Somehow I missed this 2014 Fast Company article about how Finland’s most well known icon, a crowned lion brandishing a sword, was co-opted by an extreme right-wing white nationalist group, despite me being both a Fast Company subscriber, and a…
Which guy do you want to be?
My dad and I used to run races together when I was in high school. At the finish line of one 10k, a radio station van was blaring tunes while racers grabbed some post-race food and ate at picnic tables. At…
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing – how balanced is your marketing mix?
“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in & be what people are interested in.” – Craig Davis, chief creative officer, J. Walter Thompson Worldwide Marketing history is paved with one-way interruptive experiences – also known as outbound marketing:…
The Power of Great Headlines
I saw this on a sign outside an auto shop: We Fix $99 Brake Jobs. It doesn’t always take a lot of words to justify your higher prices or to solidify your position in the marketplace versus your competitor’s.
How the rumor mill works, and how to manage it
Several years ago, a student carrying a rifle and wearing a Fred Flinstone mask at St. John’s University in Queens was subdued by another student and a security officer. The school immediately went on lockdown and text messages were sent to…
The Key to Crisis Management Often is to Get People to Do Nothing
A couple years out of college, while working as an account executive at an Arizona public relations/public affairs firm, I helped spearhead a public relations campaign related to the first proposed and privately built toll road in Arizona (the project…
What’s Driving Your Website Traffic? 6 Steps to Create a Website Dashboard
Do you know what’s driving spikes in your website traffic? Or increases in website sales or donations? You probably get the same questions other marketers do from colleagues or executives: “Did that PR launch drive website visits?” “Did we see…
How Your Facebook Fans Are Like Your Wife – Before You Married Her
So a bunch of people have visited your Facebook page. They clicked Like. Now you have a bunch of Facebook Fans. Maybe you’re even getting a bunch of new traffic to your website from Facebook. And now the questions are…
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Tracking Website Engagement
In Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” a computer known as Deep Thought spent seven and a half million years contemplating the great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Seventy-five thousand generations passed before Deep Thought revealed…
Keep the Content Beast Fed by Scaling Your Brand Storytelling
Your website, social media presences, and other marketing and communications channels are like teenagers – they’re always hungry. “What’s for breakfast?” “What’s for lunch?” “What’s for dinner?” “I need a snack.” “Where’s the dessert?” You feed them, then they burn…