21A-Reading Reflection No.2

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

Written by: Guy Kawasaki 

1.  The general theme of this book is to keep your social media presentable, professional, and interactive. You want to create your own "brand” out of your social media so you want it to be a true representation of who you are so your followers get a feel for you as a whole
2.  When I first read the title of this book, I picked it to review because I use social media many times a day. However, I was unsure as to how it was going to relate to ENT3003 because we have not really discussed social media. Many of the main ideas that Kawasaki applied to social media, we apply in class to our business ideas. He states that you have to take your social media seriously and treat it as a business, even though many people treat it casually and more like a hobby. Our ventures began as ideas or stemmed from our pet peeves so we may not think of them as a serious business idea. However, in order for success we need to treat them with the up most importance. Kawasaki’s second lesson talks about showing your viewers content that they want to see. This connects to our ventures because we are trying to market these products to our customers. We need to see that they have a need that could be met and work to make sure we meet that need in the best possible way.  
3. I would create an exercise that requires students to use two platforms of social media to market their product or service. Kawasaki spends a section of his book talking about interconnecting multiple platforms. This helps to keep your social media branded to you. It also gets your name out there. This exercise would have students make two accounts on different social media websites, dedicated to their products. They would need to make at least three posts on each account and connect them using the skills and tips found in Kawasaki’s book. The posts would reflect the points we have talked about on our idea napkins. Why do people want this product? What does it do? How does it solve a need? And so on.
4. The biggest surprise I saw while reading this book was what I chose to create my assignment on. I never really thought about keeping my social media consistent across multiple platforms. I kind of just aimlessly post different things on each account and that does not help to establish who I am as a person. It is just a jumbled mess. I have not made a brand for myself and those looking at my social media could not answer the question, “Who is Shelley Robinson?”. I also did not think about using one platform to draw people to another. This keeps the reader on profiles all about you! This has them spending more time and though on things about you and your brand, allowing it to spread farther.