Aaker, Jennifer.  The dragonfly effect: quick, effective, and powerful ways to use social media to drive social change, by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith with Carlye Adler.  Jossey-Bass, 2010.  211p index ISBN 0-470-61415-3, $25.95; ISBN 9780470614150, $25.95. Reviewed in 2011apr CHOICE.
48-4566  HF5415  2010-24706 CIP 

Aaker (marketing, Stanford Univ.) and Smith (marketing consultant, Vonavona Ventures) attempt to explain how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things through the power of social media. The rationale is that any human can act as a “dragonfly” and instantaneously change direction, heading full speed toward a new goal. This volume will greatly expand the reader’s view of social media networks such as Facebook, e-mail, and Twitter. The opening section offers an inspiring real-life example of how social media can be used constructively to save lives through the power of numbers. The authors then discuss the four stages of achieving the “dragonfly effect.” The first step is to narrow one’s focus, keeping the goal in sight. Second, grab the audience’s attention through empathy. Third, engage the audience with an authentic, vivid story. Finally, take action by clearly defining the goal and creating an easy-to-execute call to action. The underlying theory is that if each step is pursued for a good cause, anyone should be able to reach the masses to achieve a goal. This book is best suited as a supplementary text for college students, as well as a useful guide for all business professionals. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic collections, lower-division undergraduate and up, and professional libraries. — S. D. Clark, St. John’s University (NY) 

Blanchard, Olivier.  Social media ROI: managing and measuring social media efforts in your organization.  Que, 2011.  292p index ISBN 0789747413  pbk, $24.99; ISBN 9780789747419 pbk, $24.99. Reviewed in 2011sep CHOICE.
49-0378  HF5415   MARC 

According to the author, “You can’t measure what it is you do not value or do not know to value.” The ability to measure and value social media’s presence in one’s business sounds deceptively simple, in theory. In reality, the effective installation and utilization of this concept is a challenging process. And yet, Blanchard (BrandBuilder Marketing), an experienced brand strategist, engineers an operational framework to successfully manage p-2-p (people-to-people) media activity. Readers of all stripes are presented with a soup-to-nuts approach that confronts myths, develops key performance indicators, and underscores the impact of objectives, targets, and results. Part historical analysis and part illustrated discussion of necessary organizational structures, the book cogently and concisely presents social media’s usage by just about every business function. The author addresses timely issues such as virtual brand management, crisis management, and conflict resolution with functional guidelines to navigate these (digital) pitfalls. Ultimately, the reader is encouraged to approach the daunting prospect of planning, executing, measuring, and adjusting his/her own social media program from a point of simplicity, focus, and patience. A comprehensive and useful exploration of integrating the social media process in any organization. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through practitioners. — S. M. Mohammed, SUNY Fredonia 

Botsman, Rachel.  What’s mine is yours: the rise of collaborative consumption, by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rodgers.  Harper Business, 2010.  279p; ISBN 9780061963544, $26.99. Reviewed in 2011feb CHOICE.
48-3364  HC79  2010-15285 CIP 
 
Botsman, a consultant, and Rodgers, president of a venture company, explore collaborative consumption, which they define as “an emerging socioeconomic groundswell” encompassing both face-to-face and Internet collaborations that involve sharing, bartering, trading, etc. The authors cover the history and rise of collaborative consumption, its benefits and uses, principles, and participant mind-sets. The numerous examples provided are rich, intriguing, interesting, and useful. For example, Zipcar, the car-sharing service, is explained with an emphasis on its sustainability implications. Astounding facts are artfully woven into the discussion, e.g., “When you Google ‘clothing swaps,’ there are 12.7 million page views.” The ultimate aim of the book is to have the reader understand “how Netflix, Zipcar, eBay, and Zopa are all connected.” The book is aptly framed as an antidote to “self-destructive growth.” The 5-page selected bibliography is a helpful distillation of the 24 pages of endnotes. The book’s complementary Web site <http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/> promotes the collaborative concepts presented in this work by allowing readers to share information and contribute to its development. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate students through practitioners. — C. Wankel, St. John’s University, New York 

Carroll, Evan.  Your digital afterlife: when Facebook, Flickr and Twitter are your estate, what’s your legacy? , [by] Evan Carroll and John Romano.  New Riders, 2011.  203p index ISBN 0321732286 pbk, $24.99; ISBN 9780321732286 pbk, $24.99. Reviewed in 2011aug CHOICE.
48-6952  K564  2010-487956 MARC 
 
Planning for the eventuality of death is definitely not a new idea. What is new, though, is extending those plans to deal with the digital ephemera that individuals, their friends, or their loved ones might leave behind. Yesterday’s shoebox of memories–letters, photos, newspaper clippings–are today’s tweets, e-mails, or Facebook pages. Designers/researchers Carroll and Romano, creators of the blog The Digital Beyond <http://www.thedigitalbeyond.com/>, carefully walk the reader through the planning required to deal with each of these digital manifestations of a person’s life (e.g., how to manage passwords, how to back up tweets, how to retrieve images from Flickr, etc.). Pitched as a guide to one’s “digital afterlife,” the book’s somewhat uncomfortable focus unnecessarily limits its audience. After all, the Web site containing one’s precious memories is much more likely to expire before the owner. Thus, the detailed advice on making “other arrangements” for one’s data will benefit everyone who has various online accounts. A useful work for readers hoping to avoid an orphaned digital presence and for those who realize that putting their digital life in the cloud does not mean it cannot unexpectedly go up in smoke. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates and general readers. — C. W. Grotophorst, George Mason University

Hay, Deltina.  The social media survival guide: strategies, tactics, and tools for succeeding in the social Web. 2nd ed. Quill Driver Books, 2011. 454p index afp CD-ROM ISBN 9781884995705 pbk, $24.95.  Reviewed in 2011nov CHOICE.
49-1562 TK5105 CIP

Whether one embraces it or not, social media is a driving force in society today.  Recent world events showcase the power of the medium as a tool to build support and influence global perspective, as well as educate and inform.  Hay, a Web developer, educator, and business owner with extensive experience with social media, outlines a plan to strategically develop and grow a strong, successful presence on the social Web.  This substantial revision of A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization (2009) includes expanded discussions on document sharing and cloud computing as well as new reflections on Web 3.0 and optimizing social media initiatives for the mobile Web.  The book includes a detailed examination of a plethora of social media tools, newsrooms, and communities, and provides guidance on blogging, pod/Webcasting, and setting up a Web page using WordPress.  In addition, Hay offers qualitative and quantitative suggestions for measuring the success of a social media initiative based on initial objectives.  The companion CD-ROM provides a linkable list of online resources and templates for forms and spreadsheets seen throughout the book.  This well-organized work will be useful to anyone interested in harnessing the power of the social Web.  Summing Up: Recommended.  All levels/libraries. — R. J. Erlandson,  University of Nebraska Omaha 

Howard, Tharon W.  Design to thrive: creating social networks and online communities that last.  Elsevier, 2010.  234p bibl index; ISBN 9780123749215 pbk, $39.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2010aug CHOICE.
47-6909  HM742   MARC 

This important work fills a gap in the literature in its proposal of methods to fuse technology with practical community growth and sustainability, even outside the social networking venue. Howard (rhetoric, communication, and information design, Clemson Univ.) more than knows the subject, considering the very prominent place he holds in the human-computer interaction and usability communities. While maintaining a careful, technologically agnostic tone, the author very smoothly conveys his thoughts in an eloquent, easily accessible manner that any level of reader would be able to penetrate. The volume includes chapters titled “What Are the Factors Needed for Sustainable Online Communities?” “Remuneration,” “Influence,” “Belonging,” and “Significance.” This surprisingly deep yet easily readable book seamlessly incorporates the research of people such as Bruce Tuckman (“Development Sequence in Small Groups,” Psychological Bulletin 63 [6]: 384-99, 1965, and other publications related to groups and team development), Leon Festinger (A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, 1957), and Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (Groundswell: Winning in a World of Social Technologies, CH, Nov’08, 46-1586), among others. The notes and bibliographies at the end of each chapter allow the curious to further explore additional readings and research. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels of academic and professional readers, especially those who create and maintain online communities. — J. R. Lauber, Briarcliffe College Library 

Mainwaring, Simon.  We first: how brands and consumers use social media to build a better world. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 250p index ISBN 9780230110267, $26.00. Reviewed in 2011nov CHOICE.
49-1569  HD60  CIP   
 
Mainwaring (founder, We First brand consulting firm) describes a new business model–“contributory consumption”–in which people’s purchases help to make the world a better place.  The goal is for businesses to combine sales profits with a social purpose, leading to a shift in thinking for both companies and consumers from “me first” to “we first.”  Mainwaring believes that online social media are helping to bring about a positive change in the way business is done, giving customers more say in business decisions and making information available to all via networking sites.  Henry Jenkins, an authority on communications who is quoted in the book, notes that the public, rather than the institutions themselves, now “controls the storytelling” about companies and products.  In effect, there is a new transparency.  Mainwaring identifies some issues that businesses need to examine more closely with respect to corporate social responsibility: executive salaries, dividend payouts, tax write-offs, government lobbying, quality controls, and global environmental factors.  He cites Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has pledged most of his fortune to world charities, as the role model for this new era.  Summing Up: Recommended.  Upper-division and graduate business students, faculty, and practitioners. — P. G. Kishel,  Cypress College

Mashable: The Social Media Guide.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2011jul CHOICE.
http://mashable.com/ 
48-6008     

[Visited Apr’11] Mashable is a leading online source for information and news on social media and related technology. The current site was born from the successful social media and digital trends blog of the same name, founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. It offers a wide range of technology-related information, including original stories and videos uploaded 24/7 by writers and contributors worldwide. Mashable is free, well organized, and easy to navigate. Horizontal navigation tabs at the top of the page link to articles on news and trends on topics such as social media, tech gadgets, video, mobile, design/development, and more. The Explore tab provides links to information by general subject, while the Bing-powered search box allows visitors to keyword search the site. In addition, readers may sign up for e-mail updates or subscribe to Mashable-generated content through a variety of venues including RSS feed, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. It is also possible to submit news and suggest industry-related story ideas to Mashable editors via the site’s Submit News link. There is a reason PC Magazine ranked Mashable a must-read site: the valuable, up-to-the-minute technology information found there makes it an excellent resource for anyone interested in keeping up with what’s new in the quickly changing worlds of digital technology and social media. See related, Social Media Examiner <http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/> (CH, Aug’10, 47-6586). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. — R. J. Erlandson, University of Nebraska Omaha 

Qualman, Erik.  Socialnomics: how social media transforms the way we live and do business.  Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.  265p index ISBN 0-470-47723-7, $24.95; ISBN 9780470477236, $24.95. Reviewed in 2010nov CHOICE.
48-1576  HF5415  2009-8841 CIP 
 
Qualman (online marketing and e-commerce specialist) presents a collection of upbeat, anecdotal essays about using new social media venues effectively. Coining the term “socialnomics,” the popular speaker and consultant conveys the transparency of Web opinions (good or bad) and their effects on the profitability of products and services. He structures the book’s presentation in the style of social media messages, so the text lacks depth and substance. Marketing and sales-management professionals will appreciate the discussions of social media concepts, terminology, and adages. Rather than lose potential customers to negative messages on Twitter and Facebook, savvy marketers can use social media to publicize positive customer experiences, Qualman advises. He notes that traditional advertising techniques (pre-Web 1.0) are far less effective in reaching the majority of potential customers and that survival requires leveraging social media. Notes and popular literature references are provided for each chapter, along with summaries. The author’s complementary blog, Socialnomics–Social Media Blog <http://socialnomics.net/>, updates the book and illustrates social media concepts. The Social Media Bible, by Lon Safko and David Brake (CH, Sep’09, 47-0374), provides more comprehensive coverage and strategies for implementing social media. Summing Up: Recommended. Practitioners; general readers; undergraduate students at all levels. — N. J. Johnson, formerly, Metropolitan State University 

Shirky, Clay.  Here comes everybody: the power of organizing without organizations.  Penguin, 2008.  327p bibl index; ISBN 9781594201530, $25.95. Reviewed in 2008oct CHOICE.
46-1205  HM851  2007-35110 CIP 
 
Shirky (New York Univ.), a prominent voice in the blogosphere and authority on the sociology of the Internet, has written a sharply analytical book on the effect of online networking tools on social groupings. Using a series of case studies, he argues that manifestations of Web 2.0 such as Weblogs and wikis, as well as content sharing utilities like Flickr and YouTube, are radically changing how people communicate, form social groups, and use social networks to effect change. Not only do collaborative tools enable people to communicate with whom they want when they want, they allow them to circumnavigate established power structures and media outlets, creating grass roots-driven networks that become so powerful they can solve crimes and topple governments. Shirky outlines the implications of a world where every person can express himself and connect with an audience at virtually no cost and without barriers. This book stands alongside such titles as Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (CH, Aug’07, 44-6933), by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, and Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (CH, Jan’07, 44-2783) in enabling readers to understand the power of collaborative technology in a niche-driven economy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — G. R. Innes, Western Connecticut State University 

Smith, Gene.  Tagging: people-powered metadata for the social web.  New Riders, 2008.  208p index; ISBN 9780321529176 pbk, $39.99. Reviewed in 2008sep CHOICE.
46-0341  Z666   MARC 

If the assigning of subject headings were fully democratized, it would be called tagging. Sure, librarians might recoil at the ensuing organizational chaos, but across today’s Web that is a minority view. Tagging, or to use Smith’s phrase, “people-powered metadata,” is at the core of social networking applications (e.g., Flickr, Del.icio.us, LibraryThing). Some argue that in a digital world it represents the future of information management. That might be a stretch, but there is no denying the power and utility of tagging systems, and Smith, a consultant specializing in information architecture, provides an excellent introduction to both their development and use. The chapter on creating tag databases for Web applications is particularly interesting. Yes, there is code for developing tag clouds as well. Readers may pick this book up wondering how such a simple topic could sustain an entire volume. However, after just a few pages, Smith will have convinced the reader that there is far more to tagging than suspected; a thoroughly interesting read awaits. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals. — C. W. Grotophorst, George Mason University

Social knowledge: using social media to know what you know, ed. by John P. Girard and JoAnn L. Girard.  Information Science Reference, 2011.  332p bibl index; ISBN 9781609602031, $180.00. Reviewed in 2011aug CHOICE.
48-7021  HD58  2011-65 CIP 
 
John Girard (Minot State Univ.) and JoAnn Girard (Sagology) have edited a rigorous and articulate overview of the tools, techniques, technologies, and impacts of creating and sharing knowledge through social networks and communities, including the environmental forces that influence the development and use of such social knowledge. The combining of knowledge sources in a “collaborative entanglement” is one of many useful ways that processes are framed in this work. Numerous company case studies are used to illustrate and measure the impact of new social media such as wikis, expertise locator systems, Twitter, and blogs. Examples are sometimes striking, such as the discussion of cyber thugs, who recruit gang members using Facebook and Twitter, and the YouTube video United Breaks Guitars, which had ten million page views and reveals the power of social media. Readers should access these examples online when reading this book. The volume’s “Compilation of References” section is a salient resource for pursuing this topic further. Global Media Convergence and Cultural Transformation (2010), edited by Dal Yong Jin, examines the impact of social media on culture, while Social Media focuses more on the inhibitory and facilitating aspects of culture as related to social media and knowledge. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate students through faculty and researchers. — C. Wankel, St. John’s University, New York 

Tapscott, Don.  Macrowikinomics: rebooting business and the world, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.  Portfolio Penguin, 2010.  424p bibl index ISBN 1-59184-356-1, $27.95; ISBN 9781591843566, $27.95. Reviewed in 2011jan CHOICE.
48-2788  HC79  2010-23338 CIP 

Tapscott and Williams provide vivid examples of organizations that are successfully embracing the principles of “wikinomics” put forth in their 2007 best-selling book by that name (CH, Aug’07, 44-6933). They present a new framework for understanding social and economic innovations applicable to the spectrum of industries under which people utilize emerging Web applications to foster a more economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable world. They hope to energize currently vitiated institutions through new forms of problem-solving involving flat organizational structures with a core of self-organizing people and groups. These will spark social innovations that will develop into pervasive alterations in societal behavior. A typical example is of doctors collaborating with self-organizing patient communities. The authors see current rigid organizational silos as being replaced by collaborative communities characterized by cooperation, learning, and improvement. Macrowikinomics has a dark side, recalling mass collaborations of totalitarian regimes with purportedly all-wise collectives. These concerns are the focus of Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget (CH, Jun’10, 47-5602). Macrowikinomics addresses an important issue and is good preparation for an epoch of staggering technological leaps. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate through practitioner collections. — C. Wankel, St. John’s University, New York 

Thomas-Jones, Angela.  Host in the machine: examining the digital in the social.  Chandos Publishing, 2010.  142p index ISBN 1843345889 pbk, $99.95; ISBN 9781843345886  pbk, $99.95. Reviewed in 2011may CHOICE.
48-5410  HM851  2010-530398 MARC 

Ever since the advent and increasing presence of online social environments, questions have been repeatedly asked as to whether virtual relationships are substandard in comparison to “real” relationships. Often lost in this discussion is description of what actually happens in how people use social media. Thomas-Jones (Murdoch, Univ., Australia) finds that online environments are just one more space in the many spaces that occupy people’s lives. While being part of virtual worlds can allow for great flexibility in the construction and presentation of self, the relationships formed therein can be as strong (or weak) as those of the traditional form. In the end, it all depends on context. This is what the author notes as one of the biggest challenges with social media: the lack of context associated with the wave of information to which people are subjected. The book also explores the “life-cycle” of the social media experience, where a person conceives an identity till the moment of death, when one opts out. Thus, Thomas-Jones provides an interesting exploration of what has become perhaps the most mundane of experiences, furthering knowledge of the virtual realm and one’s place in it. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels/libraries. — G. C. David, Bentley University 

Editor’s note: The following pertinent titles will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue:

Powell, Guy.  ROI of social media: how to improve the return on your social marketing investment, by Guy Powell, Steven Groves, and Jerry Dimos. Wiley, 2011.
 289p index ISBN 9780470827413, $29.95; ISBN 9780470827444 e-book, $14.99

Privacy online: perspectives on privacy and self-disclosure in the social Web, ed. by Sabine Trepte and Leonard Reinecke. Springer, 2011. 269p bibl index afp ISBN 9783642215209, $99.00

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