9 Best Books on Social Media Marketing (Updated for 2017)

Everyone seems to be a social media marketing expert these days. Listening to a pseudo expert is dangerous. The best way to learn is to study from someone who has actually done it, and has a large fan base on their social media accounts.

Here are my picks of the best books on social media marketing by authors who are social superstars themselves.

1. The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

By Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick

With over one hundred practical tips, tricks, and insights, Guy and Peg present a bottom-up strategy to produce a focused, thorough, and compelling presence on the most popular social-media platforms. They guide you through steps to build your foundation, amass your digital assets, optimize your profile, attract more followers, and effectively integrate social media and blogging.

For beginners overwhelmed by too many choices as well as seasoned professionals eager to improve their game, The Art of Social Media is full of tactics that have been proven to work in the real world. Or as Guy puts it, “great stuff, no fluff.”

2. Likeable Social Media

By Dave Kerpen

The New York Times and USA Today bestseller―updated with today’s hottest sites.

A friend’s recommendation is more powerful than any advertisement. In the world of Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram, and beyond, that recommendation can travel farther and faster than ever before. Packed with brand-new case studies from today’s emerging social sites, this updated edition of Likeable Social Media helps you harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing to transform your business. Listen to your customers and prospects. Deliver value, excitement, and surprise. And most important, learn how to truly engage your customers and help them spread the word.

3. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World

By Gary Vaynerchuk

New York Times bestselling author and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk shares hard-won advice on how to connect with customers and beat the competition. A mash-up of the best elements of Crush It! and The Thank You Economy with a fresh spin, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is a blueprint to social media marketing strategies that really works.

When managers and marketers outline their social media strategies, they plan for the “right hook”—their next sale or campaign that’s going to knock out the competition. Even companies committed to jabbing—patiently engaging with customers to build the relationships crucial to successful social media campaigns—want to land the punch that will take down their opponent or their customer’s resistance in one blow. Right hooks convert traffic to sales and easily show results. Except when they don’t.

Thanks to massive change and proliferation in social media platforms, the winning combination of jabs and right hooks is different now. Vaynerchuk shows that while communication is still key, context matters more than ever. It’s not just about developing high-quality content, but developing high-quality content perfectly adapted to specific social media platforms and mobile devices—content tailor-made for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr.

4. Social Media: Master Social Media Marketing - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Instagram

By Grant Kennedy

You'll be taken through a step-by-step process on how to develop your web presence. This book helps you improve your marketing strategies in many ways:

Increased Reach
Brand Recognition
Lower Marketing Costs
Better Interactions with Potential Customers
Higher Conversion Rates
SEO Optimization
and Greater Brand Loyalty

5. Social Media Marketing Workbook: How to Use Social Media for Business

By Jason McDonald

With up-to-date information on how to market on all of the major social media platforms, this book includes:

Introduction to Social Media Marketing - an easy explanation of what social media marketing really is, and how to "think" about social media marketing.
Platform Marketing Step-by-Step - an explanation of:
Facebook Marketing - Facebook for Business
LinkedIn Marketing - LinkedIn for Business
Twitter Marketing - Twitter for Business
YouTube Marketing - YouTube for Business
Pinterest Marketing - Pinterest for Business
Yelp / Local - Marketing via Yelp, Google+ and other local review sites
Epilogue - the "new" kids on the block of Snapchat and Instagram
Posting Strategy - creating great content is the first step, and knowing how to post it is the second. This book explains how to find other people's content to share and how to create your own content as well as how to optimize and promote your social media efforts.
Free Social Media Marketing Tools - as part of Jason's Social Media Toolbook, you get complete access to hundreds of free social media tools as well - a $29.99 value.
Social Media Marketing Worksheets - get links not only to free tools but to step-by-step worksheets. By the end of the book, you'll have a social media marketing plan ready for your business and specific plans for each medium that makes sense for you.

6. Social Media: Master, Manipulate, And Dominate Social Media Marketing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram And LinkedIn

By J. Wolf

This Book is Divided into 2 Parts: The Step by step guide to Social Marketing, and Social Media Marketing.

These will teach you how to:

Dominate Facebook Marketing
Dominate YouTube Marketing
Dominate Instagram Marketing
Dominate Twitter Marketing
Dominate LinkedIn Marketing and more

7. 500 Social Media Marketing Tips: Essential Advice, Hints and Strategy for Business

By Andrew Macarthy

This book is your guide to social media success for business, featuring hundreds of actionable strategies for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Vine, and more. Each tip will guide you to establish a strong brand presence on social media, attract and engage with loyal customers, and increase web traffic and sales.

Unlike most educational books, this book's practical layout and concise instructions ensure that you'll take away something valuable every time you read, whether it's 5 minutes at your desk, half an hour on your commute, or all day at the weekend!

Readers of this book also gain free access to 10 expertly-crafted social media design templates for profiles including Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. The book is also supported by over 200 free step-by-step social media video tutorials on YouTube, and Andrew's blog, where you'll find a growing collection of real-world case studies.

8. Social Media Made Me Rich: Here's How it Can do the Same for You

By Matthew Loop

Don't be misled by the showy title, this book shows very useful strategic and tactic techniques used by the wealthiest movers and shakers online.

You'll learn:

How to profit big from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Amazon, and Google.
The biggest (and dumbest) mistakes to avoid when using high-leverage social platforms.
A million-dollar plan so you can start from scratch and monetize who you are along with what you know.
The most sought after scripts that grow your brand, influence, and bottom line fast.
How to become the celebrity expert in your industry.
The secret to attracting greater numbers of clients and sales without spending money.

This book is a comprehensive resource that helps you achieve prosperity and abundance on your terms, even if you're starting from zero.

9. Social Media Mastery : 75 Daily Challenges to Help you Expand your Reach, Build your Platform, and Establish your Online Authority

By Tara Ross

You will learn:

The ins and outs of the major social media platforms, including major sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Periscope, Reddit, Scribd, Slideshare, Evernote, TripAdvisor, and Academia.edu.
How to establish a social media strategy in line with your goals, organize it all with Evernote, and how to market your content based on your product, service, or credentials. Fire up your brand via social media, Kindle ebooks, or podcasts using this guide.
How to integrate your social media accounts, embed content into profiles, build out your YouTube and Vimeo channels, maximize your Pinterest boards, use Facebook Graph Search, insert social plugins to your blog, and interact within groups to build dynamic connections.
How to develop your social media skills with the help of step-by-step explanations and videos.
How to discover how to host webinars, increase your search engine optimization, and conduct effective searches in social media platforms for market research.
How to expand your knowledge of blogging, blogging platforms (such as WordPress), and content curation. Explore your options with podcasting, delivering an eCourse, or writing an eBook.
How to engage others in the social environment that expands the reach of your content and your brand, and why some platforms are more difficult to integrate into than others.