If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a community professional, you’re not alone! Community professionals play a vital role in building and maintaining strong, supportive communities that foster positive social connections and promote well-being. Whether you’re looking to start a new career or expand your skills and knowledge in this field, there are many resources available to help you get started. In this blog post, we’ll highlight some of the best books for people interested in becoming a community professional or learning more about the field. From practical guides to theoretical frameworks, these books offer valuable insights and practical advice for anyone looking to make a difference in their community.

Updated: May 14, 2024

As always, if I’m missing a book please let me know. Contact me on LinkedIn.

These are in no particular order, but are all specifically community related.

• Smart Business – Jim Botkin (older book from 1999, that got me started in Community work)
• The Accidental Community Manager – Adrian Spyer
• The Indispensable Community – Richard Millington
• Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards – Patrick O’Keefe
• Monetizing Online Forums – Patrick O’Keefe (if you search this one is free)
• The Business of Belonging – David Spinks
• Community in a Box – Mark Birch
• Building Brand Communities – Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl
• Get Together: How to build a community with your people – Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, and Kay Elmer Sotto
• The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation – Jono Bacon
• The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging – Charles Vogl
• Gather: How to Build a Mission-Driven Online Community – Bex Band
• Creator to Community Builder: Find Calm While Building Your Online Community – Deb Schell, Danielle Anderson (Editor)
• The Rise of Virtual Communities: In Conversation with Virtual World Pioneers – Amber Atherton
• The Virtual Community: Homesteading On The Electronic Frontier The Edge – Howard Rheingold
• Online Community Management For Dummies – Deborah Ng
• Practical Community Management: Lessons Learned While Working on Stack Overflow – Nicolas Chabanovsky

These are more “Marketing” books.

• Tribes – Seth Godin
• Raving Fans – Ken Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles, Harvey Mackay
• Enchantment – Guy Kawasaki (creator of Community Manager Appreciation Day)
• Engage! – Brian Solis and Ashton Kutcher
• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters – Priya Parker

Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means I will receive a very small commission if you click on them and make a purchase, but it also lets me know which books are popular with you.