"Whether you consider yourself Social Media savvy or limited in what you know about the topic, this book is designed to get you on the Social Media fast track...PDQ."

Regardless of your age, background, or current position - whether you're a top-tier executive, in operations, production, sales, or marketing, an entrepreneur, a consultant, or an investor looking for the next Google -- The Social Media Bible will become an essential part of your business library.At 48 chapters and 600+ pages, the book is designed to provide a quick and ready introduction to the topic, or function as a complete and comprehensive reference.

Part One of this book is organized around a social media timeline and was designed to introduce you to the basic applications at the core of social media ecosystem. Some of these basics have been around for years and may not seem real sexy to you, but we thought it might be useful to show you what came first and in some cases who begat whom.Take Chapter 2 on email as an example. Chances are you didn’t get a book about social media to learn about email. You already know about email, you’ve been doing it for years now, right?

Not so fast.

We’ve discovered that there are a lot of strategic and tactical aspects of email that many people do not understand or leverage. When you consider that some pretty cool social media applications are designed work with your email, you’ll appreciate having this chapter in the book. Consider it new perspective on an old topic. Or think of it as a refresher course.

Part Two introduces you to several of the most popular and current applications, companies, and players in the social media ecosystem. It reads a lot like a travel guide with colorful facts, figures and anecdotes. These information-packed company profiles answer these important questions for each company:

• What is it?
• How can it be used?
• What other social media applications does it work with?
• Who uses it?
  
• Should I use it?
• Who started it?
  

In Part Three, you’re ready to begin developing a custom social media strategy for your company, customers, or prospects. By this time, you’ve had a chance to learn more about some of the applications and offerings within the social media ecosystem. Now it’s time to put it all together.

There’s a chapter that shows you how to look inside your organization and assess where you’re at on the social media experience index. The SMEI (pronounced SMAY) is a hands-on assessment that we developed for you to administer to coworkers, employees and company stakeholders (vendors, strategic partners, etc.). It helps you see what social media applications people in your company already have functional experience with.

You may be surprised to learn that one or two of your company’s key functional groups, human resources or the sales division for example, are already using social media in an informal way, right under your nose. It happens. Or you might find employees who are social media savvy on their own time but have not been empowered to bring these skills to the office.

The SMEI is your first step in determining your social media starting point.Once you’ve looked inside your organization, we’ll help you look outside your organization, primarily at your customers and prospects.

We’ve developed a SMEI for external use as well, and it can be a valuable tool in helping you segment your market, create customer personas and position your product or services relative to each customer persona. We’ll show you how to use the external SMEI and share a few stories of real companies who are already doing this successfully.

In a later chapter you’ll be ready to do a Social Media SWOT analysis for your organization, and we’ll walk you through the process. Then it’s on to creating social media strategies that work for you and your company. Your strategy will likely be very different from what others might do, and it will certainly evolve. That’s life in the social media ecosystem.

A helpful Appendix is chock-full of templates and samples you can use immediately. And don’t forget The Social Media Bible website and best-practices blog to keep you up-to-date and connected to an active network of managers, entrepreneurs, technicians, and other real-world social media practitioners.