I've noticed a lot of chatter here recently around how companies should categorize social media. After all, the more that businesses get involved in social, they'll need to allocate budgets from somewhere. And when something draws from a departmental budget, the purpose of that thing is usually aligned with the goals of the mother ship. For example, most people here consider social media as marketing and it should therefore be funded through marketing and then, like traditional marketing, prove a…
(click image for larger view) So last week I was looking at some photojournalism on Haiti via Boston.com, and came across this picture. In an instant, the appeal appeared. No, this isn't a real ad for the Red Cross. It's the result of a two frustrated humans who wish they could do more. But even though it isn't an official ad, if you're so moved, we encourage that you consider giving generously to support the human disaster in Haiti by…
Guest post by Ben Kunz A curious trend in social media is how most of its tools start out as perceived toys, worthy of laughter, and then gradually migrate to the mainstream. When Facebook and Twitter launched, early adopters in the business world were often kidded by colleagues. "That's great," an old friend emailed me in 2008 upon hearing I was on Facebook, "now you can stay in touch with teenage girls." Yet soon Twitter is tied in to CNN feeds…
So Conan and Jay are dominating the cultural trending topics lately. I don't like either of them but think Conan's the better writer. So for me it's just fun to sit back and watch NBC fumble over themselves. Again. Sure, some people will say that any PR is good PR – but I say bologna. In 1957, NBC launched The Tonight Show and Steve Allen was the host. Allen beget Jack Parr who beget Johnny Carson in 1962, and who…
We have this living room rug that needs replacing. We bought it about 5 years ago, and I’m not sure what the shelf-life is for area rugs, but this one’s done. Toast. So the hunt begins for a repla….. Wait a minute – What are you doing? Um, this is a post about a man’s rug – and you’re actually reading it. There’s something wrong with that. Anyway, get back to whatever it was you were doing before you clicked…
I’m Jim. I’m a copywriter. And I could be wrong, but I was always under the impression that whatever I wrote was supposed to create something like an internal dialogue in the mind of the person reading it so that they felt that the correspondence was created exclusively for them. Personal. Like a letter. Think of it this way – are you more likely to act because a stranger commands you to, or because a friend recommends that you do? …
