Suggested Social Media Reading - Tips to help with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more

I frequently get asked for tips and tricks by folks who want to know more about running and managing social media resources for their company. After several years of running groups on all the major social media sites I still find the need to read up on the latest features of each of the popular social streams, particularly as added functionality comes almost monthly. To stay informed I read articles, blogs, and white papers (sure Mashable is great, but there’s also loads of other fab resources out there). The latter are very handy and there’s a ton of them available, you simply need to know where to find them. A couple of my favorite resources are the Hootsuite EDU enterprise resource center, Social Media Examiner, and Hubspot – these also offer fabulous webinars!

I also have access to hundreds (perhaps thousands) of white papers from Tradepub. These are handy documents that are easily and quickly downloaded as PDFs to my iPad library where I seem to get the most use from them, pulling them up to browse while sitting in a coffee shop or while on a flight.

The following are a few excellent white papers that I would suggest anyone interested in learning more about managing social media resources add to their library:

Learning LinkedIn From the Experts:
How to Build a Powerful Business Presence on LinkedIn" – In HubSpot’s newest eBook, “Learning LinkedIn from the Experts”, five LinkedIn specialists provide key insight into how you can use LinkedIn to successfully grow your network and business.

How to Attract Customers with Facebook
A guide to optimizing your Facebook presence for more leads and sales. Learn how to increase the ROI of your Facebook efforts and attract leads and customers through your campaigns. This eBook will walk you through the steps of planning, implementing, and measuring a successful organic and paid Facebook strategy.

How to Navigate Events Successfully with Twitter
79% of companies believe events are an important form of marketing for their business. Attending events can be extremely beneficial to your company and brand — but can also be overwhelming

Get into Google+
“Why should I sign up for Google+?” The answer is simple: Google.
You may have heard of them. Even if you already have other social networking accounts, you should sign up for Google+ simply because Google is going to be around for a very long time. It’s almost impossible to avoid using Google products in your online life. Joining Google+ means you will be poised to take advantage of all that Google has to offer. From personalized search results to instant photo uploads, you will soon see the value of Google+ even beyond its main benefit: sharing and discovering content that you are interested in. Being familiar with Google+ and how it works is a good idea – and not just for your online social life. Increasingly, employers are hiring people who are comfortable using the Internet and social media – including Google+.

The Social Marketer’s Guide to Pinterest
Pinterest is more than just the hottest social media phenomenon of 2012, it is a valuable new channel of addictive viral exposure and new customers for a growing number of web sites. For marketers, there are opportunities and challenges that are quite different from those at Facebook and Twitter.

21 Social Media Updates & Advancements to Inspire Your 2013 Strategy
Although Twitter and LinkedIn ended their relationship, they both worked to make segmentation easier. Meanwhile, Facebook bought Instagram and took strides towards making global marketing easier. Now it’s time to integrate these updates swiftly into your marketing strategy.

Practical Social Media Tools
Learn new tools to expand your social media program. Over 70 tools you can use today to take your social media program to new heights. The Social Media Tools Guide is a comprehensive list of social media marketing tools that they recommend for organizations considering social media management responsibilities.