All Posts By

Marijean

Marijean Oldham (Jaggers), a social media specialist and public relations professional, is president and CEO of Jaggers Communications LLC, a strategic communications firm based in Charlottesville, Va.

Jun 17
Love0

The Glorious Response of Miss Utah During the Miss USA Pageant

By Communications

Everybody loves a verbal train wreck! Especially from someone we’re putting on a pedestal for some other reason.  How do we avoid blasting others when they have this kind of public brain melt? How do we prevent ourselves from experiencing same?

If you have made the choice to speak publicly and there’s the SLIGHTEST CHANCE that you’ll be broadcast answering a question or waxing philosophical on any topic with a potential audience I have ONE phrase of advice for you: prepare, prepare, PREPARE!

And in the event your brain shuts down right in the middle — don’t just smile winningly, for Pete’s sake — ask the interviewer to repeat the question, and buy yourself some time to get back on track.

 

Jun 11
Love0

Managing Interruptions: How to Escape the Drag of E-mail

By Communications

E-mail drives me nuts. At times, I used to feel completely overwhelmed by it. I’m so reluctant to sign up for anything using my e-mail address because I know the end result is more junk clogging my consciousness.

Several years ago I decided to get organized and learn everything I could about managing e-mail. It was then when I adopted the use of rules, sometimes complicated, decision-trees that ended up sorting mail just the way I wanted it. I unsubscribed to everything possible and for e-mail I should keep, but not necessarily read, I set up automatic sorting and storage for that as well.

The tough part is ignoring the call to be slave to the incoming message. I refuse to do it! Texting and calling is immediate response technology, and even with that, if I’m meeting with someone in person, they have my full attention, and you’re going to get a call or text back later when I can give YOU my full attention.

I’ve learned that the best way to manage e-mail is to check it 2-3 times a day. I’ve noticed on days when I have several meetings, I end up checking it only twice anyway — and nothing bad happens!

The second tip — which is even harder to accomplish than the first and is my daily challenge — is the “touch it once” philosophy. When a message comes in, you either trash it, respond to it, or flag/move it to an action list.

What tips do you have for managing e-mail? Do you hate it as much as I do?

May 29
Love0

Your Brand is Often Your People

By Marketing

In a client meeting, we were working to identify what makes our client really stand out in its industry. They referenced their collective experience, the deep level of knowledge some team members possess and overall, that the individuals within the company are what make the company different from others that do the same thing in the same market.

Huh.

So what you’re saying is, your people define your brand?

Exactly.

dentalhealthpartners

The dentists of Charlottesville Dental Health Partners

What image do you think your customers have when they think of your business? A logo, or the person (or people) who represents that logo to them?

The team at Rebecca's Natural Food

The team at Rebecca’s Natural Food

Yeah, but we’re really a business-to-business organization. We don’t serve consumers, so …

So, the people who work here don’t have relationships with one another and with the people at the businesses with which they work?

The HemoShear team

The HemoShear team

Right.

 

Your brand is your people. Share your people with your community.

PHOTO CREDIT: the inimitable Sarah Cramer

May 21
Love0

When Horror Hits the Headlines: Tornadoes in Oklahoma

By Media

I grew up in the Midwest, land of Lincoln, corn, and tornadoes. We had tornado drills in school as often as we had fire drills, and I certainly experienced more tornadoes in my lifetime — and in fact, never a fire.

I’ve noticed, this week, as reports file in and are updated and revised on the death toll, the estimated damage, that no matter how I receive news, an event of this nature overwhelms and

Image from the Daily Beast

Image from the Daily Beast

overshadows all other content. It’s hard to even see or hear news beyond the tornadoes — even important news — when the consumers of news demand more pictures of devastation, stores of the survivors and the lost.

I can appreciate the focus on this and other tragedies, but I can’t help but wonder, at what price? When we narrow our vision to reflect on tragedies in our backyards and spend, perhaps, too much time looking at images or listening to interviews from the “ground zero” witnesses, what are we missing?

There are no artificial filters to help with this — it comes down to choices we make as consumers of news, but I think we should be cautious, and wary, that in the wake of tragedies such as this, our underbelly is exposed, and we need to still be vigilant in all other arenas, even while the first responders are still on site.

May 17
Love0

WTF? Friday: LinkedIn Bans Prostitutes, Allows Goofy Endorsements

By Social Media

It’s outrageous, right? That all this time, LinkedIn has had users whose professions include prostitution, and that endorsements like “rape,” “shoplifting,” and “manslaughter” have been WTF?allowed?

HOW DID WE NOT KNOW THIS? And really, who wants a prostitute with a well-developed professional net . . . oh, never mind.

LinkedIn is busy revising its user agreements while the rest of us grow weary of the request for endorsements. My friend, optometrist Mike Murphy, sent a message to his LinkedIn contacts this week:

I am sending a blanket email to all of my connections on Linked-In regarding endorsements.

Please be advised that I do not value empty endorsements. If you have never worked with me, been a patient of mine, or in some cases never MET me please do not endorse me.
Nor should you ask for or expect that I will endorse you for your skills if I have not experienced them first hand. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but seriously if you do not know me how do you know that I even know which end of an ophthalmoscope to look through?

That said, I have received a few endorsements from people who I have a professional relationship with and those I welcome warmly and value highly.

Thank you for your consideration.

Mike Murphy

Endorsements have quickly lost their value. What still holds up, however, are the thoughtful recommendations that connections have written to formally recognize one another.

If you want to provide value to someone in your network, don’t endorse a skill, write them a recommendation.