With only so many days left until a new year is upon us, it’s only natural to want to take pause, look back and reflect on everything that’s transpired in 2009.
And what a year it’s been for those of us involved in social media and marketing. Change has been the only constant in the nature of what we do on the job.
Me? I’m a copywriter and direct marketer by trade, someone who’s earned his livelihood for well over 20 years helping brands to sell their products and services. And that hasn’t changed. But many of the strategies, tools and communications channels I’m using nowadays to help my clients achieve their goals are different.
Today, I find myself working with blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and the like much more than traditional marketing platforms such as direct mail, email and print. Not that the latter isn’t being used anymore. It’s just being used sparingly.
As I wrote here on this blog just a few months ago (in the post, Who Moved My Customers?)…
The cold, hard facts say that customers are simply not where they were as recently as the turn of this century. They’re not waiting for the mail, reading the newspaper, listening to the radio or watching TV. At least not very often.
Yes (as I added later on in that very same post)…
Your customers have moved (in more ways than one) and it’s up to you to find them, listen to them, converse with them and serve them.
And where they’ve moved, of course, is to the Internet, where marketers, advertisers and anyone else whose livelihoods depend on customer engagement have been moving, too (though, in my opinion, not nearly quickly enough).
With all that said, let’s get back to the matter at hand, the notion of looking in the rearview mirror and – in this case – listing the 30 best blog posts on social media out of the hundreds I’ve read in 2009, the ones I think were especially outstanding.
The 30 Best Blog Posts on Social Media I’ve Read in 2009*
1. What It Takes to Be a Social Media Agency (Part One) by Edward Boches on the Creativity Unbound Blog
2. What It Takes to Be a Social Media Agency (Part Two) by Edward Boches on the Creativity Unbound Blog
3. Five Digital Trends to Watch for 2009 by Steve Rubel on the Micro Persuasion Blog
4. Facebook & Twitter: If Everyone is Doing It, Should You Be Too? by Paul Chaney on The Social Media Handyman Blog
5. Direct Marketers Know More About Social Media Than You Think by Susan Hanshaw on the Inner Architect Blog
6. The Future of Marketing by Todd Defren on the PR-Squared Blog
7. Getting Social Media Approved by Your Boss by Geoff Livingston on The Buzz Bin Blog
8. Ghosts in the Blogosphere by Kel Kelly on the Kel Kelly Blog
9. The One Question to Ask Your Prospective Social Media Agency by David Meerman Scott on the Web Ink Now Blog
10. The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing by Sonia Simone (Guest Post) on the Copyblogger Blog
11. Measuring Social Media Marketing by Chris Brogan on the Chris Brogan Blog
12. Social Media Philosophy by Gini Dietrich on the The Fight Against Destructive Spin Blog
13. 10 Things Social Media Can’t Do by B.L. Ochman on the What’s Next Blog
14. Creating Your Organization’s Social Media Strategy Map by Beth Kanter on Beth’s Blog: How Organizations Can Use Social Media To Achieve Mission
15. Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? By Michael Hyatt on the Michael Hyatt Blog
16. The Social Media (R)evolution: Your Time is Now by Brian Solis on the PR2.0 Blog
17. The Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of the 100 Ways to Measure Social Media by David Berkowitz on The Inside the Marketers Studio Blog
18. Advertising Will Change Forever by Josh Bernoff on the Groundswell Blog
19. Top Ten Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails by Valeria Maltoni on the Conversation Agent Blog
20. The Über-Connected Organization: A Mandate for 2010 by Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd on the Conversation Starter Blog
21. Six Social Media Trends for 2010 by David Armano on the Conversation Starter Blog
22. 20 Reasons Why You Should Blog Before You Twitter by Jeff Bullas on the Jeffbullas’s Blog
23. Social Media Needs Fewer Rockstars, and More Rockstar Ideas by Mack Collier on The Viral Garden Blog
24. Why Social Media Purists Won’t Last by Jason Falls on the Social Media Explorer Blog
25. The NEW American Dream: An Ongoing Conversation by John Cass and Aaron Strout on the PR Communications Blog
26. The Social Media Tug of War by Michelle Tripp on The BrandForward Blog
27. 5 Qualities of a Good Social Media Manager by Chris Nerney on the WebNewser Blog
28. Why Corporate Silos Are Strangling Social Media by Debbie Weil on the Debbie Weil Blog
29. The Microphone is Always On by Scott Monty on the Social Media Marketing Blog
30. It’s Time To Clobber Social Media by David Armano on the Logic + Emotion Blog
*These posts are listed in no particular order, by the way. And even though I feel strongly about my choices, I realize there are countless other posts that could be added to this list. These are just some of the best blog posts on social media I’ve read over the course of the last 12 months. What about you? If you were to put together such a list, which posts would be included on it? Please let me know by leaving a comment — with a link to the post — below. Thanks.
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Thank you so much for including my post on this list of posts by such stellar bloggers. I am honored!
This is a great list, Bob. I, too, am honored to be included among some really great minds. Thank you!
Exactly what B.L. and Susan said.
Thanks for including Aaron and my post. Though I think our age wave post was better! 🙂
I’d have to point to Charline Li’s engagement report, not a blog post, but I think the best social media report of the year.
Bob – yes, thanks for including us. This is a great list (I am adding some of these bloggers to my reader as a result of your list).
Best,
Aaron
“…traditional marketing platforms such as direct mail, email and print…”
Funny, email is now traditional marketing. Listed in the same sentence as print, that’s a head snap. Hey I agree. Email is listed right under the heading interruptive marketing, right next to TV spots and under anything that comes in my mail box. However take a good look at the posts that come in your twitter home from people you signed up to follow. Lots of “ham” in there.
Wow, I’m honored to be included on your list