Nothing breaks a topic down like the “For Dummies” series. All in it has sold more than 150 million books educating the world on the most basic elements of everything from The Internet to eBay to wine to divorce. It would stand to reason that the most recent in the series “Social Media Marketing For Dummies” holds no challenges for today’s sophisticated marketer. But sophisticated the book is. It dispenses quickly with the basics of “social influence marketing” and immediately moves on to the most challenging issues on social media such as mobile, authenticity finding a social voice for your company, and even how to energize and manage a social media effort internally.

The reason for the book’s depth comes directly from its author. As the VP & Global Social Media Lead with Razorfish  he has been on the social media beat for big clients, small clients, and marketers that need research to plan and measure the newest platform. Rather than tell his audience of marketers what they already know, Singh took the opportunity to write a book for “dummies” to set out a complete vision of how social media can be executed. It just went into its second printing last week, and we caught up with Singh on that occasion.

Digiday: This book is very far above an approach for “dummies.” Is the something you aimed at, despite the nature of this series of books?

Singh: I knew our audience would be marketers of all levels and all interests. I thought we could reach them with the kind of sophisticated content that was needed for the topic. I know there have been a few books on this topic so what I wanted to do was show how social influence media fits broadly into the concept of marketing. I showed the numbers surrounding usage of all platforms. I showed how mobile was very important and wanted to take marketers beyond the focus of their own web site. I wanted to show them what they could do every day with SIM. The baseline level of sophistication ws much higher than the “For Dummies” series on other topics.

Digiday: Is there anything that surprised you about your research and writing now that the book has been published?

Singh: Yes, a few things actually. For example, the whole section of how to develop a social voice for your company was much richer than I thought it would be. That could be a book in and of itself. I also discovered that it can be very tricky recommending different vendors for companies, so I was careful about that, and also the rate of change is still astounding. Even since the book has been published there have been major changes, such as Facebook’s privacy settings.

Digiday: One of the sections I found most useful was about authenticity and voice. You don’t encourage companies to be shy on that front.

Singh: It’s one of the most important elements of SIM. If you don’t have a commitment within your company to be honest and authentic you should think about whether you’re really ready to play in this space.

Digiday: Who does a good job in social media marketing?

Singh: Well, we’ve worked with Best Buy, so I’m a bit prejudiced there. I’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in their usage. I’ve seen its journey toward being very substantive. I also like some of the characters that have developed as a brand messenger such as Frank @ Comcast. I also love Scott Monty’s approach at Ford.

Digiday: Will you need a new version of the book six months from now?

Singh: I don’t know about that. I see the social media market starting to stabilize over the next six months.