Six Pixels of Separation

I had the opportunity to read a pre-publication version of Mitch Joel’s new book, Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone.

Back when I was an in-house marketing person seeking to figure out how to make our website profitable, unlike those of everyone else in our industry, I tried very hard to find a good book on SEO. No luck. Now there are several good books on the subject, and this is one of them.

Six Pixels is a worthwhile book on social media and its use for business.

Joel explains some of the key points that bloggers like me keep making and businesspeople keep ignoring — like, this isn’t an overnight thing, you have to be sincere, and it’s more like networking with other humans than it is like advertising, so quit thinking you can do it with an automatic program. He gives a lot of background and persuasive detail, and also a lot of specific, practical advice to get from “Huh?” to success with social media.

You’ll find definitions and explanations of key terms that may stump you if you’re new to the topic, checklists to think about if you’ve been using social media for a while and aren’t quite sure you’re doing it right, and ideas for the near future (are you really taking mobile devices into account when you plan?) if you’re successful with social media and want to keep being successful.

There are in this book history lessons going clear back to 2000 when, Joel says, the common view of bloggers was that they were members of the lunatic fringe holed up in their basements writing about cats. There are insightful discussions of major social media platforms and sites. There are intriguing case studies.

There are also thought-provoking discussions of some of the tougher questions around social media. How can you monetize your involvement, or measure its value to your business? What kind of community is developing around social media, and how does it relate to your community in the physical world? What about privacy?

I’m planning to share Six Pixels with my colleagues, and I think our discussions of it will have a positive impact on our businesses. I’d love to discuss it with you, too.

If you’re interested in social media, you should read this book.