May 2013
1 post
“If you are looking for real fans don’t take advantage of their trust in your...”
– My latest piece on Social Media Today
Avoiding Fauxthenticity in Social Media | Social Media Today
April 2013
3 posts
“Persuading lost customers to return to the fold is a bit like trying to win back...”
– I don’t believe they gave Ron Johnson enough time at JC Penney. He made some sharp turns, some too quick but overall he had a sound vision. Jerking the ship back to its original course seems foolhardy. The best you will get is to be back where you were, still losing value each year. Is it...
Image Isn't Everything But It's Something
It’s always dangerous to center a business around a charismatic leader/founder. Once a business gets to a certain size it needs to distance itself from its creator in order to thrive. This is currently going on with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. I believe that part of the strategy of bringing the indomitable Sheryl Sandberg in was to make Facebook less Zuck and more empire.
What happens...
The Shadow Economy
The shadow economy, I knew of the black market of course but I first heard the term 5 years ago at the Milken Institute conference in a presentation by economist Alvin Toffler. It stuck in my head as economic models rarely do because it made perfect sense for how the future would evolve. The shadow economy is a similar concept to the much-vaunted “dark social” which is that not every...
March 2013
2 posts
Love And Commerce
For the past year or so I’ve been think about customer centricity. It is a marketing term but I think it has applications for writers as well because it’s all about shifting from audience on a vague level to honing in on those who like whatt you have done already and want more. Focus on your most passionate fans rather then always trying to get new customers. That’s part of...
Why Corporate Culture Isn't A Luxury, It's An...
What do employees want most? In The Culture Secret: How To Empower People And Companies No Matter What You Sell, Dr. David Vik says they are looking for purpose, autonomy, and compensation. Your company vision needs to take these factors into account, making it clear to employees what they need to do and why it matters. Having a vision is more important than a mission statement because it is the...
February 2013
3 posts
What's Your Motivation?
When I teach fiction or critique work one thing I always ask is what is the character’s motivation? Without motivation, nothing makes sense. Why we do what we do is nearly as important as the acts themselves. In the workplace however, things can often be quite different, often the only motivation is the paycheck at the end of the week. Frankly, that’s not enough. An employee who is working only...
The Three Masons, The Holiday Ham, And Other Tired...
I love business books and I read a lot of them. But I’ve noticed a trend that I find distracting, the same stories repeat over and over. I can’t count the times I have seen the story of the grandmother’s recipe which calls for cutting the ends off the roast. The daughter follows the recipe not knowing that the reason for cutting the roast (or the ham, or even in a weird variant reported by a...
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Real Influence: Better Results Through Paying...
Influence isn’t just about getting what you want, it’s about understanding what others want. In Real Influence: Persuade Without Pushing And Gain Without Giving In, Mark Goulston and John Ullmen go beyond what we often perceive as influence, being persuading to do something in the short term, and into the deeper levels of really being able to connect with people. True influence as...
January 2013
7 posts
Do You Need Multiple Careers To Survive In Today's...
If you’ve ever felt like the world kept asking you to choose who you wanted to be when you grew up but you never chose because you could never quite decide on just one thing: here is your book. Mash Up!: How To Use Your Multiple Skills To Give You An Edge, Earn More Money, And Be Happier by Ian Sanders and David Sloly celebrates the idea that there is no longer one linear career path.
...
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The Money Code: Using Storytelling To Probe Your...
I don’t always enjoy reading books about money but part of my “embrace the numbers” resolution for 2013 includes not shrinking away from the financial side of life and yes, I, like many writers, am not always as smart as I could be with money. The Money Code by Joe John Duran is a new self-help book that uses the familiar storytelling trope of using a fictional character to...
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Preston Bailey On How Creative Types Can Succeed...
Floral designer to the stars, Preston Bailey makes it all look easy. He’s got the glamorous life with travel, a high-profile partner, great clients, and in his 60s, he looks great doing it all. But behind the grace and style is a lot of hard work. Bailey believes in three guiding principles: generosity, empathy, and trust. He believes everyone is capable of succeeding at a creative...
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Chris Anderson Predicts Our High Tech DIY Future...
When Chris Anderson says the next iteration of the web is the real world he isn’t just being cute. The editor of Wired magazine isn’t just making a prediction about the next big thing, he’s talking about a full scale cultural revolution detailed in his new book, Makers. The last ten years brought about a world in which we have become our own publishers. The next ten may well...
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There Are No Blueprints For Magic--Finding The...
There are plenty of books that try to play Monday morning quarterback and trace how the huge successes happen. We all want to know, hoping maybe we can learn some magic to transform our own lives. So many of the great moments however, seem completely random, a gift of serendipity and luck. Is it possible to catch lightning in a bottle, to plan for the bolt from the blue? In The Click Moment,...
Not So Much A Resolution As A Goal
My 2013 Resolution—Embrace Numbers
Writers and data analysts rarely inhabit the same department let alone the same body. There just seems to be something antithecal about numbers and words. But the truth is that writers and most especially journalists need to give up their childhood math fears and embrace numbers. That’s my goal for 2013. Because yes, big data is upon us, and...
December 2012
3 posts
The Tao Of Twitter: Float Or Swim?
This week I was reading a book about Twitter which is a little like reading cookbooks—it’s a prelude to action. The whole time I was reading it, I felt a little silly. I’ve been on Twitter since 2007. Do I need a book about how to tweet? Maybe I do, maybe we all do. The tragedy in Connecticut has me thinking about how we communicate and how we use Twitter to do it. The good is...
What Is The Role Of Brand Journalism?
I’ve never considered myself a true journalist. I never earned my stripes in the newsroom. Even in high school, I was the movie reviewer, not the young Brenda Starr uncovering lunchroom drama. Later doing traffic management for lifestyle magazines, I was always running interference between editorial and advertising factions. This was before the rise of advertorial and sponsored content...
November 2012
7 posts
Why I Do NaNoWriMo And Why You Should Too
What would compel a person with an already busy life, fulltime job, etc. decide to spend the already hectic month of November pounding out 50,000 words on a novel? I’m not entirely certain but I’ve done it more than once and for me it has real benefits. Some of it is discipline. It is like a marathon, it’s not the finish that matters but the training, the commitment to a single...
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October 2012
5 posts
Trusting Others To Tell Your Story... Are...
I’ve experienced the world of sponsored posts from all three sides, as the person commissioning the post for a brand, as the blogger doing a post for a brand, and as a reader reading these posts. Done right they can be educational and/or amusing. However too often they are just flat, obvious, and dull. If you are going to use these for your brand I believe you have to be very selective about...
“Your story is your core value stated eloquently. Start with a value statement....”
– Breaking down the buzzword du jour | 1000watt
September 2012
2 posts
“We generally hear about knockoffs in the form of counterfeit luxury goods or...”
– Can Knockoffs Actually Be Good For Business?
August 2012
1 post
“Experience is the best teacher. A compelling story is a close second.”
– Can Storytelling Make You a Better Leader? - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com
May 2012
1 post
Customer Centricity: The Art of Targeted Customer... →
I recently read this book about finding and catering to your best customers. Targeting the customer is like targeting the reader. Who is your reader? Is it everyone who might come across your content, even accidentally? Or is your reader the person who has read your work before, who seeks it out and wants more? Who is your customer? It is everyone who has responded to your ad campaign or your...
April 2012
1 post
March 2012
1 post
Will Consumer Buy The Non-Selling Voice From A...
One of the biggest trends I am seeing lately is that brands are creating their own content. I’ve been a professional blogger for nearly a decade and the industry has changed quite a bit. First bloggers were ignored, even by the brands they covered. Then bloggers were courted by everyone in order to get the brand content on the blogs. Bloggers were given trips, free products and more. Now we...
Entering the Story: A Fiction Approach to Press...
Earlier this week I worked on a press release for a new version of a marketing product. I’ve noticed that in working with my business-school-trained colleagues they tend to work from a features/benefits approach when writing a press release. Others with a journalism background approach it with a who/what/where/when/why approach. I was trained in creative writing so I look at a press release as...
February 2012
2 posts
“Timeline hasn’t been rolled out for business pages (yet), but for those who...”
– I wrote this one for Realtors who often use their personal page as a business/branding tool.
Telling The Story of You: Using Your Facebook Timeline in Your Business | REALTOR.com Lockbox - The Source for Real Estate Marketing and Technology
November 2011
2 posts
