Book Review: Getting the Most Out of Social Media

Book Review by Bob Brown

I’m on LinkedIn – Now What???: A Guide to Getting the Most OUT of LinkedIn by Jason Alba

Happy About, 2009.  ISBN 978-1-60005-136-4

I should declare up front that, unlike my children, opening MySpace and Facebook is not the natural way to start and end my day.  Or, seemingly, fill much of the time in between.  The same is probably true for many people of my generation – that is, the wrong side of 50.  So, as a somewhat passive user, I thought it would be a good idea to try to understand how I could make better use of LinkedIn in my professional life – to understand some of the opportunities and pitfalls. 

This book was one of several books on the subject that seemed to have been well-received.  Although to be fair, there was nothing in particular to suggest it was any better or worse than the others.

I found the book to be a good mix of practical guidance and informed opinion plus a valuable source of references to further sources of information for additional reading on most topics.  I liked the economic writing style and the objective presentation.  Refreshingly, the author provides his own view of most topics but generally explores other commonly held positions – there is very little dogma or unrestrained enthusiasm to distract or annoy.  If you are already a committed LinkedIn user then you may not learn very much that it is new about the mechanics of using the site but I would expect most people to come away with something of value.  If you’re like me and you want a reasonably quick run through the capabilities of LinkedIn, then the book is a good buy.  

I would like to say that I’ll be using LinkedIn much more effectively going forward – but, I suspect like many others, I still need to work at making this a natural part of my work day – rather than an “add-on.”