Takeaways from Guy Kawasaki

Optimization of profiles on any social media platform can be difficult. There are enough differences in how each site operates that one design for a post can’t always translate between them. At the end of “The Art of Social Media.” Guy Kawasaki takes a deeper dive into how individual accounts can overcome obstacles and benefit more from different sites.

I tend to use Instagram when it comes to my interactions on social media. Kawasaki seems to understand that most people want to view a picture, a snapshot but not much more. I wish some people on Facebook could adopt this strategy. I don’t know if it bothers you, but I can get overwhelmed by the volume of rants from distant relatives or friends. One of the major draws to Instagram is how quick it can be to scroll through a thread. Twitter is the text equivalent of this format. Each caters to different formats for media.

Platforms have a formula to be successful in posts, but users don’t always know how to use it. Take Facebook. An entire section in chapter 11 boils down to this: the only person who knows what Facebook wants is Mark Zuckerberg (Kawasaki, 141). That means that everyone is constantly experimenting with different types of deliveries of their message. I think it’s actually a positive. What better why is there to innovate a platform than to engage the users and allow them opportunities to test different content formats?

After reflecting on the book as a whole, my biggest take away is we as a community of communicators may use media, but that doesn’t mean that it is always effective in generating a stronger following. Media takes work. There are ways to use systems to benefit both individuals and companies if we take the time to explore what each platform can offer beyond posting pictures of cats.