Engage! by Brian Solis Review

Title: Engage!: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web 

Author: Brian Solis

Genre: Social Media, Marketing

Page Count: 316 pages

Publish Date: March 15, 2011

Book Type: Owned Paperback

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

ISBN: 9781118003763

Picture from Goodreads

My Review: Solis really emphasizes the idea of companies acting like human beings and having a solid plan. This is a huge aspect of social media marketing. If companies can use social media to interact with and learn about their customers, they can learn so much. The best way to do this is by having conversations with them. Solis explained all of this, throughout the book, in a well written way that was easy to understand. Solis not only tells the reader how to do something, but why they should be doing it. “Engage!” would be a great asset for any company looking to increase their involvement in social media and improve their customer relations. “Engage!” is set up almost like a textbook, albeit an interesting textbook, that is jam-packed with valuable information.

Solis set up about half of “Engage!” as if it were a college course, which was extremely effective. These sections, titled “The New Media University,” detailed the steps a company can take in order to use social media to their advantage. For those people who have some experience in social media, this section can act as a refresher, but for those people who are relatively new, this section can act as a detailed introduction.

This book is best suited for people with some background knowledge of social media. While the beginning of the book does a nice job outlining how and why a company should use social media, the latter part of “Engage!” delves into slightly more advanced metrics and programs. Therefore, some knowledge of social media analytics would be beneficial before reading. The glossary at the back of the book is helpful for a refresher on some terms that may be a bit unfamiliar and the companion website, www.engagingbook.com, helps to bridge the gap between publish date and any updates to social media.