Get Social: The Dragonfly Effect and Social Nation Show You How

Two new books shed more light on the practical uses of Social Media for businesses and causes. And to how how nuanced social media is, these two books come at the subject from quite different viewpoints.
Social media has proven to be a catalyst for change in a lot of cases. In The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change, authors Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith look at the planning and implementation needed to make an effective campaign that serves a greater good.

Using examples such as Kiva.Org, Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign, and TOMS Shoes, the authors look a wide range of efforts that used social media for success. The desired action of many social media campaigns, even ones sponsored by a major brand, doesn’t always involve a commercial sale, so Aaker and Smith take a good, close look at what’s needed to make them effective.
A more practical look at the social media world is offered by Barry Libert in Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business.

Libert is the CEO of Mzinga, a maker of social software applications, and clearly he’s trying to drum up more business (this book makes an effective sales tool for him), but he offers a great overview of how and why social media helps businesses. Social Nation can be used to help make a great argument to bean counter-driven businesses who need more convincing that social media pays off.
Special thanks to Wiley for providing me with review copies of these books.