The Art Of Social Media Summary

1-Sentence-Summary: The Art Of Social Media is a compendium of over 100 practical tips to treat your social media presence like a business and use a bottom-up approach to get the attention your brand, product or business deserves.

Read in: 4 minutes

Favorite quote from the author:

Guy Kawasaki is a name that rings a bell for almost anyone. Yet, most people don’t know why he originally became a public figure.

In 1983, Guy joined Apple, and became their chief evangelist, responsible for the marketing of the Macintosh at the time. As an evangelist, it was his job to spread the word about the Macintosh through articles, talks, speeches, demonstrations and presentations.

In this way, Guy created a base of incredibly loyal fans and customers, who spread the word as much as they could on their own, thus generating huge network effects.

Over the years he’s become an angel investor and expert in social media, as he was involved in many platforms early on. The Art Of Social Media is his practical guide to helping people succeed in this industry.

Here are 3 very actionable lessons for your own social media presence:

1. Treat your social media with professionalism.
2. Provide content your fans want to see, not only what you want to create.
3. Let your various accounts talk to each other for cross-promotion effects.

Ready to become a social media maverick? Let’s do this!

Lesson 1: Treat your social media presence like it’s a business.

Why does your softball team never win and make it to the top of the league?

Because it’s your hobby.

Be honest. You don’t take it seriously. You want to go to softball, hang with friends, throw some balls, and drink a few beers afterwards. That’s okay.

But then you shouldn’t complain about never winning. If you want to win, you’ll have to start training seriously. Double practice, show up early, stay late, round up the team, and really focus on ironing out those mistakes.

Yes, whether in sports, or in social media, if you want to succeed, you’ll have to treat it as if you’re trying to go pro.

So remove your WhiskeyWilliam handle, drunken party profile pic and stop posting jokes about your mum-in-law.

Use your full name (for example my website is niklasgoeke.com, so people will remember my name and start googling it), make sure your picture clearly shows your face and you smile, and start posting things that are relevant to the people you want to connect with eventually.

Lesson 2: Give your fans content they want to see, not only what you want to create.

Speaking of content, most people use their Facebook profile like it’s a megaphone for their opinions.

It’s not.

You’re better than that.

Who cares about yet another rant about Donald Trump, or what you think of the latest Miley Cyrus scandal? Exactly, no one. Just like you don’t read that stuff when other people post it, no one will read yours, if you do the same.

That doesn’t mean you can’t say what you think on social media, but make it a mix.

Give your opinion on things that matter. For example if you want to establish yourself as an Apple expert, give detailed reviews of specific features of the latest iPhone and why you think they’re good or not.

In addition to your own reviews, share things with people they want to see or learn about.

You can find out what people are already discussing with tools like Buzzsumo, which show you the most shared articles on any topic, and then re-post those and start talking about them with your fans.

Don’t just spout off opinions. Mix and match your own unique perspective with content your audience wants to see.

Lesson 3: Let your different accounts talk to each other for cross-promotion.

First of all, when I say different accounts, I don’t mean 10. I mean 2, or maybe 3. We’ve all been there. We signed up for 10 different platforms and ended up so overwhelmed with maintaining them all, that we eventually dropped all but 3.

If you’ve already got that behind you, then good, let’s work with the 3 you’ve got. If you’re just starting, avoid this mistake. Pick 2 and be done with it. Or, at the very least, use a multi-account management tool, like my friend Ovi’s great service SocialBee.

Facebook and Instagram. Twitter and Snapchat. Youtube and a blog. It doesn’t matter. Have 2 accounts on social media platforms you like, and then drive your audience from one to the other.

I see this all the time on Instagram these days. Someone posts a video announcing that they’re gonna be sharing something on Snapchat. If you want to find out, you have to follow them there, and vice versa.

You can send people to your blog from Twitter, and people to your Twitter from your blog. Use every chance you get to cross-promote yourself and you’ll build your audience a lot faster.

The Art Of Social Media Review

Everyone is a media company. The cost of starting to market to an audience is zero. You can start a TV show today, thanks to Youtube, self-publish a novel, thanks to Amazon, release your own music on Soundcloud, or post your photographs on Instagram.

Self-branding is real. Whether you like the term “personal brand” or not, people are making hundreds, thousands, in rare cases even millions of dollars through social media, because they jumped on the content train early.

The best part? All of these platforms just get more valuable as they get bigger. Yes, you’ll have to work to stand out, but that’s always the case.

At 1.5 years old, The Art Of Social Media is already a bit outdated, but the fundamentals remain the same. Many of his tips apply today, and if you’re a social media newbie, it’s a great and light read with a lot of return for your money.

The summary on Blinkist is way too short, I think, so go straight for the book.

Who would I recommend The Art Of Social Media summary to?

The 14 year old, who’s on all social media, but just consumes content and doesn’t put any out in a strategic way, the 42 year old with a day job, who thinks it’s “too late” to join social media, and anyone who can’t find anything meaningful when they google their own name.

Last Updated on July 1, 2023