Ebook Review: Social Media for Your Crafty Business

03 Feb 2010 Leave a Comment

When Diane Gilleland (@Sister Diane as I know her on Twitter) offered some of her followers the chance to review her e-book Social Media for Your Crafty Business, I jumped at the chance and was thrilled to be one of the lucky recipients. At the time, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about Diane. I had started following her because someone else I was following “retweeted” several of her messages and I could see that she posted many things of interest to me. Since following her, I knew that if anyone could write a book about the effective use of social media, it was Diane. Goodness knows I had received many benefits from following Diane myself so who better to learn from?

I began poring over the book the moment I got it and I’ll confess – I have actually read through it from “cover to cover” several times now. The book is just jam-packed with so much information that I have wanted to return to it again and again in order to really take it all in and absorb it. The very first time I returned to Twitter (Diane covers more than just Twitter but that is my most frequent social media outlet so that is where I have been applying my knowledge), even before reading the whole book, I noticed that I was already beginning to use what I was learning from Diane.

The book is divided into two sections (“Book One: Understanding Social Media” and “Book Two: Using Social Media”). Now, if you are at all familiar with social media, you may start reading Book One and think, “Oh I know all this,” but believe me, you will want to keep reading. First of all, although some parts of Book One are the basics (after all, those who don’t know anything about social media will be reading this book too), I found that Diane presented a unique view of those basics – the kind of view that makes you stop and go “hmm”. For example, she defines social media in several ways such as being like “the water cooler” and a “library”. Sure, instinctively our common sense may tell us that’s what social media is all about just through our own use of it but I certainly found that having it defined that way, in those terms, made me consider in what way I was using social media already as well as in what ways I wanted to be using it. I looked at what percentage of the time I was using it in those various ways and began to make adjustments to use it in a manner more in line with my desires for it.

Once Book One has laid down the foundation of social media, Book Two begins to build on it with how to put it in practice. Diane’s tips are achievable and practical and easy to put in place. They range from how to set up an effective profile to adding more value to your status updates to organizing and managing your time in social media outlets.

Diane has an easy, comfortable style of writing that makes me feel like I am chatting with a friend. She draws me in with humour and congeniality which makes for an easy read but this in no way detracts from the amount of knowledge she passes along. Diane takes you from simply using social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook for mindless fun or blatant advertisement, and shows you how to set goals for its use – all without losing the fun in it! Best of all, not only is this ebook an enjoyable read, not one of the 72 pages went by without me learning something. Now, that’s a high value book!

Interested in purchasing a copy for yourself? Social Media for your Crafty Business $12,50

While you’re there, take a peek at her other ebooks as well.

Check out Diane’s blog Craftypod – there are posts, tutorials, videos, and podcasts galore and she has some of the best crafty eye candy I have ever seen on a site!

I also highly recommend you take a look at Diane’s online classes. I am currently taking her Blog Tuneup class and if I was wowed by her ebook, well, I can’t even think of an appropriate term to describe just how impressed I am with her class. Her next class is called Twitter for your Crafty Business and it begins February 15th. $30