The Red Jacket Diaries blog

Sue Horner is a freelance writer in Oakville, Ontario, who blogs about writing, communications and running an independent business in The Red Jacket Diaries blog.

Social media can be magic

By Sue Horner | Published: October 14, 2011

Writer Susan Crossman of Crossman Communications went from not having to work hard to needing to drive serious business to her door. With focus, training and active participation in social media, she can now be choosy about clients. She spends about an hour each morning tending to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, a process she calls [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Steve Jobs touched my life; yours too?

By Sue Horner | Published: October 6, 2011

In an early job, I worked in a sea of PCs, but got special dispensation to get a Mac because I worked in the Communications department. The IT guy seemed as excited about it as I was. A Mac IIsi (shown here) helped me launch Get It Write in 1991. Today, I use a MacBook [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged | Leave a comment

Stop and say thanks

By Sue Horner | Published: October 4, 2011

When was the last time you received a hand-written note, in the mail? It’s not that you aren’t getting in touch with or hearing from other people. You send and receive dozens, maybe hundreds of emails every day. You read newspapers and magazines and listen to the radio. You probably exchange tweets and Facebook updates, [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged | Leave a comment

Best. Spam. Ever.

By Sue Horner | Published: September 30, 2011

Thank goodness, Akismet keeps blog spam at bay. But every once in a while, I look through the spam holding pen to check out the most recent catches. I have to say, those spammers are getting quite creative, even if their grammar, excessive use of exclamation marks and the web addresses associated with their attempted [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged , | 4 Comments

What are you waiting for? Get blogging!

By Sue Horner | Published: September 28, 2011

Pay no attention to the periodic claims that blogging is on its deathbed or that Twitter has taken over. As blogger, podcaster and storyteller Donna Papacosta said last night in a talk to IABC/Toronto, blogging is an excellent way to get known and get remembered. (See Donna’s slides here.) Blogs used to be considered just [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Outreach doesn’t have to be pushy

By Sue Horner | Published: September 22, 2011

Freelancers and independent communicators often agonize over following up with prospective clients. We don’t want to bother people. We worry that we’ll be seen as pushy. This might not be a good time. We’re calling too often. We’ve sent too many emails. But there’s a difference between being pushy and following up in a polite [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged , | 2 Comments

10 tips to network like a pro

By Sue Horner | Published: September 20, 2011

Whether you run your own independent business or work in a corporate setting, you need to get out and network. Like having a profile on LinkedIn (as I suggested the other day), networking gives you another way of building your connections. And in the same way you always want to have a resume updated to [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

How freelancers can use LinkedIn

By Sue Horner | Published: September 17, 2011

After a conversation this week with someone just starting an independent business, one of the first things I did was send my new friend an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. This social networking site has more than 100 million members in more than 200 countries. As of January 2011, it includes executives from all 2010 [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged | 2 Comments

Marketing on a tight budget

By Sue Horner | Published: September 13, 2011

For Tom Kaufman of TK Enterprises, attitude is everything. “Do you want to soar with the eagles, or gobble with the turkeys?” he demanded at IABC/Toronto’s Professional Independent Communicators meeting last week. Tom’s topic was “Marketing on a tight budget,” and he had plenty of suggestions. First, though, he made sure the group agreed that [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

A hope for peace

By Sue Horner | Published: September 11, 2011

9/11. It’s become shorthand instantly understood around the world for a day filled with tragedy. Can it really be 10 years since we watched, horrified, as one plane and then a second crashed into the World Trade Center? I was at work in my home office when my husband called. He was on his way [...]

Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog | Tagged , | 2 Comments