A failure to communicate – and sell

My phone rang a few minutes ago. The gentleman on the other end said, I’m calling to renew your subscription to some magazine I had never heard of. Now, like most agencies, we get lots of publications. But as I couldn’t place this one, I told the rep that...

Obfuscate injures communicate

I think we’ve all seen them – those subscription offers from various magazines that promise $1 million dollars (or more) – and perhaps even a visit from Ed McMahon… I actually had an aunt and uncle, who received a ‘you may already be a...

Communicating in

This past week I was in Ottawa, taking part in a Federated Press conference on internal communications. (I was inside mostly so I missed the political fireworks on the Hill.)My talk featured a case study about a company that used a major transition as an opportunity...

A disconnect can be a good thing

I recently came back from visiting my Mom in Winnipeg. She still lives in the same house I grew up in, and being there is a bit of a time warp.What I mean is for five days I didn’t have access to my regular online fix. No high speed. Not even dial-up. If I...

My network or yours

It wasn’t too long ago when networks meant television; purveyors of small-screen programming, ad spots and big shared experiences we could gab about the at work or with friends.But social media – or maybe the late arrival of the thing called convergence...