There is no hard and fast rule of the type of books that a media student should read. There is no specific list of top 10 books. Books are always there. Their numbers and genres proliferating almost every second. Every book therefore ids a powerhouse of ideas and knowledge. Opinions on which book is good, which can be treated as a bible thereof, are subjective and arbitrary.

Some of the best 10 books that seem to be quite popular, per the strength of word of mouth, are those listed below. The reader should be mindful of the fact that this list is however not exhaustive and some may even disagree with the selections.

One of the currently widely read books is SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, AN HOUR A DAY, by DAVE EVAN. Is is an interesting book written by Dave Evan, who will introduce you to the basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track results on social media marketing. Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute a social media marketing campaign in just one hour a day.  In addition, learn how to integrate social media metrics with traditional media measurements and how to leverage blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, and user-generated content sharing sites like YouTube.

In fact the whole field of social media marketing has really come up a big way in a short span of time.  A lot of books have been currently written about it explaining its importance in today’s age. One such book again is THE WORLD ACCORDING TO TWITTER by DAVID POGUE.

New York Times columnist David Pogue got into Twitter in late 2008 and decided to use the service as the basis for this book. Every day, Pogue asked his followers questions and compiled the best, most interesting and funniest responses. This is a great example of just how much can be shared in 140 characters.

Another important field in media and marketing is called CONVERSATION MARKETING. Mashable’s  own Tamar Weinberg wrote this fantastic book about how to use, understand and leverage social media to market your product, your service or yourself. By focusing on the importance of community and joining the conversation marketing zone.

Conversation marketing guru Ian Lurie’s book is absolutely essential reading for marketers, business leaders, or just about anyone interested in Internet marketing. The text, in fewer than 100 pages, employs common sense analogies to convey the concepts of Internet marketing strategies. Lurie writes in a friendly, easy-to-read style, and offers sound advice on the best decisions to reap maximum returns.

The explosion in use of social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube among others, along with blogging as a means of communication, has presented new and exciting challenges and opportunities for businesses. While traditional forms of advertising remain important, conversation marketing via social platforms is an increasingly important aspect of commercial strategy, no matter how large or small the operation. Through networking companies and individuals offering products and services can engage with their customers, nurturing web-based interaction and growing their profits. This post presents 10 examples of the best books on conversation marketing, written by experts in the field, required reading for anyone with an interest in contemporary commerce.

In the field of PR and Marketing, best-selling writer and marketing strategist David Meerman Scott reveals the techniques for businesses to exploit the potential of web-based communication and foster personal connections with customers and buyers. This book is widely loved as THE NEW RULES OF MARKETING AND PR: HOW TO USE NEWS RELEASES, BLOGS, PODCASTING, VIRAL MARKETING AND ONLINE MEDIA TO REACH BUYERS DIRECTLY.

In WEB ANALYTICS 2.0: THE ART OF ONLINE ACCOUNTABILITY AND SCIENCE OF CUSTOMER CENTRICITY , Avinash Kaushik covers social media developments and implications in his extensive survey of web analytics.

WORDS THAT SELL (Richard Bayan)/ PHRASES THAT SELL (Edward Werz & Sally Germain), books are Must Reads for anyone focused on conversions (which, really, should be all of us). They’ll help you pick up and master the type of verbage proven to make people respond to your calls to action to increase the effectiveness of your landing pages or site copy. Whether you need help even forming the call to action or you think it could be stronger, Words That Sell and Phrases That Sell are two excellent resources. They’re easy reads and worth the investment.

One book you must read – Rebel Without a Crew, by Robert Rodriguez. It’s very inspiring and a great read. Even if you can’t read the entire book, sit in a bookstore and read the Introduction, and the 10 Minute Film School.

Some other books that are worth mentioning and should be read by each and every media student are as follows-

• Postioning- the battle for your mind by AL RIES & JACK TROUT.
• Ogilvy Advertising by David Ogilvy
• The 22 immutable laws of Branding by AL Ries and Laura Ries,
• “E” by Matt Beaumont
• Hey whipple, squeeze this : a guide to creating good advertisements by Luke Sullivan
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• The Book of Gossage by Gossage, Goodby and Bendinger
• Infleunce- the Pshychology of Persuasion by Cialdini
• Blink: the power of thinking without thinking by Gladwell

As mentioned before, this list is subjective. Feel free to add your favourites as comments below!

Are you spending countless hours waiting for that right notification from that right person?  Or are you experiencing carpel tunnel from those long long chats with those people you don’t even think you know? Or you wake up at 6 AM to check for possible friend requests?

If your answers are ‘yes’ then may be it’s time you lay off a bit of facebook, but getting your mind away from it is rather tough so here are some other Productive but Addictive websites to keep your mind wandering and so you can still blame the Internet if you get fired doing so. So you couch potatoes out there get ready to get crazy

• Last.fm Is your first and last stop for you Music lovers out there, for what can be called music’s Wikipedia Last.fm gives you all you need to know about your favourite music and more. Using a music recommender system called “Audioscrobbler”, Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user’s musical taste by recording details of the songs the user listens to, either from Internet radio stations, or the user’s computer or many portable music devices. This information is transferred to Last.fm’s database (“scrobbled”) either via the music player itself (Rdio, Spotify, Amarok) or via a plugin installed into the user’s music player.

The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to you favourites or what you listen to. All tracks you have heard gets registered and displayed on your home page. And what makes Last.fm Super awesome is its Internet radio with a wide variety of Genres available; If you listen to more music than healthy Last Fm is your Drugstore.

• Deviant ART Needs no introduction for the millions of artists worldwide, it is a definitive bridge that connects the artists to everything else from collectors to fans and their very own merchandise is dedicated to making artists work easy. Need a print of a design u like it’s just a click away from the customised Print Shop.

Deviant art segregates its arts based on genre, and no matter what you seek whether it’s still life to biomechanics or Maori style tattooing you’ll get it. Deviant Art’s own mascot is a creation called ‘Fella’ which identifies its maxim ‘Be Devious’ with its rich artists social network this addiction will keep you glued for hours.

Deviant Art blew me away with the amount of features that it presented to the community. My one complaint is that I found their layout and navigation really clunky and cluttered. While you are able to configure your toolbar (which serves as the main community navigation option) I just found it to be a little clunky.

That complaint though doesn’t really degrade the user experience and I found the features and the vibrant community to be engaging. If you are into a wide range of art being as an artist and/or as a fan this is a great place to be. I can see why they are dominating this niche right now.

• Creativeadawards is the one stop for all you advertising enthusiasts and for the few who still enjoy exploring vintage and super AWESOME ad’s not to mention the really twisted category too. The increasing competition of business today asks for better ads. However, most consumers have already evaded ads, and even employed technical means to pick them out. Thus advertising makers are obliged to look for newest originality and to achieve a good ad, that’s where the creative’s step in Good advertising is for real consumer. It is not made to win a prize but to receive the most direct and effective response.

Creativeadawards is one of the best advertising archive, serving the entire advertising community and others who need it. Even if it is just a fun visit the variety in Insanity is no disappointment. So if u wanna be inspired with every add on earth to make your own, bookmark this crazy excuse for a website.

• Funny or die is mass medias “Dirty Laundry.” Though there doesn’t seem to be any Specific theme except insane stupidity and comedy, they’ve got some great recurring pieces such as Playground Politics, Designated Driver and the Landlord featuring more of the insanity and gets fantastically wacky. Funny or Die is unique in that it contains a good deal of exclusive material from a number of famous contributors (e.g. Judd Apatow, James Franco) and has its own Funny or Die Team which creates original material for the site. Many clips featured on the site feature well-known actors.

The landlord featuring Will Farrell co founder of the site is one of its best and a MUST WATCH. Overall, it’s a quirky, dirty comedy sketch site that definitely wouldn’t work anywhere other than planet earth so if u enjoy whacking yourself with a rubber chicken or Drunken Baby landlords (watch the video if u don’t know what I mean) Get off Facebook for a change