40 Social Media Blogs You Should Be Reading

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If you’re reading this blog (thank you!), you probably agree that social media is valuable. But given how quickly the landscape is changing, keeping up to date with the latest trends can be a challenge. With new content being posted constantly around the Web, trying to stay current can be a full-time job.

These are some great daily reads for keeping abreast of social media and social marketing. I’d recommend picking a few, browsing through the archives, and subscribing to the ones you find helpful. Some offer advice about how to leverage social media to your advantage, while others keep you current on the latest trends. I’ve included an excerpt from each blog’s About page to give you some idea about what each one covers. Here they are:

1. 10e20: 10e20 is a New York-based Internet marketing company specializing in social media marketing and search engine optimization. Founded in 2002 in Brooklyn, NY by Chris Winfield and Danielle Lanzillo, they have since grown into a boutique Internet marketing powerhouse focused on increasing their clients’ sales and decreasing their customer service costs.
2. a thousand cuts: Adam Cohen is a partner at the digital agency Rosetta, leading the Search, Online and Social Media business units. Adam has over 14 years of experience leveraging technology to drive and sustain business value for clients. He blogs about a broad range of ideas, including but not limited to interactive marketing, social media, team building, and other topics that are relevant to how businesses are leveraging technology to drive and sustain value.
3. All Facebook: AllFacebook.com is a blog that was started by Nick O’Neill. The purpose of the blog is to cover all issues pertaining to Facebook including new applications, general news, and analysis about the future of Facebook.
4. Altitude Branding: Amber Naslund is a social media and marketing type, and exercises her social media chops daily as the Director of Community for Radian6. She blogs here about social media and marketing stuff for businesses of all sizes.
5. Blonde 2.0: Ayelet Noff has over ten years of experience marketing companies from various industries and specializes in marketing hi-tech brands. She founded Blonde 2.0 in 2006, back when almost no one knew what social media even meant. Blonde 2.0’s mission then and now is to help brands understand how to use social media tools (social networks, the blogosphere, social software, etc.) effectively in order to carry their messages to their target audience and create brand awareness, find users, recruit employees, or achieve any other goal online.
6. Chris Brogan: Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency, and home of the Inbound Marketing Summit conferences and Inbound Marketing Bootcamp educational events. He works with large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging Web and mobile technologies. He is co-author of the excellent book Trust Agents.
7. Chris G: Chrisg.com is where Chris Garrett posts daily (or thereabouts) thoughts and advice on the business of new media, blogging, and online marketing. The aim is to teach you ways you can create compelling resources, provide your audience more value, build trust and loyalty, and generate more rewards for yourself.
8. Collective Thoughts: Each member of Collective Thoughts is a known or rising star in their own field and they also have a passion and unique understanding on social media.
9. Conversation Agent: Valeria Maltoni is a professional marketer with 20 years of real-world corporate experience, 10 online, across a broad array of mid-to-large sized companies. Hands-on work at a Fortune 500 technology company, a technology start-up, in health care, chemical manufacturing, risk management consulting, and the non-profit sector have provided her with a wealth of experience and insights.
10. Danny Brown: Danny Brown has been providing business branding and social media consultancy services to the consumer and commercial markets, from small start-ups to Fortune 500 businesses, for more than 15 years and is the Social Media Strategist for Maritz Canada.
11. Dan Zarrella: Dan Zarrella is an award-winning social, search, and viral mar ket ing sci en tist and author of the new O’Reilly Media book The Social Media Marketing Book. He has a back ground in Web devel op ment and com bines his pro gram ming capa bil i ties with a pas sion for social mar ket ing to cre ate appli ca tions like the social URL shortener Votrs.com, Link Attraction Factors keyword tools, as well as TweetPsych, TwitterBrandSponsors, TweetBacks, and TweetSuite.
12. Digital Buzz: Featuring the latest digital ad campaigns, hot new Web sites, interactive marketing ideas, virals, industry news, social media, insights, and other great digital trends from all over the world.
13. Dosh Dosh: Dosh Dosh is a blog offering Internet marketing and blogging tips, alongside social media strategies. Best consumed by bloggers, entrepreneurs, Web publishers, marketers, freelancers and small business owners.
14. Groundswell: Two of Forrester Research’s top analysts show you how to turn the force of customers connecting online to your own advantage. Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff show how leading companies are gaining insights, generating revenues, saving money, and energizing their own customers.
15. Influential Marketing Blog: Rohit Bhargavais a founding member of the pioneering 360 Digital Influence team at Ogilvy and author of the award winning new marketing book, Personality Not Included. He writes the Influential Marketing blog and teaches marketing at Georgetown University.
16. Inside Facebook: Inside Facebook is an independent service of Inside Network, the first company dedicated to providing business information and market research to the Facebook platform and social gaming ecosystem. Based in Palo Alto, California, Inside Facebook focuses on Facebook and the Facebook Platform for developers and marketers. Inside Facebook was started by Justin Smith in April 2006.
17. Instigator Blog: Benjamin Yoskovitzis the CEO and co-Founder of Standout Jobs, a venture-backed startup founded in 2007. He is also a blog and social media consultant. This blog is where he expresses his thoughts on startups, entrepreneurship, and business, as well as diving into social media, blogging, and online communities.
18. Liz Strauss at Successful Blog: Liz Strauss is a social Web strategist and community builder. Coming from a background of publishing, business, and instructional design, Liz understands how people perceive a blog, a product, and an experience — how the head and heart engage to make a fiercely loyal customer.
19. Mashable: Founded in July 2005, Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and social media news. With more than 12.5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the Web, and offering social media resources and guides.
20. Neville Hobson: Neville Hobson is a communicator, blogger, and podcaster, one of the leading European early adopters and influencers in social media communication for business. He is Head of Social Media Europe for WeissComm Group, an integrated communications company focused on the marketing and communication needs of the world’s leading businesses.
21. NowSourcing: Brian Wallace built NowSourcing to cater to your social media needs. You’ll tend to find original content relevant to social media here, not just another top 10 list.
22. Online Marketing Blog: Since December 2003, TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog has provided insights, resources and commentary on a range of digital marketing and public relations topics including search engine marketing and optimization, social media marketing, business blogging and marketing, and online public relations.
23. PR 2.0: Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. Solis is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, traditional media, and social media. Considered one of the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media and PR 2.0, Solis is co-founder of the Social Media Club.
24. ReadWriteWeb: ReadWriteWeb is a blog that provides analysis of Web products and trends. One of the world’s top 20 blogs, ReadWriteWeb speaks to an intelligent audience of Web enthusiasts, early adopters and innovators. ReadWriteWeb was founded on April 20, 2003 by Richard MacManus and is now one of the most widely read and respected blogs in the world.
25. RotorBlog: RotorBlog.com was founded in May 2006 by Maris Dagis in order to provide latest Web 2.0 news and startup reviews, later focusing on social networks and online communications. Reaching 160k readers monthly, it has became one of the most popular sources of information for people using the Internet to communicate.
26. Scott Monty- The Social Media Marketing Blog: Scott is a marketing and communications professional focused on the digital industry — specifically on social media. His career spans a number of industries such as healthcare, pharma, biotech, travel, automotive, tech, and communications, and includes a wide range of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Currently on the staff of corporate communications in Ford Motor Company, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager.
27. Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog: Shannon Paul works as the communications manager for PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse.com, OptionsNewsNetwork (ONN.tv), and WeSeed.com. She oversees the integration of social media communication into PR and marketing strategies for the company’s three brands, including an online retail stock and options broker, a Web-based options news and education site, and an online community that allows people to learn about the stock market through investing in virtual stock portfolios.
28. Six Pixels of Separation: Mitch Joel is President of Twist Image, an award-winning digital marketing and communications agency, and author of the excellent book Six Pixels of Separation. He has been called a marketing and communications visionary, interactive expert, and community leader. He is also a blogger, podcaster, passionate entrepreneur, and speaker who connects with people worldwide by sharing his marketing insights on digital marketing and personal branding.
29. Socialmedia.biz: This blog was created for two related reasons: To help busi­nesses and orga ni za tions achieve max i mum impact with their social media strat egy or campaigns, and to high light news, trends, tools, and resources around social media, social net works and Web 2.0.
30. Social Media Examiner: Social Media Examiner is a free online magazine designed to help businesses discover how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to find leads, increase sales, and generate more brand awareness.
31. Social Media Explorer: Social Media Explorer is the online home and blog of Social Media Explorer LLC, of which Jason Falls serves as principal. Falls has established himself as one of the leading thinkers in the social media, public relations and communications industries.
32. Social Media Today: Social Media Today LLC helps large companies leverage the enormous power of social media to build deeper relationships with potential customers and other constituencies that influence the development of new business.
33. Social Times: Founded by Nick O’Neill, The Social Times vision is “learning the skills and tools necessary to help businesses and individuals build social capital.” He is an industry expert on social networking, providing no holds barred commentary and insightful analysis on social networking and social media. He speaks at conferences nationwide and has been written about in multiple national publications.
34. Soshable: People, in general, are social (or soshal, depending on how you spell it).  We like to interact with others, especially those who have shared interests. Whether in person, on the Internet, or both, human connections make us feel whole. By tapping into the minds and resources of some of the brightest stars and most knowledgeable people in the business, Soshable presents the social Internet on a golden platter for everyone to enjoy.
35. Techipedia: Tamar Weinberg is a freelance writer and author of The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web who specializes in social media consulting and strategy, blogger outreach, reputation management, and search engine marketing (SEO, link building, and pay per click marketing).
36. The Future Buzz: The Future Buzz is a blog about Web marketing/PR strategies, spreading buzz in the blogosphere, and building long-term visibility for your brand, business, and art on the Web.
37. The Social: CNET News’ Caroline McCarthy is a downtown Manhattanite who believes that, despite popular opinion, the Web can actually help your social life. She’s happily addicted to fun social-media tools from Twitter to Yelp to Facebook, sends an inordinate number of text messages, and has a tendency to waste time at the office reading restaurant blogs. Here, she explores all facets of the Web’s gregarious side, as well as the unique tech culture in her home city of New York. (Don’t call it Silicon Alley.)
38. The Viral Garden: Mack Collier is a social media consultant, trainer and speaker. He has been actively immersed in social media since 2005, and in that time has helped advise, teach and consult with businesses of all shapes and sizes on how they can better connect with their customers via these amazing tools and sites.
39. Twitip: Darren Rowse is the guy behind ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. His TwiTip blog is all about Twitter. It covers Twitter tips of all varieties including writing for Twitter, branding, growing a following, corporate tweeting and a lot more.
40. Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang: As a Web strategist, Jeremiah Owyang strives to define and deliver user and community needs, business goals, and Web technology to craft and deliver long term successful Web programs for companies.

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