An erstwhile statesman once said, “Corporations are people, my friend.” And while he was making an entirely different point and the line was deservedly mocked, there is a core truth to the statement. Companies are ultimately made up of people, so they should communicate the way people do. Customers like to know they’re dealing with … Read more
Want to get ahead in the world? Put down that dull business book and take an acting class instead. Not only will it will help you succeed in your career, it will be a lot more fun. It’s true. You may have made fun of those goofy theater people in high school or college, but … Read more
I’ve never been a big fan of all the motivational quotes that get passed around Facebook and Twitter, but this time of year brings a bumper crop of them as people work on their New Year’s resolutions. (Actually, I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions, either. My philosophy has always been, if you want to … Read more
Now that Facebook has finally confirmed what everyone’s long suspected—that they’re throttling posts from business pages—I’ve decided to suspend my business page. Here’s why. What Is Throttling? First, if you hadn’t heard, throttling means that posts from business pages are getting through to fewer and fewer people’s walls. My own statistics have dropped dramatically. While … Read more
The client from Hell, the boss from Hell—there are many permutations of this phenomenon. But sometimes the holiday season brings out the worst in us. End of the Year Rush In the marketing and PR world, this is the time of year when clients find unused money in their budgets and scramble to get new … Read more
Last month, on the first anniversary of my father’s death, I wrote a post called How to Write a Eulogy. My main points then still apply: First and foremost, speak from the heart. If it’s meaningful to you, it will be meaningful to others. Ignore the “rules.” There is no one “right” way to write a … Read more
The Internet and mobile technology didn’t invent bad behavior, but they sure have exacerbated it. That’s been vividly illustrated in two stories that broke this week. Together they offer a cautionary tale about the limits of anonymity and privacy in the modern world. Anonymity Breeds Contempt Until he was fired last week, Jofi Joseph was … Read more
I’m not a particularly difficult person to get along with, but there are certain practices in the marketing and PR field that give us all a bad name. They rise to the level of Stupid Marketing Tricks. So whether you’re marketing your business or just marketing yourself, here are my pet peeves, dealbreakers and don’t-go-theres. … Read more
I learned some valuable lessons about doctor-patient communication last week—and all I had to do was spend the night in the hospital. This is a tale of two healthcare professionals: one offered assurance, and the other almost gave me a heart attack. (Which would have been ironic, since I was in the hospital for a … Read more
How much communication is too much? That’s a question that inevitably arises whenever I do a presentation or interview. Specifically, people will ask: When expressing emotion, how much emoting is too much? When doing business, how much chit chat is too much? When presenting to an audience, how much eye contact is too much? A Matter … Read more