Continuing with the advertising influence I grabbed these favourites from the bookshelves this weekend. They’re a continual source of inspiration and are small enough to have a good flick through.

Words of wisdom on every page, from advertising legend Paul Arden.

If you are confused by social media or are the sort of person that likes to name drop brands with buzz words into meetings and conversations then this diagram is the one for you.

The Conversation Prism collates a colossal amount of technologies and companies into quite an easy to understand diagram. There are loads of brands I have never heard of before so it will be good to investigate and discover, you can never know everything!

That’s the beauty of this industry, always learning.

If you’re going to buy one book this week/month then Creative Mischief by Dave Trott is the one I would pick up. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It works for every creative discipline.

I won’t tell you why. You’ll understand once you’ve read it. Genius.

Dave Trott’s Blog

Another great find whilst doing client research is The Web Strategy blog by Jeremiah Owyang.

An incredible source of knowledge and insight into web strategies. Written by Jeremiah Owyang who was a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, and is now Partner of Customer Strategy at Altimeter Group.

Good reading:
Companies Should Factor ‘Social Influence’ Into Total Customer Value
Four Social Media Trends for Business in 2010

I hope he won’t mind but I’ve pinched his “To Be Successful, Companies Should Focus On Four Key Trends in 2010″ to share with you.

Don’t fondle the hammer.
Understand customers, focus on objectives, not develop strategies based on ever-changing tools. Companies really need to understand their customers first, see our recorded webinar to learn more.

Live the 80% rule.
This is a movement: get your company ready. 80% of success is getting the right organizational model, roles, processes, stakeholders, and teams assembled –only 20% should be focused on technology.

Customers don’t care what department you’re in.
Customers just want their problem fixed, they don’t care what department you’re in. Yet, now, nearly every department can have a direct relationship with your customers using social tools. As a result, provide customers with a holistic experience Start to investigate how brand monitoring, community tools and CRM systems are merging.

Real time is *not* fast enough.
Companies cannot scale when it comes to social media, for most companies, you cannot hire enough people to monitor and respond to the conversation, As a result, lean on advocates, by building unpaid armies, and anticipate customer needs through advanced listening techniques.

The image above is from “The Future of the Social Web” Forrester Apr 2009.
The Five Eras of the Social Web.