New Voices for a New Year: Blogs to Read

Happy new year! As part of my “social” resolutions, I am finding new voices to read, listen to and build relationships with in 2009. I thought I’d share a handful of new subscriptions I’ve added recently to my reader. I hope you’ll check out their blogs and find them on Twitter.

• Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog
  Shannon does social media stuff for the Detroit Red Wings and has a ton of great content. Her recent post on building an online presence is a great resource for people (like you students) just figuring out how to best participate…or really anyone for that matter. (@Shannonpaul)

• Steve Crescenzo’s Corporate Hallucinations
  It’s a good day when a blog about communications makes me laugh out loud. Corporate Hallucinations is one of those blogs. Because I’m getting ready to do some client focus groups, this post was particularly relevant. And this post made me cry – cause I’m a mom and that’s what I do. (@Crescenzo)

• Dave Fleet’s davefleet.com
  Dave writes a lot of great stuff about PR. He had a communication planning series last year that was terrific and resulted in a free e-book that you can download. It was a tad different than the way we teach planning at the UofO, but styles vary from organization to organization and even client to client and it’s good to see and know lots of different formats. If you want a snapshot of what he has to say, you can check out his top posts of 2008 post. (@davefleet)

• Scott Hepburn’s Media Emerging
  Honestly, Scott had me at this post, which I’ve bookmarked and forwarded to a handful of folks who I know will appreciate it. But look around, there’s a lot of great stuff here. He’s a talented copywriter and brings a great perspective to this new media stuff.(@scotthepburn)

• Kellye Crane’s Solo PR Pro
  Kellye has a lot of great content for PR consultants. I like a lot of what she says – great tips and resources. I am a sucker for lists, though, and this is a good one. (@KellyeCrane)

• Lisa Hoffmann’s New Media Lisa
  Lisa is one smart lady. I spent a good deal of time going through her recent archives of posts. This post on being extraordinary is terrific. Bookmarked! A great read. (@LisaHoffmann)

• Heather Rast’s Insights and Ingenuity
  Heather is a consultant in Iowa and has a terrific outlook on social media. I love the post “One Reason. That’s all it Takes.” (side note to students: using this kind of structure is a great way to write a blog post) (@heatherrast)

• Amber Naslund’s The BrandBox
  This Amber is one well-connected lady. I’ve enjoyed following her on twitter (@AmberCadabra) and really appreciate her blog. Her post on building on what you already have to participate in social media is a great one for anyone new to this stuff (including students!). Social media can feel overwhelming, but thinking about it piece by piece is an easier way to get your mind around what your organization (or your client) can do).

I’ve added a few others in the last couple of months worth checking out, too: Danny Brown at PressReleasePR (@pressreleasepr), Beth Harte at The Harte of Marketing (@bethharte) and (not new, but I finally subscribed) David Meerman Scott’s Web Ink Now. (@dmscott) (I’ve also updated my blogroll recently, so you can check out my long time faves there).

Do you have any new favorites?

photo via flickr by Steve Kay