Wow. This is a big moment, guys.
A couple months back, in October, I started thinking about going on a writing retreat. You see, it had been 3 years since I had put out my first book, The Guide to Getting Started with Social Media for Artists and Arts Organizations. As you can appreciate, keeping a book on social media up-to-date is a seemingly unending task. I regularly update the book, so that it’s as up-to-date as possible. But I started thinking it might be time to completely re-write it. A second edition.
I contacted my friend Paul, who’s also a writer, and often goes on writing retreats. I asked him if he wanted to team up, and in December, we went to Bowen Island for three days to write. It rained the entire time, which was probably a good thing. We holed up with our computers for 12 hours a day, and then rewarded ourselves with Tuscan Pizza and episodes of Game of Thrones when we were done.
When I went on the writing retreat, at first, I thought I was there to re-write my arts book. But what actually came out of that session was something very different. A book written for an entirely new audience.
For the past two years, since January, 2011, I’ve been teaching a class at BCIT called MKTG 1550, Social Media for Business. I got to design the course from the ground up, and teaching it semester after semester has only made it sharper and better. Getting Started with Social Media for Small Businesses is everything I’ve learned from teaching that class, in a book form. It comes from my unique perspective of being a small business owner and understanding how time-strapped you are, and from my wealth of expertise from being immersed in social media for the last five years.
We start by looking at theory: what is social media, and how does it work? How does it not work? We look at the basic principles of social media, and the fears small business owners face when jumping in.
Next, we look at each of the major social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, G+, LinkedIn, as well as Blogs, E-Newsletters and we also talk about websites. In each of these sections, I show you how to create accounts (using screencast how-to videos, it’s like having me tutor your though the process) on each, and educate you about best practices and show you how to grow your numbers.
Finally, I show you how to create a social media marketing plan, and supply you with a sample plan and a fill-in-the blank one for yourself. I also threw in a couple of bonus items: a sample social media posting calendar, and nifty spreadsheet to help you track your progress.
It’s pretty darn awesome.
And because YOU are also pretty darn awesome for reading my blog, I’m gonna give you $5 off of the purchase price of $19.95 when you use the coupon code BLOG until February 22. Oh–did I mention it’s 100 pages?? And chalk full of awesome?? Well, it is.