The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff Book

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xii

About the Author xiv

Introduction 1

Why You're Reading This Book 2

Welcome to the Facebook Era 3

How to Use This Book 5

Part 1 A Brief History of Social Media

1 The Fourth Revolution 11

Mainframe Computing 12

The PC 14

The World Wide Web 15

The Online Social Graph 17

Empowering the End User 22

2 The Evolution of Digital Media 25

Storage and Creation 26

Media Distribution 26

The Future: Social Filtering 29

Why Facebook Is Different 34

Social Network Ecosystems 36

What the Social Graph Means for Digital Media 42

3 Social Capital from Networking Online 43

Establishing a New Category of Relationships 44

Online Interactions Supplement Offline Networking 50

Flattening Effect 52

Creating New Value from Network Effects 52

Blurring the Lines 57

Part II Transforming the Way We Do Business

4 Social Sales 61

Transforming the Sales Cycle 62

The Need for Multiple Network Structures 79

CRM-The First Social Network? 80

5 Social Network Marketing 81

Hypertargeting 82

Loyalty and Engagement 89

Social Distribution 96

Challenges and Limitations 103

6 Social Innovation 107

Concept Generation 108

Prototyping 115

Commercial Implementation 117

Continual Iteration 120

7 Social Recruiting 123

The Best Social Networks for Recruiting 124

Sourcing Candidates 126

Candidate References 134

Employer and Recruiter Reputation 135

Keeping in Touch 137

Advice for Candidates 141

Employee Poaching 141

Part III Your Step-By-Step Guide to Using Facebook for Business

8 Engage Your Customers 145

Start with Strategy and Objectives 146

Find Your Unsanctioned Communities 148

Define andEstablish Your Presence 155

9 Get Your Message Across 163

Hypersegment Your Audience 164

Choose Your Media Strategy 167

10 Build and Manage Your Relationships 181

Setting Up Your Facebook Account 181

Interacting on Facebook 187

Asking for and Providing Introductions 193

11 Corporate Governance and Strategy 195

Choosing the Right Network Model 196

Identify Key Risk Areas 198

Partner with Legal, IT, and PR 200

12 The Future of Social Business 203

The Innovator's Dilemma 204

The ROI of Social 205

Social Trends 205

What the Future Means for Doing Business 206

Final Remarks 211

A Snapshot of Top Social Networking Sites, March 2009 213

Index 223