Social media is a popular subject for bloggers, since it’s recently become a hot topic for personal and business use and there is regular news and developments about it. Currently, several popular blogs about social media exists that have large audiences. While some, like Mashable, have multiple contributors, others are run by just one person. It’s a competitive environment, so a social media blogger must find a way to differential their content in a very populated space. I’ve identified three popular blogs about social media that I would consider my top competition:
Mashable
The most well-known blog in the social media spectrum is Mashable, with more than 40 million monthly page views. Mashable also states their audience on their About Us page as “early adopters, social media enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, influencers, brands and corporations, marketing, PR and advertising agencies, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists… bloggers as well as Twitter and Facebook users….”. That’s pretty much the exact audience that I had identified for my blog in a previous post, so I would say that’s some pretty serious competition.
Mashable has a team of regular bloggers as well as contributors, and they operate very much like a news organization. The result of that is consistent, strong and relevant content. So, Mashable does a great job with content creation and they also perform very strongly in engagement. Their comment sections are always active, and they also have a very high Klout score for their Twitter page. My blog is different because it obviously comes from my unique perspective, not a team of varied voices. I discuss not only social media, but the way it effects and interacts with journalism and technology and much of my content comes from my education background and professional experience. My blog also has a strong connection to Syracuse University and college students, which would provide me with a more specific niche than a broad blog like Mashable.
UnMarketing: Scott Stratten
The author of the Unmarketing blog, Scott Stratten, recently came out with a book about social media and his perspectives. He works professionally in social media, owns his own agency, speaks regularly on the topic, and is regarded as a well-known expert in this realm; he’s definitely another person I would identify as a competitor in social media blogging.
Although I don’t have information about how wide his audience is or how many visitors his blog has, I can make estimations based on his Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Unmarketing has a Klout score of 81 and the service labels him a “celebrity”. He has almost 100,000 followers on his Twitter account, and his Facebook page has 4,000 “likes” (which is actually relatively low, although it’s obvious that he uses Twitter as his main platform). So, as with Mashable, his engagement level is extremely high. However, Scott Stratten is more similar to my blog because he is just one person writing and contributing content, and his perspective comes from his professional experiences in social media. However, our content is differentiated by my focus on journalism and social media in higher education.
Chris Brogan
Chris Brogan is very similar in profile to Unmarketing: a popular social media blogger, twitter personality, speaker, author of “Trust Agents”, and Klout “celebrity”. His blog was included in the Top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150. Both Scott Stratten and Chris Brogan focus specifically on social media marketing, which differentiates my blog slightly since my focus is on social media (in general terms), journalism and higher education. Also, while I admire them as highly engaging and well-known social media bloggers, they’re both obviously male. I think there is space for a strong female voice in social media blogging, which could be another differentiator in my audience and perspective.
@AlyssaHenry 