Book Review: The Big Book of Social Media Case Studies, Stories, Perspectives by Robert Fine

Samantha Strauss December 17, 2010 Tweet

Sam Feist, VP of Washington Programming for CNN Worldwide, said it best in the preface, “social media is now at the heart of the movement of information in this country.” If you haven’t noticed that yet, you sure will by the time you finish reading The Big Book of Social Media Case Studies, Stories, Perspectives by Robert Fine. Through a collection of entertaining anecdotes and insightful marketing agendas, one sees what social media is truly all about and how it is revolutionizing the communications industry.

The book discusses various social media tools and tactics from building a community, to creating and maintaining an application, to analyzing your results. Through several influential sections including case studies focused on social media usage in the media, government, technical industry and nonprofit world, Robert Fine ensures that all variables are covered. The Big Book is the only social media book you’ll need to get rolling and either create a successful social media strategy or supply yourself with enough examples of social media to use to persuade your organization to invest in social media strategy.

As Robert Fine points out in the beginning, “the world spends 110 billion minutes per day on social media sites.” This number was not created by accident and the book illustrates exactly why social media is no fad.

Case Studies Not to Miss from the 10 influential sections: Business and Social Media, Technical, Verticals, The Media, Government, Employment, Nonprofits, The Artists, Global Perspectives and Moving Forward:

• “Garret Popcorn: Social Media From Zero to Sixty” – How Chicago’s famed Garret Popcorn created their own “blue tin” social media personality and helped their company’s global reach.
• “The Little Cupcake that Could,” – How CupcakeStop.com’s mobile cupcake trucks built a following of 10,000 within two months and gained revenue.
• “Social Success in Media & Music – A CBC Radio 3 Case Study” – How the media stays relevant in this ever-changing informational world with a superb list of questions that will help you put together your social media plan.
• “Social Media and The Eco-Minded” – A great breakdown of how social media can be utilized by any company and of social media tactics and tools of the trade.
• “Mad Men’ On Twitter: Drama in 140 Characters” – How AMC’s hit show “Mad Men” built a completely engaged fan base and increased viewership with Twitter.

Social Media is revolutionary and affects all industries; it is here to stay and after reading over the many stories within the book you come to realize how amazing social media is and how much it helps us all in our industries.

Be sure to visit thebestofsocial.com to continue the conversation and follow @bobfine to see what Robert produces next.