If you’re familiar with Neil Walker Digital blogs then I’m sure you know how much we love content. We understand how content can help to define a business. It isn’t always easy to simply start producing content. Without a clear vision on what you want your content to be about, there can be numerous headaches before you get a grasp of what subject you want to create content on. It’s completely possible to spend countless hours producing something that you think will expand your brand into the next level, only to realise that it does very little in the way of improving engagement, sales or traffic. This can become a discouraging process
That’s where content marketing blogs come into play.
Content marketing blogs specialise in specific content areas. Some will focus specifically on social media, whereas others will only talk about current business affairs. It’s key to ensure that you read the content marketing blogs that are relevant to you. This blog will help you see all the blogs out there that you can choose from.
Social Media Examiner
Social Media Examiner is one of the world’s largest online social media magazines. They focus on showing businesses how to use social media, blogs and podcasts to connect with customers. By doing this you can drive network traffic, generate awareness and ultimately increase sales.
Social Media Examiner is one of the best places to become an expert in social media. They cover absolutely every aspect of social media, ranging from written based websites such as Facebook and Twitter, to image based websites like Instagram.
Social Media Examiner provides unique weekly podcasts. Not only do they provide useful and interesting information, but they also bring in experts and professionals in certain fields of work for interviews. These podcasts are incredibly useful to use if you have a long journey or some spare time during your day.
Econsultancy
Econsultancy is a community which brings together digital marketing and ecommerce professionals to solidify their strategy, source suppliers, get quick answers, compare notes and help each other out. They pride themselves on teaching businesses on how to do everything better online.
Not only do they upload blog posts that cover a wide range of markets, but they also offer access to reports. If you have a subscription with Econsultancy, you will have over 500 reports to read from. The subjects vary from reports, briefs and guides. These are all incredibly useful to read, since they cover such a large portion of content marketing.
One of the most useful blogs that econsultancy has published is their periodic table of content marketing. The periodic table of content marketing focuses on eight different areas: strategy, format, content type, platform, metrics, goals, sharing triggers and checklist. All of these areas clearly explain how to create quality content that will impress any readers.
Just how useful is the periodic table of content marketing? As I write this blog I have a physical copy just in front of me. It makes writing content so much easier as I simply have to look to the left of me to make sure i’m writing quality content in every piece of work.
Here at Neil Walker Digital group, we found the periodic table of content marketing so useful that it inspired us to create a content marketing idea tool. This tool puts the elements found in periodic table together, creating an almost limitless amount of ideas for any of your content marketing plans.
Social Media Today
Social Media Today is possibly one of the most unique content marketing blogs you can find. They allow anybody to submit various items about social media content. By posting content on their site, it helps to increase a business’s visibility, promote them on a larger scale and introducing a wider audience.
All of the content on the site is produced by social media professionals and experts. All of it is reviewed and edited by their curation team before publication. They review every single post that they receive, but not all of them are published. Social Media Today pride themselves on only allowing the best quality and informative pieces of content to be published. It should be a standard that every business associates with their content
As well as standard blog posts, Social Media Today has an infographic section. This section allows people to submit professional infographics that convey information across in an image format. This is a great way to condense points that can be easily digested by a reader. The infographics range from advice on social media, to raw information on various business sectors. This is an effective way of standing out from other writers, sometimes people prefer to look at images than blocks of text.
Social Media Today host big conferences that are called, “Best Thinkers webinars”. These webinars bring together the world’s best thinkers and experts on social media and networked business. ‘Best Thinkers Webinars’ offer lively interviews and panel discussions while also giving opportunities to brainstorm, ask questions and connect with other professionals. Important topics are covered such as building your online influence, effectively curating content, best ethical practices in corporate blogging and much more. These webinars are full of informative tips and advice, and it’s great to gain connections with people that are in the same field as you.
Content Marketing Institute
Content Marketing Institute focuses on teaching businesses exactly what content marketing is, and just as importantly, what it isn’t. They can also show you how to justify a content budget within your organization. They teach people that already produce content on how to get better results. They state that their mission is to advance the practice of content marketing.
As well as hosting webinars, Content Marketing Institute have a service on Twitter called #CMWorld Twitter chats. They allow businesses from around the world to discuss the latest trends in content marketing, as well as providing advice from some of the experts. Every week, Content Marketing Institute and a guest discuss key content marketing features, as well as answering question. All it takes is follow to #cmworld and you can join the conversation.
They also have a podcast that is hosted by Joe Pulizzi & Robert Rose. Although this is one of the oldest forms of content, telling stories to attract and retain customers through podcasts is one of the most effective ways of marketing. Content Marketing Institute are proud of the fact that their podcast is listened in over 100 countries around the world, frequently being one of the top rated marketing podcasts that can be found on iTunes.
Chief Content Officer is the first globally distributed magazine that is devoted to the fast growing, evolving subject that is content marketing. It is written specifically for the most innovative and influential global content marketers. The magazine showcases the successes of content marketers, all the while focusing on tools, technologies and processes used to help marketers learn new publishing skills and apply lessons toward their own organisations.
This magazine is available both in physical print and digital format. The physical edition is available internationally for a small shipping and handling free. Digital format is free to download.
Search Engine Watch
Search Engine Watch provides businesses tips and information about searching the web, analysis of the search industry and helps site owners improve their ability to be found in search engines. Blogs cover ten distinct sectors: Industry, SEO, PPC, Analytics, Social, Local, Mobile, Content and Development.
All these sections have a strict policy of only allowing content that focuses on that specific area. By doing this, it allows businesses from different places to easily read on a subject that is relevant to them. Each section has a different colour code that is listed with each article, clearly defining the subject area.
A popular feature that Search Engine Watch provides is a trending section. This section allows businesses to view which topics are getting the most views, most likes, most tweets, and topics in mobile. By showing what is trending at the particular time, it allows businesses to be a step ahead on what is popular at the time.
Search Engine Watch provide live events that is called ClickZ. ClickZ provides marketing professionals, brand advertisers, agencies and business leaders with the knowledge to stay on top of content production. ClickZ has some of the most experienced speakers and instructors that are available in the business. They always pursue the most talented speakers that have worked their way through a vary of different types of businesses.
Tech Crunch
Tech Crunch is a website that focuses on current technologies and the news that revolves around them. Blogs are posted on a regular basis throughout the day, talking about general technology, as well as the tech that affects businesses. Tech Crunch makes sure that all the content they produce focuses on current affairs, so that businesses have a good understanding of up to date technology.
TechCrunch TV is a set of shows that cover all aspects of technology content. There are regular TCTV news shows that focus on breaking tech, startup news, interviews and product demos. CrunchWeek is a weekly wrap up of the top and most talked about tech news. Fly or Die has two people review new tech products and gadgets. Foundation provides the profiles of entrepreneurs with in depth interviews. Inside Jobs is an in depth look at the people that make the tech industry tick. TC Gadgets reviews the latest products and demos. The Gillmor Gang is a lively discussion on what’s hot in technology and social media. TC Cribs has tours of tech startup offices. TechCrunch Makers gives people an inside look at tech hardware makers.
The amount of content that Tech Crunch produces on a regular basis is something to be impressed by. Every piece of content is of a high quality, and they even allow regular people to submit content, as long as it’s a quality piece.
CrunchBase is one of the world’s most comprehensive dataset of startup activities. It’s available to everyone, and has over 500 thousand profiles of people companies that are maintained by contributors. It was originally a crowdfunded database, but it quickly grew into the resource it is today. CrunchBase allows businesses to easily manage their startup by using the resources provided. It is definitely a number one choice for any startup you may want to undertake.
Content Marketing
By looking at all the content available on all of these blogs, you should understand how to provide quality content. If you’re ever uncertain, the majority of these websites offer conferences that can not only teach you, but keep you up to date with what is trending in the technological world. By creating a good piece of content, your brand can trend throughout various social networks, opening doors to a brand new audience.
What do you think about content marketing blogs? Do you have any others that you would add to this list? Join the conversation on Twitter at @theukseo and let us know!
All pictures courtesy of wikipedia.org