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Collaboration around social media content has become a normalized part of modern marketing. Brands are either working with colleagues across borders, external people (like freelancers) or working with client social media accounts. Workflow, content and communication...
Jul 16, 2025
Hello, avid reader, and welcome to the annual bookaholic meeting for social media marketers. Our loved industry is renowned for its fast pace and keeping up with everything is only becoming harder. But fear no more, you can always learn from the best experts in the industry. There is a plethora of social media marketing books to choose from and only so much time to read them all! Whenever you have a question, it is most likely that somebody else already answered it in a book about social media, marketing strategies, digital business or even growth hacking.
Here is an updated list of top 37 books on social media marketing that you should add to your read list this year. Social media strategy, digital marketing, content planning, and many other such topics will help you understand what the best approach for your brand and business is.
Just to save your time, I grouped the books in 6 big categories. Jump to your favorite topic:
Brittany Hennessy, former blogger, and brand ambassador, has an impressive background in the influencer industry. As the head of influencer marketing at Hearst Magazines Digital Media, she used to work with influencers on a daily basis. Hennessey used her expertise to write “Influencer”, a book on social media marketing chock-full of advice for aspiring Instagram influencers.
Read Hennessey’s book to get the ins and outs on building your brand from the ground up and expanding your marketing toolset to incorporate newsletters, coaching sessions, and interviews.
The Manifesto on Content Marketing Teams – The book on how modern content teams collaborate
The Manifesto on Content Marketing Teams is a statement of belief on how teams should work together in the new world of content marketing.
Expect a realistic industry audit with a hopeful guide on mastering content operations. The book is free to download for everyone in every format.
Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley
Content is still king if done right, and Ann Handley teaches you the best strategies so you can write with purpose. Publisher, social media manager, marketer, one way or another, you have to deliver a message. So why not do it right?
Learn from Ann Handley’s experience what works best and how to adapt your writing to 2020. Choose the right words, show empathy, and genuinely write for your audience. This book is your go-to approach when writing online content.
So far, so good. It became obvious that digital marketing books are ruling this year and it is for two reasons only: digital strategies work and are cost-efficient. “Confident Digital Content” takes you on a journey through the important types of digital creativity you can use to do your job better.
This book is all about hard skills, from video editing to community management. And the best part? Every chapter gives you the chance to practice what you learn through exercises.
This book presents a simple principle: if you do it the right way, your results should be ten times your effort. Garrett Moon used a formula to get these results for his startup and is now sharing it with everybody who wants to do the same.
10x Marketing Formula talks about ways you can find shortcuts to get better results faster. After reading this book, you’ll find your path to marketing success.
This book represents a clear-cut strategy that will help you grow your business and drive sales with the power of the Internet. After reading it, you will surely reconsider your budget and invest more in digital campaigns and less on TV, radio, and print.
In this book, you will find one formula that you can easily adapt to your type of business. No matter the industry, your audience spends time online. Marcus Sheridan shows you how he brought his company back to life by simply answering questions.
After building a network of over 150,000 creators, filmmakers, editors, and marketers from around the world, author Chris Carter realized the growing demand for video content was more than one company could produce.
This was the catalyst for creating the book you are now reading about. He provides industry secrets, strategies, and processes needed in order to develop a world-class content marketing campaign.
According to Pew Research, 77% of US Adults go online daily. This means you can reach 77% of a whole nation in one day… if you know how.
This book shows the right roadmap to presenting your work and getting the exposure you need to turn even a farmers shop into a worldwide company like Whole Foods Market.
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath, Dan Heath
Either you want to admit it or not, we live in the “fake news era,” and it became the norm for false ideas to stick. Why not learn from that and make your truth viral? Whether you’re into Instagram marketing books, social media management books, or anything similar, you might want to couple them with Dan Heath’s work. His understanding of the stickiest campaigns and ideas will only bring additional value.
In this book, the authors give you important insights and strategies to make your ideas stickier. Based on some of the most known experiments and campaigns, this book provides you with the recipe for your business’ success.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
In marketing, the tipping point is the moment when a product, business, or idea reaches the trending zone. In this book, Malcolm Gladwell wants to prove that it only takes one right shot to start the discussions.
After reading this book, you will easily identify the people who create the phenomenon of word of mouth – which is basically the tipping point for any business.
Chasing The Monster Idea: The Marketer’s Almanac by Stefan Mumaw
Have fun while learning how to go after the idea that will turn the industry upside down. Learn from those who seized the opportunities and from those who ignored the signs and lost.
This book will show you how to measure the greatness of your idea with seven questions that challenge its potential. Take a look at what good ideas have in common and compare yours to the ones that already succeeded.
Start at the End. How to Build Products That Create Change by Matt Wallaert
Nowadays, companies overspend on marketing to drive engagement with products and services that people don’t want and won’t help them be happier and healthier.
This book argues that the purpose of everything is behavior change. By starting with outcomes instead of processes, the most effective companies understand what people want to do and why they aren’t already doing it, then build products and services to bridge the gap.
The Idea Factory by Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation.
This book covers the history of many of the inventions that are behind our current world, but it also contains technical details to warm some little geek hearts.
The BAMF Bible 2019: 30+ Case Studies of the Best Growth Hacks for 2019
Growth hacking is not just a fancy word businesses use to look cool. Growth hacking is what successful businesses do in order to grow faster than others. Instead of starting to experiment now, use Josh Fechter’s tactics that you can apply right away.
It is not necessarily a book you read and forget about it, it is a book that you keep close in case you want to take a different approach in your marketing strategy.
Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising by Ryan Holiday
Did you ever notice how the cool newcomers didn’t use traditional marketing in order to make themselves famous? Giants like Facebook and AirBnb focused on growth hacking their way into the top.
Growth hacking is every startup’s dream strategy. Ryan Holiday explains in his bestseller book how to adopt the growth hacking mindset and what are the rules to follow.
Entrepreneur Voices on Growth Hacking – Inc. The Staff of Entrepreneur Media
We all know that companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Dropbox have become famous for industry disruption and immense growth. But the growth hacking strategies that made them successful sometimes only work once.
Lucky for you, there’s no shortage of growth hacks. This book shares the inspirational stories of unconventional entrepreneurs who retooled companies and industries, while giving you the tools you need to do the same.
This book features more than 35 marketing experts, entrepreneurs, industry thought leaders and successful companies from all over the globe who share radical ideas on how you can grow your business using unconventional marketing strategies.
In today’s hyper-competitive business world, any insights on growth hacking are useful if you want to gain a competitive advantage.
Olive Valley’s Growth Hacking Formula by Andrew Slack
This book takes a closer look at the 5Ps to scaling your own business. The formula is constantly evolving as the world around us changes, so must the way we operate.
Allowing your business to remain agile and innovative as you scale is difficult. The book explores each challenge in detail, giving you the tools to implement them within your own business.
Jamie Turner is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and TV news contributor who has helped The Coca-Cola Company, AT&T, Holiday Inn, and other global brands tackle complex business problems.
He is the co-author of “Go Mobile”, which was the #1 best-selling mobile marketing book on Amazon when it was first released; “How to Make Money with Social Media”, which is now in its second edition; and “Digital Marketing Growth Hacks”.
We’re all creators, but how do you measure results? Especially in the digital world, there are so many aspects you can take into account that sometimes the goal fades away. No worries, a good book on social media can help you find the right process and take the first step toward your target. A social media analytics book is even better.
Social Media requires a process, from strategy to analysis and optimization (something marketers forget about sometimes), and this book is all about best practices to achieve your financial and non-financial goals. No matter what your pains are, Social Media ROI provides the solution to it.
Everybody is going digital, and it seems a great number of tactics promise to bring success. So how do you keep up? The New Rules of Marketing is one of the best marketing books of the decade. The 6th edition focuses on cost-efficient strategies for your business and will teach you everything you need to know about choosing the right target and delivering the right message at the right time on the right platform.
Stay one step ahead of your competitors with David Meerman Scott’s book that will bring you up to speed with modern approaches for social media, videos, mobile apps, and many more. If you’re looking for social media advertising books, make sure you add this to your list.
This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See by Seth Godin
Everybody’s favorite marketer puts you to serious work with his marketing insights in “This Is Marketing”. This is an amazing book about how to solve your clients’ problems through marketing. Seth Godin advises putting your customer first, above your profit and business. Make sure you have personalized messages for every audience, no matter how small.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk
One of the best Social Media Marketing books that are out there, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” explains how to gain success through communicating and being dedicated to your customers instead of going directly after the big sale. Gary Vaynerchuk explains what to do in order to make your customers happy and become their go-to source. It also answers the glorious question: when to place the sales message.
Understand the importance of fighting for your customers and beating your competitors with strategic moves. In Social Media, your jab is your content, but your right hook is the context. Make sure you add this one to your list of social networking books to read this year.
There’s a big difference between knowing what your customers want and guessing what your customers want. Creating a customer-centered product or service will make it or break it. Nicholas J. Webb studies how the economy changed consumer behavior and what the best methods to keep up are.
The author suggests you’ll find two things about your customers: what they love and what they hate. From there, you can build everything according to reality. This useful book provides a handful of tools and case studies ready to give you a boost.
In this book, Robert Cialdini shows that the moment you address the message is more important than the information itself. In this era, most people can make a speech, but not a lot succeed in achieving their goals. Through this book, the author teaches you how to use the right time when communicating something, so you can increase the responsiveness of your audience.
“Pre-suaders”, as Robert Cialdini calls those who use his method, triumph by shifting the attention before making the move. This book is full of studies that prove the techniques work in your favor.
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
The relationship you create with your clients is crucial. If you have a social media book on your nightstand, try adding this one to keep it company, as you will see how Donald Miller successfully applies the seven universal elements of powerful stories to create a bond between the business and customers.
Many times, customers don’t really understand what your business is about and what benefits it could bring them. After reading this book, you will certainly know how to make your assets shine.
If a big part of your job is interacting with and helping your clients, this book is a must-read. Robert Solomon gets straight to the subject with 58 concepts on how to improve your client service abilities.
The Art of Client Service is not a book dedicated only to those working in the client service department. Anybody from an agency or a marketing team will find priceless resources and quick tips for the day-to-day job.
The Marketing Teams of the Future
The Marketing Teams of the Future is an ebook that navigates content marketing’s journey from the early beginnings and dives into a profound analysis of today’s industry.
You will find patterns, principles, and workflows that will help upgrade current workflow and processes for a future-proof team. The book is free to download for everyone in every format.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
Not necessarily a marketing book, The Power of Habit teaches you to get rid of bad habits and transform all your potential into good habits. It’s all science.
Charles Duhigg shows you how successful people made it and explains the behind-the-scenes of some of the most appreciated businesses, concepts, and teams. Hopefully, he’ll make you implement the “keystone habits” you want. The sky’s the limit if you understand how habits operate.
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
If you were to think about what is the most powerful question you can ask, “WHY” definitely has a certain sonority. Why? Because it can show if your dialogist knows what he or she is saying because you can test if your idea has any ground or if your audience really enjoys your content.
In his book, Simon Sinek takes a deep dive into the pool of questions and shows how “why” can save you a lot of time and effort. Alternatively, here’s Simon talking about the Why concept in his TED Talk.
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez
A book like you never read before about the tech bubble and the secrets nobody wants you to know. Antonio Garcia Martinez, an almost paria of the Silicon Valley culture, talks about data usage, his decisions in his personal and professional life, and what a chaos monkey like him can do or undo for a business.
If you are the risk taker type or at least aspire to become one, this book is for you.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work.
Get ready to be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
Deep work is one of the most valuable skills in our economy, and it is becoming increasingly rare. This means it can be a competitive advantage if you learn how to master it. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, the author instead celebrates the power of its opposite.
Get ready for a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four “rules” for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.
Grant Cardone is the bestselling author of “The 10X Rule” and “If You’re Not First, You’re Last” as well as a sales trainer, speaker, and entrepreneur who has worked in real estate and the auto industry. Grant Cardone is a real estate mogul, and he was named the #1 marketer to watch in 2017 by Forbes Magazine.
Mari Smith is one of the world’s leading social media thought leaders, widely recognized for her Facebook marketing expertise. She is the author of “The New Relationship Marketing” and coauthor of “Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day”.
Mari Smith’s background includes over twelve years in the fields of relationships, marketing, and Internet technology. As a passionate social media leader since 2007, Mari travels the United States and internationally to provide engaging social media keynotes and in-depth training to entrepreneurs and corporations.
Neal Schaffer is a recognized leader in the world of business social media. In addition to being named one of marketing’s ten biggest thought leaders by CMO.com, Neal has also been recognized as a Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer as well as a Forbes Top 5 Social Sales Influencer.
As an author, Neal is best known for his definitive book on social media strategy creation, implementation, and optimization “Maximize Your Social: A One-Stop Guide to Building a Social Media Strategy for Marketing and Business Success” (Wiley) but has also published two other award-winning and critically acclaimed social media books: “Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing” and “Windmill Networking: Maximizing LinkedIn”. If you’re looking for a great social media strategy book to read in 2020, give it a try.
Michael Brito has been building brands online since Al Gore invented the internet. He is a digital strategist, published author, TEDx speaker, adjunct professor, and avid 49ers and Lakers fan, with over 20+ years of experience helping brands break through the clutter and reach their target audience with laser-focused precision—the right story, at the right time, in the right channel, and with the right media. The result: game-changing, data-driven content.
This unique methodology requires a combination of audience intelligence, creative editorial content, and targeted paid media. He has worked and consulted with several Fortune 500 companies implementing digital marketing programs globally and built online communities before social media was even a thing.
We’re living in the digital era and one blog post may seem more efficient than actually reading a book. But if you really want to figure out what you’re missing, you need to take time and see the details that are making the difference. And whenever you’re ready to try out your new skills, Planable is here to help you make things happen.
So choose your favorite books and never stop learning!
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