I didn’t know where to ask this, but well, I’m looking to read a good book about social media but there is tons of them and everyone tell me their books are ‘essencial’ in the field, I can’t buy all of them hehehe so, do any of you have a good recommendation of a book to read about the subject?I’m just starting with social media, especially blogging (I had a facebook page for 2 years now but thats it) I had just read blogs and articles for now so a good book would be great!

@kristi-hines oh, I don’t mind ebooks, I actually was thinking of ebook so I could read them in my kindle xD,it’s just that I had read so many blogs this past months that I’m having a hard time finding new information to read (I read all day all the time so blogs are not enough hahaha),I suppose I didn’t make myself clear enough, I meant ebooks or books or whatever minus blog posts that you could recommend…

I know a lot of bloggers have ebooks and stuff but I don’t know any at the moment xD

thank you!I will check them out,and good idea using google, I will do that!

consider reading a book about writing for social media. 

Steve Slaunwhite has a good copywriting class that is a good idea. 

Don’t first think about the tools, think about where people are and why. You will learn about Social Media on the way.

Many years ago, there was a young Chinese boy who was fortunate enough to be given an apprenticeship to a famous jade master.

On his first morning, as he hurried to the old man’s house, the boy looked forward eagerly to his day. “Today,” he said to himself, “the master will begin to teach me about jade.”

But when he got there, the master handed him a pebble of jade to hold and began to talk about everything under the sun – except jade.

The boy was disappointed, but as he walked home he consoled himself. “The master was just getting to know me today,” he thought. “Surely tomorrow he will begin to teach me about jade.”

But the next day came, and it was just the same as the first. The old man gave the boy a pebble of jade to hold, and began to talk about all of the Ten Thousand Things – except jade.

Day after day this happened. The boy began to despair. “Did I fail some test?” he thought. “Does the master not want me as his apprentice? Will he ever begin to teach me about jade?”

He was a well-brought-up Chinese boy and had been taught not to question his elders, but one day, as he trudged to the master’s house, he had had enough. “Today,” he thought, “I will ask the master when he will begin to teach me about jade.”

But when he arrived at the house, before he could say anything, the master, as his custom was, put a pebble into the boy’s hand. And without thinking, the apprentice cried out, “Master, that’s not jade!”

The Master said “Now, you know about jade.”

@hytare Maybe this is helpfull. On Twitter you can find @socimediabooks

Profile description is: Find the best social media books. I direct you to interviews with writers, bookreviews, podcasts, blogs and websites of books.

On Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaBooks

Great to stay up to date about what books are out there.

PS Full disclosure it’s mine Twitter account. (not intended as shameless selfpromotion)

@richardmclaughlin – Very nice allegory.

@kristi-hines – Great advice! 

@mspseudolus – Informative, also quite good. 

@joostkokke – With hashtags at twitter you can find even more. (Not shameless. Heh.)  

@hytare – You’ve probably gotten the best advice already but to add to that I also like the “Teach Yourself Visually” book series along with the Dummies books.

Right now the only social media book available by TYV is “Facebook” which will be published in October of this year (2012) that includes all the new stuff that is available now.  I assume they may be waiting for updates before the actual publish date so it will be up to date, then.

E-books can be a terrific resource as Kristi already noted.  Spending some time to ferret the best ones though is what keeps us all busy in our “free” time, if there is such a thing.  Heh.

Eileen