Summer is a wonderful time to catch up on all the reading I was to do and didn’t.  On top of the espionage and thriller books, which to my mind are summer fare, I have on the floor beside my nightstand a number of books on social media, instructional design, desktop publishing, and, okay more than a few magazines on DIY projects.

I choose business books based on three criteria

1. It has to be easy to read.  
2. It has to be easy to learn
3. It has to be easy to do.

The four key ingredients I use to learn and apply is based on these four questions

1. What am I currently doing?
2. What is one idea I can apply to what I’m doing?
3. What is one idea I’m curious about and what to learn more?
4. How can I extend my learning and encourage conversation using my social media accounts?

Here are four of the many books I’m reading on social media.

1. Evans, Dave.  Social Media Marketing An Hour A Day.  New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2012 (2nd edition)

•  Plenty of exercises

 2.   Anselmo, Donna.  Marketing DeMystified:  A Self-Teaching Guide.  New York:  McGraw Hill, 2010

•  A lot of checklists and questions
•  A great refresher on marketing

3. Mathos, Melanie and Norman, Chad.   101 Social Media Tactics for NonProfits: A Field Guide.  New York:  John Wiley & Sons, 2012

• Plenty of suggestions on how to use twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook categorized under the process of setup, communication, engagement, fundraising and measurement 

4. Adler, Lindsay and Sillars, Rosh.   The Linked Photographers Guide to Online Marketing and Social Media.   Boston, Mass:  Course Technology, 2011

• Plenty of stories on how photographers use social media to increase their visibility.

Your Call to Action

Using the Social Media Club twitter @socialmediaclub handle to answer this question “What books are you reading and learning from?  

Image Credit: Bigstock Photo