The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff Published by Prentice Hall Professional

From Author Clara Shih, Developer of Facebook’s First Business Application

INDIANAPOLIS--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff, new from Prentice Hall Professional, is a practical guide for executives and professionals who wish to understand social technologies like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and how to take advantage of them for sales, marketing and innovation.

“Salesforce.com has long focused on driving customer success with business applications in the cloud, and Clara’s book will help customers extend their success at the intersection of the cloud computing and social media.”

Written by Clara Shih, a Stanford-educated entrepreneur and writer who developed Faceconnector (formerly Faceforce),  the first business application on Facebook, The Facebook Era includes a practical 60-day action plan for positioning a company of any size and of any industry to benefit from using social networks.

News Facts

• According to Computerworld (9/08), nearly one-fourth of companies surveyed by ChangeWave Research are now using Web 2.0-social networking software in some form, and another 8 percent intend to do so within the next year.
• The Facebook Era has a companion book site housed on Facebook at http://thefacebookera.com.
• The Facebook Era has been endorsed by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, bestselling author Don Tapscott, David Mather (President of Hoover’s Inc.) and Tina Seelig (Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program).
• The book’s foreword was written by Marc Benioff, the founder, CEO, and chairman of salesforce.com.
• The book is available for download via Safari Books Online at http://safari.informit.com.
• The suggested retail price for the book is $24.99 U.S.

Useable Quote

“For companies that are serious about managing their brand on social media networks, The Facebook Era is a must-read,” said Kendall Collins, Chief Marketing Officer, salesforce.com. “Salesforce.com has long focused on driving customer success with business applications in the cloud, and Clara’s book will help customers extend their success at the intersection of the cloud computing and social media.”

About the Author

Clara Shih is the Product Line Director of AppExchange, salesforce.com’s online marketplace for business software-as-a-service applications built by third-party developers and ISVs. Previously, Shih worked in strategy and business operations at Google, and before that as a software developer at Microsoft. She is the founder and serves on the board of directors of Camp Amelia Technology Literacy Group, an East Palo Alto, California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that develops and distributes technology education software and curriculum. Shih holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in economics and computer science from Stanford, and has a Master's Degree in internet studies from Oxford, where she studied as a United States Marshall Scholar. Shih is a frequently invited speaker at social media conferences around the world, including Web 2.0 Expo, Enterprise 2.0, Netgain, Social Ad Summit, and the Social Networking Conference.

Shih’s first book, Using New Media, was commissioned by UNESCO to help teachers, parents, and school administrators in developing countries use digital media to adopt best practices and distribute high-quality content and curriculum. Shih is an immigrant to the United States from Hong Kong and learned English as a second language.

About Pearson

The global leader in educational and professional publishing, Pearson is home to such respected brands as Addison-Wesley Professional, Cisco Press, Exam Cram, IBM Press, Prentice Hall Professional, Que, and Sams Publishing, which have as their online publishing arm, InformIT (www.informit.com) - The Trusted Technology Learning Source. In addition, Berkeley-based Peachpit (www.peachpit.com), the publishing partner for Adobe Press, Apple Certified, and others, publishes best-selling books for creative design professionals. Pearson is also co-founder, with O'Reilly Media Inc., of Safari Books Online (http://safari.informit.com), the premier on-demand digital library providing thousands of expert reference materials through a single point of contact, including expert technology, creative and design, business and management resources in video and text formats. Pearson Education is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO), the international media company. Pearson's other primary businesses include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

Keywords: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Social networking, Social media marketing, Salesforce.com