One of the major downsides of technology is the addictive nature of it: even when we are on vacation, we feel the need to post photos, check others' Facebook walls, watch TikTok videos, see who has viewed our LinkedIn profiles, and Tweet about what is important to us. (We train [More]
Looking back, was there really a surprise that Donald Trump won the 2016 American election? Or that Justin Trudeau won the Canadian one both in 2015 and 2019? Or for that matter, that Brexit happened? These three results have much in common: Politicians and insiders who are perceived as privileged, and think that they [More]
What do eyeballs and friends have in common with each other? Except for the fact that your friends have eyeballs, not much. Or do they? Is time ripe for a Social Media crash? Let's go back to the year 1999, the time the unshakeable belief that so long as you [More]
What do you do if you have a spare $26 billion hanging around? If you are Microsoft, you buy professional social networking site LinkedIn.com. What do you do if you are an avid LinkedIn user, or if LinkedIn is central to your organization's engagement and marketing plans? Be happy, but [More]
There is no doubt that software as a service (SAAS) holds great promise, but are there downsides? And for both software vendors and their customers, is it a disaster in the making? (Likely not, but it worth considering.) If you are one of the very few who are not sure [More]
Putting aside the use of Twitter by certain politicians, media, and perhaps so-called influencers, is Twitter in its death throes? It certainly wouldn't be the first Social Media death. Consider those who have come (and gone) before: hellotxt, retaggr, timely, booktour, Google wave/reader/orkut/iGoogle, LinkedIn Polls/Answers, and many, many more. Here's [More]
In his 2003 Australian best-seller Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language, author Don Watson rails against lifeless, plastic corporate-speak. He complains that too often, organizations hide behind their words, instead of connecting with their audiences with an authentic voice. While he was writing about traditional communications, his point is [More]
It wasn't that many years ago that both people and organizations craved higher and higher fidelity: 7.1 Dolby Digital sound, Ultra High Definition TV screens, and so on. Today though, mobile (and digital) is driving size in the other direction: smaller. An unintended consequence, however, is that the fidelity of the user experience has also dramatically [More]
While the internet has changed the world of publishing fundamentally, the world of writing has been fundamentally shifted as well. Consider who is actually doing the writing: Professional writers are educated in the craft of investigation and written expression, and spend an entire career learning how to convey complex concepts [More]
Back in the early days of journalism, there was a clear distinction between the "news" and paid advertisements. It was considered of the highest ethical imperative that journalists could not be "bought" or even influenced, by an advertiser looking to make a large ad purchase, or a threat to pull [More]
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