Summer is almost gone--can you believe it? It is traditionally my reading season as my work is a tad bit slower in the summer. I vowed to use the summer to challenge my thinking on social media, so most of these are thought leadership books. Here we go.
1. Open Leadership by Charlene Li.
If you didn't read Groundswell, start there first. Li and Josh Bernoff wrote Groundswell based on research done by Forrester--a company Li has since left to form the Altimeter Group. This book takes up where Groundswell left off in that it takes all the basics we learned about psychographics, sociographics and demographics of social media and applies it to leadership. This book is about control versus openness. According to Li, openness is not chaos, but precision. This is a great read.
2. Engage by Brian Solis.
Always analytical, always detailed. This book takes you through a progression from Social Media 101 to the deep stuff. I love his diagrams. He is a master communicator and a futurist thinker. He said originally he wanted to call this book "Engage or Die" because he says that is what happens to organizations that refuse to engage their people. High vocab sometimes, but always understandable. I've lent the book out so many times I don't know where it is.
3. Social Media Metrics by Jim Sterne.
In my never ending quest to find the perfect metric, this book is a wealth of information for you if you are just getting past the point of using something basic like Facebook Insights or Google Analytics. He lays the groundwork for helping you understand such intriguing topics as sentiment information extraction and helps you understand why metrics for Twitter are not an exact science. Lots of research in this book if you are looking to quantify.
4. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
How can you not like Chris Brogan? He is polarizing and irreverent. Just the kind of person I want to read. But he is also super smart, innovative and successful. He and Julien Smith get out in front of the pack teaching us how to use the web to build trust, improve reputation and earn trust. My goal is to be an Agent Zero--you gotta read it. It's good stuff
5. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
OK--this is not a book about social media but it is hands-down the best book I have read in a long time, much less this summer. Miller helped me remember that it is not the destination that counts, it is the middle. Boy, how I needed to hear that this summer. He takes the reader through a great journey as he tries to find his biological father. You will cry with him and laugh at him.
There are so many great books out there--can you add to the list?
