2010 seems to be the year that everyone thinks corporations will advance beyond the often awkward and tumultuous stages of "Social Media Puberty" to the more focused stages of Social Media Maturity.  Twitter is rife with tweets on the subject.  Google's delivering 700,000 pages on the search term.  Social Media Blogging luminaries like Brian Solis, Marshall Sponder and MarketingProfs' Paul Williams are cogitating and writing about it.  In fact, MarketingSherpa recently made the 2010 Social Media Benchmark Report available, which detailed, among other things, the three phases of Social Media Maturity. 

We felt that MarketingSherpa didn't go quite far enough.  In our recent post titled, ROI Measurement: The Fourth Phase of Social Media Maturity, we added a new Phase of development.  This new Phase captured a company's evolution beyond the often siloed and isolated, strategic Listening Phase to a phase of social media maturity characterized by quantifying and correlating the performance and activity in one communications channel to the performance and activity of other/all channels. This phase not only makes social media ROI calculation possible but also makes things like advanced trend analysis, multi-spectrum sentiment analysis, and predictive modeling possible.

The chart below features our interpretation and embellishment Marketing Sherpa's three phases:

This is Part 3, the final installment of our series, covering our 12 favorite Social Media Thinkers and Content Creators.  Part 2 covered Olivier Blanchard, Scott Monty, Jacob Morgan and Jason Falls.

Our top 12 blogger list is more art than science. We're not gauging our favorites by influence, readership, authority, etc. The people who made our list made it because they consistently and openly share some of the best critical thinking and research that the Social Media Space has to offer. We've also chosen these 12 because in some way, unbeknownst to them, their work has informed the development of our company, our intelligence and analysis methodology and our approach to the Social Media space. 

Our final installment covers these last, but far from least, folks:

LEE ODDEN

In his blog, called simply, The Online Marketing Blog, Odden displays a great proficiency at blending technical know-how with sound strategic thinking and guidance.  Many of his posts feature interviews with industry luminaries while others focus on decoding complex marketing tactics and providing a survey of related best practices.  Odden's posts are full of the type of valuable information that can develop one from novice social media marketer to informed intermediate.  Odden is only one of a handful of bloggers posting here.  We encourage you to check them all out.

JOSH BERNOFF

This is the man who quite literally wrote the book on the best Social Media Marketing engagement.  Groundswell, the book, is certainly worthy of a close read...and re-read. Like the book, his blog is full of social media insight.  His step-by-step guidance is both practical and easy to follow.  Putting these steps into practice can often yield immediate results for readers.  His personal anecdotes, illustrating his points in humorous ways, and his conversational style make his blogs a quick and fun read.

 PAUL GILLIN

Gillin brings a journalistic mentality to his blog, often reporting on cutting edge technologies, methodologies and the tools that harness both.  His reporter's eye often uncovers things that many of the top bloggers have missed, and even when traveling well-trodden trails, his perspective often sheds unexpectedly fresh light.

SETH GODIN

Frankly, I'm not sure where to begin.  This man's expertise seemingly knows no bounds within the marketing sphere.  If there's been a new shift, change or movement involving the way companies market to people, this man has written a book about it.  And he doesn't sacrifice quality for quantity.  Each book seems better than the last.  His blog postings, like the subjects of his books, do not limit themselves to a single formula, subject or standard length, rather they seem almost a stream of smart marketing consciousness.

We hope our list of 12 Must-Read Social Media Bloggers has provided you with a small, manageable roster of daily reading fodder.  Who do you make it a point to read daily?  Is there someone out there who absolutely must be included?  Let us know in the comments section.  In fact, with enough response, we'll assemble a new list from those suggested in our comments. Thanks for reading the series.

This is Part 2 of a three-part series.  Our series covers our 12 favorite Social Media Thinkers and Content Creators.  Part 1 covered Brian Solis, Marshall Sponder, Jeremiah Owyang and Erik Qualman. 

Our top 12 blogger list is more art than science. We're not gauging our favorites by influence, readership, authority, etc. The people who made our list made it because they consistently and openly share some of the best critical thinking and research that the Social Media Space has to offer. We've also chosen these 12 because in some way, unbeknownst to them, their work has informed the development of our company, our intelligence and analysis methodology and our approach to the Social Media space. 

Today's installment covers these fine fellows:

OLIVIER BLANCHARD

This brand-builder doesn't limit his scope merely to Social Media, rather he includes it copiously as he sets out to cover all things relevant to building strong, lasting and engaging brands.  Olivier isn't writing for the ivory tower or theoretically-laden academia.  His common-sense style focuses on actionable and applicable insights for the everyday brand team.  His message is delivered simply, directly and with a splash of humor.

SCOTT MONTY

If success is an accurate gauge of intelligence, than check out the big brain on Scott Monty, the head of Social Media for the Ford Motor Company and the man behind the world's largest tweet-up.   Scott doesn't use his blog to trumpet Ford's products, rather he uses it to explore his perspectives on Social Media strategies, tactics and tools.  The fact that he can relate first-hand experiences from the Social Media trenches of one of the world's largest brands adds both texture and relevance to his words.

JACOB MORGAN

With the mind of Social Media Strategist and the soul of an adventurer, Jacob Morgan energetically tackles the toughest, hairiest and most complex issues facing the industry. Elusive ROI, Enterprise 2.O Adoption, Social CRM are all regular guests in his blog postings.  And while he doesn't always provide the answer, he does provide a roadmap for productive thinking and a call for the type of earnest collaboration that will get us all one step closer to the solution.  Check out his book Twittfaced.

 JASON FALLS

What more can I say about the man that Chris Brogan once called, "A god amongst men".  Actually quite a bit.  When you first begin to dip your toe into the vast sea of Social Media, it's easy to fall overboard into the confusing waters of jargon-filled, prognostication.  If a life-preserver splashes down in front of you, promising to haul you from those befuddling waters, it will more than likely have Jason Falls' name stenciled on it.  Jason delivers the straight skinny and he does it with a wry and sometimes sardonic sensibility that makes his blogs humorously delicious and educationally nutritious.

We, here at SOCIALtality, would like to take a moment to share our favorite Social Media Thinkers and Content Creators.  There are no shortage of top blogger lists.  Some lists evaluate the number of readers, while others track influence or number of inbound links.  All very viable, logical and data-driven. 

Our top 12 blogger list is based more on art than science. 

The people who made our list may not all be found on Technorati's Top 100 (though some are).  They made our list because they consistently and openly share some of the best critical thinking and research that the Social Media Space has to offer. We've also chosen these 12 because in some way, unbeknownst to them, their work has informed the development of our company, our intelligence and analysis methodology and our approach to the Social Media space. 

This is Part 1 of a 3-part series, covering the first four people on our list (we thought breaking it down into bite-sized pieces might give readers a better chance to sample the wisdom and expertise of each of these Social Media bloggers):