Who is in control of your brand?

It’s sometimes hard to find valuable, insightful and new information online. If you’re into marketing like I am, these blogs should all be regular reads. Whether they’re an industry voice, thought provoking or factual, each of these blogs/news sites will help you stay at the forefront of marketing. (Some are organisations and some are individuals)

These are my top 14 marketing thought leaders:

• A Digital Perspective – Jye Smith on social media, marketing and the internet
• a shel of my former self – Blogging at the intersection of communications & technology
• acidlabs – Conversation. Collaboration. Community.
• Ad Age – CMO Strategy
• Chris Brogan – Solving business strategy challenges with social media
• Laurel Papworth – The business of being social
• Marketing Charts – Charts and data for marketers in web and Excel format
• Marketing Magazine
• Mumbrella – Everything under Australian media & marketing umbrella
• Servant of Chaos – A blog by Gavin Heaton
• Seth’s Blog – A blog by Seth Godin
• The Steve Rubel Lifestream – Daily links, insights, photos, videos and more on emerging technology.
• Web strategy by Jeremiah Owyang – Social Media, Web Marketing
• Love Digital – A weekly interview podcast – digital marketing
• Come Together – Thoughts on community and conversation

Is there something you read regularly that you would add to this list? Or do you disagree with one of my recommendations? Post a comment.

I’m in the process of putting together a list of social media campaign case studies, for people to learn what do to in this space. Along the way, reading one of my favourite commentators in the space, Laurel Papworth has taken the time to put together what she sees as good examples.

We could debate day and night if they’re good or why, but atleast there’s examples of good stuff…

http://laurelpapworth.com/case-studie-australian-social-media-campaigns/

If you’ve seen something work well in Australia or otherwise, post a link to it here or on Laurel’s blog.

Oh, and here are some ‘award winning’ examples from AIMIA

http://laurelpapworth.com/aimia-social-media-bandwagon-awards/

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• In social media, honesty is always the best policy, so says Andy Sernovitz (socialmediatoday.com)
• Five For Sharing: Social Media Case Studies in the Valley (socialmediaclub.org)

Thanks to Laurel Papworth,  I discovered that in the US internet has overtaken newspaper as a primary source of news 40% (internet) to 35% (newspaper). Another amazing stat is that the percentage has grown from 24% to 40% from the same time last year.

However, considering all this, TV still dominates as a primary news source for all people at 70%.

One powerful finding shows that 59% of people under 30 yrs old see the internet as a primary source, this is up from 34% last year, equating to about 50% growth. On the flip side, TV has declined from 68% to 59%, a 11% decrease.

And as Laurel Papworth puts it

Remember, 71% of Australians don’t trust the printed word. Many more trust online news. And the Pew study confirm that 2008 was the year that that view went global.

*Research: Pew – Figures add to more than 100% because multiple responses were allowed

If I were in the newspaper business I’d be thinking of a new name for my industry, without the news, its just paper, and Reflex are doing pretty well in that space.

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• Americans abandon newspapers for the internet
• More Americans get news online than from printed newspapers
• Newspapers are Old News