Hosting a forum for customers to help each other can significantly reduce support requests — and save companies heaps of money.

There's probably nothing I like more than someone who is being willfully contradictory, to zig when it seems the world says to zag. To wit, Emily Firth's article on why employee-generated content will NOT save your employer brand. She makes solid points (its over-used because it seems like an "easy" way to create content, but since there's rarely a solid plan with what to do with said content, or even how to nurture it, it rarely yields anything useful), but I see this as someone waving us away from the extreme end of an idea. Employee-generated content (when done right, where there's a "care and feeding plan" in place to nurture it, etc), can be useful. It just isn't a silver bullet.

I loved this article in Fistful of Talent about seeing one's job of EB owner as more than just being the EB cheerleader. Too often, we embrace cheerleading simply because aren't given the power or control to make change. But our jobs aren't about control, they are about influence, and how much do cheerleaders really influence things? Instead, be a brand champion.

Allison Kruse has really carved out her own space on how to effectively use content marketing in employer brand communications. So when she writes a big ol' article on how to use content marketing thinking to address and overcome employee advocacy challenges, I have to share it.

Are you confusing habits with brand loyalty? Are you good enough, or are you connecting to your candidates’ needs? Here are three myths around brand loyalty which may make for some uncomfortable reading.

A quick “hell yeah!” to Stephen Brand’s article on networks of networks. So much of employer brand is focused on looking for blue oceans of talent (hahahaha… like those still exist) to shout branded messages at instead of looking at who our own people already know. Quoting: “chances are, you already know 90%+ of all the talent you’ll ever need.” To ignore the best advocates you have because they don’t report to you is lunacy, so take it seriously.