By Guy Kawasaki, Peg Fitzpatrick
Practical social media mastery guide
Subject
Themes
Social media mastery begins with a profile optimised for a five-second judgment. A neutral screen name, a face-focused avatar positioned using the rule of thirds, a two-to-four-word mantra, and a storytelling cover photo establish credibility across platforms. Vanity URLs, completed biographical fields, and professional pages on Facebook and Google+ round out the foundation. Viewing the finished profile in an incognito window reveals how strangers perceive it.
Social media mastery begins with a profile optimised for a five-second judgment. A neutral screen name, a face-focused avatar positioned using the rule of thirds, a two-to-four-word mantra, and a storytelling cover photo establish credibility across platforms. Vanity URLs, completed biographical…
Published in 2014, this guide arrived during a specific moment in the evolution of social media when the landscape looked dramatically different from what followed. Google+ occupied a central position in the advice, treated as a first-tier platform alongside Facebook and Twitter. Within five years,…
The most counterintuitive insight in social media strategy is that sharing other people's content matters more than creating your own. Sustaining original content at the volume social media demands is virtually impossible; even dedicated professionals struggle to produce more than two original…
A fundamental tension runs through all business use of social media: the desire to promote products and services versus the need to provide genuine value. The resolution of this tension is what might be called the NPR model, named after National Public Radio's approach to fundraising. NPR delivers…
Each social media platform operates according to its own logic, culture, and technical constraints. Treating them as interchangeable channels for identical content is a fundamental strategic error. The "five Ps" framework captures this insight concisely: Google+ is for passions, Facebook is for…
Conventional wisdom about social media posting frequency is far too conservative. The recommended posting volumes are startling to most practitioners: up to twenty-five tweets daily, eight to ten Google+ posts, three to four Facebook posts, ten to twelve Pinterest pins, and four LinkedIn updates.…
Visual content is not optional; it is the single most important element determining whether a social media post succeeds or fails. A Skyword study found that articles with relevant photographs received 94 percent more views than those without. Every post, without exception, should contain eye candy…
Social media success begins with a profile that functions as a global resume, judged in roughly five seconds. The optimisation process starts with choosing a neutral, professional screen name. Clever handles like @MartiniMom or @HatTrickHank quickly become regrets. A simple real name is easy to find…
Nineteen principles govern the creation of perfect social media posts, built around an aggressive but principled sharing philosophy. Good content falls into four categories: information (what happened), analysis (what it means), assistance (how to do something), and entertainment (what the hell).…
Blogging and social media once occupied separate worlds, but they now complement each other powerfully. A blog enriches social media with long-form content, while social media drives traffic back to the blog. Kawasaki initially shifted his long-form writing entirely to Google+, but Fitzpatrick…
Most organisations squander the social media potential of their events, limiting digital efforts to pre-event promotion and ignoring real-time amplification. Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick refined their approach while staffing Motorola's Moto X phone launch across six Latin American countries. Kawasaki…
Twitter chats are live hashtag-driven discussions where a host poses questions, a guest responds, and audience members jump in with their own contributions. The format demands rapid thinking and typing, making it considerably more challenging than Hangouts on Air, where speaking replaces the…
Each social media platform possesses distinct characteristics requiring tailored strategies. Kawasaki captures this with his "five Ps": Google+ is for passions, Facebook is for people, LinkedIn is for pimping, Pinterest is for pictures, and Twitter is for perception. Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm…
By Guy Kawasaki, Peg Fitzpatrick
Subject
Themes
Social media mastery begins with a profile optimised for a five-second judgment. A neutral screen name, a face-focused avatar positioned using the rule of thirds, a two-to-four-word mantra, and a storytelling cover photo establish credibility across platforms. Vanity URLs, completed biographical fields, and professional pages on Facebook and Google+ round out the foundation. Viewing the finished profile in an incognito window reveals how strangers perceive it.