We've all been there. Maybe that internship when you were younger didn't measure up to the job description, and to add insult to injury, you had to work for free. Or your first job out of school didn't give you much brain food. Or as an experienced pro, you were treated like a newbie. Not [...]
On Sunday morning, I received a link to a Wall Street Journal blog from my dad. The blog focused on what’s viral online right now and included two videos — one for Evian using rollerskating babies and one about United breaking guitars. That evening, my mom forwarded me the YouTube link to the Evian commercial. [...]
The first few hours of my day are typically predictable — breakfast, e-mails, small work tasks, exercise and scan the news. I listen to NPR and peruse MSNBC.com. Occasionally, I check out a few local sites and review my Google Reader for anything else of interest. But a newspaper hasn't come to my house in [...]
Our long national nightmare is over. I am, of course, referring to the media's coverage of Michael Jackson's death and funeral. OK, I know, I know. It's not over. There are still reports to be filed, estates to be litigated and doctors who might get sued. For the record, I was never a big fan [...]
Today, I'd love to have a conversation with you about the way you view copy. Even without such a conversation, I ask you to consider a question you may or may not have considered before. As copywriters, we're taught that words matter. Then, we tell our clients, our bosses and our friends that words matter. [...]
One person whose job I don't want today: Gov. Mark Sanford's press secretary. I'm sure that job has more than its fair share of hard, stressful and just plain bad days, but on a day when your client/boss destroys his political and personal reputation in one press conference, that's gotta be a tough day. Let's [...]
In a recent conversation with a colleague, we embarked on the subject of social media. For those of us in media/marketing/communications, social media is so often where our conversations end up. How can we make Facebook and Twitter work for us? How can we get more hits on YouTube? Etc. I personally include "social media [...]
There are a lot of components to being a good PR/Marketing/Media professional. Yes, being a good writer or editor is one expectation. Understanding the business. Delivering creative ideas. Providing stellar customer service — or at the base level, at least returning phone calls and e-mails. (This gets missed more than you might realize.) And we're [...]
When you think of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networks, it's easy to think two things: 1. Young people. 2. What a waste of time. And while Twitter's demographic is actually a bit older than you might suspect, social networks of all stripes are gaining in popularity in all age groups — yes, even [...]
With the advent of citizen journalism and free, easy-to-use online publishing tools, media consumers have an infinite number of places to go for information. We can read blogs, subscribe to podcasts, follow people on Twitter and tune in to YouTube. But even with these changes in our midst, I've been under the impression that one [...]