I’m sure some people are wondering: are virtual author visits for students worth it? The answer is YES. I had a fantastic time visiting five classrooms last week over Zoom. I know it’s been hard not seeing people in person, but I was so grateful for this opportunity. The students, from first grade to fifth… Read more »
Customer Relationships
Setting up email newsletter
Happy New Year! I love trying new things and here I go again. I’m trying a new way to stay in touch with people: an email newsletter. Check out the upper right area of my website and you’ll see this little green form: I’m not going to send out emails every day or even every… Read more »
The Secret of Social Media
The Secret of Social Media Right now, I’m working with the U.S. part of a major corporation to plan their social media strategy for the next twelve months. We’ve identified buckets of topics to discuss, like insider info on their brand, fun contests, debatable questions and lots, and lots, and lots of photos. We’ve selected… Read more »
Thank You Notes from Kids
Do you send thank you notes? Have you ever forgotten to send a thank you note? I volunteered at our elementary school this month helping with an assembly and the launch of a new school activity, Kids of STEEL. Kids who join this program will get to run together once a week and learn about… Read more »
Twitter and Women: The Right to Vote
Before Thanksgiving, I was excited to be a panelist at a meeting of the International Association of Business Communicators of Pittsburgh. The topic was “Applying Traditional Communication Skills to Social Media.” I do love using social media and I’m a firm believer that skilled communicators of any age can be effective on many different social… Read more »
How to Thank Volunteers
It seems very simple to thank volunteers, but as I learned today, “every ‘thank you’ is your next ask.” I’m working on the annual report for a Pittsburgh-area non-profit and the design team is exploring the role of the annual report. Is it just to thank last year’s donors? Or can it somehow mobilize the… Read more »
Three ways to thank teachers (or anyone) on National Teacher Day
Tomorrow is National Teacher Day – time to thank teachers! My oldest is in second grade and he wanted to write a real thank you note. “But what should I say? I can’t just write thanks,” he panicked. So I told him a thank you note is easy to write if you keep three things… Read more »
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 »
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 »
Do you have trouble focusing?
In a two-hour delay at LaGuardia, I wrote up a 400-word interview, 2 blog posts for my business and one for my personal blog. I had a little trouble focusing because I was worried about my toddler who was rushed to the hospital earlier that morning due to an asthma flare-up. But if you have… Read more »