Steve Jobs changed the world. It's easy to point to the iPods, iPads, iPhones and Macs as evidence of this, but it goes farther. Jobs was uniquely able to translate a vision into a reality, and to anticipate customer desires decades before they were imaginable. True, he was a jerk; prickly and difficult to work… Continue reading Steve Jobs, Vision – and Fun
Author: Crysta
Beyond Social: A Digital Mindset
When I started “doing” social media for a living in 2009, it was shiny, new and nebulous. New platforms kept springing up, only to be acquired by a slightly larger company. Every time we created a best practice, things changed again, and we had to learn and evolve. But the things that make a social… Continue reading Beyond Social: A Digital Mindset
Don’t Keep Them Guessing: Get to the Point
A good storyteller knows how to give just enough information to intrigue the reader. But so often in business writing, we meander to the point and bury the lede. When readers arrive from a social link, they're even more apt to skim, giving your work just a few seconds to get to the point. Master storytellers… Continue reading Don’t Keep Them Guessing: Get to the Point
Web Stock + Social Flow
"Wow, that link is from 2011!" "Wait, aren't we on version 3.2 now? This page is about version 2.0." "So this blog post is great, but where's the context? How do I find out more?" In the past few months, I've moved from a social media role to a more traditional web content role. And… Continue reading Web Stock + Social Flow
On Socks
Socks have been on my mind lately, and not only because I'm constantly wearing two pairs at once to fight the unrelenting Chicago cold. Rather, both of my alumni associations have recently sent me requests for donations - in exchange for socks.
Telling Stories
“You’re a storyteller.” Over the years, I’ve heard variations of that line from bosses and colleagues, from friends and dates. As a child, my little sister would ask for stories to pass the time on road trips. And really, that’s my favorite part of my job as a content strategist at IBM: listening to customers,… Continue reading Telling Stories
Visualizing Data: Beyond “Chartjunk”
Day-ta. Daaah-ta. Dat-um? However you pronounce (or pluralize) it, big data is making even bigger headlines. While many businesses are finding better and cooler ways to actually use this data to become more efficient or solve problems, a disconnect remains: how can the average person really take advantage of a plethora of petabytes? The most… Continue reading Visualizing Data: Beyond “Chartjunk”
Why Stories
Storytelling is what makes us who we are. Stories connect us with others, unite us for causes and carry on traditions. Whether it was cavemen gathered around a fire or painting on stone or Millennials oversharing on Facebook, we inherently share stories. Stories are also how we sell things, from the earliest marketing campaigns onwards.… Continue reading Why Stories
Book Review: Too Big to Ignore: The Case for Big Data
I’ve watched big data surge as an industry in the last year or so, and have learned a lot along the way. While on the big data journey, I met Phil Simon through Twitter, and have traded links and stories with him ever since. He sent me a copy of his book, Too Big to Ignore: The Case for Big Data, and asked for my in-the-trenches opinion. As a non-technical person thrust into the weeds of big data, this book helped me better understand where the phenomenon came from, how it ties into prior technologies, and where it may be headed.
Let Customers Tell Your Story
It's one thing for a company to tell its own story. It's an entirely different animal when customers tell your story for you. Trader Joe's - who does relatively little in the social space - has inspired legions of rabid fans. One of them created their own "commercial," a video homage to the store and its products, which has earned more than 882,000 views as of this date....
Vesely Creative 