Book Review: "Facebook Marketing"

Let me start by saying that traditionally I'm not one for bad-mouthing a book or its author. His or her opinion on what is relevant enough to include in their writing, and what is not may and will almost always conflict with what I believe. I'm ok with that. However, just as important as reviewing which books I think my readers would be interested in, is informing them of books I believe they should avoid. This makes sense, right? Today's book review is one that I believe all Internet Marketers should avoid.

Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business by Steven Holzner was not at all what I had expected it to be. For starters, the material and screen shots were outdated - understandably there is little that the author could have done to prevent this - and the entire book seemed like a general rehash of Facebook's navigation menus... pretty lame if you ask me.

I purchased this book expecting to read things like "how to build a bigger, better company brand with Facebook", "getting started with Facebook ads and advanced targeting" and "tips for building a more relevant fan-base". These topics are not only timely, but very important in today's Facebook marketing initiatives. Instead, there were no such chapters. I forced myself to sift through 288 paperback pages of nothing but the very basics of Facebook - notice I didn't say "Marketing" either.

In my opinion, this book is better suited to be a manual for someone who doesn't know how to create a basic Facebook profile. There is very little marketing information or strategy in this book, and I would only recommend it to someone who has a very hard time with computers and needs a manual for absolute beginners. If this is not you, then pass on buying this book. In fact, I believe that just by signing up for a Facebook account and clicking around will not only be a cheaper alternative to reading this book, but one that will be more interesting and effective.

Labels: social-media-marketing