Everywhere you turn people are talking about social media. Whether Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Path or any of the others, these services are now foundational to the social landscape. Facebook claims over 1 billion users worldwide, while Twitter claims some 200 million. I read just today that Google +, which is sometimes scorned, claims more than 100 million unique users a month. Not too shabby.
A primary reason social media has taken of is the breadth of usability. Do you want to reconnect with old friends? You can. Create work relationships? You can. Report breaking news? You can. Let complete strangers have the recipe you tried for dinner (and your opinion of it)? You can. Build your business, run a sales campaign, complain about bad service, call out someone in front of God and everybody, compliment your spouse publicly, show photos of Junior’s first haircut?
Test, test, test.
All that and more.
Ultimately social media is about influence. What you write can influence the decision of one or many. Where you shop, your thoughts on the crab legs at your local restaurant, the traffic heading to the big game. Your comments on these sometimes mundane events may affect anyone or everyone who sees them.
With that in mind, here are a few books on the subject of social media. Most are in some way related to business, but even those refer to principles of influence that could benefit a casual blogger, for instance.
The title of each is a link to Amazon.com. All purchases help support this blog, though you pay the same low price.
Renegades Write the Rules: How the Digital Royalty Use Social Media to Innovate
If an earlier adopter or power user of social media exists than Amy Jo Martin, let them speak now. A former employee of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, this self-proclaimed “renegade” is responsible for bringing Shaquille O’Neal, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and UFC guy into the fold of social media users. This easy to read and understand book is filled with personal stories and helpful hints.
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World
There are few if any CEOs who have the blogging inluence to match, much less surpass, that of former Thomas Nelson CEO, Michael Hyatt. This is the thought leaders’s blog that is read by other thought leaders. His book, Platform, made the NYT Bestseller List almost before it was released. It is a thorough manual for building an influential presence (platform) in a world filled with competing voices.
Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business
Now in its secon edition…
I received this book free as a Klout perk. Schaefer uses Klout as an example of return on influence. Positing a thesis that social media is still too new to worry about return on investment, he offers ideas to help understand return on influence instead.
A huge name in social media and marketing is Lee Odden. In Optimize he shows how and why your social media, online content and search engine optimization can work together to increase you brand’s visibility and, ultimately, your bottom line.
PyroMarketing: The Four-Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them for Life
Recommended by my co-worker, John Cade, Pyromarketing looks at marketing efforts through the scientific filter of what makes and fuels fire.