WatersWorks

See more on John's Amazon.com Author's Page. More books below.

Excerpt:

The Everything Guide to Social Media is a hybrid, a combination overview and how-to, covering just about everything in the social media space, from blogs to social networks, photo-swapping to wikis, review-and-opinion sharing to virtual worlds—and even the recent entries into the “location” category and emerging trends in social media marketing. You’ll find some history, some current events, and some nuts and bolts.... It gives Web 2.0 newbies a place to start, and it gives the social media savvy a broader navigation tool than they’ll find anywhere else.

If you’re new to social media, you should keep this in mind: This isn’t something that’s just for techies or sophisticated computer users or the tech-savvy, generally young “digital natives” for whom texting is as natural as breathing. Social media isn’t really about the technology at all. If you can log onto the Web, you’ve got just all the basic skills you’ll need.

...The social media phenomenon isn’t a fad. The social networks are evolving, the various services are integrating, and it’s all affecting our lives in ways we’re only just beginning to understand. But this stuff isn’t going away. Social media are just going to become more essential as time goes on. The good news is, they’re accessible, interesting, useful, and fun.

Early reader comments:

“The Everything Guide to Social Media is the most complete, comprehensive, and easy to read book on the contemporary subject of social media. It provides a broad understanding of concept, history, technology, and business aspects of all emerging social media systems and services. I strongly recommend to be read by all IT administrators, technology enthusiasts, and students studying various aspects of new media and information technology.”
-- Ali Jafari, Professor of Information Technology and Director of CyberLab, IUPUI

"The Everything Guide to Social Media is an exceptionally well written and comprehensive guide to the social media space. I loved the engaging way it was written. It will help everyone—even experts—to know about new tools and websites out there. The book should be required reading in schools of education and for teachers everywhere, so they can easily use social media to enhance learning.
-- Esther Wojcicki, Creative Commons Chair, Huffington Post blogger, Palo Alto High School teacher

“If this book were a pizza, it would be an extra-large with everything on it. Even the newest of newbies will benefit from this gentle yet enthusiastic introduction to the wide world of social media. John K. Waters explains that if you can run a Web browser you can blog, twitter, use Facebook, post to MySpace, join LinkedIn, publish pictures, share videos, and even create an avatar in a virtual world. Five hundred million humans can't be wrong. Buy your copy today while it's still hot.”
-- Dr. Gary McGraw, author of Exploiting Online Games, scientist, technologist, CTO of Cigital

“An approachable and comprehensive look at the social media services and tools that can be used by savvy individuals and businesses for fun and profit.”
-- Michael Coté, IT industry analyst at RedMonk, specialist in the Web, and social/collaborative software

“John K. Waters has a remarkable ability to make what can be a dry, thick, plodding topic into an engaging, compelling, informative, and altogether enjoyable reading experience. He’s done it again here.”
--Jeff Weinstock, Executive Editor, The Technology Horizons in Education Journal

“Unless you've been asleep for the last five years, you know that social media has changed the landscape of the Internet. If you don't know where you're going or how to get there, this book will surely provide a foundation to help you get started.”
-- Ronald Schmelzer, ZapThink founder and Serial Entrepreneur

“John’s years of experience covering the software industry results in a book that accurately separates hype from reality and distills the essence of Social Media into a useful reference for digital newcomers and veteran developers alike”
-- Jeffrey S. Hammond, IT industry analyst at Forrester Research, leading expert on the emergence of rich Internet application development practices and tools