In the spirit of Christmas and stealing borrowing an idea from Chris Syme (her 12 Blogs of Christmas post), today I want to sing that “five golden rings” refrain, only in blogspeak. So here I give to you — or rather regift to you, since none of these are my creation, but gifts from others — my picks for the five golden blog posts from fellow higher ed bloggers. Each of these were posted earlier in 2010, but they’re worth revisiting any time of year.
1. IMHO 7 Reasons Why Higher Ed Is the Best Gig in All the Web, by Michael Fienen of the .eduGuru gang. Fienen was responding to a couple of posts (by Mark Greenfield and co-.eduGuru contributor Nikki Massaro Kauffman) on why higher ed is the toughest gig in web work. But Fienen flipped the topic to remind us why higher ed web work may not be so bad after all.
2. In The Silly Season: No Connections to Branding, Educational Marketing Group CEO Bob Brock weighs in some of 2010’s most talked-about higher ed branding campaigns and suggests that “It’s not possible to brand an organization by simply launching a new creative campaign. Especially if the campaign is a unilateral advertising effort of the Admissions unit!” Some common-sense brand management perspective from a seasoned pro.
3. mStoner’s First Law of Branding, by another seasoned pro, Michael Stoner, should be required reading in every Branding 101 class, up there with Trout and Reis’s 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.
4. Why Lady Gaga Matters, by Jessica Krywosa. I can’t stand Lady Gaga. But damn, Jessica nailed this long before the meat dress incident. Good examples on how to build a brand.
5. Message From Your President, by John Warner of InsideHigherEd.com. Is this the future of public higher education? It cut pretty close to the bone in 2010, and I suspect it might be prophetic for 2011.
Andy writes! 
Thanks for posting these blog posts! I will definitely be referring to these resources because they contain so much valuable information. Happy Holidays!
Great links. I especially liked the links on branding (Lady Gaga knows how to market!), I will use some tips in writing my company blog: http://blog.ampli.com