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Category Archives: Business

SEO: Google’s Hummingbird algorithm from a content strategist’s perspective

Posted on 2013.11.27 by winterSmith 12 comments

Marketing and Search aren’t different things anymore, if they ever were. Google recently implemented their new “Hummingbird” organic search algorithm, perhaps the company’s most significant overhaul in more than a decade. Thomas Claburn at Information Week explains that Hummingbird is an expansion of Google’s Knowledge Graph, which was “introduced last year as a way to help its search engine understand

PowerPoint is making us dumber and damaging our businesses

Posted on 2013.11.24 by winterSmith 13 comments

Yes, PowerPoint sucks. Here’s why, plus some suggestions about how to fix the problem. Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn’t. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly

Let’s stop “making the complex simple”

Posted on 2013.11.15 by winterSmith 2 comments

For years my career has revolved around solving communication problems. One of my specific charges has been to “make the complex simple.” I’ve played along because many of the companies I’ve dealt with (not all, but a majority) think this way. When they do, boat rocking and cage rattling is rarely a winning strategy for advancement. But the truth is

The Friday Facepalm: business news for Nov. 15, 2013

Posted on 2013.11.15 by winterSmith Leave a comment

WTF is wrong with these people? (I’m looking at you Kellogg’s, JP Morgan and especially Yahoo!) Do you ever wonder what goes through the minds of those charged with making important decisions for big companies? Other than a stiff breeze, I mean. Let’s start with a fun one.

Business

Infographic: why infographics can’t be trusted

Posted on 2013.11.13 by winterSmith Leave a comment

This is hysterical.

Here it is: the killer app for wearable technology

Posted on 2013.11.13 by Rev. Dickie "Drive-By" Dixon Leave a comment

I have a great idea for a wearable technology app. What if you had a little mobile device you could wear around your wrist, kind of like a bracelet. And it had an app that would tell you what time it was? You could maybe have advanced functionality that would give you the date.

Infographic: Commuting can be hazardous to your health. Fatal, even.

Posted on 2013.11.10 by winterSmith 5 comments

One in six Americans commutes an hour and a half a day. It makes us more angry, less happy, increases back pain and triples our risk of heart attack. I hate commuting. Hate. It. Not only is it simply no fun sitting in a rush hour parking lot, I’m stingy about my time. Even if I’m wasting it sitting on

It’s WTF Friday: Home Depot, Lululemon and Guns & Ammo swallow their tongues

Posted on 2013.11.08 by winterSmith One comment

Nothing is more essential to crisis communications than an idiot to create the crisis… Rev. Dickie had that item yesterday about the Lululemon co-founder who observed, on national TV, that yoga pants don’t work for all women. Ask your doctor if spandex is right for you, huh? I guess we now know why he’s the former CEO. He’s not the

Some chicks shouldn’t wear yoga pants, says guy who sells yoga pants

Posted on 2013.11.07 by Rev. Dickie "Drive-By" Dixon 3 comments

It is absolutely true that all of us look better in some kinds of clothes than others. Some clothing flatters, other clothing emphasizes our weaker features, and so on. And we all want to look good. It is also true that we all think things in our heads that we shouldn’t say out loud. Especially if we run businesses that

Business

Cyberspace, cognitive mapping and design: some stray thoughts

Posted on 2013.10.29 by winterSmith 3 comments

I apologize in advance because this is going to ramble. And be wonky. If it helps, please know that it all makes sense in my head. Our professional development program at work – yeah, my new job has an actual interest in professional development – has us doing some reading each week and informally discussing the insights. This week we

Our psychopath Congress

Posted on 2013.10.17 by winterSmith 7 comments

Government shutdown, debt crisis reveal how much GOP has in common with other sociopaths… Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil. Involuntary dilation of the iris? I believe Philip K. Dick had it right in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Technology had, in that not-so-distant future, created androids that were

Dear Comcast: get your shit together

Posted on 2013.09.25 by winterSmith 4 comments

Comcast owes me an hour. As in, 60 or so minutes of my life that I’ll never get back because of their phalanx of … poorly trained customer service people. When I moved to Seattle I did all I could to take advantage of their “easy transfer of service” promise. Things started going wrong when I called them a week

Business

The New Constitution: comprehensive statement of principles (draft)

Posted on 2013.08.29 by winterSmith 4 comments

The original plan when we began this project was to offer the amendments individually, invite discussion, then produce a final document. The course of the process, though, has made a couple things clear. First, there needs to be a period to discuss the entire document in context, and second, while the original “Bill of Rights” approach perhaps had a certain

Predicting North Carolina’s future: if GOP wins again in 2014, expect a severe case of brain drain

Posted on 2013.07.29 by winterSmith 5 comments

Via our boy Dr. Jim Booth: BuzzFeed last week presented “11 Things The North Carolina Legislature Gave Us This Session.” The list isn’t pretty. It includes: Moral Mondays Harsh abortion restrictions hidden in a motorcycle bill The most restrictive Voter ID laws in the country The decimation of public education as North Carolinians know it The assumption that all those

Komen Foundation circling the drain? Good riddance, and good news for cancer research

Posted on 2013.06.08 by winterSmith 4 comments

The Susan Komen Foundation announced this past week that it’s slashing the number of cancer walks it stages in half. In a decision “not made lightly,” the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure announced Wednesday that it was canceling seven of its signature three-day fundraising walks next year. The decision comes about 18 months after the organization stoked considerable