Book Review: I’m on Facebook – Now What???

I just read I’m on Facebook–Now What???: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook. While the majority of this 100 page book was review for me, I would recommend it to anyone who is brand new to Facebook or social networking in general.

While the content is good, it is rather elementary, so if you are already familiar with Facebook, you’ll probably be better served by something else. I bought the book to see what sort of insight it would give for business applications, but I found the chapter on this topic to be short and not very enlightening. Also, I found the topics of privacy and security to be a bit lacking. The best advice they have is to not post anything that you wouldn’t want your grandma to see, because it may come back to haunt you. However, they also recommend you install lots of applications, without stressing that installing Facebook apps (of dubious nature) is a quick and easy way to get your account hacked.

While it was published nearly two years ago, the majority of the book is still up to date and current. However, some things have changed recently, especially with respect to default privacy settings, covered in the privacy chapter.

Also, the book is a little expensive, given its size. However, if you are just getting into social networking and Facebook, it does provide a good overall view of the service to newcomers.