You’ve got to be more than a Social Media Newbie to appreciate the depth and breadth of research that went into compiling the 334-page compendium The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web.
Author Tamar Weinberg is a community manager for Mashable, clearly the best source for Social Media news on the Net — 
She knows her stuff AND you will, too, if you get a copy of this book, read it, and follow up by trying our just a small portion of the platforms and strategies described in careful detail . . . just one example:
There are more than ten pages just on social bookmarking sites Delicious and StumbleUpon.
Tamar’s Top Seven Reasons to be on the Web:
- Establish your expertise.
- Bring more traffic to your website.
- Raise search engine rankings.
- Increase sales.
- Manage your reputation.
- Enhance brand awareness.
- Build relationships.
Here are Nine Strategies for Social Media Marketing Success:
1) Establish goals for your social media marketing campaigns.
2) Create a strategy for executing your social marketing efforts.
3) Communicate effectively with the communities you intend to target.
4) Take charge of the conversation, even if it’s not on your website.
5) Gain exposure from participating among many social channels.
6) Utilize social media to handle a reputation management crisis.
7) Utilize blogs and bloggers to send messages to larger groups of individuals.
8] Leverage existing sites to market your products.
9) Craft content that is currently “hot” within many social media circles.
Some quotes to “get your hands around”:
“You can’t manage something you can’t measure.”
“On the Social Web, conversations happen WITH or WITHOUT you.”
“A Community Manager’s key function is humanizing an organization.”
“Strategy requires teamwork and idea generation.”
“Communities flourish because people are helping people.”
“If you consistently Listen, AND Give Back to your social media community, you will be miles ahead of the competition.”
12 different Online Reputations you should monitor:
- Your name
- Your company name
- Your brand names
- Your company executives
- Your company’s media spokespeople
- Your slogan or marketing message
- The competition
- Your industry
- Your weaknesses
- Your business partners
- Your clients
- Your intellectual property
Personally, I’ve made a list of [a] more than a dozen sites I’m going to check out in more depth, [b] a half dozen communities I’m going to join, and [c] 10 specific tips I’ve already started to adopt.
PS I really didn’t count, but I’m willing to bet there are MORE THAN 1,734 facts you’ll learn about social media from Tamar’s invaluable text.
For those of you who’ve already read it, let us know how it helped you.
FURTHER INFO FROM TAMAR: