"Friends With Benefits": My E -Commerce Book Report

“Friends with Benefits” is a brand new marketing handbook that investigates the use and definitions of social media in society. It was written by two Co-founders of a Marketing Agency outside Vancouver called Capulet Communications. The book is broken up in to thirteen chapters all with sub topics and points to keep the reader engaged. It is a fairly lengthy book at over 260 pages and some of the information is repeating and long winded especially in the first half. The information given is not for someone looking for foundational knowledge on the topic of social media, but rather people, groups, or organizations looking to use, understandings, and utilize their own social media endeavors to the fullest potential. Certain chapters that are particularly strong aspects are the explanations of specific types and models of social media like MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. In a sense the book is almost like a mini text book offering definitions, explanations, and real life examples of social media being used by organizations. The driving point of all social media that Barefoot and Szabo’s constantly remind readers is “blogs, social networks like Facebook and microblogging platforms like Twitter are simply technologies that foster communication, sharing, and collaboration” (pg 3). Statistics show that more and more people are not watching traditional television, listening to radio, or reading magazines and newspapers, but rather going directly to the sources of information and entertainment they like or having those sources send them the information they want. “Friends With Benefits” lays out clear cut examples of success, the risks of social media marketing, and concrete facts and theories about popular social media and there uses, but takes the reader a good amount of time to get to the more interesting, in depth, and factual information.

For more info, check out my video blog on the book at youtube,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NblVAAicNfg

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