As a social media marketer, I always try to stay up to date on all the latest and greatest social media news. As much as I'd like to be the first to know about Facebook's latest algorithm updates, I am not among the privileged few and must often find this information from other sources - including various social media blogs.
These blogs are not only a great source of news, but they're also a great way for me to gain insights, hear different opinions, and learn from the successes and failures of my peers. The social media blog community is so much fun to be a part of because we're all learning as we go. Sure, we can apply traditional marketing strategies as a starting point, but social media is evolving so quickly that there's always something new to learn.
Here are some of my favorite social media blogs and why I love them.
Social Media Examiner
Social Media Examiner is one of the better-known social media blogs out there, and for good reason. They post almost daily (not on Sundays) on a variety of social media topics. They also do a "This Week in Social Media" post each Saturday that covers all of the important updates for the week, just in case you missed anything (or can't remember what happened last Monday!).
Ignite Social Media Blog
Ignite's Social Media Blog also contains a fantastic variety of social media topics, but tends to be a little Facebook heavy (which I love because I spend a lot of time on Facebook!). I also really like the category for social media examples, because it's fun to see the creative campaigns other companies are running - especially to learn from their successes and failures.
Social Media Today
Social Media Today not only has a large variety of content, but they also offer several viewpoints because all articles are written by the community of social media professionals. This gives them a different dynamic than the single-author blogs and vendor blogs because you can truly interact within a community, rather than the 1×1 engagement you usually find on other social media blogs. This also gives them a much higher posting frequency than other sites, so there's always something good to read!
Social Media Explorer
Social Media Explorer is another one of the social media blogs out there that publishes content from several thought leaders and executives. It discusses the more general digital marketing and PR realms in addition to social media marketing and monitoring.
Eli Rose
Eli Rose publishes social media blog posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - with Friday's being the "Weekly Curated Awesome" in which they pull their favorite social media stories from all around the web.
Jeff Bullas
Jeff Bullas writes on a variety of internet marketing topics, but has a very strong focus on social media. Many of his articles are real-life examples of his own successes and failures, and it's fun to read about what's worked for him in the past and what he might have done differently.
Heidi Cohen
Heidi Cohen covers the broader topic of content marketing, but I'd say around 50% of her articles are directly related to social media. I particularly love that many of her articles contain actionable insights, so I walk away from reading a blog post with something to implement immediately.
Meltwater's Social Media Blog
Is this too self promotional? Eh, probably. But it really is one of my favorite social media blogs! I really enjoy the amazing content my colleagues put on this blog on a regular basis. Our goal is to provide both short-form articles with actionable tips, as well as longer-form articles that are more strategic and insightful. If you like what you see, please subscribe via RSS or email (look up and to your right)!
What are your favorite social media blogs?