The digital media world is like other industries: It is filled with executive blogs that are overly self-promotional, poorly written or just plain boring. Here are our picks for execs’ blogs that are the opposite of that. These are blogs that our writers read for thoughtful insight on industry issues. Check them out for yourself.
Ian Schafer
Ian Schafer is CEO of interactive marketing agency Deep Focus. His personal blog is full of entertaining (like this Facebook IPO word cloud) and insightful posts about digital advertising, industry news and more.
From a post “A Pinterest Hypothesis”:
“It’s the next best thing to accumulating items, but without the cost associated with actually buying them. It’s a locker where you store the things you want, the things you find interesting, the things you want people to know you’ve found — each of which is a major psychological driver in the process of retail therapy, without the cash (or credit) expenditure.”
Blog Maverick
Blog Maverick is written by business magnate Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Magnolia Pictures and Landmark Theaters). Cuban writes about investing/business/entrepreneurial tips, personal stories and ad tech-related news.
From a post “I Hope Yahoo Crushes Facebook in its Patent Suit”
“Seriously, there are industries where patents are used fairly to protect intellectual property. The technology industry is not one of them.”
Marketers Studio
Marketers Studio is the personal blog of David Berkowitz (no, not the Son of Sam one, although I would definitely read his blog if he were to ever have had one), vp of emerging media at digital agency 360i. His blog covers all things social media and marketing.
From a post “The Curse of Meh”:
“Urban Dictionary defines “meh” as “indifference; to be used when one simply does not care.” That’s an apt definition, and it’s the first definition I’ve found on the site that is completely G-rated. I have enough Meh apps on my iPhone that I created a second folder called “Meh 2,” and I now have more apps in Meh folders than I do in any other category.”
Jeff Hasen
Jeff Hasen is the CMO of Hipcricket, a mobile marketing and advertising company. Hassen regularly posts insightful articles and offers his opinions on all things mobile. He also recently wrote a contributed piece for Digiday about SXSW pixie dust.
From a post “SXSW Edition of Notes from a Mobile Marketer”:
“Probably the smartest words in Austin – people don’t care about your products – they care about solutions to their problems. Amen.”
The Kmiec Ramblings
Adam Kmiec is head of social media at Walgreens. His blog is a mixture of personal anecdotes (like a bad customer-service experience with a brand and daily fortunes, which are kind of silly, but that’s OK) and posts tackling industry issues.
From a post “The Great Talent War”:
“Have you heard the phrase, if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got. Well, I ask you, how is it that genuinely smart people at the heads of companies fail to understand this very basic concept? You can’t simply turn the marketing guy who reads Mashable into the head of digital. You can’t simply hire the interns into Sr. Level spots because they grew up with Facebook.”
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