I am really excited to share that the textbook that I coauthored on Social Media Marketing is now in print and available for order.  As many of you probably know, this project has been in process for a long time now (well over a year) and I am excited to announce that the book is now complete, printed and available to order (I got the sample copies in the mail last week).

The book, titled Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Approach will help students and educators strategically build and execute social media marketing plans.

Why a Social Media Textbook?

Colleges are now starting to offer social media marketing as a part of their curriculum, and the job market for social media is growing quickly.  This textbook was created to support educators in brining social media curriculum to their students.

I personally am very excited about this project because I believe that college graduates need skills for a modern workplace, and increasingly, social media and digital skills are required.

Why am I Excited About This?

I am not just excited because I co-authored this book, but I am also excited because I believe that social media education is important in helping the social media industry to grow and succeed.  While the specific applications of some of the social media tools do change over time, the strategies for succes in the medium are much more consistent over time.

What is the Social Media Textbook About?

Rather than explain it myself, here is the overview from Cengage:

Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Approach promises to be the seminal textbook in the field with its distinctive conceptual foundation and practical approach to developing successful social media marketing plans. A proven eight-step social media planning model provides students with a cumulative learning experience, showing them how to construct social media strategies that achieve desired marketing goals. These marketing goals shape the development of tailored social media strategies. Special attention is given to the most effective techniques for identifying targeted marketing on the social web, with emphasis on the creation of personas that represent the critical online market segments for a company. Students discover how to put these well-defined personas to work in selecting the optimal social media platforms for reaching an organization’s marketing goals. Students are taught rules of engagement and social media ethics for behaving properly as marketers on the social web. With these guidelines in mind, the most productive marketing tactics for each type of major social media platform are examined in depth. These platform-specific tactics, along with all the proceeding material in the book, are brought together in the final chapter to create a comprehensive social media marketing plan, with detailed explanations and illustrations from a real world plan. Extensive consideration is given to monitoring, evaluating, and tuning the implementation of social media marketing initiatives. In addition, students are introduced to the most useful quantitative and qualitative social media measurements, along with various ways to estimate an organization’s return on investment in social media marketing activities.

Where can you find the book?

• You can purchase it on Amazon here
• You can see details at Cengage here

Who Was Involved?

• The book was published by Cengage Learning
• The coauthors include Melissa Barker, Donald Barker and Nick Bormann
• Countless case studies, interviews and social media expert input as well as the patients and understand of coworkers, families and friends

Boot Camp Digital continues its Facebook and Foursquare Check-In for Charity campaign!  This is a great way to support your favorite charity or non-profit.  All you need to do is check-in at Boot Camp Digital on Facebook or Foursquare and we’ll do the rest.  Each month Boot Camp Digital donates $0.50 for each check-in to the charity or non-profit of that month (capped at $50 per month).

LAST MONTH…

November was devoted to Heifer International and today after counting all check-ins, we will send a donation to this amazing organization that works with communities to end poverty and hunger.  We want to thank everyone who checked-in at Boot Camp Digital in order to support this non-profit and be a part of our charity campaign!  A special THANK YOU to Rachel Tailor (@designratcincy) for suggesting Heifer International, they have a wonderful cause and we are proud to be a part of their support group.

THIS MONTH…

This month we will collect your check-ins for making a donation to City Gospel Mission.  Located in Over-The-Rhine and Serving Greater Cincinnati since 1924, City Gospel Mission empowers men, women and at-risk youth to break the cycle of poverty and despair.  They collaborate with local churches to offer a variety of one-to-one, relationship-focused programs and services to equip those in need with the spiritual, emotional and physical skills and resources to achieve life transformation.  This organization was suggested by @Meshspeak.

Be sure to check-in at Boot Camp Digital on Facebook or Foursquare to increase the donation to this truly inspiring organization!  Thanks everybody!