New to the social media world? Want to understand why Twitter, Facebook et al. is good for business?  Want to fine tune what you are already doing online and enhance your marketing?  Then, Friends With Benefits is for you.  I have to admit this is a book for more of the beginner crowd.  That being said, it is extremely well written, and at a level that almost anyone can understand (as long as you already know how to get online).

Friends With Benefits isn’t a book just on Twitter and Facebook (however big they are, there is more to social media than just those two companies).  This book covers everything from RSS (what it is, why you care, etc), corporate blogging, and social media new releases.  It even goes into how to approach bloggers.

This is where my first criticism comes in.  You can’t paint bloggers with one stroke.  The theme over and over in this book is that bloggers shouldn’t be paid for their work.  And yes, it is work.  The time I spend reviewing your product is time away from my family and other things I could be doing.  As someone who sometimes does get paid for reviewing prodcuts, I take offense to a book telling people not to pay bloggers.  Something else they left out is that if you send a blogger a product to review, don’t expect them to send it back.  Most bloggers have a policy on their site explaining how they do reviews.  Take care to read it, so you both know what to expect.  A personal request of my own is that if you send me a product make sure you put some marketing materials in with the product.  Sometimes bloggers get so many products that we often don’t know who they came from.  Make it easy for the blogger to contact you back with a review or questions.

The section on spammers is great.  I think marketers often forget that they are talking to real people and we don’t appreciate being addressed as “Dear Webmaster”.  The list they provide definitely makes you do a double take on your own behavior.  There is also a chapter about defin­ing suc­cess and return on invest­ment (ROI) which are the holy grails of social media mar­ket­ing.  They ask the question of how you define suc­cess.  If you don’t know your end goal, how do you know if your campaign was successful?  Are you inter­ested in brand-building? Grow­ing traf­fic? Con­ver­sion to sales? Social media men­tions? Increased buzz? How are you going to do this? Mon­i­tor­ing? Lis­ten­ing?  I love how they go into how to respond when you find bloggers talking about you or your product.  However, I wish they would have went one step further with it.  When working with clients, if I find a blog post about them that we like, I often send it to social media sites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc.  Not only does it give the blogger more visitors, it gets more eyeballs on my clients product.

If you are looking to dabble in social media, Friends with Benefits is a must read for you.  It is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time on the social media field.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2

This giveaway is now over. The winner is missdenise. Congrats!

You may have noticed the Beauty Tip Of The Day widget on my sidebar. This is a great way to learn some new tricks to help you look younger and more beautiful. The tip changes daily, so you can definitely get some good advice. That being said, I know that everyone has their own secret beauty tips that they do. For me, I’d have to say my beauty tip is to add concealer under your eyes to help get rid of bags/shadows. It’ll make you look much more awake than you really are sometimes (and nobody needs to know you’ve been out all night!).

The sponsor of the widget is Unilever and I have worked with them, so one of my lucky readers will win their own box of Unilever products so you too can try out some of these beauty tips (MSRP $30. It will include include a product from Vaseline, Pond’s, Dove and Q-tips among other things). Here’s what you need to do:

To enter, tell me your favorite beauty tip!

Each of these gives you one additional entry:
1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

Win a Unilever products valued at $30 from @blm03 Enter here:  http://lisareviews.com/2009/11/04/unilever-giveaway/

2. Stumble this post and add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

3.  Comment on any other post on this blog.  (1 entry for each post).  Let me know which posts you commented on.

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3. Add @blm03 to any of your Twitter Lists.

4. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

5. Add my badge to your sidebar (each blog gets your 5 additional entries):

<a href=”http://lisareviews.com”><img src=”http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png” border=”0″ alt=”Lisa Reviews” /></a>

If this isn’t working, please let me know. For some reason, Wordpress seems to be eating the code up when I post.

Each of these will give you 10 additional entries:

1. Join my Spark E Crew at Social Spark. Click here to find out how to sign up. If you are on my crew, please leave your social spark ID, so I can verify it.

2. Sign up for my free newsletter!

This contest will end November 18th at noon CST! Good Luck!

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2

This is now over. The winner is Christin. Congrats!

My husband and I are huge fans of Five For Fighting.  I think our favorite song (its an old one of theirs) has to be Superman.  The close second has to be What Kind Of World Do You Want.  I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on their newest CD (Slice) and take a listen.  If you are a Five For Fighting fan, this CD will not disappoint.  What I love most about Five For Fighting is that they sing from the heart.  They sing about “everyman”, and this is CD is no different.  If I could describe it in two words, I’d have to say mellow and bittersweet.  Slices will remind you of Superman.  I love how he draws in from real life and works it into his songs (there’s even a song on here where he mentions his blog!) Here’s a sneak peak at one of the songs:

The songs on this album include:

1. Slice
2. Note To The Unknown Soldier
3. Tuesday
4. Chances
5. This Dance
6. Above The Timberline
7. Transfer
8. Hope
9. Story Of Your Life
10. Love Can’t Change The Weather
11. Augie Nieto

This is a CD that should be everyone’s stocking this Christmas. To make that happen, I’ve arranged for one lucky winner to win an autographed copy of this CD!  Here’s what you need to do:

To enter, tell me your favorite Five For Fighting Song!

Each of these gives you one additional entry:
1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

Win an autographed copy of Slice by #fiveforfighting from @blm03 Enter here:http://bit.ly/2hW6WC

2. Stumble this post and add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3. Comment on any other post on this blog. Please let me know which post you chose.

4. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

5. Add my badge to your sidebar (each blog gets your 5 additional entries):

<img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" alt="Lisa Reviews" border="0"></a>

If this isn’t working, please let me know. For some reason, Wordpress seems to be eating the code up when I post.

Each of these will give you 10 additional entries:

1. Join my Spark E Crew at Social Spark. Click here to find out how to sign up. If you are on my crew, please leave your social spark ID, so I can verify it.

2. Sign up for my free newsletter!

This contest will end November 11th at noon CST! Good Luck!

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2