Essential Blogs And Newsletters For The Mobile, Digital Or Social Marketer

Ever since I started blogging, the number of blogs and newsletters I read has exploded. That’s because the more I write, the more I have to work to find the next thing to write about. I’ve had a few recent exchanges with colleagues about what we most like to read, so today is all about sharing my go-to sources for information on the technology issues that excite me the most: mobile, digital and social media marketing.

In addition to being unique and informative, the sources I recommend tend to be accessible. Most of what follows isn’t too insider baseball.

So, here is a list of blogs, newsletters and sites that I recommend to just about anyone who is interested in learning more about the mobile, digital, and social media marketing landscape:

  • Monday Note: This French-based newsletter ranks right up there with my weekend Wall Street Journal for coffee-worthy reading. Forward-looking and well-researched, it focuses on the business models that make tech go.

  • Benedict Evans: He offers one of the clearest, simplest explanations of his work: he’s trying to figure out what’s going to happen next. An analyst for VC firm Andreessen-Horowitz, Evans is a meticulous researcher who assembles information from all over to arrive at his prognostications.

  • Radio Free Mobile: Authored by Dr. Richard Windsor, this blog is the easiest to read because he writes entirely in bullet points. While this is a must for investors, I would argue that you can’t make a bigger investment in a company than by working there. That makes it a must-read for anyone working in the mobile ecosystem, too.

  • Street Fight: I like Street Fight because of its coverage of mobile and the collection and use of location data. It also caters to the market for small and medium-size business and their use of digital, mobile and social technology.

  • AdExchanger: With an emphasis on ad technology, AdExchanger is among the hardest to read because its stories tend to be written by experts for others who really know their stuff. For that reason, I also learn a ton from this site.

  • BoSacks: Bob “Bo” Sacks writes about the publishing industry. Digital, social and mobile have disrupted this business severely, and yet I believe professional publishing has a bright future. That’s why I look forward to Bo’s three daily emails.

  • MMA and IAB Smartbriefs on mobile and social: The Mobile Marketing Association and Interactive Advertising Bureau advocate on behalf of the digital marketing industry and help bring its rivals together to standardize things like creative units and measurement. Both offer subscriptions to daily briefs that gather news and insights from across the web.

  • Rob Fields: Rob is a friend with an expertise in cultural marketing. With formidable economic power, minority groups have earned the marketing industry’s respect. Rob helps marketers understand these audiences and reduce the risk of tone-deafness.

  • Cynopsis Digital: This daily emphasizes a mix of old and new media. If you want to know what TV networks, magazines and newspapers are doing in the digital space, this is for you.

  • Mediapost Research Brief: Its wide-ranging topics make this useful for anyone with a broad curiosity about the world of marketing.

  • Quibb: This is an invitation-only community that relies on crowd-sourcing to surface the web’s best content for digital, mobile and social marketers. If you want to know what other smart people are reading every day, this is a terrific resource.

  • LUMA Partners: Many know this firm for its LUMAscapes, which visualize various ecosystems’ sectors and the companies that make up those sectors. Here’s one that shows the mobile ecosystem. It’s a must for anyone in partner marketing, business development, and for job seekers.

  • Crunchbase: Every day, small companies with names I’ve never heard before make news. Crunchbase provides information on company founders, number of employees, investors and more.

  • Flurry: Now a member of Yahoo’s developer suite, Flurry gives useful insights based on its mobile analytics.

I’ll update this list over time, perhaps with blogs you suggest. What should I add?

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