There’s a lot more going on in Irving, Texas than a clever boy with a home-made clock and brown skin. Look close, and the story of #IStandWithAhmed — and the letter the principal sent to parents — reveals how America is cracking apart. [tweetthis]America is built on contradictions. They’re at the heart of #IStandWithAhmed.[/tweetthis] Here are a couple:…
There’s been a little trouble over at United Airlines. But new CEO Oscar Munoz’s platitudinous email to frequent flyers makes it sound like everything’s great. He missed the opportunity to transform the airline and tell the truth about it. United is the worst major U.S. airline, which, given the pathetic state of US air travel, is…
You asked for feedback. You got their edits. Now what? Should you do what they say? When it comes to edits (and, for that matter, advice on anything), the key principles is this: [tweetthis]Editors exist to reveal what you cannot see, not to tell you what to do.[/tweetthis] This is a crucial distinction. If…
Having trouble thinking straight? Try thinking for more than 45 seconds at a time. That’s a lesson from of one of my favorite stories of all time, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron.” Vonnegut describes a dystopic future in which “everybody was finally equal.” If you happened to have some unusual quality, such as beauty or a…
When you’re listening to a good speech, your mind is engaged. The speech ends and the audience claps. Now raise your hand and ask the first question. I first learned this on December 7, 1995. The buzz around Web browsers had become deafening. My Forrester colleagues felt the browser was a threat to Windows and the desktop (and…
Around 14,000 people came to Boston for HubSpot’s #INBOUND15 conference this week. Fourteen thousand. For a company that helps you run your Web site more effectively. What’s going on here? This is what disruption without the swagger looks like. And it ought to be a model for every startup from now on. “Inbound” is a…
My comments on the death of social media marketing generated a lot of reaction, both on my blog and on Augie Ray’s. I was wrong to suggest that it’s completely dead. It’s only mostly dead. Here’s some context. My work on social media began in 2008 with large corporate clients who hoped to use social media like blogs…
Business writers are boring. It’s tedious to read their email, Web sites, and white papers. Standing out from this grey background just takes a little color, and it will boost, not harm, your professional reputation. Boring text is not only dull to read, it’s dreary to write. Your readers are seeking information, but you’ve still got a responsibility…
Here’s what I expect from a major newspaper: news. That is, reporting on things that are new. When it comes to sensational headlines about HubSpot, the Globe appears to have forgotten about the “new” part. Like many of you, I’ve been following the titillating saga of the executives that left HubSpot because, allegedly, they used…