I ran across Terry Brock through a mutual friend on Facebook of all places.  I noticed that we’ve both worked in the telecom / technology industry and both shared an interest in social technologies.  I had done graduated studies as part of the seminal “Birds of a Feather” group at Lehigh.  I saw that Terry and Gina Carr had recently written a book, “Klout Matters”, so I decided to download it and give it a read.

I gave the book a first read on a long plane ride home from Denver last night.  I intend to refer back to it often.  The book contains enough valuable information and perspective that it warrants taking the time to really spend time with it, as well as, keep it around as a reference. 

Klout Matters obviously focuses on Klout , which is a measurement tool that  used for a while now, but offers quite a bit more value than that.  The book clearly makes the point that Klout is a measurement tool, and that creating great content and engaging with people is the activity that you need to focus on. It gives some solid advice on building social capital, and then goes on to provide quite good information on how to do just that. 

It starts a little slow, but does get into fantastic detail, recommendations, and guidance.  It may be that given that I’ve been studying this area for the last 7 years that some of the foundation in the beginning seemed a bit long. Perhaps to a reader that is new to the subject, it is extremely valuable to show examples of how by position and listening to other experts, you actually can build a network. 

All around, I would highly recommend it it anyone looking for an excellent way to get started in social media engagement.

I’m sure that I’ll be returning to it often.