A few years ago there was a trend afoot to kill the blogroll. Deep links in context were better, or so the argument went.
I could see their point.
However, I never killed off my blogroll because it is valuable for my readers. In fact, my stats show that people DO look at the blogs in my sidebar. In my new design, the blogs also have a clip from their last post and the date when they last published.
I do take it to heart that it is better to explain WHY someone appears in that esteemed list. Not only that, I think that the popularity of Twitter has really hampered the development of new ideas in favor of quick thoughts. It has quite simply sucked up all of our thinking time.
Last week I was challenged by Mark Story to join in on what he is calling Blog Monday. He was kind enough to feature this blog last week and challenged each of us to do the same for blogs we love. I am going to take my blogroll four at a time for the next few weeks and tell you why they are my favorites:
Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
Beth Kanter is well known for her energy and her dedication to people who are using social media for non-profit causes. I first "met" Beth in 2007 when she started to activity comment and link to this blog, I soon found that her content was consistently interesting and enlightening. She is also very creative. Her posts often have a new way of looking at old problems.
Geoff Livingston is a good friend, but that is not why I love his blog. Geoff is one of the most consistent bloggers I know, and everything on his blog has an eye toward service. He has an editorial plan and it shows. Sometimes he is even a little edgy. If you want to know what is important in the marketing and public relations social media sphere, you need to be reading Geoff's blog.
Shel Holtz is the popular co-host of the podcast For Immediate Release, which is an easy way to stay up-to-date with new media/social media in just two hours a week. He is also a prolific author of several books on social media and podcasting. His blog is an in-depth look at social media from a communications perspective. You can count on it to be insightful and rich in observation. He was already a legend when I started blogging in 2005, and he still always takes time out to help me out whenever I ask.
Shel Israel (different from Shel Holtz above) is the well known blogger that authored Naked Conversations with Robert Scoble and who is currently authoring a second book called Twitterville, which is on preorder at Amazon.com. I like Shel because he looks for the diamonds and writes about them. He is an unabashed social media evangelist, but he is looking for the real-world examples. His site has is the richest in case studies on the web.
