commbasics

Looking back over the past decade has not been easy for me.  The recession really began in 1999 and is just now coming around in my view.  It's been a rough 10 years and I'd rather not dwell on it.  There have been some very good things that have come out of it, however.  One is the satisfaction that I was pretty much right how things would go (pat on the back), even though I was unable to change the outcome (sigh of resignation).  Another has been watching my family cope with the negative changes and seeing them adapt and support me and each other.  As an only child with two dead parents and no other family ties it has been great having these remarkable people teach me what family means... even though we don't seem to be like any other family we know. But the one grand thing of the past decade has been the new relationships that have developed over the past 10 years and that have been honed by the use of social media.  At present, I...

I love it when great minds think a like.  First Brian Solis sets up the segue from low-level to high-level engagement, and then Dan Holden talks about what the most important influencers might be.  so today I can talk about where you find the highest-level engagement in your social media program As a recap, since it was almost a week ago, the first level of engagement is made up of people that agree with you and give you kudos.  You know, the really intelligent readers ;).  The second level are the people who disagree with you and can include competitors.  these are people that can help you make course adjustments by giving you a reality check.  You don't have to accept what they say, but looking into the criticism can often make what you share so much better. The most valuable of all engagement, however, is the expansion level -- the people that take your ideas and concepts to different levels.  It may start as either agreement or disagre...

I tweeted an innocuous statement this week about how I didn't believe in PowerPoint® and got some interesting comments and discussions about it.   Dan Holden said it would make a good blog post... An I think he was right. I've always hated this application and snort loudly when it's called a productivity tool because it is anything but.  I'm not alone in this belief.   The Department of Defense has had a very strict limit on presentations because it started eating up server and man-power bandwidth 10 years ago.  And things haven't gotten any better. Yesterday I was part of the 2025 Virtual Conference, speaking on the future of media.  The day before they asked for my presentation and I said I didn't have one and would not be using it.  Took them a few seconds to process that information.  "Really?  No presentation?"  Our panel closed the first day, went off without a hitch and was quite animated.  I checked in on a couple other session...