Last month, The Creative Group (a recruiting firm) posted a discussion about social media and who should own it – marketing or public relations? The discussion pitted Jim Lin, VP of Digital Strategy for the public relations firm Ketchum, against Ted Rubin, a well known social marketing strategist. As you might expect, Lin argued that PR should own social media. Rubin made … [Read more...]
Rudeness – and Profanity – in the Workplace
pics on Sodahead We hear a lot about the problem of bullying in schools and the workplace, but not so much about rudeness, which can be a precursor to bullying. But recently, three psychologists at Lund University in Sweden surveyed 6,000 people on the social climate in the workplace, and discovered that “rudeness is a major reason for dissatisfaction at work and that … [Read more...]
Technology at Work: A Love-Hate Relationship
I was in New Orleans for a treasured aunt’s funeral, sitting in my elderly mother’s kitchen, some 650 miles away from my office. It was 4 a.m. I was connected online via my mother’s land line. (You make do with what’s available.) My company’s CEO was in Switzerland for a big business conference that would be livestreamed over the internet. The plan was for people at the event … [Read more...]
Crisis – 2,000 Emails Are in My Inbox
Thirty years ago, I was one of three full-time speechwriters working for a Fortune 500 company. Our boss wrote speeches part-time and supervised us. This was a fairly typical set-up for speeches across the corporate world. Today, that company has no full-time speechwriter. The work and the need for the work are still there, but it’s parceled out, decentralized and included in a … [Read more...]
Not Brands or Logos but Relationships and Trust
Recently, I attended a talk on social media by Jay Baer, co-author of The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social. He was the perfect speaker for the topic– slightly geeky, articulate, deep and with a dry sense of humor. What he said was this: Business (and any traditional organization) faces a new reality in the online world. … [Read more...]