4 books and blogs every digital marketer should read

Here’s how Marina Stewart, a digital business analyst at GillespieHall, stays up on the latest tech and marketing trends:

• #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness

My favorite read at the moment is the book I picked up at the Digital Summit I attended as part of GH team in Philadelphia.
Gary Vaynerchuk is more than an inspiration to me. He is a marketing and business genius. In his book, he gives actionable advice that goes beyond traditional methods and basics. This book motivates me every day to apply and test everything I learn in the world of business and digital marketing. Not merely to watch trends, but to predict them and use the tools that just emerged before everyone jumped on a bandwagon. And to see for myself whether they work or not. This is such an essence of GH culture. We launched social media marketing department way before everyone else in the industry — back in 2007. We don’t wait for somebody else to tell us the value of something — we do the research and we test, test, test.

• Engage!: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

This book was a Top 10 Business Bestseller at Business Standard and an 800CEORead Business Book Bestseller and it covers the foundation you need to know about social media marketing and creating effective strategies. “Engage!” is always on my desk and I revisit it often for its engagement tactics and marketing methods guidelines. Its focus on the psychology, behavior and influence of social media users plugs in effectively with GH’s motto: “We understand human behavior. And then change it.” The foreword from Ashton Kutcher, the celebrity cofounder of Katalyst, is a great reminder that “we can’t grow without admitting that we have something to learn and at the same time, we have to believe in ourselves and our ability to push things forward.”

• The Moz Blog 

The Moz Blog is a great place to learn best advice, research and how-to’s from the industry’s experts in SEO and online marketing. It is a niche blog and provides a good advice for different levels: from basic to advanced. The digital landscape changes so quickly that keeping up with it by reading only books is not sustainable. I turn to this blog whenever I have a spare minute because I understand how important it is for a PR agency of GillespieHall’s reputation to have these in-house capabilities. The Moz Blog is a true treasure for any business strategist, SEO specialist and PR/marketing expert.

• Wordfence

I am online security evangelist and the Wordfence blog became my daily morning “newspaper.” People think that web security is only for the big guys. Unfortunately, over half of all security breaches happen to small businesses, who in most cases cannot afford being hacked. That’s why I preach prevention in the website security. The Wordfence blog helps me stay up-to-date with the recent developments in the industry and how to better secure sites and prevent them from being hacked.