Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me by Penny Power

I‘m not sure I would have subtitled Penny Powers’ book Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me – “What online social networking means for you and your business” (Headline: 2010) . I think “What Ecademy and other social networks can do for you” would have been more accurate.

A lot of space over the 200 pages of the book is given to Ecademy – one of the first social media sites to emerge at the end of the 90s – formed by Penny and Thomas Power. As such, you can’t help but come away thinking that the book is a bit of fluffy promo for the successful business networking site.

As I wrote earlier in the week, Know Me inspired me to give Ecademy a try but I soon got tired of a social network that wanted me to pay something before I could reply to messages.

The book’s strength is Penny’s discussion of building networks for width and depth. Width, because it’s important to nurture plenty of contacts; depth, because it’s important to really connect and nurture your connections.

I also enjoyed the discussion of James Knight’s communication strategies: IMA Personal Profiling. IMA stands for Identify, Modify, Adapt: the principles used to enhance communication, teamwork and interaction between people with different behavioural characteristics.

Using a fairly straightforward 10-question online questionnaire, participants receive instantaneous feedback on the way they communicate and the way they should best be approached. Each participant is classified with their predominant iMA style (High Blue, High Red, High Green or High Yellow).

You can take the questionnaire when you sign up for Ecademy and turns out I’m a High Red.

According to Knight’s system, the best way to approach me is to be:

practical
brief
assertive
to the point
supportive of my goals
respectful of my time
and show strength.

So now you know!

Things That Made Me Go Hmm

Aside from my minor irritation at Penny regularly extolling the benefits of Ecademy, there are a few other problems I have with the book. Some of the case studies feel like testimonials or recommendations for certain key members of Ecademy and that certainly seems the case when Ecademy members come out of the wood to extol the virtues of the book on Amazon.

I also found Powers’ continual reference to blog posts as “blogs” a little bit clumsy, especially for someone apparently so in tune with social media. To clarify: this is a new post to my blog. Not a blog to my blog!

I do think Know Me is worth a read for the sections on building depth in your network, but you could just as easily sum up Penny’s entire book with join Ecademy, use Twitter and take care of your network, and the network will take care of you.

Still Looking for a Good Book on Social Media?

Acerbic, informative and utterly brilliant

I personally think Guy Clapperton‘s “This is Social Media: Tweet, Blog, Link and Post Your Way to Business Success” is a much better book.

It’s less autobiographical, and less contrived because Guy’s not consciously or subconsciously promoting a site he owns. Guy also he doesn’t try to convince his readers that all types of social media are relevant to every business. On the contrary, Clapperton encourages you to think about your own aims and objectives before starting with any of them – so you’re far less likely to waste your time. Clapperton also discusses the cost of social media to your business, in terms of time, which again puts it above Penny Powers’ book.

If you’re looking to buy just one book on practical social media marketing right now, I’d go for Guy Clapperton’s book. It’s lucid, witty, acerbic but very nuanced account of what social media can do for your business.