According to Fisher,

We spend so much of our time online reading short snippets of information about our industry that sometimes we forget to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Reading books is a great way to get some extra insight in to your industry especially in to one as new as social media.

I’ve selected 11 books below that I’ve read and although they cover different levels of the industry and come at it from different angles they are all well worth a read.

Here’s Lauren Fisher’s list of 11 books about tech and social media that you should busy yourself in from today…

1. Re-Work by 37 Signals

These guys are a small software company who make big profits and think very differently about business. The book is short and to the point and really gets you throwing all conventional business ideas out the window. You don’t have to be in the software business to appreciate what these guys are talking about or even in internet business of any sort, their advice just makes sense. The main point that they have in the book is not to think about getting too big before you need to, not trying to grow too fast and generally treating your business as something that you love rather than something that you just build up and try and sell as quick as you can. It’s a really quick read (You’ll finish it in less than a day) but you’ll find yourself going back to it all the time for little bits of advice and inspiration long after you have actually finished reading the book.

2. Socialnomics

This really is one of the best books around written by Erik Qualman. You probably recognize his name or the title of the book from the  series of videos that he has made to help promote the book. One of the smartest thinkers in this new medium you’ll also find his blog excellent reading. What you’ll find in this book are some great practical examples of social media at work in the real world as well as Qualman making the argument about how it will shape everything businesses do in the future.

3. What Would Google Do?

This is a fantastic read about one of the biggest and most innovative companies of our generation. Not only does it go in to some of the main reasons why Google have become the Internet giant that they are today but it also looks at some of the logic that goes in to the business decisions that Google make. Rather than a “how to” business book this is more of a high level view behind some of the business thinking that changed industries that Google are involved in.

4. Wikinomics

This books looks at how companies in the last 10 years or so are using alternative technologies like crowdsourcing, open source technology and of course wikis to change the way they operate and become more effective. Although the book is over 3 years old at this stage it really caught the early wave of innovation and sharing online using a whole raft of new tools that we now take for granted and the text within the book is as relevant to us all now as it was back then.

5. The Whuffie Factor

This is a great guide for businesses and individuals looking at embracing new ways of marketing online and is written in an informal style which is far more forgiving that some of the other books on this list. There are plenty of examples in the book of companies who have succeeded but also some great examples of companies who jumped in head first and got it all wrong. The main thing that you will hopefully get out of the book is how to get your word of mouth referrals rocking for your business and generally create a positive feeling around your business online. What I like most about this book is that the author clearly has lots of experience in the field and is not scared to share that experience with the readers.

6. Crowdsourcing

One of the most popular buzz words in the last couple of years in the online world has been crowdsourcing but surprisingly the word itself has only been around since 2006. The book really shows that although crowdsourcing has been around for a long time in different formats it is really the power of the internet that has brought it to the fore and shown what can be done with it. The book shows how crowdsourcing can solve many of the problems that we have in life today including marketing and creative issues but the one area where the book does fall down slightly in my opinion is that it doesn’t show enough of the negative issues around crowdsourcing and it paints it as the solution to nearly everything without taking in great detail about many of the drawbacks

7. The Facebook Effect

At this stage you will probably have seen the movie about Facebook called “The Social Network” and the film is loosely based on this book. Very loosely actually! This is a great insight in to the key players and the journey that they all went on in the early days of Facebook and how it become the huge power that it is today. what you’ll find amazing is how the story unfolds form a dormitory in Harvard and grows and grows as the business evolves but just how unorganized and chaotic it was in the early days. What makes this such a great read in my eyes is that all of the events takes place very much in recent history (about 5 years ago) and you would never think that the main man at the center of it all, Mark Zuckerberg, would end up being worth billions of dollars and wielding so much influence in the world today. We all spend so much time on the world’s biggest social network and it is such an important part if our daily lives that we probably should all read this brilliant book about just how it was built.

8. Viral Loop : How

If ever there was a book that did exactly what it said on the cover this is it. The idea of Viral loops that we know so many businesses around the world are trying to recreate have been around for some time and this book does a great job of not only explaining some of the popular ones that we see on the internet today but also many of the original viral loops from businesses that we would never have thought of from the past. The author does a great job of setting the scene with some of the inventors of viral businesses models before moving on to how they work and finally giving you what you had picked the book up for in the first place…how to implement them in to your own business yourself. Reading this book doesn’t mean that you will be able to automatically create a viral loop for your own business but it will give you a better understanding of the term viral and what you might have to do to make it work yourself.

9. Tribes

Seth Godin could have has any number of books on this list and although he is supposedly not publishing regular books any more he has written enough content to keep us all going for some time. Godin is always held up as one of the great marketers of our time and somebody how thinks differently about the world around him. Tribes for me is his best work and focuses in on not surprisingly Tribes of people or customers that can be built up around a person or business. As Godin says himself Tribes are… “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea”. The book doesn’t actually have chapters but instead is based around ideas on how you can build or lead your own Tribes.

10. The Long Tail

This is a very common expression that Chris Anderson the author of this book first coined in a Wired magazine in 2004 and later evolved in to this entire book. It essentially talks about large companies like Amazon and iTunes who sell large volumes broken down in to many different categories rather than a couple of large products that used to be the way. The book can get very technical at times and delve in to numbers and more advanced language that might put many off but as a book with ideas that define an entire business model it really is an excellent read. The main message that comes across in the book is how thanks to the internet all our buying habits have modified and we live in a society where we get things instantly and by applying filters and detailed search we are no longer bothered by mass market goods that we just don’t need.

11. The Cluetrain Manifesto

Though written in 1997, before we had the likes of Facebook and Twitter this could easily have been written today and be just as relevant to social media marketing. The Cluetrain Manifesto was a pivotal book and a must-read for anyone involved in marketing or communications in any shape or form. The book looks at the way that the internet has changed communication and the impact this has for companies. It looks at the need for modern organisations to be transparent and fluid, with traditional organisational structures no longer being as relevant as they were. The central theme throughout the book is that every market is a conversation – a powerful and challenging concept at the time. Filled with expert analysis and case studies, if you haven’t read this, go out and buy a copy today! Check out the original site here, which looks exactly as it did when the book launched,

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Have you read any of these books? Share your thoughts below…

Editors Note: This is a recent conversation that Ayodeji Adewunmi from Jobberman had with Loy Okezie (me), about my eBook, Personal Guide to Career Freedom [available FREE online]. During a market intelligence gathering, he downloaded the eBook and believes “it’s still the most impressive piece of information put together locally (that I have seen)”. Ayodeji Adewunmi is the President/Co-founder of Jobberman, a job search portal. In this interview, I shared my thoughts about jobs and careers in Nigeria. The interview was originally published via Jobberman.com

Enjoy!

AA: I just finished reading Personal Guide to Career Freedom and I am completely blown away. It’s superior to all of the eBooks available locally on Jobs and Careers. It just pointed to you as an outstanding Career Coach or Author. Why did you write the Book?

LO: Thanks for taking the time to read my eBook. After several years of talking with students and job seekers, it was obvious to me that most people were not pursuing their passions in life. Life is a journey, so is one’s career life. Most people would have wished they had the chance to choose a different course of study or career focus before starting their career journey. If only they had a career counselor or coach to guide them. My goal with the eBook is to help people internalize and personalize other people’s career experiences and juxtapose them with their own experiences in order to find solutions to their personal career challenges.

AA: I love the clarity of the book, the use of scenarios is simply outstanding and more directly, the 10 insightful questions to ask your next job interviewer is a winner. Wait a minute – the prose formats, why are you not a Poet (laughs)?

LO: Yes, I thought to really achieve the goal of the eBook, it had to have a human angle to it. People love to read about people’s stories and experiences. Now getting them to relate with these experiences in their own personal careers was critical. Without this element, they wouldn’t possibly see themselves through the mirror of another person’s failure or success in their career journey.

On becoming a poet, I’d say that’s not my calling… (Laughs). I’m a writer with interests in personal/career development, technology and organizational effectiveness. Oh and by the way, I just might be writing fiction just like John Grisham in the future 

AA: Writing has completely changed my life. The metacognition that comes from the process of translating your thoughts into words is profound. I find it interesting that writing is a key agenda in your life. How long did it take you to complete planning, research, manuscript and the publishing? Do you have plans of going with a Publishing House to move the Book Agenda forward?

LO: You’re right about the thinking processes involved in putting one’s thoughts into texts. For me, I write as it comes to me, although I’ve hit the writer’s block several times. For this eBook, it took about 18 months to plan, research, write, proofread, edit and publish. It has already taken me about 11 months now to complete the next edition which will include latest trends in job search and recruitment consulting. Hopefully, the new eBook would be released by the end of this year and published by LoyOkezie.com

AA: In all your talks and trainings on getting a job or changing careers, what have you found to be the most interesting trend or issue in Nigeria?

LO: One word: Salary

AA: What is a common misconception you hear about Jobs and Careers? It seems there is a lot of confusion over this.

LO: Like I pointed out in my eBook, most people don’t know what they are looking for in life – Job or Career. Some say that one comes before the other – find a job and then pursue a career. Others say that your job is your career.

Some years ago, I asked someone: “What do you do?” His response: “I’m a banker.”  Then, I asked: Do you own the bank or work for the bank?” He said: “Of course I work for the bank”. So I asked again: “So what do you do?” He replied: “I’m a cashier”. I said: “Oh, I thought you were a banker?” (Laughs) At the end of our conversation, it was obvious that the young man didn’t know there was a big difference between having a job in a bank and building a career in the banking industry.

In page 5 of my eBook, I defined a job as an activity that earns you a monthly income, and a career as a profession or occupation that generates you multiple streams of income. While this definition may not apply to all types of work-related activity, it still captures the idea. Simply put, a job is a job and a career is a business.

So Personal Guide to Career Freedom is more than a job manual. It’s a career/business book.

AA: It may sound strange in the Western context, but 45/46 pages of eBook I & II could be overwhelming. Nigerians tend to ask and figure things out rather than read any manuals or books explaining the same point better.

LO: When I finished compiling the manuscript, I did feel overwhelmed (Laughs). My thoughts were: Will the Nigerian people have time to read this? Will they even appreciate it? Will they use it? But come to think of it: Why do you think people have challenges in life? In business? In careers? Isn’t it because they lack proper guidance and direction? And where can you find such?

To achieve success in life, business and career, you will need guidance and inspiration from the Bible/Koran, business books, school training, prayer and a bit of luck. It’s easier to take the short road, but what if you reach a crossroad? You don’t want to find yourself in a career desert, where there’s no water, no guide, no path.

AA: You’re kind of living the dream. I don’t know many people who wouldn’t want to make a living as a blogger and social media analyst. You a Pioneer and I find this intriguing.

LO: I’ve found Katherine Whitehorn’s advice quite helpful in my career. She once said: “Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it”. But I’ll also add: “Find out what people really need and get them to pay you for the value you’re able to provide them“. This sums up my career purpose and mission statement.

AA: Thanks for your time!

LO: Anytime, Deji

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Personal Guide to Career Freedom [Volume 1 & 2] has been specially designed to teach you how to plan, design and manage your career life.

The e-book is the result of several of my coaching sessions with clients from different backgrounds, but with one career purpose: to acquire career intelligence achieve career mastery and attain career freedom.

As strange as “Planet Google” may sound, it really does exist. Randall Stross was probably the first man to land on that planet and has taken several people there, including me. Just got back from a 2-week exploratory visit to the place where all of the world’s information is being gathered, stored and organized.

Doesn’t that make you cringe?

Based on the unprecedented access he received to the highly secretive “Googleplex”, acclaimed New York Times columnist Randall Stross, in his book Planet Google takes readers deep inside Google, the most important, most innovative and most ambitious company of the Internet Age.

In Planet Google, published in September 2008, Stross shows penetrating research into the company’s strategy and provocatively examines its audacious vision for the future and the consequences not only for the business world, but for our culture and society at large.

In a nut shell:

Planet Google explores how Google has grown up and out; how early technology choices enabled it to extend its reach without limit; how its pursuit of information of all kinds has brought it unrivaled power; and how its power affects the general interests of everyone, for better or for ill.

Speaking about the amount of time that would be required for Google to organize all of the world’s information, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt referred to a three-hundred-year timeline, which Stross described as “merely a dispassionate calculation”.

My thoughts

Randall Stross has displayed fascinating story-telling about a company that probably knows more about you than you may think. My guess is that Planet Google will be re-visited in the nearest future, and hopefully we’ll learn more insights into Google’s progress with its audacious plan to organize everything we know.

Will a future book expose some of Google’s secrecy? Will Google still be relying on its powerful ALGORITHMS? Or will it…errh…MEET HUMANITY? Will our personal data still be safe with Google? Will any other company dominate Google? Will Google really succeed?

In the next 10 years, will Google have successfully acquired Internet companies from Africa? Will Google have set up local operations in Nigeria?

After Google’s first ten years attempt to organize the world’s information, the biggest question is:

Will Google stay true to its famous “Don’t Be Evil” mantra, using its power in its customers’ best interests?

Only time will tell.

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If you have read this book, or have been to “Planet Google”, or even reside there, you can share your thoughts, views, opinions, fears or predictions. If you’re yet to read the book, grab your copy today!

Image Via: New York Mag