In the year 2020, it’s nearly impossible to navigate the world without using social media. Not only are social media platforms some of the most common ways to get news, but they are also widely accepted as the best ways for businesses to advertise to consumers in the 21st century.
However, one of the difficult things about social media advertising is that it is entirely different than traditional methods. Social media services are often changing, with many companies not openly revealing the specific algorithms that they use.
For this reason, it’s essential for businesses to stay up-to-date on social media trends. By analyzing the market and picking up new strategies on a regular basis, companies can make sure that they are taking all of the necessary steps to get their ads seen by as many people as possible.
Because there are so many different methods for proper social media marketing, we believe that it’s important to follow a few different sources.
This is why we’ve created a list of the 10 Best Social Media Magazines to Read in 2020!
Hootsuite
If you are a company who automates your social media posting, it’s very likely that you’ve already heard of Hootsuite. The business itself is well-known for its main application that allows users to schedule and tailor social media posts, but the blog portion of the website is also quite notable.
Regardless of which type of social media posting service you use, you’ll be able to learn strategies from Hootsuite about optimizing your results. After all, the notion of scheduling social media posts adds another layer of difficulty to marketing strategies, so it’s important to know how to use it properly. If you want to learn about which days of the week are best for posting or what time of day you should generally post, this blog is for you.
Convince and Convert
As one of the top experts in the field of social media marketing, Jay Baer always seems to have something profound to say about the latest strategies. Convince and Convert is a blog about just that, with Baer and his team providing important insight on a daily basis. Because it is presented in a blog format, Convince and Convert has the advantage of being able to construct how-to guides and link specific plug-ins on a given post.
For this reason, it is one of the best places to learn how to implement strategies into your own business practices. If you are somebody who is just starting out in the field of social media marketing, you can learn a lot from this site. In the event that you are a seasoned professional in the field, there are advanced tutorials that will certainly help you out as well.
Kissmetrics
Most of the publications on this list are for businesses who want to find new strategies that they can use to bring their marketing to the next level. However, what if you’ve already spent the time and resources to advance your marketing but aren’t seeing the results you desire?
Kissmetrics is a publication specifically for this situation, allowing marketers to input their own data and compare it to a constantly updated database of industry trends. By being able to analyze their own analytics, businesses can make sure that they are taking the right steps to make their message heard.
Socially Sorted
In order to be successful at social media advertising, you must have a strong grasp on graphic design. Because social media campaigns are most frequently engaged while scrolling feeds, your advertisement has to catch somebody’s attention within a matter of seconds!
Even if you are just getting a grip on how to effectively design your ad campaigns, Socially Sorted is there to help—with numerous articles on effective design and presentation, you’ll be able to quickly create engaging and memorable advertisements!
Social Media Lab
Social Media Lab is a unique blog in the sense that it does not report the latest trends in the industry. Instead, it seeks to develop its own trends, investing $15,000 each month in various experiments. The experiments that Social Media Lab runs occur on most major social media sites, so you don’t have to worry about learning information that is not relevant to your business.
For example, there is a feature on the blog that allows you to selectively view whichever social media platform you are most interested in seeing studies about. You can also adjust whether or not you want to look at organic or paid strategies, allowing your marketing team to add nuance to their methodology. Something that we like so much about Social Media Lab is that they have done extensive research on Emojis and whether or not they help specific marketing campaigns, a factor of social media marketing that is often ignored by other outlets.
MarketingProfs
Being efficient with your social media marketing means understanding all of the majority trends occurring in the industry. MarketingProfs caters to those who prefer concise graphs that give an overview of the entire field. However, this doesn’t mean that MarketingProfs is the perfect website to read on its own.
Because it is so generalized, it often works best when partnered with another blog that is more specialized. However, for statistics about social media marketing as an entire industry, this is a great website.
Business Insider
Regardless of what your corporation’s specialty is, there is always something to be gained from reading Business Insider. As one of the most well-known magazines out there for business strategies, it not only provides you with news regarding the corporate world, but also intimate interviews with experts. Though Business Insider did not begin as a social media-oriented magazine, they have caught up in recent years and currently feature a significant amount of information on the phenomenon.
If you’re a company that wants to focus on specific sets of data, you’ll appreciate the BI Intelligence section of the website. BI Intelligence provides in-depth breakdowns of certain strategies to show you what is working for other companies. With BI Intelligence, you will not only learn about strategies within your field, but also about adjacent fields that might still be helpful to you.
IMPACT
When most companies think of social media marketing, it is not very likely that they think of branding. Though a company’s brand is typically the focus of more traditional forms of marketing, social media strategies often focus specifically on advertisements and how to get advertisements to as many customers as possible.
However, contrary to popular belief, a company’s brand is still a large part of what makes them successful in online spaces. Though you can advertise as much as you want, social media strategies will often fail if the business making the advertisements does not have an elegant profile and online presence. If you are a business that wants to focus more on the design side of branding, you should definitely read IMPACT.
IMPACT is a publication that provides in-depth looks at various aspects of branding, but primarily how to create a unified online aesthetic for your company. Their strategies are also delivered in accessible formats, including graphs, videos and slideshows!
Duct Tape Marketing
One of the most important things to understand about social media marketing is that it cannot function properly without community engagement. Though it is possible to pay for post engagement, organic engagement goes a long way when getting your brand to reach others. Duct Tape Marketing is a blog specifically geared towards improving community engagement, with tips and tricks for businesses that help inspire audience members to comment, like and share.
Something that makes Duct Tape Marketing different than other publications is that they also have a podcast! The podcast is also one of our favorite parts about the service, so we definitely recommend listening to it on your commute if you want to learn about marketing while on the road. However, the best benefit about Duct Tape Marketing is that it is completely free!
Seth Godin
If your company has a marketing team that comprises a variety of employees from different generations, you should encourage them to read Seth Godin’s blog. As an expert in marketing, Godin shares accessible and concise posts about how to effectively market in almost any field. In addition, Godin is also not afraid to confront the differences in generational marketing techniques, showing you how you can develop and promote strategies that encourage your team to work together efficiently.
Seth Godin also has a very eloquent way of describing the constant dilemma of balancing personal lives with work. Because advertisements are most often experienced during leisure time, Godwin encourages employees to think about how their personal experiences can be represented in their work to effectively connect with audiences.
