Tag Archives: marketing

“Eat It,” in Baseball & Social Media

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baseball, eat it, social media, posting, facebook, twitter, instagram, linkedin

Before posting on social media, think of baseball

When you hear the expression “eat it” you might reflect on several things: a command from your mom when you were young and refused to devour what she put on your plate; years ago, your friends daring you to taste something revolting (i.e. goldfish, in the olden days); or a parody of Michael Jackson’s 1982 classic “Beat It” by Weird Al Jankovic.

“Eat it” is also an expression often heard on the baseball diamond. It’s used when a fielder is about to make an ill-advised throw of a “live” ball: a ball that has just been hit and is in play. The fielder wants to make an out because that’s the name of the game on defence: to get outs. The throw may be considered ill-advised when the hitter or other base runner is likely going to beat the throw. The other fielders see that throwing the ball likely won’t result in an out, any may mean the ball is thrown away and the runners advance. So, they yell out “eat it” in an attempt to get the fielder to hold on to the ball and minimize the offensive damage.

In this case, “eat it” is a command to devour it yourself: don’t give it away, surrender its effects, or push it on someone else. It means that you, the one holding the ball, needs to take the most advisable action: NOTHING. Continue reading →

Humanizing Content Marketing

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humanizing content marketing, content, marketing, people, numbers

The numbers matter, but people matter much more.

Today I visited a local marketing firm, to speak with the CEO about collaborating on a project. When I walked in the front door, a beautiful mid-size dog walked quietly from the back into the reception area to greet me. She was followed by a larger but equally quiet and friendly male dog. I crouched down to meet them both.

Later, as I was considering what might be the topic of my new blog article, I thought of the dogs. The CEO told me they were rescues that she received after promising that they would not be left alone at home, even together, each day as she and her husband went to work. Now, they are a fixture at her office.

Being a content marketer, this is an interesting tidbit that I would definitely want to tell her clients and potential clients. I know a lot of dog lovers who would appreciate the value of doing business with someone who has proven empathy towards animals. Continue reading →

Flipping The Switch To Content Marketing

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content marketing, journalism, sales, promotions, advertising, B2B, B2C

Content Marketing is about as complicated as digital journalism.

What does an experienced digital journalist and trained fiction writer have to offer to companies for the purpose of content marketing? Plenty. The tools and experience are already in place. He/she just flips a mental switch and continues doing the same things in a different way.

One quick visit to Wikipedia tells us that content marketing “is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers.”

The two words that I hone in on, naturally, are “media” and “content,” because I have spent all my working years creating and producing content for media. My area of specific expertise is digital media. Lucky for me, digital media is the ‘here and now’ and the foreseeable future for media. By the way, in my world digital media also includes social media.

So, the question is: what specifically am I able to offer companies that are in search of someone with writing and content development abilities? People generally abhor being sold to and much prefer being told stories and presented with useful information. I offer a long history of successfully doing these two things. Continue reading →

Misunderstanding Leads To Confusion

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new story, writing, communications, details, editing, media, journalism

A disturbance at a local park may be no cause for concern, depending on the clarity of the details of the news story.

More information, please

When I think about the need for clear communications, I think back to my news writing days and my thoughtful editor Dan, who used to say it’s preferable to give people extra information rather than not enough, so they don’t misunderstand the information that you provide. Misunderstanding leads to confusion and misinterpretation, which leads to second guessing and disbelief.

Disbelief is what we felt when Dan told us about a viewer of our website who wrote us to insist that we weren’t correct when we called the sky ‘blue.’

Yes, some viewers would be ridiculous in their comments. There were many that chided us for covering certain stories because they didn’t feel those stories were newsworthy. We always responded kindly and sincerely but what we really wanted to say was: ‘This site is a free service from a private broadcaster. Your tax dollars don’t pay for it so if you don’t like the site, don’t visit.’ Continue reading →