Some of the Blogs I Read and Why I Read Them

I am a voracious blog reader. I love learning and devour social media and marketing blogs. But it's not always easy keeping up, so I tend to make sure I read my favorites first. Right now, the following blogs are high on my list.

Seth Godins Blog
I think every marketer has heard of Seth Godin, and if you haven't, then you should check out his blog. He's insightful, current, and his posts come in bite size, easily digestable nuggets. Technorati ranks his blog in their top 25, The Viral Garden ranks his as the number one marketing blog, and AdAge lists Godin as a top marketer, with Steve Jobs coming in second.

Logic+Emotion
I stumbled upon Logic+Emotion a few months ago, and was drawn in because of David Armano's visual respresentations of social media. He is a designer and strategist, does a lot of speaking engagements, and writes with a sense of purity about social media concepts. Critical Mass, the company he works with, also has a blog that I enjoy.

Web Strategy by Jeremiah
Jerimiah Owyang is a Senior Analyst at Forrester specializing in social computing. He is very prolific, and can get long winded, but I find that what he writes is incredibly helpful in putting social media in perspective.

Common Sense: Internet Marketing Made Simple
Tanya Ferrell is an advertising student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. She doesn't write often, but when she does it is refreshing and current. I like the energy and enthusiasm in her writing and chosen topics. Plus, I love her site design, though the header sometimes doesn't seem to refresh properly in my browser.

Dosh Dosh - How to Make Money on the Web
In my opinion, most of the blogs I look at are intended to make money is some way. Either directly through advertising revenue, or indirectly through brand awareness, credibility, etc. Dosh Dosh is the former. If David Armano is a purist, Maki (Dosh Dosh's author) is the opposite. But he is very well written and researched, and I find his work to be very informative. Like Tanya, he, too, is a student, studying Political Science and Philosophy in Toronto, Canada.

Tags:
marketing, social media

Keeping It Real

In my journey to learn more about the possibilities and the direction of the internet, I’ve come across a lot of blogs that talk about social media, social networks, social conversations, social media campaigns, social behaviors, etc. I am astounded by the sheer volume and depth of discussions about the topic. [But, of course, I am one of them, sort of.]

Anyway, I see posts like:

“…the scale of our social networks and connections, the velocity with which news and media travel and the impact this has on our relationships both 'offline' and online.” [read post]

and

"New types of web experiences are enabling people to go beyond just creating content; they’re allowing them to broadcast their personal context too. These “situational lifestreams” are a realtime flow of personal metadata, and it’s time to start thinking about how to design great experiences with them." [read post]

Pretty high-level smarty pants talk, right?

Then I read a post like Scalzi’s, How to Irritate and Annoy People in the Name of Blogging, and it gets me thinking. He has turned this fascinating world of intellectual blogging into something dirty. Well, to be fair, he thinks that many bloggers are simply “starfucking” to get more attention on their own blogs.

Truthfully, I loved this post. I “get” his angle. His words encourage me to write honesty and remind me that I have undertaken this blogging journey because I am passionate about learning.

But you know what? I eat this stuff up. Both the “starfuckery” speak (aka market speak) and the in your face talk. I think it is fascinating and I can’t get enough. I try to read as much as I can hopefully remember the good stuff.

True, I wouldn’t mind seeing less of words like buzz, change agent, and on-line/off-line, but keep the discussions coming.