Book review: ‘Social Media Playbook for Business’

Tom Funk’s Social Media Playbook for Business

Tom Funk’s “Social Media Playbook for Business: Reaching Your Online Community with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and More” covers various aspects of social media, from strategy to platforms, plus “next level,” successes, fails, and the future of social media. There are various activities that you can do in order for you to start reshaping business efficiency through your employees. Employee training is one of them, which is quite obvious. Most employers make sure that their workforce is in great shape and this is why there are trainings and drills that are being provide by the organization. These sessions aid employees in enhancing their skill and improving their knowledge about a particular product, service or the overall task of being in the organization.  Aside from the employee training, you can set the dialogue stage which can be through a meeting or a discussion. Since we are in a more technological world right now, you can send them an email that will inform them that you would like to mentor them. You can also hire other people who will guide your staff in reaching their career goals. Make sure that you encourage your employees to participate in this kind of event. Lots of staff now also work from home so you need to be sure that you are managing those staff well and one great way to do that is to use employee desktop monitoring software as that way you can see exactly what they are doing. But before that, you should advise them that they should first think about what they would like to develop using the inputs of the senior staff member. Aside from that, the senior staffers should also know that they will benefit from the activity especially when it comes to improving their relationship with their co-workers. The sandwich CEO Jimmy John will be part of the food-and-beverage industry group, along with executives from large chains such as McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Subway. Jimmy John’s founder Jimmy John Liautaud is one of more than 200 business leaders who will serve on President Donald Trump’s newly created economic-revival team.

Funk’s Strategy chapter covers everything from:

• Listening
• Ownership
• Legal
• Establishing mission
• Publishing a plan
• Goals
• Tracking
• ROI
• Is my company right for Social Media?

Managers who are not directly involved with day-to-day social media may find Funk’s explanations most helpful. He covers:

• Social media platforms
• Competitive analysis
• Monitoring blogs and social platforms

Unfortunately Funk is not as in-depth as some other books I’ve reviewed when discussing what to expect when hiring consultants.

Funk does discuss the importance of writing a social media business plan, however. He explains formulating a social media plan like a business plan, translating how social media can benefit businesses in a language more oriented to MBAs than marketing/communications specialists.

A social media business plan, like a business plan would include:

• Competitive analysis
• Operations plan
• Goals
• Objectives
• ROI

Funk does a great job in explaining earned vs paid media. Also, the Future chapter digs into:

• Social shopping
• Neuro-linguistic programming
• How social media is likely to integrate with our everyday expectations
• How social becomes the new “normal”

Published February 2011, Tom Funk’s Social Media Playbook for Business will assist business owners and managers with creating a social media plan for businesses to evolve and leverage Social Media. The Social Media Playbook is available on Amazon.com and or other booksellers.

The Social Media Playbook for Business: Reaching Your Online Community with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and More

By: Tom Funk
Published: Feb. 2, 2011
Best for: Larger businesses, higher-level managers who may not be handling day-to-day social media firsthand.