Back in March, I published a short list of suggested PR “must reads” by the community. It was an impressive list. Even more so when you added in the 16 comments with additional suggestions.
But, with the flurry of new “social media” (technically, they’re not all “social media” books, but I couldn’t come up with a better, broader term) books hitting the market recently (Trust Agents, Twitterville and Six Pixels of Separation, for starters), I thought we’d revisit the concept on the social side. After all, ALL PR pros need to get smarter about the social space, right?
Below is the list of suggestions from some trusted members of my community. What would you add to this list?
Tribes (Seth Godin) and The New Rules of Marketing & PR (David Meerman Scott)–Matt Batt
Web Analytics: An Hour a Day (Avinash Kaushik), The Whuffie Factor (Tara Hunt)–Keith Burtis
Here Comes Everybody (Clay Shirky) and Free (Chris Anderson)–Lee Aase
Word of Mouth Marketing: How smart companies get people talking (Andy Sernovitz)–Sonny Gill
Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and the Science of Customer Centricity (Avinash Kaushik)–Valeria Maltoni
Putting the Public back in Public Relations (Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge) and Groundswell (Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff)–Heather Whaling
Grown up Digital (Don Tapscott)–Justin Goldsborough
Now is Gone (Brian Solis and Geoff Livingston), Personality Not Included (Rohit Bhargava and Guy Kawasaki), Naked Conversations (Robert Scoble and Shel Israel), Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning (Marc Prensky)–Richie Escovedo
The Cluetrain Manifesto (Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, David Weinberger)–Becky McCray
Note: Photo courtesy of Ruminatrix, FlickR Creative Commons
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I would also include The Whuffie Factor and Work Sucks and How to Fix it (ROWE and Social Businesses are a very good marriage to happy workers)
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LikeI just finished "Twitterville" by Shel Israel and it is full of really interesting and useful case studies.
I also love Groundswell (Li, Bernoff) and The New Rules of Marketing and PR (David Meerman Scott).
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LikeGreat list, Arik! I'd suggest adding "The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media" by Paul Gillin - I'm just starting to read this myself.
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Like*all it is, is
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LikeSorry, it's difficult to take this list seriously with "Tribes" on it. All it is trash peddled on Seth Godin's brand name.
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LikeDave--Thanks for the suggestion. I'll add that to the list! I think this kind of list does stretch a bit since "social media" is such a tough term to define.
Jen: Hey, can I borrow Trust Agents when you're done reading? ;)
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LikeThanks for the updated list, Arik! I just picked up Trust Agents, and I really want to read a few more books in the coming months.
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LikeAs with some of your other books, this one isn't really social media, but I would add "Call to Action" by Brian & Jeffrey Eisenberg to the list. I was introduced to it by Michael Seaton last year - it's a great primer on improving conversion on your web properties; dense, hard reading but full of ideas and very valuable.
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