Review by A. S. Johnson:

This book is a good way to get familiar with online social tools. The author covers ways to use email, social networking tools and publishing tools. He has good information about establishing some goals and determining a strategy for meeting the goals. He also has a lot of useful references if you want to get more familiar with a particular topic.

I only gave it three stars for the following reasons:

– Too much coverage of the history of the internet, email, and web pages. If I was interested in that, I’d get a book on the history of the internet, email, and web pages.

– Misinformation on some tools, and missing information about other tools. For instance, the author mentions Joomla, a content management system that can be used to create websites and blogs. He mentions it in a way that may mislead people as to its uses when he states that it can pair with any number of applications. It might work with other applications, but that may require coding skills or money to pay someone to make them work together. He also ignores the multitude of other open source content management systems that are out there.

– A serious amount of repetition in sections one and two. A lot of what is stated in the second section is already in the first, so it added a few hundred pages without saying a whole lot.

This is a good book. It’s less complete than the title suggests.

Review by Jeff Lippincott:

Great book! Loved it! It’s huge and heavy and not particularly pricey. I found it to be well organized and well written. And it was certainly packed to the gills with content. There are 43 chapters split into three different sections: (1) Background basics & tactics, (2) Tools, & (3) Strategy. The chapters in the first part provide an introduction and framework regarding the book. The numerous chapters in the second part cover 100+ social media tools. And the last five or six chapters in the third part can help you do an audit of the social media marketing your company does (or doesn’t do).

The book is comprehensive. I haven’t seen a book that covers so much and in such depth on the topic of social media marketing (or Internet Marketing). There were a ton of “Expert Insights” sprinkled throughout the text that really made the book shine. And each chapter ended with three summaries: (1) Commandments, (2) Conclusion, & (3) Readings & Resources. Each were well done. In particular the Readings & Resources for each chapter were better than most books have at the end of an entire book. 6 stars!

PS. To see the chapter titles and how the book is specifically organized I encourage you to peek at the Search Inside feature Amazon offers for this book. With 43 chapters there are a lot of chapter titles to read.

Review by A. S. Johnson:

This book is a good way to get familiar with online social tools. The author covers ways to use email, social networking tools and publishing tools. He has good information about establishing some goals and determining a strategy for meeting the goals. He also has a lot of useful references if you want to get more familiar with a particular topic.

I only gave it three stars for the following reasons:

– Too much coverage of the history of the internet, email, and web pages. If I was interested in that, I’d get a book on the history of the internet, email, and web pages.

– Misinformation on some tools, and missing information about other tools. For instance, the author mentions Joomla, a content management system that can be used to create websites and blogs. He mentions it in a way that may mislead people as to its uses when he states that it can pair with any number of applications. It might work with other applications, but that may require coding skills or money to pay someone to make them work together. He also ignores the multitude of other open source content management systems that are out there.

– A serious amount of repetition in sections one and two. A lot of what is stated in the second section is already in the first, so it added a few hundred pages without saying a whole lot.

This is a good book. It’s less complete than the title suggests.

Review by Jeff Lippincott:

Great book! Loved it! It’s huge and heavy and not particularly pricey. I found it to be well organized and well written. And it was certainly packed to the gills with content. There are 43 chapters split into three different sections: (1) Background basics & tactics, (2) Tools, & (3) Strategy. The chapters in the first part provide an introduction and framework regarding the book. The numerous chapters in the second part cover 100+ social media tools. And the last five or six chapters in the third part can help you do an audit of the social media marketing your company does (or doesn’t do).

The book is comprehensive. I haven’t seen a book that covers so much and in such depth on the topic of social media marketing (or Internet Marketing). There were a ton of “Expert Insights” sprinkled throughout the text that really made the book shine. And each chapter ended with three summaries: (1) Commandments, (2) Conclusion, & (3) Readings & Resources. Each were well done. In particular the Readings & Resources for each chapter were better than most books have at the end of an entire book. 6 stars!

PS. To see the chapter titles and how the book is specifically organized I encourage you to peek at the Search Inside feature Amazon offers for this book. With 43 chapters there are a lot of chapter titles to read.

Review by Kristen:

I really enjoyed this book and found it both extremely thought provoking and practical. It has some smart insights, introduces a clear framework for understanding and approaching social media marketing and then explains the specifics of how to market on each of the social media platforms while recognizing that this is part of the marketing puzzle and not the whole one. It really seems like a one stop shop in terms of covering the basics, the more strategic concepts (including mobile social media) and the practicalities of what you can “buy” and “earn” across the social web. I definitely recommend this book to read. Its thoughtful, specific and actionable and not hype driven. The author obviously has a lot of experience in this space and it shows.

Review by Andrea Harrison:

Great resource for marketers looking to incorporate social strategies and tactics but not sure where to begin. Covers a wide variety of topics which makes it helpful for anyone needing best practices and tips regardless of industry or market size. Well done Shiv!

Review by Kristen:

I really enjoyed this book and found it both extremely thought provoking and practical. It has some smart insights, introduces a clear framework for understanding and approaching social media marketing and then explains the specifics of how to market on each of the social media platforms while recognizing that this is part of the marketing puzzle and not the whole one. It really seems like a one stop shop in terms of covering the basics, the more strategic concepts (including mobile social media) and the practicalities of what you can “buy” and “earn” across the social web. I definitely recommend this book to read. Its thoughtful, specific and actionable and not hype driven. The author obviously has a lot of experience in this space and it shows.

Review by Andrea Harrison:

Great resource for marketers looking to incorporate social strategies and tactics but not sure where to begin. Covers a wide variety of topics which makes it helpful for anyone needing best practices and tips regardless of industry or market size. Well done Shiv!

Review by Christopher J. Jarmick:

Startup.com is one of the best 2001 films now available on DVD. It is a documentary and about the trials and tribulations of a start up internet company but it also a Heart-wrenching, emotionally involving story about hopes, dreams and friendships.We watch as a group of friends begin their company (in May of 1999) and in less than 2 years are running a 50 million-dollar corporation employing over 250 people (Govworks.com). And then it all begins to fall apart� rapidly. We watch as CEO Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and to a slightly lesser extent Tom Herman become famous via business magazine covers, columns, articles, television news programs, CNN interviews, and even a meeting with a President in which Kaleil suggests the President Clinton consider working for his company when his presidential term is over. It’s all here and it really happened. The film-makers shot for over two years and were editing the more than 400 hours of video/film right up to their Sundance premiere in early 2001 and re-edited the last few minutes of the film just prior to it’s theatrical release in May of 2001. Jehane Noujaim started the film. Noujaim became Kaleil Tuzman Harvard roommate and they remained good friends. After quitting her job at MTV with plans to go to her homeland Egypt to make a film Noujaim instead began filming Tuzman as he quit his job to begin this company with his old high school chum and a small circle of friends. She contacted Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker for help in financing the project. They were excited about the idea and Hegedus enthusiastically became a partner in the project. Hedges and her husband, D.A. Pennebaker made the excellent Moon over Broadway (about Carol Burnett’s return to Broadway) and The War Room (behind the scenes of Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign) in recent years. Pennebaker is the legendary documentary filmmaker who made the famous film about Bob Dylan, Don’t Look Back and Monterrey Pop. Pennebaker produced the film and Hegedus and Noujaim co-directed it. The filmmakers have access to some remarkable private moments, some confidential private meetings and some very special events (like Bill Clinton and in another scene with a speech from former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson.). At times the film doesn’t take quite enough time to explain some of the inner-workings of financing the company and we don’t spend quite enough time on the problems and development of the software itself–but to do so would have meant slowing the movie down and focusing it more on the business and less on the people involved. Every once in a while you can be confused with what is going or why� but, life doesn’t stop and explain itself to you as well as it should either. If it’s a flaw, it’s one that is easy to over-look. I wish the filmmakers did include a little more footage of the special relationship Tom Herman had with some of his co-workers. He was the one who insisted on hiring women in the company and he had a much warmer management style which we don’t see much of in the film. There’s some moments in the film, particularly at the end, where the film-makers deliver just the right balance of verite’ and crossing over the line a bit for the sake of some much needed humor. I don’t want to spoil a few moments by saying more than that, but there are several subtle pay-offs, which occur during the film’s final moments, which end the film on a very human and ironic note. This is a film about a lot more than the rise and fall of a dot com company. The film was shot on digital video and is present in the original perspective it was shot in Standard 1:33:1. The picture is sharp and clear and free from any technical problems whatsoever but it is documentary film-making on the fly and cinema verite’.The Audio is a strong Dolby 5.1 mix The sound quality varies slightly because of the manner in which the film was shot and the sound originally recorded. However we can clearly hear all of the important dialogue and at times, when the film gets very quiet, we are aware how free from defects the audio actually is. The too short interview with the documentary filmmakers gives a face to the filmmakers. Some of the information they talk about on-camera is repeated during their feature audio commentary. The very thorough production notes are appreciated. It is a real shame however that not all of the pre-release extras that were announced by Artisan several months ago are on the disc. Extra footage, and commentary from Kaleil and Tom would be a huge asset to the DVD package and I can only assume there were last minute problems that meant the plans to include such commentary had to be scrapped.The feature length commentary track starts out by covering the same ground as the short interview featurette but after 30 minutes we start learning some interesting details and getting some insights into things we are not seeing on the screen. We learn some interesting information and even about a tragedy that occurred to one of the people we see during the film. It’s well worth the time to listen to the commentary but it can’t top one of my favorite commentaries of all time (the one on Moon Over Broadway).Christopher Jarmick,is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller

Review by M. Hart:

“Startup.com” is a fascinating, but slightly flawed documentary following the lives of several men who founded a dot-com in 1998. (Work leading to its creation had started months earlier, but wasn’t included in the documentary.) The principal dot-com founders were Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, Tom Herman and Chieh Cheung. Kaleil and Tom were high school friends. Shortly after the company’s official launch, Chieh’s involvement was terminated after Kaleil and Tom decided to buy him out. They believed Chieh wasn’t doing enough, in spite of Chieh’s time, work and money invested prior to the company’s official launch.For the most part, the first third of documentary is devoted to Kaleil’s efforts to obtain venture capitalist (VC) investment into the new company. The combination of his efforts and unbridled VC risk-taking of the 1990′s succeeded in Kaleil securing -million in VC investment. At the company’s launch, it had eight employees. After several months of hard work and the hiring of a lot more staff, the company’s website was finally launched. Within about a year, the company’s total employment exceeded 200 employees, but the joy didn’t last long. Personality conflicts between Kaleil and Tom lead to some unpleasant consequences. Also, like most of the dot-com’s created in the 1990′s, the amount of money earned through the company’s website paled in comparison to the amount of invested capital and the money squandered by the company. Sadly, the creators of this documentary (Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim) focused far too much on Kaleil, not enough on Tom and very little on Chieh. The quality of the documentary would have been far better had more time been devoted to Tom throughout the film, and more to Chieh at the beginning (prior to the company’s launch). No narration was provided in the documentary. Instead, it was shot much like a reality television show using small hand-held cameras, but occasional subtitles provide the viewer with time references and employee counts. Highlights in the documentary include an actual CNBC interview with Kaleil (when the company was worth -million with venture capital) and his brief meeting with then U.S. President Bill Clinton.The real value of this documentary is fourfold:
(1) The eagerness of 1990′s venture capitalists to willingly invest millions of dollars into companies with unsubstantiated and exaggerated business plans.
(2) The squandering by dot-com’s of millions of invested dollars
(3) The strain put on long-term friendships when money and cutthroat business practices get involved.
(4) Seeing some of the faces and narcissistic egos behind dot-coms.
For these reasons, I rate this documentary with 4 out of 5 stars. I highly recommend it to any former or current dot-com employee, to anyone that invested and subsequently lost money in a dot-com or to anyone that wants to form his/her own company.

Review by J. J.:

42 Rules of Social Media for Small Business is a fun-to-read guide that helps small business entrepreneurs at all levels learn the ins and outs of using social media to grow their business and connect with customers. This book focuses on helping small business owners communicate their brand, their benefits, and their message to their audience through platforms like Twitter, FaceBook, eBay and MySpace. It’s filled with stories from small businesses around the country and experts out of eBay, BlogHer, Mashable, and Twitter.