The Facebook era: tapping online social networks to build better products, reach new audiences, and sell more stuff

“People in all demographics and regions of the world are more connected than ever before to the products, issues, places, and individuals in their lives. This book recognizes that we’ve come to a place where people can represent their real identity—both personal and professional—and use the social filters on the Web to connect with the world around them.” —Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook “...A must-read for CEOs and other executives who want to understand Facebook and more importantly take the right actions to stay relevant and stay competitive.” —David Mather, President, Hoovers, Inc. The ‘90s were about the World Wide Web of information and the power of linking web pages. Today it’s about the World Wide Web of people and the power of the social graph. Online social networks are fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and interact. They offer businesses immense opportunities to transform customer relationships for profit: opportunities that touch virtually every business function, from sales and marketing to recruiting, collaboration to executive decision-making, product development to innovation. In The Facebook Era, Clara Shih systematically outlines the business promise of social networking and shows how to transform that promise into reality. Shih is singularly qualified to write this book: one of the world’s top business social networking thought leaders and practitioners, she created the first business application on Facebook and leads salesforce.com’s partnership with Facebook. Through case studies, examples, and a practical how-to guide, Shih helps individuals, companies, and organizations understand and take advantage of social networks to transform customer relationships for sales and marketing. Shih systematically identifies your best opportunities to use social networks to source new business opportunities, target marketing messages, find the best employees, and engage customers as true partners throughout the innovation cycle. Finally, she presents a detailed action plan for positioning your company to win in today’s radically new era: The Facebook Era. Right this minute, more than 1.5 million people are on Facebook. They’re interacting with friends—and talking about your brands. They’re learning about your business—and providing valuable information you can use to market and sell. In the Facebook Era, you’re closer to your customers than ever before. Read this book, and then go get them! Clara Shih offers best practices for overcoming obstacles to success, ranging from privacy and security issues to brand misrepresentation, and previews social networking trends that are just beginning to emerge—helping you get ahead of the curve and ahead of the competition, too. Learn how to… • Understand how social networking transforms our personal and professional relationships • Why social networking will have business impact comparable to the Internet • Use online social networks to hypertarget your customers • Hone in on precise audience segments and then tailor custom campaigns with powerful personal and social relevance • Define and implement your optimal social networking brand strategy • Ask the right questions, set the right goals and priorities, and execute on it • Implement effective governance and compliance • Understand and mitigate the risks of social networking/Web 2.0 initiatives