Blog digest

Our blogroll (see right hand colmun) lists a few of our favourites and we reckon all of them are worth a read from time to time.

But we know you're busy people, so we've picked out some recent posts we found interesting:

Seth Godin on newspapers - Seth points out the difference between paying (or not) for news and paying for the paper it's printed on.

Millward Brown on measuring social media - chief analyst Nigel Hollis takes issue with the trend towards "real-time" social media influencing long-term brand strategy. Some interesting comments pointing out the need for a balanced apporach.

Neil Perkin on creativity - ex-IPC marketing chief Perkin makes a plea for us to re-evaluate creativity in the networked world.

FutureLab on Brand Strategy - Denise Lee Yohn uses the musings of Amy Tan (of Joy Luck Club fame) to illustrate 5 key things to bear in mind when developing great brand strategies.

Blogging Students

An interesting piece recently in Harvard Business Review highlighted the sensitivity most major client organisations feel about their brand and the growing sense that they are losing control of it as social media continues its inexorable rise (Facebook reached 350 Million users recently).

Brands have only ever lived in the minds of consumers - unless they were burnt into the side of a cow. Interesting then to see this piece in the New York Times on how MIT is using it's strongest advocates (or, potentially, detractors should things not be as rosy as the official brochures claim),students, as official bloggers. Great to see an organisation confident enough in its service provision and strong enough in its conviction to give free reign to these ambassadors.

Better to be involved in the conversation that is already happening about your brand than sticking your head in the sand and hoping it will all blow over.