Recommended reading – 24th July 2010

I’ve been a bit neglectful of this blog over the past month or two. Come September, this should change.

I haven’t written a “recommended reading” post for over a month, so I will rectify that by posting two this weekend, featuring the very best of the various articles and blogs I’ve read over the past five weeks.

Without further ado, the first seven links I would strongly suggest that you click on are:

• Maureen Johnson at BlogHer has written a manifesto against personal branding. She thinks the internet should be a place where people can come together and chat, without the constant pressure of having to sell yourself or your product

• Martin Moore at PBS provides some thoughts on the future of news. He predicts that news-gathering as a whole will continue to provide a viable business model, but that there will be black spots where public interest isn’t matched by commercial appeal.

• Mel Exon at BBH Labs questions whether clients still need agencies. The post is directed at advertising agencies, but the general issues can be applied to other sectors.

• Matt Simpson at Face gives a great overview of a co-creation session the company ran with an MBA Customer Insights Class at the Saïd Business School.

• John Griffiths provides an excellent account of the Innovation Fest that Ogilvy & Mather and Brainjuicer ran.

• A long but fascinating article by Farhad Manjoo in Fast Company, on ten lessons that can be learned from Apple

• Henry Jenkins revisits the 7 principles of transmedia planning – it also acts as a great primer for those not familiar with the theory.

sk

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Links – 8th March 2009

My recommendations for the past week include:

• Paul Graham on why he thinks social media has contributed to the death of TV. He makes some good points on the social nature of TV, but I disagree that synchronicity will fade away. TV will continue to prompt watercooler chat around shared experiences. If the watercooler is the workplace, then a show only needs to be viewed the previous evening – not necessarily at the same time. But if the watercooler is Facebook or Twitter, then synchronicity and real-time feedback still matter.

• Penelope Truck thinks we shouldn’t look to grad school as a way of mitigating the effects of the recession

• Adrian Ho looks at the role culture plays in companies and self-organised groups

• Farhad Manjoo doesn’t see Twitter killing Google nor Facebook

• Al Ries writes that consumers only love brands once they know them. In a competitive market, familiarity can be a barrier to switching

• Jeremiah Owyang proposes that companies should look to the social web for opt-in consumer information, which would remove the need for registration forms

• Tom Ewing explores the differences in rating music and films, and wonders what effects this has on accumulator sites such as Metacritic

• A recent study suggests that leaders emerge by talking first and often, but not necessarily making the best points

• And I’ve been adding some great Slideshare presentations to my favourites

sk