Take the dull out of digits
Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) launched an exhibit this week that explores the story of nine rare blue whales that became stranded in thick ice and died. The ROM recovered two of the skeletons after the creatures washed ashore in Newfoundland and Labrador in...
Jargon? Doesn’t sound best of breed to me
My colleague Sheila Gregory posted on Facebook that it starts to bug her when a word becomes trendy and is used everywhere. Right now, that word is “myriad.” A few of us chimed in with other overused or jargony words we find annoying. But jargon isn’t just annoying....
Eyes and ears still key in the digital age
Whether your organization has five people or 50,000, there is no “silver bullet” that will solve all your communication challenges. And despite the shiny toys of the digital age, panelists at an IABC event on Feb. 28 agreed that old-school listening, talking to...
3 steps for newbies to get the most from Twitter
While chatting with a colleague this week, we got on the subject of Twitter. She didn’t see much value in it and wondered if I did. I do. I’ve made connections with new people on Twitter, and gained better visibility myself. I regularly find and share interesting...
Content as a ‘Russian doll’ – use expressive writing to explain complex ideas
Humans are funny creatures. We’ll binge-watch hours of TV episodes or movies, yet barely tolerate a fraction of a second for a web page to load. That means you need a shortcut to meaning if you’re explaining something complex or unusual. Seth Godin says the best way...
Cut! 11 ways to meet a stingy word count
The fellow I interviewed was chatty; the topic, fascinating. The problem? Cramming as much of that interesting conversation into just 300 words. My clients often have a specific number of words they need to fit a certain space. Magazine and newspaper editors also...
How do you give your creative head a shake?
I must have run across Roger von Oech at an IABC conference years ago. He’s an author and inventor who has been giving seminars, workshops and presentations on creativity since 1977, although he doesn’t specifically point to IABC on his website. His name came to light...
7 ways to sabotage your employee e-newsletter
Done properly, a company’s employee newsletter can deliver information employees need when they need it. An e-newsletter can reduce email volume by collecting content that otherwise would be sent separately. An e-newsletter can easily link to relevant spots in your...