If familiarity breeds contempt, then what does contempt breed?

Apparently, more contempt.

It’s no secret in the social space we all loathe the ‘negative Nellies.’

Their goal?

To engage in online bullying and spew hateful, hurtful commentary on Facebook pages or blog posts day after day.

Trust me, we’ve experienced more than our fair share of the same here at Spin Sucks.

But, negativity aside, have you ever thought about the affect this online bullying has on the other people reading your content? Continue Reading »

I come to you to talk about the differences between corporate to agency life because I’ve done both.

I worked on the corporate side for the first five years of my career.

Only recently (about seven months ago) did I join an agency.

Moving from corporate to agency life really showed me how different they are – and it’s not just billable hours, managing multiple accounts, being responsive at all times of the day and night, and client reports.

The pace, culture, day-to-day duties and tasks, income, purpose – really, everything is different. Continue Reading »

The more often we read a news release in our job every day, the more we find journalists have transitioned into the PR field.

This is great news for all involved because it is advantageous for a professional to understand both ends of the spectrum.

But, while former journalists often make wonderful PR pros, the two career paths are very different.

The same goes for the style of writing required for each industry.

A news release should be written as such, rather than as an article. There is a clear distinction between the two, which will be explained below.

Mastering article-writing does help when it comes to writing a release. The basic rules of style and grammar apply, but one must always remember a release is not an article. For those who have never been journalists, now is not the time to start channeling one, at least not completely. For those who have been journalists, a few adjustments are necessary. Continue Reading »

Let’s play a round of ‘would you rather.’

You know, that game the kids play these days where they ask you things like “Would you rather cut your arm off with a pen knife or poke out both your eyeballs with a dull stick?”

Either way – ouch!

Now how about this one: Would you rather spend 12 hours in a dentist’s chair or 12 hours in a corporate brainstorming session?

I bet many of you would choose the dentist’s chair.

Corporate brainstorming sessions tend to be painful. You sit in a stuffy, windowless room under fluorescent lighting.

If you’re lucky, you actually get a seat at the grown-up table. If not, you’re backed up against the boardroom wall, stuck in an uncomfortable chair balancing your laptop and coffee, while staring at the backs of colleagues’ heads. Continue Reading »

A few years ago I attended a social media conference where the keynote was given by the chief marketing officer for a brand that was touted for ‘getting’ social media.

I couldn’t wait to hear this CMO walk us through how this global brand effectively leveraged social media to connect with its customers.

About five minutes in, the CMO spilled the beans, “We are excited about social media because it gives us an exciting new way to connect with our customers and to let them tell our story for us.” Yes, I threw up in my mouth a lil’ bit.

Sadly, this has become a more prevalent theme in the last few years as brands have become entranced with connecting to their fans and advocates.

They’ve seen how companies are using services such as Klout and Kred to identify customers who are influencers, and believe there’s great untapped potential in turning their customers into megaphones for their brand.

The problem with this approach is that, shockingly, most customers are not sitting around waiting for brands to let them shill their products to their friends and family. Amazingly, this comes as a great surprise to many brands! Continue Reading »

Internal collaboration is essential in today’s marketplace.

The world is moving too quickly; products and services are changing before our eyes every day.

The pace of life feels frantic.

We need to be able to collaborate.

If we don’t put our heads together and share ideas and viewpoints, we risk missing something essential in the blur of the hours racing by in any given day.

“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” African Proverb Continue Reading »

Welcome to 27th edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (Honora, A Better Mess), Howie Goldfarb (Sky Pulse Media), and me!

For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t suscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.

This week we have thoughts on passion projects, democracy, and drama behind the scenes at a popular morning show.

I am taking a blogging vacation (read: Not blogging, not vacationing so I can write blog posts) so Lindsay Bell is going to take over for me while I’m out. She’ll have fun links for you to peruse and I’ll see you back here on April 28. Continue Reading »

Well, boys and girls, this is it! I’m taking some time off to celebrate my 10 year anniversary with Mr. D and to get some non-blog writing finished.

You will not have another Gin and Topics from me until April 26. I know it’ll be rough, but I’m leaving you in super capable hands.

Rebecca Todd is taking over for me. If you have videos you think should be included here (and get your name in lights!), you can send to her on Twitter or through a Facebook message.

You may end up liking her more than me. If that’s the case, don’t be shy in saying so. I’ll be happy to turn the reins over to her permanently.

Until then, I give you this week’s Gin and Topics. Videos are courtesy of Rosemary O’Neill, Bill Dorman, and yours truly. Continue Reading »

In order to introduce you to today’s #FollowFriday, I have to come clean about something.

I love Boy Bands. Particularly One Direction.

When I saw them on SNL about a year ago, I fell in love.

I realize this is going to reduce my cool factor in many of your eyes. I blame it on the fact that I didn’t grow up like most of you with posters of boys on my walls and listening to music. I always had my nose stuck in books so I missed that whole music thing until after college (waaaaay after college).

So I’m sowing my teeny bobby oats now.

I might have admitted this to Erica Moss in a PRIVATE tweet after said SNL program and she outed me in “Top PR, Marketing Women to Follow on Twitter.”

I’m coming clean now because I want to tell you how really great she is, but I know she’ll bring it up in the comments (cheater!) and I’d rather manage the fallout.  Continue Reading »

Hi, my name is Liz and I am a persistent multitasker.

I can hear all you fellow multitaskers droning, “Hi, Liz.”

They say the first step to changing is admitting you have a problem. That’s the issue, though, is multitasking a problem?

I’ve always been proud of my “ability” to multitask, do I really need to change?

So, I started a quest to determine whether or not multitasking is the nefarious culprit keeping me from greater accomplishment.

I began my research online – more than 19 million hits on Google – and found the majority of articles and research are solidly against multitasking. Continue Reading »