I recently decided to undertake a massive reading project which entailed pulling some favorites off the shelves for a second pass and ordering others that I’d lost track of or hadn’t yet read.
Just received Amazon shipment for big read/re-read project feat @JasonFalls @ducttape @briansolis @unmarketing & more pic.twitter.com/yRHec3Ka
— Dave Cutler (@CutlerDave) November 4, 2011
I mentioned the project on Google+ and solicited recommendations from others. I received a number of excellent suggestions, some of which I was familiar with, while others were completely foreign to me. I was ultimately able to compile an awesome list of social media, digital marketing, and general business/management books.
The end result was the following list (in no particular order):
- Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank You Economy
- Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It!
- Tamar Weinberg’s The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web
- Scott Stratten’s UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.
- Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff’s Marketing in the Groundswell
- Josh Bernoff & Ted Schadler’s Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, & Transform Your Business
- Chip & Dan Heath’s Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
- Marcus Buckingham’s First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
- Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah’s Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (New Rules Social Media Series)
- Jason Falls & Erik Deckers’s No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing
- Brian Solis’s The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution
- John Jantsch’s The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself
- John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide
- C.C. Chapman & Ann Handley’s Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series)
- Bob Burg & John David Mann’s It’s Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business
- Bob Burg & John David Mann’s The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
- Larry Weber’s Everywhere: Comprehensive Digital Business Strategy for the Social Media Era
- Chris Brogan & Julien Smith’s Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
- Lon Safko’s The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success
I am most of the way through the list and have found the experience to be incredibly educational and useful (even in the case of the books I’m re-reading).
Do you have a favorite (recent or older) book that you feel should be on this list? Please share it with me below in the comments.
Jason Ross says
How about Shama Kabani’s The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue as a guide to using social media?
Dave Cutler says
Don’t know that one. I’ll have to check it out. If you liked it, you should check out her interview with HubSpot’s David Wells in Episode 32 of Inbound Now, here: http://www.inboundnow.tv/why-marketers-should-care-googleplus-how-to-get-started/
inahans says
You already have my favourite on the list! Marcus Buckingham’s First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently! 🙂 It was the first book I ever read on managing people and it still drives my basic philosophy of management… have you read it yet?
You may also like:
* Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness
* Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can’t
* Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, and,
* The Long Tail : Why the Future Is Selling Less of More (this one is a little old now but still quite brilliant! )
Happy reading! 😀
Dave Cutler says
Ina,
Thanks for your suggestions. All good recommendations. I haven’t yet read First, Break All the Rules but I am very much looking forward to it.
Thanks,
Dave
Christine Sierra (@SierraSez) says
Some of my originals include The New Rules of Marketing and PR – Davie Meerman Scott, Marketing to the Social Web – Larry Weber and the blog post compilation of Social Media 101 by Chris Brogan. One research book I picked up this spring was Listen First! Stephen D. Rappaport and the Advertising Research Foundation.
Great post!
Dave Cutler says
Thanks, Christine. Excellent recommendations.
Bob Burg says
Dave, thank you. I’m so honored to know that you found John David Mann’s and my books to be of sufficient value to include on this list..which happens to have many of my favorite books on it. Again, much gratitude!