Archive for the ‘Career Advice’ Category

My Favorite Question to Ask When Hiring Marketing Professionals

Tuesday, April 5th, 2022

Throughout my career I have hired a number of people into marketing roles, and have also aided other companies and organizations in finding, interviewing, hiring and onboarding marketing staff. It can be challenging to effectively assess job candidates for any role—when hiring for creative roles it can be even more challenging. How can you determine whether applicants have both the aptitude and the innovative chops to be a valued member of your team?

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Answers to Five Common Questions About Becoming an Effective Communicator

Monday, March 28th, 2022

Hiring marketing or content marketing talent?Effective communication is critical in today’s business environment. Arguably, perhaps, even more critical than it has been in the past—and more challenging. Interacting with others in a remote or virtual environment is different than interacting in person. But regardless of how or where you’re connecting with others, some common questions come up frequently. Here we offer a look at “5 Common Questions About Becoming an Effective Communicator.” (more…)

What You Should Be Looking For When Hiring Freelance Talent

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

Throughout my career, I have both been a freelancer, and have worked with various freelancers, initially in my role as director of corporate communications/marketing in the education, energy and healthcare industries and, since 2008, as owner of my own content marketing firm, Strategic Communications.  I have also researched and written a few blog posts on the topic, including input from other sources who have worked with freelancers:

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Must-Have Skills for Today’s Marketers to Excel

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022
The field of marketing is vastly different today than it was even three to five years ago. While the basic principles and concepts of effective marketing, from an academic standpoint, really haven’t changed much, what has changed is the ways marketers do their work and the kind of work they do.

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3 Steps for Gaining Traction as a Thought Leader

Tuesday, November 30th, 2021

So you want to be an expert? Seems like just about everybody does these days, and social media makes it relatively easy, and very inexpensive, to take steps to gain expert status, or thought leadership. We work with a wide range of clients, primarily in business-to-business (B2B) related industries, many who are business consultants wishing to establish themselves as thought leaders in various industries. Here are “3 Steps for Gaining Traction as a Thought Leader”: (more…)

Mining Your Junk Mail Folder for “Hidden Gems”

Tuesday, November 9th, 2021

Open Black Mailbox Filled with Mail Isolated on White Background.

I was having lunch with a friend recently when the topic of email – and difficulty in getting that email to its intended destination—came up. She was surprised to learn that some of the items that might be going to her “junk mail” or “spam” folder might actually be (more…)

Creating a Plan to Improve Corporate Communications

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021
Effective corporate communication has always been important. Now, though, in a hybrid and continuing uncertain corporate environment, it’s more important than ever for organizations to determine how effective their corporate communications efforts are, and what adjustments or improvements need to be made to keep employees engaged, productive, and employed!
What worked pre-pandemic almost certainly doesn’t work anymore. It’s critical that corporate communications and HR staff work together to create a strategy and plan for moving forward.

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Battling Blind Spots to Boost Management and Marketing Effectiveness

Thursday, September 30th, 2021

Unconscious bias results in bias that can make us miss out on different perspectives to make better marketing decisions.

Blindspots are something we all have based on our past experiences, interactions with others, and the opinions and values we’ve formed over time. I remember learning early in my career about the Johari Window in a leadership seminar I attended. It’s a model designed to help us understand and improve communications through the recognition that we all are impacted by the things we don’t know. Human nature is such that each of us has biases and blind spots that we’re generally not aware of.

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Best Practices for Managing Remotely (You Already Know These…)

Tuesday, September 28th, 2021

Man Working From Home Having Online Group Videoconference On Laptop

Over the past several months I’ve been very interested, even excited, to see how well the forced experiment with remote work has evolved. Since 2008 I’ve been working remotely. Even prior to that, I had several writing clients that I worked remotely for; most I’ve never met. (more…)

Capitalizing on the Big Benefits of a Growing Gig Economy

Friday, July 9th, 2021
video marketingWho could have predicted the rapid expansion of remote work and the “gig economy”? While the gig economy had already been making the news due to the emergence of companies like Uber and Lyft prior to the pandemic, the pandemic had had a significant impact on how companies are using and will continue to use remote workers in the future.

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