Newsletter 93. How to think before you write and lead. Plus, three questions for all writers, writing advice from a dead mystery writer, a university press in crisis, plus three people to follow and three books to read. Thought leadership from a standing start With the churn now taking place in corporate boardrooms, countless smart…
I inadvertently set off a firestorm on LinkedIn when, on a whim, I posted this: The minute I see an exclamation point in a post on LinkedIn, I immediately want to disbelieve the person sharing it and the content of what’s being shared. Is that just me, or do any of you feel the same…
The Times and the Journal have weighed in: people posting “commenting for reach” or CFBR (commenting for better reach) on layoff posts is now officially a phenomenon on LinkedIn. Seriously: For convenience, you can bookmark this post and reread it each time any social network experiences a “phenomenon.” Just change the specifics and it will…
Everyone knows that freelancers pitching for business need to make sure their sites and social media presence look sharp and professional. But have you considered that, as a potential client of a freelancer, you need to curate your own image, too? How I vet potential clients Two things: First, freelancers like me hate to waste…
Last week, I received a request to connect on LinkedIn with a woman named Mara, a senior executive from McKinsey. Since the profile matched the sort of people I tend to connect with and work with, I agreed. Pretty soon after we’d connected, I got a direct message with one word: “Hi.” Not very McKinsey….
Want to contact me? Feel free to send me an email, a text message, a Twitter DM, a Facebook Messenger message, a Slack private message, a WhatsApp, or, God forbid, a voicemail. And you could, of course, message me on LinkedIn. If you do choose to message me on LinkedIn, I’ll see something like this…
I thought Facebook would help me sell books. Instead, what it has done is to boost my brand among a big group of influential people and give me opportunities to get paid. As a result, I can see how it’s assimilating many Web functions, a trend that worries me. I’m a mid-level business author. While my…
What’s a leader to do in the wake of a divisive election? For Silicon Valley CEOs from Apple, eBay, Facebook, and LinkedIn, the answer is smile, give us a all a hug, and tell people to get back to work. But Microsoft’s President Brad Smith showed us how a leader ought to lead in a crisis. This election is…
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner emailed his staff when Microsoft bought the company. His email is discursive, full of platitudes, and fails to answer the employee’s most important question: what’s going to happen to me? LinkedIn has 10,000 employees, 433 million members, and no profits. And now it’s got a new owner. If you work there,…