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]