As the year is drawing to a close, I like to reflect on the friendships and professional relationships I have built and nurtured over the year. There are many people and organizations that come to mind and it would be too long to list them all. Let's just say, it's been a wonderful year and I cherish all of these relationships. For my last blog post of the year, I want to spend a few minutes to introduce you all to a friend whom I met 2 years ago in a professional capacity, and our professional relationship has blossomed into a friendship over the course of this year. Natascha Thomson (@nathomson) is a fellow social media practitioner and a fellow yogini (an added benefit in my book :-)). How do I know Natascha? Well, we met on Twitter...

Natascha has started several social media groups in the Silicon Valley and you may have seen her passionately giving social media tips in this video collage. Just last month, she published her first book, 42 Rules for B2B Social Media Marketing, she co-authored with other social media practitioners. This book is a collection of hands-on social media marketing tips and real-life examples you can act upon right away.  I had a chance to (virtually) sit down with Natascha to learn more about this new book.

What inspired this book?

"We really wanted to create a hands-on social media guide  that summed up a list of important best practices. We also wanted to use this guide to help people understand how social media can be used in a B2B environment. There is still a perception out there that social media is for kids and for consumer brands. All the examples we included in this book were from our own personal experiences. Since we lived through each and every one of them, we understand the questions practitioners and executives ask about social media."

Who is this book for?

"This book was created for business-to-business (B2B) marketing professionals who need to move quickly towards a marketing mix that now includes social media. For example, while a product manager may be well versed in marketing, he or she may be very uncomfortable with social media. Or, a campaign manager may have some knowledge of social media already but would like  to expand the breadth and depth of his or her repertoire. And don't forget the executives of a company. Real-life success stories can help build a business case for social media investment and adoption. Our hope is that readers will consider this book as a tool to help with that effort. In a nutshell, the book offers something for people on all levels of social media marketing proficiency."

What would you like people to take with them from reading this book?

"In one sentence, it would be giving people the knowledge to be able to put into practice what they read right away. If they are novices, we'd love for people to get the big picture of social media marketing rather than looking at it from a channel perspective. If they understood that they needed a strategy, resources, if they understood their target audience well, had good content and employed relevant tactics, I'd be very happy.

For seasoned practitioners, we hope to provide new tools and skills in areas where they may have gaps. For example, the book outlines advanced YouTube or SlideShare practices that have worked for us."

How to get the book?

This book is available on Happy About and Amazon. In the spirit of the holidays, by buying this book, not only will you make a friend or business partner happy, but you will be helping give the gift of knowledge to many people. Proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Khan Academy, "an organization committed to providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere". If you order it on Happy About, the publisher will match the amount, leading to more donations to Khan Academy. What better way to embrace the spirit of the holidays?

Paying It Forward

"It's been an exciting journey to write this book on a professional and personal level. If anybody would like to write their own book, they can contact me @nathomson and I'd be happy to put them in touch with our publisher. I believe we all have a book inside of us."

Nicely put, Natascha!

DISCLAIMER: This blog post DOES NOT mean that Cisco endorses this book, its authors or the Khan Academy. I wrote this blog post in a personal capacity.