Last week Jeannie Walters and I were discussing Brian Solis’s new book The End of Business As Usual.

Because she is a customer experience expert, she was especially interested in what Brian had to say about the connected customer and where business is going because of it.

When I mentioned I was writing a review of the book, she asked if she could join in.

And, because the Pinterest debate between Paul Sutton and I worked so well, we thought we’d do a combined book review.

Jeannie reviews it from the customer experience angle and I review it from the leadership angle. Continue Reading »

In 2010 we announced Arment Dietrich was no longer a PR firm.

It was pretty amazing to see what happened, almost overnight. Clients and prospects, alike, stopped asking us to do only publicity and instead began to bring us in on integrated marketing communication programs.

Even though we were constantly demonstrating our capabilities, we weren’t seen as an integrated firm until we drew a line in the sand.

I didn’t even realize I was doing something trendy, or what the startup world calls “pivot,” I was simply responding to client needs and to the big shift the web was creating for the marketing and communication industries. Continue Reading »

I had a really interesting experience last week.

This may not be new to some of you, but it was new to me…and it was really freaking cool!

I was invited to participate in a think tank for Interlochen, a center for the arts in Traverse City, Mich.

More on them in a minute.

They invited four experts to join four staff and two board trustees in a day of thinking, brainstorming, cajoling, and planning.

With the New York Times article about how Groupthink and brainstorming don’t work on my mind, I was interested to see how this all played out.

Was it going to work? Continue Reading »

Yes, I know it’s Facebook question of the week time, but we’re trying something new this week.

You see, Social Fresh wrote last week about the best times of the week and day to blog, in order to get social shares.

Historically, Mondays and Tuesdays on Spin Sucks are our big days, but the Social Fresh research proves we might be missing something on Thursdays.

I’m curious to see if a blog post runs at 8 a.m. and the video runs at noon, if there is a difference both in traffic and social shares.

So Lisa Gerber has answered Barry Silver’s Facebook question and that will run at noon.

This morning, however, you get an intellectual discussion about when to determine it’s time to fire a client. Continue Reading »

Late last year, Lisa Petrilli published The Introvert’s Guide to Success.

It popped into my brain when I saw, “The Rise of the New Groupthink” in the New York Times last week.

Combine those two pieces of content and you may have actually heard me yell, “Hurrah!”

You see, I’m an introvert. And, until about two years ago, I thought there was something wrong with me (well, there is clearly something wrong with me, but it’s not because I’m an introvert).

I know, I know. When I say that people don’t believe me.  Continue Reading »

I’m an English major. Not as in the language, but as in literature and creative writing.

I preface with that because what I’m about to say may come across as biased.

Read. More. Fiction.

As it turns out, though, I’m not biased (well, maybe a little bit). In the November issue of Scientific American, author and researcher Keith Oatley describes what reading fiction does for our minds and souls. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Shelley Pringle. 

Once upon a time in a land far, far away—actually it was in Canada so maybe not that far away for some of you—I worked for an integrated marketing communication company called Promanad.

Promanad had one of the most interesting corporate cultures I’ve ever experienced. For example, new business presentations were always concluded with the declaration, “We’re not normal.”

And indeed we weren’t.

Now, corporate culture can be a pretty nebulous thing. Many factors affect it, including how people are compensated and rewarded, formal and informal policies, rituals, routines, and, perhaps most importantly, the behavior of the organization’s leaders. Continue Reading »

It’s Facebook question of the week time (clap, clap, clap)!

This week, we had a plethora of questions, but only one of them was coherent (Jennifer MacDonald).

So I thought it would be fun to address Jen’s question later (in a serious video) and address all of the goofy ones at once today.

Yes, we talk Super Bowl commercials, angels, LaToya Jackson, my new favorite shirt from Frank and Eileen, and even Ken Mueller gets a mention even though he forgot his question (try again next week, Ken!).

Alright. Let’s start with the questions. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Lisa Gerber.

I had an interesting conversation at a holiday cocktail party with the COO of a ski resort. He was sharing with me a complaint he had received about the quality of grooming on the cross-country trails. It was bothering him and he was trying to decide how to respond.

The problem, he explained, is people have high expectations for the cross-country trails but the profit margin is so small it’s not a priority for them. When the weather is challenging (that’s ski resort speak for “when it rains”) grooming requires more resources so everything is shifted to get the alpine trails groomed, and cross country trails suffer from it.

So what do you do? Offer him a refund? Apologize and explain about the weather challenges? Tell him he isn’t an important customer and the focus on grooming last night was on the more profitable alpine skier? Continue Reading »

I’m baaaaack!

I hope everyone had great holidays. I did…and I’m dragging a bit this morning because of it. I was getting used to sleeping until 7:30 every morning!

Because it’s the first day back for many of us, this isn’t going to be a heady blog post.

I have a feeling. I think 2012 is going to be a very good year. It’s going to be a good year for the economy, for business, and for a lot of us personally. Continue Reading »