Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

@pocalypse now

03.31.2009 by David Murray // 5 Comments

A cat named Andrew Goodman actually led a blog item this way:

Guy Kawasaki gave a controversial keynote talk about his legendary Twitter tactics at SES New York last week.

Sitting a few chairs from @LisaBarone and like Lisa,
tweeting my response to the session, I couldn't help but wonder if we
were watching the same presentation. While I was unsettled by some of
what I was hearing, I also felt like the presenter was self-deprecating
and self-aware … and like he said, transparent about his sometimes
aggressive tactics. @LisaBarone, on the other hand, "threw up a bit in
her mouth," (OK those were words put in her mouth by @dannysullivan),
thought Kawasaki was "making an ass of himself," etc. I just didn't see
the evidence. I thought @LisaBarone was overreacting.

After digesting the entire talk for the rest of the day, Lisa's position grew on me ….

What efficient communication!

First, you tell every asshole on Twitter what you're hearing as you hear it.

Then, you think about what you've heard.

Then, you tell everybody how you and @LisaBarone (and don't forget @dannysullivan) experienced the original session.

And only then do you get around to giving us your considered opinion, which, by this point, I'd rather die than digest.

@andrewgoodman: Get your @ss to a store and buy a notebook.

@lisabarone: Let me guess: You came around to @andrewgoodman's original point of view after all.

Categories // Uncategorized

Twitter tweaks message

03.31.2009 by David Murray // 2 Comments

So I've been writing endless copy for months to promote the E2E Communication Awards, of which I am program chairman and which you should enter immediately if you value any one of the following: the future of the American workforce, the discipline of employee communication or your job.

For online flyers, web site copy, e-blasts, and several other promotional vehicles, I thought I had used every marketing phrase I could think* of to describe the uniqueness of the awards program, the urgency of entering (deadline, May 22!), the eminence of its judges and the ease of entering the program.

Then it came time to promote the program today, via Facebook and Twitter, and those media's demands for brevity and wit and bite and edge led the following slogan to pop into my head:

"For employee communicators only … but so easy to enter, a PR person could do it!"

* Short of my favorite bit of copy, a local radio spot that describes its offer as "The biggest no-brainer in the history of the universe!"

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Employee communication is tough all over

03.31.2009 by David Murray // Leave a Comment

I just posted then deleted an entry saying the Chicago Tribune had scooped its rival, the Chicago Sun-Times, on the story of the Sun-Times' filing for Chapter 11.

"Chicago Sun-Times files for bankruptcy," blares the Trib's headline. (The Trib can afford to be only so triumphant, being in Chapter 11 itself and all.)

I had to do a keyword search to find the story on the Sun-Times site. Buried in a tiny box under a huge banner add and a feature story about the plight of two-income families (as opposed to two-paper towns) was this whimpering, simpering "Letter to Readers," headlined, "Sun-Times parent company files for bankruptcy."

Oh, just the parent company? Well, never mind, then.

Newspapers don't have any credibility anymore for the same reason so few institutions don't have any credibility anymore: Most modern organizations—from newspapers to banks—are run on fear and greed rather confidence and pride.

And it shows, every day, in every way.

Tell me I'm wrong.

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