No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram
Inside that smartphone app, behind the selfies and the food pics, and before the influencers, Instagram went from a small 13-person company to what would become “the most culturally defining app of the decade.” In No Filter, award-winning journalist Sarah Frier draws on interviews from the company’s founders, employees, competitors, fashionistas, top influencers, and more to learn about how one app can not only alter the way consumers spend, but also can command an almost impossible desire for perfection.
Simon & Schuster | $28
Contagious: Why Things Catch on
No, we’re not talking about COVID-19 here, rather the social transmission and word of mouth movements that influence consumers to take a brand, movement, or product and spread it like wildfire. Contagious author and University of Pennsylvania marketing professor Jonah Berger presents case studies of businesses that have done this successfully, while concurrently delivering advice for small, medium, and large business marketing professionals to help boost their brand’s awareness.
Simon & Schuster | $9.83
United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media
Singer and songwriter Dave Carroll disembarked from a United Airlines flight in the late aughts to discover his prized guitar had been broken in transit. Eight months later and still uncompensated for the loss, Carroll wrote a song about the entire ordeal and, within four days, the musician’s YouTube video broke 1 million views and sent the airline’s stock into a nosedive. Carroll’s book has since become a primer for marketers and customer service professionals about how social media can act as the spark that lights the fire.
Hay House, Inc. | $19.95
The Gen Z Frequency: How Brands Tune in & Build Credibility
We know that millennials have long been held as the target consumer demographic, due to the cohort’s size and spending patterns; however, the rising generation is quickly making up that ground. Gen Z — individuals born between 1995 and 2010 — have now eclipsed the prior generation and account for 40 percent of consumer spending. So how does one attract this new group? Authors Gregg L. Witt and Derek E. Baird pull from careers in youth marketing and digital strategy to deliver actionable strategies to gain the trust of a skeptical generation.
Kogan Page | $29.95