Communication

Zagat Rates Pittsburgh Food?

Zagat will be rating Pittsburgh restaurants in 2013. According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, “Currently, the only reviews for the Pittsburgh-area on Zagat.com are for chain restaurants that were taken from their recent National Chain Restaurant Survey.” Why is Zagat so popular? I think it’s because people like to hear what others think is good, go… Read more »

Gilda’s Club Name Change?

How do you feel about the imminent change starting in the Madison Gilda’s Club organization to the Cancer Support Community? To me, it feels a little like someone not interested in explaining their brand and instead choosing a name that is more SEO-friendly. But I could be wrong. Language and word choice is very important… Read more »

Can You State Your Business Goals?

Early in conversations with potential clients, I ask them to state their goals for me. If they can’t state a measurable goal, I encourage them to work it out and then come back and continue the conversation with me. It’s not that I don’t want the business. I just don’t want a dissatisfied customer. And… Read more »

Get Your Social Media Team into Shape

PRDaily recently ran my blog “6 Reasons Why An Athlete Should Run Your Social Media.” It should be obvious by now that I firmly believe running inspires me personally and professionally. But I’m not the only one. Here’s what folks on Twitter have been saying: Love this, good reasoning! RT @bridgetforney: 6 reasons an athlete… Read more »

Recipe for Success: Simple Social Media Growth

  Debi Gilboa, MD, of AskDoctorG, is a rising name and national parenting expert and author of “Teach Resilience:Raising Kids Who Can Launch.” Over the past year, her social media engagement has increased significantly and she’s more than doubled her weekly newsletter following. She didn’t hire a massive marketing agency, she found the recipe for success… Read more »

Adults like stories, too

  In 2012 I published my first children’s book, The Bumpy Grumpy Road. It’s a metaphor intended to help children understand that they are in charge of their emotions, actions and reactions. As parents bought the book for their kids, I heard more than one time “This book helps me, too.” And when you read the story… Read more »

How can knitting improve your writing?

Knitting is an obvious metaphor for writing. Using your own two hands, you hold the needles and weave together a lovely fabric. You choose the yarn, you choose the pattern and you choose the end product. Along the way, you encounter problems. You miss a stitch. Holes appear. Something goes wrong. You have choices in… Read more »

Word Choice is Key

The language and words we choose show if we’re locals or tourists – and if we know what we’re talking about. When you visit New York City, you want to go to “the Hi Line” not “Hi Line Park.” And if you’re looking for good Cuban food you ask the taxi driver to take you… Read more »

Do You Need a Lemonade Stand Approach with Customers?

It’s never to early to learn how to talk to customers. My kids are learning to do this at ages 7, 5 and 2 thanks to their very first lemonade stand. We live near a park and have a relatively constant flow of potentially thirsty neighbors walking past our house. So my boys decided they… Read more »

Should You Deliver Bad News in Person?

Should you deliver bad news in person? I would argue yes. Experts say that 70% of our message is carried in non-verbal communication, that is how we convey meaning without words. The height of our eyebrows, the position of our arms, the volume of our voice, even the rate we blink all carry important information… Read more »