Last year I published a list of notable agency blogs that my readers found useful. Many things have changed since, and I felt it was appropriate to provide an update. This list may come in handy to you as you look for an agency. I've been in several conversations with agencies that expected to come in and teach me how to "leverage" social media, yet they didn't even have a blog...
Recently, AdAge published a post that was pointing out how some agencies who push Twitter have either inactive or no accounts on Twitter. That is not acceptable. How do you expect to recommend something social when you do so little macro or micro sharing?
On the other hand, it's encouraging to meet more practitioners on the agency side who walk the talk. In many cases, as you will see, the blogs are created and maintained by individuals as their own personal thinking ground. In others, they are the effort of a small group on behalf of the agency. Many I read very regularly, some I visit on occasion.
While there are many amazing groups out there, I have not included consultants in this list. I also thought that including Twitter accounts for those I could find would be helpful. Amazing to see so few posting them on their blogs - this is a recommendation I've heard being made to companies. The blog refresh gave me an opportunity to verify that the blogs are active and have been updated recently.
In alphabetical order, let's see who's still active since last September and who's new:
- 360 Digital Influence - by Ogilvy PR - John Bell is @jbell99
- A Media Circ.us - by Adam Brotiman (Morpheus Media) - @AMediaCircus
- Ad Literate - by Richard Huntington (Saatchi & Saatchi) - @adliterate
- Brains on Fire - by staff at Brains on Fire - @BrainsonFire
- Brandflakes for Breakfast - by Darryl Ohrt - @Darrylohrt
- CST Advertising - by David Trott - @DaveTrott
- Cultural Fuel - by Leo Burnett Germany
- Cultural Radar - by John Winsor (Crispin Porter + Bogusky) - @jtwinsor
- Donor Power - by Jeff Brooks (Merkle)
- Experience Matters - by Critical Mass - @CriticalMass
- Fallon blogs - by Fallon
- GCI Blog - by Marion Mackenzie, GCI Group Canada - @MarionMK
- Get Shouty - by
Katie Chatfield (White Agency) - @KatieChatfield
- Going Social Now - by Shiv Singh (Razorfish) - @ShivSingh
- Greg Verdino's Marketing blog - By Greg Verdino (Crayon) - @gregverdino
- Idea Peepshow - by Fast Horse - @fast_horse
- Influential Marketing Blog - by Rohit Bhargava (Ogilvy) - @RohitBhargava
- Inside the Marketer's Studio - by David Berkowitz (360i) - @dberkowitz
- Jaffe Juice - by Joseph Jaffe (Crayon) - @jeffejuice
- Jerry's Juicebar - by Jerry Johnson (Brodeur) - @jjohnsondc
- Leigh Himel - by
Leigh Himel (Twist Image)
- Logic+Emotion - by David Armano (Dachis) - @Armano
- Make the Logo Bigger - by Bill Green - @mtlb
- Metacool - by Diego Rodriguez (IDEO) - @metacool
- Micro Persuasion - by Steve Rubel (Edelman) - @steverubel
- Mindblob - by Luc Debaisieaux (JWT) - @mindblob
- Noah Brier - by Noah Brier (Barbarian Group) - @heyitsnoah
- One to One Interactive - by Oto Insight - @otoinsights
- Paul Isakson - by Paul Isakson (space150) - @paulisakson
- Persuasionism - by Persuasion Arts & Sciences - @dionhughes
- PN Intelligent Dialogue - by Marian Salzman (Porter Novelli, my PR agency) - @MarianSalzman
- PR Bristol - by Montage Communications - @PRBristolblog
- PR Squared - by Todd Defren (SHIFT) - @TDefren
- PSFK - by Piers Fawkes and team - @psfk
- Rob Campbell - by
Rob Campbell (Cynic) - @Robertc1970
- Scamp - by BBH London [discontinued on June 7, 2009]
- Signal vs. Noise - by 37 Signals - @37signals
- Six Pixels of Separation - by Mitch Joel (Twist Image) - @mitchjoel
- Sixty Second View - by David Brain (Edelman, Europe) - @DavidBrain
- Social Media Marketing Strategies - by Mike Fruchter (Pierson Grant) - @fruchter
- Techno//Marketer - by Matt Dickman (Fleishman-Hillard) - @MattDickman
- The Ad Contrarian - by Bob Hoffman (Hoffman/Lewis) - @adcontrarian
- The Buzz Bin - by Livingston Communications (now part of CRT/Tanaka) - @GeoffLiving
- The Digital Design Blog - by Razorfish - @GarrickSchmitt
- The Future Buzz - by
Adam Singer (TopRank) - @AdamSinger
- Three Minds - by Organic - @organicinc
- Toothless Tiger - by Toothless Tiger - @redsoda
- TopRank Marketing blog - by Lee Odden and team (TopRank) - @LeeOdden
- Touchdowns & Fumbles - by Veritas
- Useful Lunacy - by Tim Brunelle (Hello Viking) - @tbrunelle
- Welcome to Optimism - by Wieden + Kennedy - @W2Optimism
- Zeus Jones - by Adrian Ho - @adrianho
If you feel you weren't active enough, maybe this is an inspiration to post more often, share your ideas and thoughts. I followed all the Twitter accounts on the list - in addition to the ones of friends I was already following. Three followed me back after sending an automated direct message (DM) back. Interesting.
I'm quite sure this, although comprehensive, is not an exhaustive list. What other agency blogs out there are notable?
UPDATE: From the comments:
- Being Peter Kim - by Peter Kim (Dachis) - @PeterKim
- Creativity Unbound - by Edward Boches (Mullen) - @EdwardBoches
- Positive Disruption - by Tom Martin - @TomMartin
- Shopper Culture - by Craig Elston - @CraigElston
- Social Abacus - by Kate Niederhoffer (Dachis)
- Social Write - by Jevon MacDonald (Dachis)
_______________
You can find in depth conversations with several leaders on the agency side of business here:
- Lee Odden, Top Rank
- David Berkowitz, 360i
- Mitch Joel, Twist Image
- Larry Weintraub, Fanscape
- Shiv Singh, Razorfish
[I just thought the ad was clever, that's all]
Here is a group of smaller agency folks that blog regularly at Ad Age. Many also blog on their own sites and most are on Twitter. Possible inclusions for future lists? Or at least, good resource to find agency leaders that are blogging.
http://adage.com/smallagency/
@TomMartin
Posted by: tom martin | July 28, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Great list - thanks. IMHO it cannot be complete without these two additions:
1. Creativity Unbound from Mullen's Edward Boches
http://edwardboches.com/
2. Positive Disruption by Zehnder's Tom Martin
http://www.tommartin.typepad.com/
Posted by: Sue Spaight | July 28, 2009 at 10:25 AM
It should be noted the CRT/tanaka is kind of like a hive. We have more than 20 people tweeting with more than 50 followers, and a good 10-15 of those range in the 300-1500 range. It's become quite an amazing thing to watch the feeds.
Posted by: Geoff Livingston | July 28, 2009 at 11:36 AM
I'm curious how you distinguish "agency" from "consultant" in the social media realm? Our big clients seem to lump us together with their agencies, though we don't think of ourselves as one. What's the difference, in your mind?
Love your line, "agencies that expected to come in and teach me how to 'leverage' social media, yet they didn't even have a blog..."
Posted by: Tom Collins | July 28, 2009 at 11:57 AM
For us, we see a net distinction between having a Social Media agency mindset and a traditional agency that just add social media as the new shiny object. Two way conversations, engagement and building communities just doesn't fit most other marketing / PR tactics... Having the same people preaching the use of social networks to just push stuff onto more highways is a trap that marketing executive should avoid. Building communities is a real investment that businesses need to handle with mindful hands.
@YannR http://twitter.com/yannr
Posted by: Yann Ropars | July 28, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Hi there. Thanks for the mention of our Experience Matters blog. We do also have a twitter account @CriticalMass (in addition to dozens of individual tweeters). Check us out. Great suggestion about promoting our Twitter presence on our blog--we'll definitely be taking that advice soon.
-Critical Mass
Posted by: Katie Bogda | July 28, 2009 at 01:52 PM
While I, too, adore your line about non-blogging agencies, let me share another lulu with you.
I've heard (paraphrase),
'We been on Twitter for about 8 months. We built a Fan Page on FaceBook. We can provide our clients with keen insights into effective social media use."
I remain flummoxed at how easily bamboozled agencies seem to be by their own bombast.
How can peripheral involvement with a largely indifferent audience -- on one or two social media channels -- provide deep or meaningful insight? :)
Posted by: Laura Bergells | July 28, 2009 at 05:16 PM
If you include Dachis as an agency and David Armano on the list then I suspect it's worth including other Dachis team members:
Peter Kim
http://www.beingpeterkim.com/
Kate Niederhoffer
http://socialabacus.blogspot.com/
and
Jevon MacDonald
http://socialwrite.com/
Posted by: Ryan Stephens | July 29, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Really enjoyed your post. Would like to offer up our own Network Blog on shopping culture and its impact on brand strategy. This has been up for 2 years now and has strong readership and downloads of white papers. It's run by a small group of planners and it's taught us a lot but we've still a long way to go!
The Integer Group
www.shopperculture.com
and you can follow us on twitter at twitter.com/shopperculture
Posted by: Craig Elston | July 29, 2009 at 11:35 AM
@Tom - I appreciate your highlighting other blogs in addition to your won contribution, and I see that as good karma would have it, someone is recommending yours. I also see Marc Brownstein on that list - we're working together right now.
@Sue - good tips, thank you!
@Geoff - the hive concept is intriguing as I've long held the belief that social media is a team sport as all relationship-based pursuits are.
@Tom - that's a good question. Agency has a structured account team, and on the ad side, either doing the media by, or working closely with PointRoll and the company that makes the media buy (analytics wrapped around that). I tried working with a virtual team of consultants and the results were just not there... uncoordinated approach, lack of regular schedule and cadence on projects for lack of a strong account manager. Also, when I work with agencies, they work with each other to coordinate - there is full communication across the spectrum, which is how I (try to) work internally.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | July 29, 2009 at 08:56 PM
@Yann - I disagree with you on the ability to go across from PR/marketing to social media. I do it every day in a large IT infrastructure company. What I agree on is that the mindset needs to change - mine was that of conversation before social media became sexy, so I really didn't need to adjust too much. However, there is a need to educate the rest of the organization. They're a very smart group of people, so I don't see that part as being an issue.
@Katie - Glad you're considering adding the Twitter account to the blog. I will amend the post. Thank you for letting me know.
@Laura - I agree that you could be using the tools - or misusing them as it might be - and still be clueless as to crafting a strategy that meets business objectives and is measurable. You need to have both. I do see many agencies streaming the senior management Twitter accounts on their sites - and those streams add no value whatsoever. It's not the showing, it's the doing that matters!
@Ryan - thank you. The reason why David was included was that he was in the original list and I changed the name of his affiliation without thinking :)
@Craig - interesting concept and posts. Retail must be one of the toughest markets there is for the often thin margins. It must also be one of the most fun and rewarding when things do pick up. I would be curious if that is the case.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | July 29, 2009 at 09:03 PM
It is remarkable at how few reciprocal follows the people on this list have. As if only they have good ideas and the rest are not worth listening to.
Shame to be in marketing and only promoting yourselves.
Posted by: Darren | August 03, 2009 at 01:50 AM