7 Social Media Marketing Books to Add to Your “Must Read” List
By Joe Raguso, Social Media Intern and Marianne Trifiletti, Social Media Intern at MSM DesignZ. Social Media is no longer an option for businesses in 2018. In order to compete, it’s essential to have a presence on social media and stay up to date on current trends. Luckily for you, we’ve put together a list of 7 books that will give you the tools you need to successfully build and maintain your brand’s online community.
The first book on our list is called Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi. In this book, you’ll learn all about content marketing and how it guides companies to truly understand their customers. You’ll also learn how to deliver consistent content across all channels. Pulizzi stresses the importance of understanding your company’s content niche in order to better your advertisement pitches. 
Next up is The Power of Visual Storytelling by Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio. This book contains dense information about the shift in marketing to visual content and figures to support the information. It really gives new businesses insight on how to formulate a business plan. Detailed descriptions are given to each of the major social networks capable of accommodating a visual content strategy. These tactical instructions extend to the creation of new visual formats thereby providing an excellent overview of the how and where to incorporate visuals. 
The next book to add to your list is Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by famous entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. This book provides a great framework for marketing professionals to effectively interact with consumers on various social media platforms. Vaynerchuk profiles five platforms in chapters: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr, in that order. He also has a sixth chapter that briefly discusses others: LinkedIn, Google+, Vine, and Snapchat. The book also does a good job of explaining the importance of context in regards to interacting with customers on social media. 
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure by Antonio Garcia Martinez takes aim at noxious myth of meritocracy in the valley. As anywhere, those educated at the right places, and taught the right diction and manner of speaking rise to the top. The first part follows Mr. Martinez’s path from Wall Street to a Silicon Valley employee, and then on to the creation of a startup and all the dynamics that go along with that: partners, fund-raising, pitching etc. The second part of the book is a dive into the storyline of Facebook’s internal advertising projects and partnerships as that behemoth went from a private company to public. Garcia Martinez provides very detailed information on how ad technology works while keeping it fun and interesting.
This next book is a must-read for small businesses emerging into the world of digital marketing. The Lead Machine: The Small Business Guide by Rich Brooks contains practical information and strategies related to building an effective website, attracting the right visitors to the site, keeping in touch with prospects and optimizing digital marketing to result in sales. It’s a great read for any entrepreneur or professional in a small/medium business that has marketing responsibility and generating leads. Brooks’ sense of humor makes the book an enjoyable read while clearly giving smart and relevant advice to develop strategies for readers.
You can thank us later for introducing you to the next book. In Content Mavericks: How to Grow Your Business With Insanely Sharable Content, authors Andrew and Pete organize their tips almost like a road map, with each strategy building off the one before it to connect a business to their audience. In total, there are seven steps that will help you create social media content that people enjoy and help readers create a plan of action. No gimmicks here, Andrew and Pete use genuine strategies that the reader can trust and even build off for their own business interests.
The final book to put on your “must read” list is Make It Rain by Areva Martin. Martin discusses developing your brand and how to use social media to strengthen it. She tells you her story, breaks down her ”successes and challenges” then, she shows you step-by-step how to start ‘making it rain.’ The bulk of the book is focused on getting yourself on shows in order to build your brand and grow your business. With that she focuses on how to pitch to the TV industry. Using social media to build a reputation is one of the main points she drives home in the book and a key component to ‘making it rain’ in your business career.Follow the tips in these books and you’ll be a social media master in no time!