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With all of the information generated concerning social media these days, it really is getting hard to keep up on the latest developments amongst the multitude of platforms, case studies and statistics. There are definitive sites like Mashable and Social Media Examiner that have risen up to become leading sources of information, but what about the work of all of the excellent bloggers out there with unique perspectives that aren’t appearing on these sites? That’s where social media content hubs come in: Websites that are publishing content from a variety of these bloggers.
There are 3 great sites that have emerged as becoming the definitive aggregators of social media information from many well-known bloggers. Instead of subscribing to 10s or even 100s of RSS feeds or visiting many websites, you can now effectively get the latest information from these 3 social media content hubs. If you’re looking for alternative points of view outside of the major sites or are looking for great bloggers to follow, you will definitely want to check the following websites out:
Social Media Today
Social Media Today (SMT) was featured in my recent 7 Great Social Media Websites and Blogs for Insightful Advice and News blog post and is the best known of the social media content hubs mentioned here, with a Bloggers Board that moderates all of the content appearing on the site that includes such thought leaders as Brian Solis and Vanessa DiMauro. Content from these great social media bloggers regularly appear on this site: Adam Metz, Ari Herzog, Augie Ray, Beth Kanter, Brian Solis, Dan Schawbel, Dave Fleet, David Armano, Jacob Morgan, Jason Falls, Jay Baer, John Jantsch, Rohit Bhargava, Scott Monty, Valerie Maltoni, and Vanessa DiMauro among others. A look at the current most popular articles will give you a feel for the types of blog posts that regularly appear on SMT:
- 11 Twitter & Social Media Tools to Try in 2011
- Foursquare: Rest in Peace?
- Social Commerce
- Five Key Ingredients for a Successful Corporate Blog
- How Predictive Can Social Media Analytics Get?
Social Business One
SocialBusinessOne (SBO) is a CustomerThink community launched by an advisory group of practical, real-world experts in Social CRM, Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media Marketing. As the name implies, SBO is concentrated on helping its readers chart the future of social business. These leading bloggers are featured on this site: Bob Thompson, Axel Schultze, Jacob Morgan, and Vanessa DiMauro, with more than 100 other bloggers contributing to the site. SBO is especially relevant if you are interested in Social CRM. The current popular blog posts on SBO are:
- 5 Common LinkedIn Fallacies and Why You Shouldn’t Believe Them
- When the Social Media Bubble Burst
- How Social Media Will Disrupt the Traditional “Retailing Model”
- Will Twitter Be the New Customer Service 1-800 Number?
- Hubspot Review – HUG2010 First User Group Meeting
Social Media Informer
Despite launching only a few months ago, Social Media Informer (SMI) is quickly becoming a leading resource for information. Similar to Social Business One, SMI specializes in content regarding social business. Some of the leading bloggers that appear on this site are: Ari Herzog, Danny Brown, Dave Fleet, Kyle Lacy, Tamar Weinberg, Shannon Paul, and Arment Dietrich. The current most popular blog posts on SMI are:
- Why Facebook and Twitter are Not Replacing Blogging
- Cooks Source: How to Avoid an Unnecessary Crisis
- Good to Great: How You Can Become a Level 5 Employee
- The Many Faces of Social CRM
- Paid Media, Meet Social Media: The New Twitter Model
What is unique about SMI is its database of blog posts organized by categories that give you the ability to pinpoint information by combining categories in your search. For instance, you can search the LinkedIn category, and then if you select the B2B category you will get to view relevant information that mention both B2B and LinkedIn. In such a way, SMI can become a powerful research tool to help you find relevant information comparable to how you would search for tags on Delicious.
Are you regular readers of the above social media content hubs? Any others out there that you recommend?
Tweets that mention 3 Definitive Social Media Content Hubs -- Topsy.com
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by JacPoindexter, Ryon Harms and Karalyn Brown, Amy L. Adler. Amy L. Adler said: RT @ValueIntoWords: 3 Emerging Sites Aggregating Blogger Content (BEYOND @Mashable, etc.) – http://bit.ly/aM8trf, via @NealSchaffer @The … [...]
Ari Herzog
Thanks for the dual pings!
nealschaffer
You bet Ari! We all grow together
Danny Brown
I’m really enjoying the new Social Media Informer, Neal. Social Media Today is good, but I’ve found its focus waning slightly recently (much the same way Mashable has from its core social media roots).
SMI, however, seems to only want to focus on actual social media stories, and that’s all good by me.
nealschaffer
Thanks for stopping by Danny! Social Media Informer is definitely sticking to its roots and only concentrating on social media. As for Social Media Today, I agree that they may be slightly venturing from their social media roots, but not to the extent that Mashable has…not yet at least!
Brown Willson
There are three main sites that have emerged as aggregators become definitive social media and many bloggers known. Instead of subscribing to RSS feeds or visit the numerous Web sites, you can now really get the most recent of these three poles content of social media.
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