Musings about marketing, social media and life.
I recently had a very dramatic haircut. Before and after picture to the right. As a result I have had more than the normal number of people comment. Positive comments of course, but they usually come in the following format:
Person: You got your hair cut?!!
Me: Yes. Time for a change.
Person: Wow! You really made a change. It looks really great!
Me: Thank you. [Read more…]
Indulge me just a moment. I come from a long line of volunteers. My Mom was the PTA mom during elementary, middle, and high school. Sometimes she was at school more than me. I was even called by her name in my sixth grade math class. Now, maybe that’s because we actually do look alike, and maybe that’s because my teacher saw her at lunch that day, who knows? All I know is that my Mom volunteered because her mother volunteered at school. [Read more…]
While out for St. Patrick’s day last week, it occurred to me that every bar has its different people. I noticed a few types: the new to town, the creepy old man, the regulars, the drunk girl, the gaggle of girls and the group of guys. Every bar has them. And they play a vital role in creating the atmosphere and experience of the bar patrons. This got me to thinking about the members of a marketing and communications team. [Read more…]
Be fluid. Be flexible. Be agile.
It’s been a crazy month or so. I was let go from my job, I started looking for a new one, and decided to take on more volunteer efforts with the Silicon Valley chapter of IABC. I thought I was busy before losing my job. It pales in comparison to the past month.
Anyway … this brings me to a few things I’ve learned recently.
I learned what I really would like in a job, and I learned that I have most of the skills to get me there. How do I go about learning what is missing? I have been doing a boat-load of reading. My favorites right now are Marketing Profs and Chief Marketing Technologist. [Read more…]
Yes, it’s true. I’m jumping on this bandwagon, albeit a few days later than most.
I’ve been contemplating the commercials from Super Bowl Sunday. I’ve gone back and watched a few over again on YouTube, and I’ve since seen some of them during normal TV viewing.
Once again my favorite had to be Budweiser with their lost dog. I just LOVE those Clydesdales. And this is probably the third Super Bowl in a row that Budweiser got me to tear up and/or cry. Yes, a beer commercial. Their team has a way of telling a story in 30-60 seconds like no other. Watch it with me.
There’s no way you can tell me that did not tug at your heart just a little …
The first month of 2015 is just about finished. Let’s face it, time moves fast, and so does the pace of communications and marketing.
No matter what industry you work in, or what kind of company you work for, business moves faster than most of us want to admit. Why do you think we are all chained to our mobile phones, stressing out each time we hear the email notification, and diving for our phones to answer on the first ring?
What if we took a few minutes and stopped what we were doing to take a few minutes to seriously consider about the story we want to tell?
My favorite thing about a good infographic is that I can learn something new in just a few minutes. In addition, I can learn more about something I already know very quickly. And, lastly, they can summarize a complicated issue in a way that many people can understand.
Here are a few of my favorites from the last few weeks or so.
I have been doing a little bit of research about tools to create infographics. I’ve been playing around with Canva, Piktochart, Easel.ly and Infogr.am.
What are your favorite infographics? Please share them below.
Last week my colleague sent me a link to an article with the email subject line, “looking for some entertainment?” And, boy oh boy, was it something to read.
It was the saga of PR gone bad by Ocean Marketing. Or, is it …
On the surface this train wreck of a story looks like a PR nightmare, but upon closer examination, it turns out that it’s a customer service disaster that happened to have been handled by a marketing firm.
It’s one of those stories that you know if going to be bad from the start, but there is no way imaginable that you can foresee a PR/marketing guy tell a customer that he is wrong and then move on to name drop to the editor of his primary target publication and tell him that his publication sucks – all before he even realizes who he is talking to.
The first thing you learn in any PR or marketing class is to know your audience. Clearly, this gentleman (and that’s being nice) forgot that first rule. My advice, read through the news about Ocean Marketing and then watch this spoof on the whole thing.
Happy laughing! What do you think of the situation?