This must have been a groundbreaking material in 2009 when it came out. Social media, tools, and technology have tremendously changed since, but the main message of the book aged surprisingly well. Branding, connectedness, valuable content - as valid as ever, all the rest is more of history museum trip. A decade in tech is ages in human years ;) ( )

After having seen Mitch Joel speak at a local event, I really wanted to love this book. As it is, the book and I decided to settle for just being friends. The best things about the book are the tactical tips for how to get more engaged with social media. Some are concrete ("Make a list of ten top bloggers in your field to engage with") and others are a bit loopy ("Host a Geek Dinner!") But to get to the tips you have to slog through an overly long litany of social bromides. (I know, I know..."Be Genuine!") It's at its worst when Joel start quoting other smart, shaven headed hipsters (Seth Godin, Chris Anderson) and you realize you've gone down a rabbit hole of pop marketing wisdom. I would have loved "Six Pixels" at a third the size. ( )

I didn't learn a huge amount from this book, although I found myself nodding a lot as I read. It articulated a lot of thoughts that I shared, even though I might not have formulated them clearly in my mind before.

I think the biggest value of the book might be as a means of helping to convince a reluctant manager of the value of engaging in social media. With me, it was preaching to the converted. I'd be interested to see the reaction of a social media cynic to it - I'm not convinced that the arguments for engagement were strong enough to turn a non-believer around.

Although it is aimed at businesses, I would say that people working in non-profit sectors could also gain something from this book, if they're not already very familiar with the subject matter.

There was a lot of 'me, me, me' in it. I know the guy was talking about personal branding and the importance of getting your name out there, but his name (and that of his company) appeared so often in the text that I began to get irritated. Isn't having them on the cover enough? ( )

Another great evangelistic book on social media. Many of the books on this topic overlap. That said this one includes many useful links and the ideas are presented very well. This book gets the creative juices flowing. ( )

This was interesting. It is primarily aimed at the entrepreneurial class of business owners / management, although I was able to extract lessons for both larger more established enterprises as well as my personal branding adventure. Took lots of notes :-) ( )