Last week, we shared some of our favorite online marketing blogs with you, and you seemed to really like it. The problem was, we were sharing our favorite blogs that talked about a bunch of different types of online marketing.
So, why is that a problem? Because some of the best advice comes from more niche, focused blogs. The authors of these blogs devote themselves wholly to a specific area and aim to learn absolutely everything about it. Speaking from experience, the area you write about becomes your life.
Why would you want to ignore what they have to say? You don’t. You really, really don’t.
So for the next few weeks, we’re going to be publishing more blog reading lists, with each one focusing on something specific. This week, we’re tackling social media marketing.
Once again, these are hopefully blogs not everyone has heard of. I’m willing to bet most of you already read Mashable, Social Media Examiner, and Social Fresh. They’re huge and well-known. So what good would it be to tell you to read them? You already do. The blogs below are what we consider hidden gems of the marketing blog world. They’re not at the top of AdAge’s Power150 list, if they’re there at all.
But you wanna know where they should be? In your RSS reader.
(Listed in alphabetical order)
Here’s a social media marketing software company that’s focused on social media management and automation. Their blog goes beyond advice, how-to, and tips and also looks at trends in general social media use and tech news.
Recent posts we loved:
- Not Just for Cupcake Photos: Real Companies Use Pinterest Correctly
- Google Plus is the Next Yellow Pages Not Facebook
The social media agency Bad Rhino Inc. is practically our neighbor, located in Philadelphia. We’re pretty friendly with them and are loving the opportunity to feature their blog here. As a social media agency, they obviously focus on social in their blog posts, but they have something for everyone now and then, including some tech and mobile posts.
Recent posts we loved:
- 10 Steps to Generating and Converting Customers on Twitter
- Understanding Facebook Insights: What You Need to Know
3. DreamGrow
DreamGrow is a full-service internet marketing and social media agency with a great blog. They specialize in such services, as well as training. While their company offers all kinds of internet marketing services, their blog focuses on social media.
Recent posts we loved:
4. HootSuite
I’m not going to waste time explaining who HootSuite is and what they do, because I’m pretty sure you already know. You probably use HootSuite multiple times a day, or maybe even have it sitting open in a tab 24/7, like I do. But have you ever checked out all of the awesome resources they have available, such as their blog? Not only do they post about everything social media, they also have a lot of great posts about their company and how they made it so great.
Recent posts we loved:
You may be a member of a local chapter of Social Media Club, or read a chapter’s blog. But the national organization actually has a bunch of their own blogs, which are all aggregated into the one feed linked to above. The separate blogs are: From the Clubhouse, Social Media Journal, Social Media Observer, Global Chapter News, and Social Media Education.
Recent posts we loved:
SociallyStacked is the name of the company blog for ShortStack, a self-service platform for creating Facebook apps. So of course, they write about Facebook a lot, but they also cover general social media marketing. Where this blog really stands out is in the visuals. They share a ton of great infographics from a variety of sources and even their text posts have gorgeous visuals that all seem to go together very well.
Recent posts we loved:
7. Soshable
JD Rucker is a social media strategist with a fun side. How do I know he has a fun side? His blog header is written in Comic Sans, solely because “everyone hates this font.” The majority of his posts are on social media, but he does touch on other topics from time to time, like SEO spam and the wonderful Matt Cutts, career advice, and the effects of sitting on a computer on social media all day.
Recent posts we loved:
- 5 Tools to Improve Your Pinterest Strategy
- Social Curation: Monetizing Instagram One Hashtag at a Time
8. Wishpond
Wishpond is a social marketing SaaS (software as a service) company that makes it easy to create apps for social media contests and promotions. They write about marketing on a variety of social networks, but seem to focus on Facebook a bit more than others. They also seem to have a fondness for using images from The Simpsons in their blog posts, so that’s awesome.
Recent posts we loved:
What are your favorite social media blogs, big and small? Share them in the comments!