I took a few hours this past weekend and read through Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms The Way We Live and Do Business by Erik Qualman (Wiley, 2009). 
The book was just published about a month ago, and I was looking forward to reading it. This was another one I was carrying around for the past few weeks, but hadn’t yet had a chance to open.
It was a fast read- taking me about 2.5 hours total. One thing that struck me was how catchy the individual chapter titles were, for example, “What Happens in Vegas Stay on YouTube.”- the word construction was interesting and intriguing, and made me want to read more.
Overall, I experienced the book as entertaining, but I can’t say that I learned anything new. If you’ve been reading other books on social media, many of the examples and case studies referenced in this book will be familiar to you.
What this book does have is more recent examples- such as United Breaks Guitars, which is only a few months old.
The author was very careful to highlight that social media is changing rapidly, and that some of his examples or referenced URLs might be out of date by the time the book was printed. This did adequately convey the rate of change and fast pace of social media.
The book is written in a series of case studies and soundbites. There were definitely many quotable phrases- ones that you could repeat and sound profound. It was definitely a bird’s eye type view on social media, which seemed familiar to me, somehow, from other social media books I’ve already read.
What I liked best about the book was that it did try to make social media accessible to the reader. It was based on some interesting findings and research pulled from other sources. It did present the information in an engaging and entertaining way.
I tend to prefer to read social media books which teach me something or move me to think more deeply about social media strategy and tools. What I found in this book was that, rather than learning much new, I was more entertained- and, also, had many of my ideas validated. This was nice, but I was hoping for something more revelatory.
If you are looking for more specific or advanced social media strategy or tools, this might not be the right book for you. As I said, it presented some entertaining examples and a good broad view, but didn’t seem to provide too many specific strategies or tools you could use immediately.
But if you are looking to add to your general knowledge of social media, or are looking for books which provide you a broad overview of social media, this book may be a good fit for you.
Have you read Crowdsourcing or Groundswell? Former is a much lighter read, latter gets a bit academic at times. They go well together though, an introduction and then delving deeper.
I have read Groundswell and liked it very much. I will check out Crowdsourcing based on your recommendation. Thanks for contributing! 🙂
Rachna