My dog's name is Brad Pitt. And usually he prefers socks to social media books.

Can I whine for a sec? I have a hard time reading social media books, because usually I know  85%+ of what’s in them. Usually they’re written to inform people who know zero about it. But this book is smart, fills a gap, and isn’t filled with the same high-falutin clichés you’ve read on social media blogs for the last four straight years. Disclosure: Chris is a good friend, and is holding my firstborn son hostage.

The strength of Chris’s book, The Social Media Strategist: Build A Successful Program From The Inside Out comes from the 4 years he spent as the director of Social Media for General Motors, and 8 years as Blogger In Chief for IBM (important note that lawyers care about: Chris is no longer with these companies and is now the proud SVP of Global Programs for Voce Communications).

As Chris says in the introduction, this is a social media book for people who either work in huge organizations, or work with them. It’s not a book for small business people who want to get social media results. But it’s brilliant when it comes to dealing with corporate politics, PR, and crisis communication.

Some of the questions it answers are:

• How do you select a social media person to hire?
• Why should you befriend the corporate lawyers and how do you work with them effectively?
• Why do you need an executive who champions social media in the company?
• How can a big company work effectively with bloggers to get social media results?
• How should the social media department deal with major PR crises?

Chris answers all of these based on experience, not theory. If you’re working in a big corp or dealing with their social media, it’s a must read. Click here and buy it.

And if you’re like me and you want a three-dimensional sense of your authors, check out Chris in this video interview: