[Book Review]: Me And My Web Shadow, Antony Mayfield

I thought I'd share some of my love for the great books I've been reading lately (and further back), in a semi-occasional book review.

The first one up comes from someone who, over the years, has become a strong online friend, despite the fact that we've only ever met a half dozen times at various random cities across Europe. He was one of a merry gang who helped change my life, too, back in Copenhagen in 2007 when he and Mrrs Moore and Semple suggested that I should set up my own company.

Antony's premise then was that the things we were doing online as an added extra created enough value, eventually, to employ them in the centre of everything we do.

His new book, Me and My Web Shadow: How to Manage Your Reputation Online, illustrates in a mix of textbook, handbook and extended blog post how anyone, from a school kid to a CEO, a teacher to a parent, can harness their online footprint for their own personal good, and the good of the communities around them.

Antony set about writing Me And My Web Shadow to help inform the kind of person "who doesn't quite get Twitter yet", or who thinks privacy issues on Facebook are a good enough reason to avoid it. It was for his wife, amongst many others. It's pitched in the kind of way that wouldn't patronise a proficient user of social media but which is also accessible to newbies. If there were a French translation I might even purchase a copy for my mother-in-law, to help her understand the grey areas between private and public, friends and Friends.

Despite having risen through the ranks of PR to a Senior Vice President position at iCrossing, the world's biggest SEO company, he talks his reader through privacy and openness in a blog-like, non-corporate, friendly way. This book reads for itself, combining practical tips and examples of people getting it right (and wrong), along with some Thinking Man's theory of why all this is so.

And his tone of voice means that Me And My Web Shadow is the ideal starter book and reference tool for people both in education and in the corporate world. It's a tough balance to strike, and Antony's nailed it.

If you want to provide some quick, light, intelligent reading to parents or colleagues who don't quite get all this malarky yet, then Me and My Web Shadow (UK) is possibly the best first port of call they could ask for. They'll understand the main issues and have some practical next steps as to how they can take control of their very own web shadows. It's not one to read cover-to-cover, but rather to have to hand when those "what happens if" questions crop up.

Follow the book on Twitter or, if you prefer humans, Antony himself.

Me And My Web Shadow: How To Manage Your Online Reputation is launched May 15th in the US Store: reserve your copy now in my book store.