amazing list from the Interactive Insights Group – Ultimate Guide to Facebook Pages.

Sometimes… when I’m waiting for a bus or train or hanging round in an airport observing people I get to thinking.

Yesterday I went for a run here in Montreal which took me round the lake in Parc Lafontaine. I decided to sit in the sun for a while and listen to my MP3.

I noticed what looked like raindrops on the lake – except it wasn’t raining. Each time some birds flew over there were even more ripples. I realised these were tiny insects moving on the water but making big ripples.

I started wondering what the marketing or business lesson might be from this.

Here they are…

… even if you are little and playing in a big pond (thinking of social media here) you can still make ripples that have an impact on other people and their businesses and their lives. Even if people make no comment it doesn’t mean they’re not observing or listening to you or taking action on what you say or the information you share.

Then I noticed that some of the ripples were really big – this was where two tiny insects were together so of course I thought about joint ventures and how two people are always stronger than just one. I’ve discovered this recently by partnering with Lelia Raynal for my upcoming social media talks in Montreal. (If you want to know more about them contact me.)

What observations do you make when you’re out and about that have a business or marketing lesson ?

Do you use images in the your blog ? then you should read this blog post over at Hubspot on How to Use Creative Commons to Add Images to Your Blog

At risk of you thinking that I spend all my time on Hubspot (I don’t but they do appear in my inbox more than once day) – this post presented some really useful and worth thinking about statistics on the use of mobile devices to access and participate in social media sites – 11 mind blowing mobile marketing infographics.

And now for something completely different – Chris Brogan wrote a post today about the painter who made a window so that he could chat to his fans while he worked, he ended up chatting more than working…  Something to think about as we all chitchat, tweet and comment across the blogosphere; as we talk about what we are going to do rather than getting on with it. Here’s the link: The Painter and his Window. Woah… don’t run off yet – when you get to Chris’ post read the COMMENTS too – everyones take on this parable was different and there are some really interesting intrepretations.  Feel free to not only leave a comment over there but to come back here and tell me what you thought about it.

If you want to know about the latest and coolest tools then Charnita France over at Social Web Tools is the go-to gal. This week she posted on Blogging Tips about Swipely (which is very similar to Blippy).  Swipely (which is still in beta) and Blippy allow you to register and then you can see what people are buying, what your Facebook friends are buyingm comment and discuss these. Not only is it a great wat for consumers for get information about a product but companies can see what people are buying and what they think about them. Or course companies can also use the search facility on Twitter to do this. 

I decided that from now on I’m going to share just a handful of the many blog posts that pass across my line of vision in the average week. (Of course it’s also a cunning ploy to write a post without having to spend hours thinking about it and crafting something erudite, meaningful or even just plain helpful !!)

Milana Leshinsky has compiled a list of the women she considers to be the top 100 women who turned their passion into highly successful multiple income streams businesses online.  To see the critieria she used to identify them and see who’s on her list follow this link.

I love Springwise – full of great new business ideas – brought to your inbox each week. For this weeks offerings…

I’m a big fan of the Social Media Examiner. The other day he posted on the topic of location-based social networks : Foursquare vs. Gowalla vs. MyTown: Which Is Better for Business?

Webdesiger Depot is great if you’re a webdesigner and also if you enjoy cartoons. They have a cartoons of the week series. Here’s the link to this weeks offerings.  They also do collections such as Coming soon website designs.  Check out their different and highly interesting categories.

This may or may not appeal to your sense of humour –  Elaine and Gary and their home decor – check it out to see what I’m on about and let me know if you found it amusing. Catalog Living.

Darren Rowse over at Problogger had a natty little idea today. … I thought it might be fun to do a bit of a fun challenge together that draws on a number of things that I’ve previously taught here on ProBlogger. The idea is to publish a post that is a list of 7 links to posts that you and others have written that respond to the following 7 categories.

Your first post

My first ever post was about doing feasibility studies. Interesting that evaluating business ideas was the subject of a lengthy debate on my FB profile the other day (over 40 comments) and I then wrote a post on it this week. My first ever post was short so rather than linking to it here it is verbatim:

Everyone seems convinced that a business plan is essential for anyone about to start a business. BUT… would it not be better to see if there is a market for your goods or services; what financing will be required and your chances of raising this before you go to the expense of a business plan ? In other words… to do a feasibility study.

A post you enjoyed writing the most

I wrote about marketing lessons from the street. It was spontaneous post that tiptoed through my mind as I waited in line to buy my metro ticket in Montreal. I observed how two different people were begging and thought about the lessons this gave the rest of us in business. The post was called: Marketing Lessons from the Street.

A post which had a great discussion – I haven’t had one of these yet.

A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – I often wish I was Chris Brogan or Michael Martine (Remarkablogger) or Darren Rowse (Problogger) or Chris Garrett because they write so well and so pertinently. I love the irreverence of Naomi Dunsford (Ittybiz) – if only I dared to use the f word  – on my blog.

Your most helpful post – I’ve posted quite a few tips and things. If I look at the motivational posts then I would pick this one about aiming high.

A post with a title that you are proud of

I quite liked the title of my post earlier this week: Offer clients what they NEED not what they WANT. Thought it was a bit controversial and thought provoking. The topic got 4o comments onFacebook but only one comment on my blog. Ho Hum.

A post that you wish more people had read

I don’t know what posts people look at – maybe I should know this but I have not found this on my Sitemeter statistics. I guess I hope that a lot of people read the one about Marketing lessons from the street because I thought it was a bit innovative and also thought provoking for people in business.

So that’s my seven.

Now I’m going to send you over to Problogger to see what’s going on over there.

Yes, you did read the title of this post correctly. No, I have not got it the wrong way round.

I’m questioning the wisdom, not to say the ethics, of only offering clients what they WANT.

I was thinking last night – everyone goes on about how we must offer our clients what they WANT not what they NEED. On-line marketing ‘experts’ are selling programs and processes to help us truly discover what our clients WANT and offer them what they WANT (and make more mo*ney). The word NEED seems to have almost become tabou – we should never offer clients what they NEED – heaven forbid that we dare to do this. Everyone seems to be caught up in this ‘mantra’ and no-one seems to be really questioning it or at least not publicly.

I’m questioning it.

This all started with a conversation I was having with Karen Skidmore (of CandoCanbe) over on her blog where I suggested that perhaps those of us that are nurturing by nature and/or involved in teaching tend to want to give someone what we know from experience they need whereas someone in sales is more hard nosed and quite comfortable just offering clients what they want.

I’ve often been approached by people I know in Montreal asking me for help in preparing a business plan or getting their business started except – they haven’t even validated their business idea or checked whether they would be able to raise the money to fund it. Now if you’re Sir Richard Branson then sure you can just jump in – there is money in the kitty,  but the average person starting a business cannot afford to jump in and discover that there’s insufficient demand for the product or service they want to offer or the price tag would not enable the business to be sustainable.

So yesterday when Ed Dale (the 30-day challenge) said: The biggest mistake people make is that they rush in and build a business based on an idea they are attached to, without doing the necessary research to determine the viability of that idea,  I’m thinking Hallelujah – let’s hope thousands of people read this and realise that it takes as much energy and time to launch a successful business as an unsuccessful one so, may as well make it a successful one. I share this in my status on FB and the debate begins. Wholehearted agreement that people should check out the viability of a business idea before they start the business.

This then takes us back to my point about offering the client what they WANT or offering what they NEED. Those of us who have been in the world  of business start-ups for a good number of years know you NEED to validate your business idea but we also know that the average person WANTS to start a business – today and is not going to start validating, evaluating anything. So – do we help them with what they WANT – perhaps a full blown and not inexpensive business plan when a feasbility study that takes less time, costs less is what they NEED. And if we do – what are we ? we’re giving them want they WANT after all so the gurus would tell  us we are SERVING our customers.  Sorry ! I don’t think you’re  serving anyone but yourself. You are serving yourself to money by providing a service someone WANTS but does not NEED. You ARE however, serving your customer if you explain that they need to validate their business idea as a first priority – which for the record is what I always do even though it loses me income.

So here’s my question to you:  if we give clients what they want, we make money BUT we are not serving them honestly & ethically if we know they need something else. So…should we change to a new mantra – help your client understand what they need don’t give them what they want ? 

Oh and here’s a second question – how do we get people to understand that what they WANT is not always what they NEED ?

Seth Godin wrote this blog post today and I wanted to share it.

Who judges your work?

Here’s the mistake we make in high school:
We let anyone, just anyone, judge our work (and by extension, judge us.)
Sue, the airheaded but long-legged girl in Spanish class gets the right to judge our appearance.
Bill, the bitter former-poet English teacher gets the power to tell us if we’re good at writing.
And on and on.

The cheerleaders are deputized as the Supreme Court of social popularity, and the gym teacher forever has dibs on whether or not we’re macho enough to make it in the world. These are patterns we sign up for, and they last forever (or until we tell them to go away).
In high school, some people learn to ship, they learn to do work that matters and most of all, they learn to ignore the critics they can never possibly please. The ability to choose who judges your work–the people who will make it better, use it and reward you–is the key building block in becoming an artist in whatever you do.

Who do YOU let judge your work ? Do you have the confidence to be the judge ? Do you ask friends and family ? Do you let the statistics be the judge – how many people visit your blog, how many people sign up for your newsletter, how many people buy your products / services ? Write in the comments section to let me know.

The link to Seths post: Who judges your work?

I’ve hestitated from writing my first post of 2010 – i wanted to write something really meaningful – not about business lessons learned (and god knows there have been a lot of those), not about new years resolutions as such and then …. I was sorting through my emails and found this one that a friend sent to me – no idea who the original author is so can’t acknowledge but…

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly,even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Happy New year – Happy New Decade – may it be your best so far !!