Marketri's Favorite Bloggers and Social Influencers

We hear time and time again that the foundation of any solid content marketing strategy involves both the creation of original content and the curation of content from others, and I could not agree more. At Marketri, we love generating our own original content – everything from blog posts, to videos, to sharing tips and tweets, but I also have a great time curating content from others.

My morning routine usually includes (in this order) pouring a large cup of coffee, responding to urgent emails, and checking our Google Reader account that we all share internally. We have folders for B2B Marketing, SEO, Mobile Marketing, Inbound Marketing, and more. This has proven to be such a great resource for not only staying on top of industry news and trends, but also identifying pieces of content to share with our clients, coworkers and social media followers. Naturally, I have developed a few go-to favorites over time that I continuously rely on for the best marketing content. Here’s a look at my “must follow” list.

1. Mark Schaefer – Grow Blog: Here at Marketri, we view Mark Schaefer as THE social media/marketing guru. I first learned about Mark from my colleague, Debbie Andrews, when I joined the Marketri team. I read his book The Tao of Twitter, which was packed full of easy-to-follow tips for using Twitter for business and beyond. I quickly became a fan of his blog where he tackles the most up-to-the-minute social media topics and provides his expert insight on these matters. I also love that Mark doesn’t just talk about marketing and social media. He really pushes his readers to question industry best practices and so called “truths”.
2. Stanford Smith – Pushing Social: I had the pleasure of hearing Stanford Smith speak at Social Slam in April, and after that I was pretty much hooked! Stanford gave an engaging and entertaining presentation on “10 Big Blogging Ideas for 2012”. I loved everything from his ideas down to the layout of his PowerPoint slides. His blog at Pushing Social offers the same sort of experience – honest and practical advice on topics ranging from blogging and content marketing to social media.
3. Heidi Cohen: Heidi Cohen regularly blogs about marketing and social media topics, commenting on everything from Twitter tips, to marketing research and mobile marketing strategies. I find her posts to be relevant, timely, and most of all they are useful.  Two things that I hear over and over again with respect to blogging and content marketing are to have fresh content and to share information in easily digestible lists. Heidi nails both of these with her blog! I can expect new and interesting content on an almost daily basis. My absolute favorite thing about Heidi is that she makes things simple, offering practical marketing advice that I can quickly test and apply with my own marketing strategies.
4. Savvy B2B Marketing Blog: The Savvy B2B Marketing Blog is run by, you guessed it, a group of savvy marketers serving B2B clients. In this team of six, each of the contributors runs her own marketing business, providing clients with strategic, content-based marketing solutions and deliverables. What I love about this blog is that you get insight from professionals who not only own their own marketing businesses, but are also “in the trenches” completing projects for their clients. The contributors often team up to address relevant topics, providing several different perspectives on that particular topic. I love that I get varying points of view or ideas on the same topic.

There you have it – my favorite social influencers. I hope you are ready to subscribe, follow, like and share! What bloggers or influencers do you love? Let us know who we should add to our list!