Imagine that you need some help from a friend, but you have not seen your friend for a long time and no longer know where they live. Your friend will probably give you directions on how to find them. If you are looking for help getting to grips with Social Media then think of Amber Mac as your friend and her book “Power Friending” the directions that you need.

Power Friending is a remarkable read, all you have to do is read the sleeve notes with quotes from the likes of Kevin Rose from Digg and Steve Chen of You Tube. If people with this much clout on the Web regard Amber as a person of influence then you know you have to listen to what she has to say.

I read Power Friending in just two sittings and could not put it down. I made a ton of notes that I am still working my way through. This book is rammed full of tips on how to engage with your customers in a mutually beneficial way.

Amber starts with a concise history of Social Media from the 1960’s through to the present day, showing that Social Media was alive and well long before anybody had coined the term “Social Media”. She then moves on to discuss a lot of the commonly held fears that individuals and businesses have regarding Social Media. She systematically breaks the fears down and then sells you the positive to every negative. Having shown you that Social Media is nothing to be afraid of, Amber Mac sets about teaching you the rules of Power Friending. Follow Amber’s ABC (I won’t tell you what they are, buy the book and find out for yourself!) and you will soon feel confident in your own ability to achieve your Social Media goals.

The next part of your journey will be to acquire the right tools to reach your objectives. Amber gives you the run down on all the commonly used methods employed in social marketing, Blogs, micromessaging (Twitter), Social Networks (Facebook, My Space etc), Podcasting, Video (I’ve since bought myself a camcorder) and much more besides. By the end of this section you will have a thorough understanding not only of what these technologies are but also how you can utilise them to their best advantage.

Now that you are comfortable with all aspects of social media it is now time to plan your Social Marketing strategy. As I said earlier the book is full of tips, so as well as discussing the bigger elements such as content management Amber Mac also gives you useful pointers like including links to your Twitter account and Facebook page in your email signature.

You are now in a position to put all your plans into action. Amber gives more detailed guides to Twitter, Facebook and blogging. There is even a beginners guide to shooting video, you might not give Steven Spielberg any sleepless nights after reading it but you will undoubtedly have the desire to build upon what you have learnt. From my own experiments I have learnt:

• I need to look smart when I am on camera
• I need a better quality microphone (As Amber predicts in the book)

There is also a crash course in analytics to help you measure the success of your campaign.

I hate people who only ever talk about the success stories in their chosen field. In my experience they make the situation fit the facts rather than having a true understanding of what has really happened. In the final third of the book she discusses the failures, the successes and the future of Social Media. In the chapters on the failures and successes Amber does not just tell you what happened, she deconstructs the situation to show you why the campaign failed or succeeded and learning from the experience of others can be very illuminating.

I am not going to tell you that if you only buy one book on Social Media make it this one. On the contrary I would like you to buy many books on the subject. The more books you read on this subject the more you will come to realise that Power Friending by Amber Mac is the book that you keep going back to for information and inspiration.