I change the blogs I read all the time in this industry. I find the industry moves very fast and I find that I hear people going over the same old talk about “listening” and “having a conversation” or just ripping the top trending topics on twitter and building their blogs around those and I just don’t feel as if I am learning something. It is not to say those blogs don’t have an audience or an important role to play but more that I find most of the useful information and thought provoking content elsewhere and it tends to be on smaller niche blogs. We all know about the Brogans and Vaynerchuks of this world but who are the up and coming guys with smart ideas and thought provoking social media articles? Here are 20 great social media blogs that you might not have heard of but that are churning out great content on a consistent basis…

The Way Of The Web

This blog is written by Dan Thornton who from January 2008 until April 2009 was Community Marketing Manager across the Bauer Media portfolio, increasing community engagement on Bauer properties, and advising and implementing best practice for engaging with external blogs and social networks. Some great insights in to a wide range of topics including PR, social media and digital.

Six Pixels Of Separation

Mitch Joel brings you Digital Marketing, New Media and Personal Branding Insights, Provocations and Foreshadows from his always on/always connected world. Also shares podcasts and videos on occasion.

Brian Solis

Brian writes is globally recognized as one of most prominent thought leaders in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. That is his bio as he puts it and it is pretty close to the mark with interesting and insightful content on a regular basis.

Neville Hobson

Neville writes on a regular basis about social media and is head of Social Media Europe for WeissComm Group. He is a communicator, blogger and podcaster, one of the leading European early adopters and influences in social media communication for business.

Conversation Agent

Valeria Maltoni is a brand strategist with 20 years of real-world corporate experience across a broad array of mid-to-large sized companies. She applies this wealth of experience and insight to helping businesses understand how customers and communities have changed marketing, public relations, and communications – and how to build value and get results in this new environment. The blog covers everything from social branding to looking in to the PR industry.

1000 Heads Blog

1000 Heads are a word of mouth agency in London and I first started reading their blog through the work of James Whatley and any agency that has a blog as their homepage and talks about social media and mobile and tech in general in the way they do needs to be listened to.

The Viral Garden

Not one of the blogs that gets updated the most often but when it does the content is good and the insight into social media excellent.

Scoble

This can be a little techie at times but a good portion of the posts will talk about social media and more importantly how some of the tools are used. Scoble sits on the front lines of technology and is well positioned to comment and offer advice on the tech that you should be using for social media.

Read Write Web

This is one of the bigger blogs and a good few of you will have heard of it but it can be a much better source for getting your social media news with better insight and coverage than Mashable or Techcrunch. Good proper blogging.

The Future Buzz

This blog has some hard hitting posts like the recent one calling out Mashable to posts about buzz marketing and social media in general. I am fairly new to Adam Singer’s blog but it is well worth a read if just to see how he thinks outside the box and in a different way to most people in the industry.

Social Media Explorer

Jason Fells is one of the best known faces within social media but perhaps does not get as much mainstream coverage as some of the other leading lights. His blog covers all areas of social media but is of particular interest to SME’s.

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. They are a great fun resource with content that is not too serious and that you can dip in and out of easily covering everything from Facebook to some simple tips for writing on your blog.

All Facebook

This may be very niche for a blog in the social media category but it does cover Facebook in some great detail and as Facebook is by far the biggest social network in the world it is a vital tool in helping to stay on top of all the latest stories about things like privacy policy especially.

Digital Buzz Blog

A good source for finding all the latest breaking social media news like this post today about Coca Cola and their social media strategy. They always like to feature stunning videos and photos and the content will both inspire you and leave you coming back for more.

Logic + Emotion

David Armano is currently a senior vice president at Edelman Digital, the interactive arm of global communications firm Edelman. The blog doesn’t get updated that often but well worth sticking in to your RSS reader because when it does get updated it is well worth reading as usually though provoking.

Brains On Fire

If only all agencies had blogs that were as creative and forward thinking as this one. The site feels alive and has so much personality and life behind it that it really is a pleasure to read and I often get lost in all the fun little quirky things they do.

Twitip

Again this is not a blog that is dedicated to social media in entirty but instead covers popular social media tool Twitter. The posts are user generated which means a wide variety of different topics are covered on the blog with handy hints and guides to using twitter for both beginners and more advanced users both catered for.

Duct Tape Marketing

Well their tagline is “Simple, effective and affordable small business marketing” amd it does pretty much what it says on the tin. Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and marketing and is a Harvard Business School featured marketing site so you are going to be able to find tons of really good information on the blog.

Scott Monty

Many of you will have visited this blog before but if you have no Scott is 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. The blog is given credability by Scott’s job title but the writing also happens to stand up on it’s own and he shares some great insights like this.

Groundswell Forrester Blog

Groundswell is a bestselling book based on analysis by Forrester Research filled with practical, data-based strategies for companies that want to harness the power of social technologies like blogs, social networks, and YouTube. This blog is mainly a promotional tool for the book but it shares some super insights into social media and although not updated often it is a great resource to pop in to your RSS reader.

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