Growing a business today means growing a business online. No matter if yours is a local brick and mortar or a fully virtual shop, every business needs to have an online presence. Consumers turn to the internet first when making purchasing decisions–up to 97 percent looking for local companies online. So if you don’t carve a space for yourself there, you’re truly holding yourself back from the growth you want and need. Because if you’re…
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The last time a major hurricane battered the Houston area, I was reporting from the aftermath of Hurricane Ike for the Federal Emergency Managment Agency (FEMA) as a member of the headquarter’s public affairs team in 2008. With Hurricane Harvey, I see the intersection of my new career as a communications consultant working with rural electric cooperatives with my former one as I watch Texas, once again, battle back from massive flooding and power outages. But this…
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1. Do I really need to be on social media? You don’t have to, but here’s why it’s a smart move: When a leader has an active presence on social media it shows the world (and your customers, board, stakeholders, and employees) that you’re not only listening but that you are willing to “open the books” – so to speak – on how you operate. It also indicates you aren’t stuck in your old ways —…
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Recently, I conducted a communication training session for a group of board members just as news of the turmoil at Uber began swirling. I felt the situation at the car-sharing tech giant was the perfect illustration of the urgent need for reputation management at the CEO level: Amidst allegations of sexism in the workplace, a board member of Uber complained that women serving on corporate boards leads to unnecessary chatter. As I summarized what happened…
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For many a solopreneur, small business owner, or side-hustler with a website, the choice of whether to start a blog or not has a simple answer – you have one. After all, that’s what people do with websites. Right? Sure. But keeping up with the blogging? Ah, now that’s a horse of a different color. Most people who have a blog will tell you it’s difficult to keep it current. That’s likely because most people…
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Clout Clout by definition according to Merriam-Webster: 1) The power to influence or control situations 2) A hit especially with the hand This spelling can be used to indicate a person’s or a brand’s clout online when referring to the social media influence in a wholistic sense, but not when discussing the actual rating of their influence. That’s a Klout score. A Klout score is determined by a person’s online clout. Make sense? Klout The term…
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Death by a Thousand Clicks: When poor digital media practices slowly kill your reputation…one click at a time. Alert: Shameless Spark Plug coming at ya. Fun speaking gig at the newly minted Creative Mornings PKX in Portsmouth NH. Creative Mornings is a global morning lecture series for the creative community spear headed by NYC based Tina Roth Eisenberg of @swissmiss fame. They have 133 chapters around the globe all speaking on the same monthly theme. Our monthly theme…
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Players from the U.S. women’s national soccer team had a very busy week in the media. Last Thursday, there was plenty of buzz about five current players who filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the U.S. Soccer Federation seeking wage equality with their male colleagues. Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Rebecca Sauerbrunn, Hope Solo and Alex Morgan filed the complaint on behalf of the entire team. Then, only days later, Abby Wambach,…
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Once again, social media is bringing people together in a time of crisis. Memes, Facebook filters, and hashtags appeared on online profiles and social media accounts worldwide to show solidarity with Belgium in the wake of Tuesday’s bombings that left dozens of people dead or injured. Hashtags Inspired by the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag campaign that went viral after the terrorist attacks in Paris last year, the attacks in Belgium inspired these notable dedicated hashtags: 1) #Bruxelles…
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Without question, the meme has become the delectable digital Easter egg for followers of this election season. Sure, political satire in the meme form has been around for many years, but this election cycle has created a demand for these infectious, yet timely viral memes. When a real-time political event is happening live, like the recent debates, the Twittersphere not only wants a meme, they demand it. Two Republican candidates each had to deal with…
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