I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I only read marketing books. I’m not a dirty liar. But there are a few resources that every social marketer must read.
I could list the top 10 marketing books on Amazon, but there is much more that goes into social marketing than simply “social media managing.” Don’t get me wrong, these books are there for a reason (and you’ll find some of them below), but a great marketer needs a wide variety of skills.
Continue reading to discover books that will help you:
- Master the art of time-management to get more done in less time
- Better predict your customers’ wants and needs
- Build a brand story that catches your audience’s attention
- Create social media posts that boost awareness and engagement
Bonus: Download our free guide that shows you how to 10X your social media performance and beat your competitors. Includes the tools, tricks, and daily routines used by three world-class social media experts.
10 of the best books for social media managers
If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you know that you can’t even visit the baking aisle without getting dizzy at the number of flour choices available. And, unless your product is truly unique, your customers are facing the same problem when it comes to deciding between your brand and the competition.
As a social media manager, you need to find ways to ensure your brand stands out.
If only you could get inside the minds of customers and find out what drives them to make a decision. Enter: The Choice Factory. In this book, author Richard Shotton focuses on the marketing potential of figuring out why people make certain decisions.
The 25 short, easily digestible chapters each focus on one issue and outline specific and actionable ways to apply the learnings to your own marketing strategy.
Google shows that YouTube reaches 95 percent of online adults aged 35+ in a month. Not only that, but 18 to 34-year-olds say YouTube is the best place to learn about a product or service that interests them.
In YouTube Growth Hacking, author Jeff Abston shares techniques and insight that will give you lasting, sustainable results on this powerful platform. You’ll learn:
- How to use SEO to boost discoverability
- The importance of making attention-grabbing thumbnails
- And how to improve the production quality of your videos—without a giant budget
I included this irreplaceable resource in my post So You Think You Can’t Write: 8 Writing Resources for Non-Writers and it’s a definite must-read for social media managers.
Writing is a skill that all marketers need to have, and Ann Handley offers a clear and concise guide to developing and honing it. Handley explains that content is “everything your customer or prospect touches or interacts with—including your own online properties and web pages and the experiences they offer, but also everything on any social channel.”
If you want your audience’s attention, your social media content needs to be clear, concise, and well-written. You want your audience to notice your message—not your grammar mistakes or adjective overuse.
4. Storynomics: Story-driven Marketing in a Post-advertising World by Robert McKee and Tom Gerace
As a social media marketer, part of your job is to…
