Social networking changes constantly. Facebook recently changed their dashboard, Twitter changed their profile page and Google Plus changed its algorithms. With these constant changes, books about social networking can’t keep current.
But, The Power of Visual Storytelling How to Use Visuals, Videos and Social Media to Market Your Brandby authors Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Giglio will stick around for awhile because the visual image is something that people gravitate to.
The book explains the importance of visual content and talks about some new tools that are worthwhile to use.
The Power of Visual Storytelling is beautifully laid out. There are many pictures and many examples that help the reader understand where he/she should be marketing his/her business/brand.
Interestingly, the book talks about a study done by Shareaholic that states that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than G+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. The authors also suggest that Pinterest is perfect for B2B and gives examples of boards. There’s a chapter that delves into Pinterest, G+, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and more. The book is also laced with so many concrete examples of what brands are doing on each site and what works, that it helps the reader expand his/her horizons.
What I like is that the authors give concrete examples on how to use these tools and stats on how to get the most out of them.
I also liked the chapter on analytics. The authors teach the reader how to evaluate their programs whether they use paid for services or just create a spreadsheet on Excel. Walter and Giglio ask compelling questions that make the reader think and re-evaluate their social programs.
They offer real tools to use, some I never heard of, including tools to create collages, Memes and Gifs.
The Power of Visual Storytelling, which retails for $29 and is sold in most bookstores including Amazon and Barnes and Noble, is well worth the money. Even if you pick up one or two new tools, the money you saved in research was well worth it.
