by Sue Horner | Sep 13, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
When my sons were growing up, books were a big part of our life. One memorable series was Where’s Waldo? by Martin Handford. The boys enjoyed scanning the detailed illustrations searching for that one specific individual, the bespectacled Waldo. Company employees are...
by Sue Horner | Sep 6, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
People are interested in launching their own businesses, but a little nervous about it, too. That’s the not-so-surprising conclusion I took away from this week’s panel discussion about starting an independent business. We had a great turnout, lots of information from...
by Sue Horner | Aug 29, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Nearly 28 years still seems an improbable amount of time that I’ve been out on my own. Astonishing, even. But LinkedIn has done the math, and assures me Get It Write has been operating 27 years and eight months. Oh sure, luck played a role – and tremendous support...
by Sue Horner | Aug 22, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Do you want to explain something complicated, spark a flash of understanding or create a feeling? Reach for analogies. Analogies – metaphors and similes, which show how two things are alike – help readers quickly get your meaning. “Tools such as analogies and...
by Sue Horner | Aug 9, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Hootsuite has an “improved experience” coming for users. Forgive me for being suspicious (too many years of seeing weasel words in corporate announcements), but I doubt they mean for those of us with free plans. Here’s the message, complete with an odd word choice in...
by Sue Horner | Aug 2, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My computer is now back from the shop/hospital/morgue, and you’d be right to say I should have seen this coming. My (formerly) trusty MacBook Pro was ancient, in tech terms – 2010, to be exact. The year sticks in my mind because it was part of my “back to school”...
by Sue Horner | Jul 26, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You’ll find some of the best storytellers in the music world. Songwriters use lyrics to create a mood or trigger emotion. They are adept at alliteration, and use rhyme and rhythm to help listeners feel the tale behind the tune. Expressive language gets the point...
by Sue Horner | Jul 20, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Writing experts agree that you should write first, edit later. Ann Handley calls this embracing “the Ugly First Draft.” For Anne Lamott, it’s “the shitty first draft;” for Daphne Gray-Grant, “the crappy first draft.” But at some point you need to wrestle that first...
by Sue Horner | Jul 5, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Somewhere along my 11 years of blogging, I started sharing the most-read blog posts part way through the year and at year-end. So now that we’ve already hit mid-year (how is that possible?), here are a half-dozen of them so far in 2018. I’m often inspired to blog...
by Sue Horner | Jun 28, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Content may be king, but relationships are royalty, according to Dan Tisch, APR, of Argyle Public Relationships. In a talk at IABC/Toronto’s annual general meeting, Dan noted that public relations and communications people should let others focus on churning out...
