Strategic Communication and Emerging Media

 Didn't Joan Jett say it best when she belted out those lyrics back in 1980? "I don't give a damn 'bout my bad reputation".   Well, easy for her to say, right?  That was 1980.  Only a select few knew anything about anyone!  Here we are living in 2020 and everybody knows more than everything about everyone.  And by that I mean we know stuff that isn't even real, so of course, our online reputation is important.   I was chatting with the boss the other day about a young man he had just interviewed.  Boss really liked the guy.  What's the problem you ask?  Boss looked up his social media accounts.  Guy had posted bad stuff about his last job.  Did the guy have every right (and possibly every reason) to post this stuff?  He did.  But, what happened is my boss saw that and immediately asked himself what if, what if, what if..... Guy did not get a second interview.  Freedom of speech?  Yes.  You've got it, I've got it, guy had it.  But it can (and it wil

  Is it like, a groupthink type of situation?   All the big companies are doing it and people are LOVING it!  You’ve got Lego and Amazon, Pepsico and Unilever among others who are reaching out and utilizing this crowdsourcing resource to get new product ideas, new shows to watch and new ways to watch.  It’s a great way to find out what the people actually want and to allow the people to feel like they are a part of your company.  Thus creating a unity and family type feels along the way.   Sometimes they’ll offer you a small incentive to get your creative ideas and suggestions, but other times they simply accept your freely given ideas.  It’s actually a bit surprising that people are so willing to share their thoughts, ideas and suggestions so freely like this, but then again, I suppose at times the reward can be simply that acknowledgment that someone likes and appreciates what you’re suggesting.   Companies have utilizing this resource for a long time.  It works, It saves them money.

About 6 months ago, I got hooked listening to Ted Talks during my morning and afternoon commutes to and from work.  I could listen to all sorts of Ted conversations and it all started with Simon Sinek (thank you Dr. Padgett).  I started out listening to speakers discuss leadership roles and hot=w to find your why or purpose and I ended up in this cycle of stories going on about how connected we are to one another now that we have so much instant access to everyone and everything, but the question that was continually raised was “is this actually causing us more loneliness”? The answer was always different because it can go both ways. At some point we all have to ask ourselves if we are connecting with others for the sake of connection (the number of facebook friends or instagram followers) or are we truly making connections with others.  Teenagers today seem to be lacking a lot of true connecting skills.  It’s more about how many likes or shares or retweets than it is about having an a

  It’s a Saturday morning and there’s a knock at the door. Knock. Knocking. Knock some more. You get there and pull back the door to find your best pal from down the block ready with his bike for the days adventure.  You hear your ma yelling something about brushing your teeth before you head out for the day, but you’re already gone. Ready for adventure, ready to play with your friend and snoop around the neighborhood (neighborhoods) and find out what’s been going on since the previous Saturday. You couldn’t wait to get out of the house.  You couldn’t wait to get out of the neighborhood (secretly of course).  You played in the woods with your friends who all met up at different times throughout the day (depending on how quickly they could bust out of their own houses).  You had a designated meeting place (places) because you didn’t carry around phones and you weren’t able to text or call or snap or whatever at a moments notice.  You craved the face to face interaction with your friends