I’m proud to announce that my first book, Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign (affiliate link), is now available for purchase.  It has been a 12-month process from the time that we originally started talking about writing this book to it hitting bookshelves.  I’m proud of the work that I put into it and hope that you’ll find it helpful.

Below I have put together an overview for you to assess whether or not you think there will be value in spending a few dollars and buying the book.

What is Facebook Marketing About?

Facebook Marketing is a deep dive into how Facebook can be leveraged by your company starting TODAY.  This book is not just a Facebook-is-cool-and-you-should-join type book.  This book provides you with actionable information that you can begin implementing into your business.  It gives you the ammunition you need to convince your boss, your board, your IT team, or your employees why they should be investing time and money on “just another social network.”

Who Should Buy This Book

Simply put: This book is designed for professionals who want to understand how Facebook can be integrated into their business.  This includes anyone from the CEO to the CMO to PR, communications, and marketing.  Besides gaining an understanding of how you can use Facebook within your business, you can also gain an understanding of how YOU can use Facebook professionally as part of your own personal/professional branding.

Where You Can Pick Up a Copy

Does all of this sound good and you are itching to grab a copy or 50 for you and your closest friends? Well, first of all, thank you. It means a lot.  You can grab your copy from one of these awesome retailers:

Facebook Marketing – Amazon

Facebook Marketing – Barnes & Noble

Facebook Marketing – Borders

Facebook Marketing – 800CEORead

Facebook Marketing – Books-a-Million

Note: There is a Kindle edition available but not iBooks or audio versions, as of yet.

How Facebook Marketing is Organized

Facebook Marketing is organized into 11 chapters:

Chapter 1, “From Dorm Room to Boardroom: The Growth of Social Networks,” takes you from the beginning of Facebook in the founders’ dorm rooms at Harvard University all the way to their corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California.  This chapter provides an introduction to the phenomenon known as Facebook including major milestones such as opening the platform to everyone, going mainstream, and the major growth data points.

Chapter 2, “Getting Around Facebook: The Basics,” deals with getting you around Facebook by taking a stroll through the basics.  This includes a summary and detailed description of the basic profile options, notes, photos, videos, comments, likes, friends lists, Facebook Chat, and many other features.  This chapter provides you with a foundation for going deeper into the platform and understanding how it can be integrated into your business.

In Chapter 3, “Establishing a Corporate Presence,” you explore establishing a corporate presence including a deep dive into Facebook Pages and Groups.  You gain an understanding of how to set up each of these features for your business, how they can be used, and which ones you should select based on your needs.

Chapter 4, “Extending Facebook into the Interwebs: The Power and Reach of Facebook Connect,” breaks out of the framework of Facebook and discusses extending Facebook into the interwebs through the use of tools such as Facebook Connect.  You learn how this major feature has been integrated into websites and how you can use it for your needs.

In Chapter 5, “Facebook Advertising: How and Why You Should Be Using It,” you can learn about the Facebook advertising platform and why you should use it.  You learn about creating an ad, setting a budget, selecting cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impressions (CPM), discovering your target audience, and using Facebook Insights (analytics).

To gain a full experience while using Facebook, you need to extend its capabilities with Facebook Apps.  In Chapter 6, “Extending the Experience with Facebook Apps,” I discus plug-ins such as flickr, Delicious, StumbleUpon, and several other applications that can help you to connect with your prospects, customers, and fans.

One of the most addressed issues throughout Facebook’s history has been privacy.  Chapter 7, “Addressing Privacy Concerns,” reviews the changes of Facebook’s privacy policy, whether you should have a personal AND professional Facebook account or if you need a single profile, and several other issues as it deals with your privacy, your customers’ privacy, and the privacy of your company.

By the time you make it to Chapter 8, “Developing a Facebook Marketing Strategy,” you will have developed a deeper understanding of Facebook and how you can use it as another part of your marketing toolbox.  Chapter 8 helps you to pull all these tools together to develop a Facebook marketing strategy.

With all the described options, you learn that one of the best uses of Facebook for your business is through the development of communities.  But how do you pull all of this together? Chapter 9, “Using Facebook to Develop Communities,” teaches you how you can use Facebook to develop communities.

Because you’re not the first company to jump into Facebook, Chapter 10, “Best in Class,” shows you some of the Best in Class companies that have fully utilized Facebook to build communities, engage with their audiences, and become more social.

To finish, Chapter 11, “Shaking the Crystal Ball: What’s Next for Facebook,” shakes the crystal ball and tries to guestimate what’s next for Facebook.  This is your sandbox to play in to see if you can figure out where Facebook goes from here.  Place your bets and let ‘em ride!

A Bit of a Warning

While I did my best to keep updating the manuscript, eventually my publisher cut me off from making edits since the book had to head off to the printers and to store bookshelves.  That means that you should expect that some of the stats have changed and that there have been feature set changes.  But, the underlying core is the same.  The theories, strategies and tactics are the same.

Special Thanks

I just really wanted to say thank you for all of the never-ending support.  This opportunity wouldn’t have happened without each and every one of you.  Should you choose to pick up a copy, thank you for skipping a few coffees to grab it.  I hope that you’ll find it useful.

If you have already read it, I’d love to hear your feedback.  What did you think? What can be improved upon in the next edition?

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