productivity

Why Distractions Mean Failure in Football and Marketing

Once, after a loss, former Tennessee Titans’ coach Jeff Fisher made this statement to the media about his team’s effort: “I think you have to be able to deal with distractions, put them in perspective and move on. Distractions are the primary reason for losing football games. ” He didn’t chalk up the loss to […]

3 Questions to Ask Before Jumping on a Marketing Bandwagon

It’s tough not to fall victim to me-tooism in our competitive media landscape. There are oohs and ahhs to reap, awards to win, client and board expectations to exceed and egos to stroke. So we see something shiny and we chase it. We see a toy and call it a tool, and make it part of our marketing […]

Lessons Learned from a Twitter Robot

A robot didn’t write this post. But if technology continues at the current pace, a future with bot-authored posts may not be too far off on the horizon. Depressing? Definitely. Crazy? Maybe not. Automation is alive and well in the world of social media and the debate rages on whether social media automation defeats the […]

If Your Website Burst into Flames, What Would You Keep?

Like an attic in an old house, websites tend to be a place where we set something down for the time-being, and that time-being turns into eternity. And it ends up being very cluttered. It’s the web, after all. It’s virtually limitless. We can upload as much as we want, we can trick out navigational […]

An Unglamorous Website Maintenance Checklist

web maintenance checklist, maintenance workers pictured

Many of us were drawn to the world of digital media because of the promise of creativity. We liked the sound of coming up with catchy headlines that resulted in clicks. We liked the idea of thinking up ideas for infographics that would garner links. We were drawn in by the challenge to create content […]

5 Reasons the Intern Shouldn’t Run Your Social Media Campaign

carrying the load alone as a social media intern

Your intern has more Twitter followers than you do. That is great. But what happens when she gets offered that gig with the agency across town? Will your corporate blog survive? How about that snarky Twitter account or well-maintained Facebook page? Though much of management is wearing the “social media strategy” hat in the board […]

The Only 5 Content Marketing Metrics that Matter

“What gets measured gets done.” This adage steers every hand writing a to-do list in every profession. In other words, we prioritize our daily lives based on what we’ll ultimately be measured on by our boss, our client, or ourselves. But what if what we’re being measured on is unclear, misguided, or just plain worthless?

How to Starve Ideas to Death

We’ve all had these meetings: Big ideas are being discussed. The future of the company is being diagrammed on a whiteboard. The word “should” is being used a lot. The greatest thing since sliced bread is being articulated with passion. Everyone is smiling. People are enthusiastic and everyone pats each other (and themselves) on the […]

4 Ways to Kill Distractions and Get Things Done

I have been wanting to write this post for a while. But I haven’t had time. I figured I’d do it eventually. But project deliverables got in the way. So did happy hours. And so did sleep. Don’t get me wrong: I kept writing it on my to-do lists. I definitely wrote it down more […]

7 Steps to Dealing with Information Overload

Be honest: How many tabs do you have open in your browser right now? And how many times will you stop to check your email, IMs or Twitter while reading this post? There are too many links to click, blogs to subscribe to, Tweets to Retweet, books to read, and oh yeah, work to do. So […]

The Best Practice is Practice

We spend a lot of time reading how-to articles, case studies, and best practices. We want to make sure we’ve got the best advice and the surest path to success. We want to see how others have conquered problems in the hopes of replicating their success. And who can blame us? We don’t want to […]

Conquer the Writing Process (Or Let it Conquer You)

The interesting part about writing is that much of the “writing” process involves staring at a blank document on the computer screen. I rock back in my chair, I play with my hair, I stretch out my back. But all the while, the ideas are churning in my head (and that’s not just what I […]

Battle of the Brands: How Nothing Sells Itself

From the CEO running a global corporation to the preteen hustling for loose change with a lemonade stand, anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes in the business world knows one thing for sure: nothing sells itself. It takes hustle. It takes guts. And it takes persistence. But as competition for shelf space in the minds […]

How Marketing is Like Competitive Eating

You might not know this, but I can eat eleven hot dogs in less time than it will take for you to finish reading this sentence. Mmm. They were delicious. But I’m not just trying to impress you with my gastronomical feats. I’ve actually learned a lot being a food warrior, and a lot of […]

5 Ways to Break Creative Block

The blank Word document taunts me without saying a word. Writer’s block has set in, even though my imagination is working just fine. I close my eyes and picture hurling my computer out the window. I can see the cables, mouse and keyboard trailing behind it for eight stories, then catching up after multiple thwacks […]

Cut! 4 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Creating Video

When my boss approached me recently and asked for my help in producing a convention video for one of our clients, I was ecstatic. Finally, I thought, a chance to tap my inner Scorsese. My only previous directing experience came at age five. (I’ll spare you the details, except to say that it involved Transformers—think […]

6 Social Media Marketing Roadblocks and How to Plow Through Them

The race is on. Social media provides a track for organizations to connect with their audience like never before. But the road is not always smooth. A recent survey by HiveFire highlighted 6 of the most common roadblocks that hinder progress for organizations when it comes to implementing their social media marketing initiatives:

5 Ways Phone Calls Trump Email

As much as I’ve always loved being a reporter, there’s something inherently nerve-wracking about picking up the phone to ask someone questions. But when I first started out in the 1990s, I had no choice. There was no email, at least not in most homes and offices. But, oh how the times have changed. A […]