All Posts By

Marijean

Nov 10
Love0

Finding a Job: Social Networks are Key

By Uncategorized

My sister, Marçia Heroux Pounds,  is a journalist and the author of a new book you should read; I Found a Job! Job Search Strategies for America’s Recovery.

Marcia Heroux Pounds

You should buy it, read it, and buy copies for everyone you know looking for a job (or a new, improved job).

The book is I Found a Job! and you can get it from Barnes and Noble (this is especially important for all of you boycotting Amazon right now.)

I Found a Job

A person’s social network plays a big role in how many of the individuals interviewed for this book found new careers and opportunities. As a big cheerleader for social networking, I am thrilled to promote this book as a collection of inspiring stories of people seeking and finding gratifying work.

This book or its development may be familiar to many of you; I used my own social network to help my sister connect to many of the people interviewed for this project and some of those people appear in the book. (If you’re a reader of mine, and you buy I Found a Job! you may see some familiar names!)

Buy the book from Barnes and Noble.

Nov 10
Love0

Bloggers: Thought leaders, narcissists or survivors?

By Communications

Lately it seems like just about everyone I know blogs.  Of course that’s not the case since I also know quite a few people who have never blogged in their lives (Hi Mom!).

I don’t think the high number of bloggers in my social circle is a result of working in social media or communications — I think that it is the result of many more kinds of people blogging.

When I started blogging, it was still considered kind of a weird thing to do. I hesitated to tell people about my blog and remember clearly going to my first blogger gathering and thinking, “these are my people; this is where I belong.”

While many have tried their hand at blogging, there are a few who have kept at it — who have gone the distance. Last year, the New York Times estimated that 95 percent of all blogs are abandoned. Many of the bloggers I’ve been reading for years are survivors in my book.

I believe it — blogging is hard work and some people have it in them to keep at it, and some people don’t. After all these years I still find that I have plenty to say (a symptom, I think, of being a voracious consumer of information). Blogging has served me well, contributing to a career that continues to grow and supporting an upward trajectory of confidence in my writing, teaching and speaking abilities.

Someone I consider a mentor once said she thought of blogging as narcissistic and therefore couldn’t really bring herself to do it. “Am I a narcissist?” I thought . . .  maybe a little, but what writer isn’t, a little (in the, “well why wouldn’t people want to read my words?” way.)

Klout, the self-described “standard for online and internet influence” says I’m a “thought leader.” This is good because this is what I’ve set out to become.

Are you a blogger? If so, how do you define yourself as a blogger?

If you’re not a blogger, what do you think when someone shares that they blog?

Nov 09
Love0

But Honestly Monica, Five things Cooks’ Source Should do Right Now

By Social Media

If you’ve been online or follow any social media news whatsoever, you’ve probably been exposed to the social media spanking being heaped upon Judith Griggs of Cooks’ Source.

If you haven’t seen it, let me sum up:

Monica Guadio wrote an article; Cooks Source (and that apostrophe above is mine — for Pete’s sake, the title of the publication – the way they write it — isn’t even correct!) took it, made some changes and published it as theirs. Monica called them on it and received an outrageously arrogant response from the editor. You really have to read about it on Monica’s website and read the response it its original state to get the full benefit of outrage. The “but honestly, Monica” is so deliciously condescending it’s become both a hashtag and a trending phrase.

The community took up their virtual torches and pitchforks and let Cooks Source have it on their Facebook page.

Here are five things Cooks Source should do RIGHT NOW:

  1. Fire Judith Griggs and replace her immediately.
  2. Apologize, immediately and sincerely (no, “my bad” is not an apology) and begin putting to rights all the wrongs it has committed.
  3. Re-brand and overhaul the publication — its practices are abhorrent and illegal – if the publication doesn’t go under from lawsuits and legal fees, it will be a minor miracle.
  4. In a good faith effort, OWN UP to all past mistakes and make a commitment to financially support an up and coming food writer through scholarship, in addition to paying for all of the purloined content they have taken over the years.
  5. Consider adding that apostrophe if you’re going to keep the name. Just sayin’.

Other posts on this topic:

Holy Crap, Cooks Source!

Internet turns Cooks Source Plagiarism into Worldwide Debate

How a Magazine Profits on Theft

Copyright Infringement Becomes an Internet Meme

Nov 04
Love0

Entitlement and the Culture of Social Media

By Social Media

I’d like to tell you that social media is all about butterflies and rainbows but you probably already know that’s not true.

A great feature of social media has been the advocacy action – the grassroots community building initiatives that have toppled the bad and uplifted the good.

Stories of these incidents are of a sort that (wait for it) go viral.

It’s become a custom amongst the social media set, when confrunted with truly terrible customer service to Tweet, post on Facebook and publish blog content chronicling dastardly customer service deeds.

BEWARE THE BUSINESS THAT DARES NOT LISTEN.

It’s true; we have come to expect that businesses — particularly larger brands, are at least listening online. We hope (and I believe, have a right to expect) that brands are responding to their own accounts. If you’re contacting a brand to complain on the brand’s Facebook page or with an @ reply message on Twitter, they should contact you to see how they can help.

Right?

I’m concerned about this — I’m concerned that maybe we’re an overly entitled generation, demanding superior customer service not just from big brands but all the way down to small Mom and Pop shops that may not have the resources to respond to all vehicles of  communication.

Now, should these companies be setting up Twitter accounts or Facebook pages if they’re just going to ignore or abandon them? Should they have an 800 number if no one is ever going to answer it? Probably not.

What do you think? Have customer satisfaction stories in which social media plays a role made us more demanding? Is that fair?