Reading Reflection No. 3

The book I read was, The Art of social media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of the book is to prepare you for proper use of your social media platforms. To equip you with the tools necessary for a successful profile and to create a growing fan base. To understand that what matters is net effect, what is happening overall and not who you’re pissing off. Offers a step and clear science to the amount of post required to make it casual and not overwhelming for followers that are viewing them.    

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

              The book offered a new perspective on what social media is and what it could be. As a personal user of social media platforms, I had never seen how much work can actually go into one’s profile and what capabilities it has. Guy and Peg state that you must find out what people want to read. This immediately reminded me of our customer behavior assignments (Figuring Out Buyer Behavior series). It is incredible how important knowing your costumer is, not only when sell but when entertaining/advertising too. They emphasize on the importance of “feeding the content monster”, which basically means that on a day by day basses you must feed your viewers with the content they want to see. Also, Guy and Peg talk about how using Google docs and other online calendar sources to help you manage your schedule and to collaborate with other users. This way everyone can feed the content monster, which reminded me of social capital. When creating a public online calendar, you can use the social capital you’ve gained to assist you with growing your platform.   

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

              I would design an exercise based on a mock system. I would have students explain how they would run a social media platform and have them describe what content they would post. How they came across this content and what do they expect to gain from this. I do however, feel that this is already being implemented with our blog use and our peer comments, but we can always push this a little more.   

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

My biggest surprise was when Guy and Peg state that likes and comments are basically meaningless. Liking and commenting are nice, but the true compliment on social media is sharing " Passing the reassuring test". Always ask yourself is my post Shareable, which can help you create a greater more relatable post. Also, they stress the importance of always sharing a friend's post. Watch what they share and pick the best if you can find and share it. This creates a trust between you and other platforms that can potentially increase your social capital.