Last week, I received a marketing letter from a financial adviser who listed “played for the Chicago Cubs” among his bulleted background points. Hmm. I didn’t recognize his name, so looked him up on the authoritative Retrosheet and Baseball Reference websites. He wasn’t on either site, though I did find some minor-league stats for him […]
Providing to your readers, in an economy of words that succinctly get to the single, distilled point or principle that you seek to convey, is infinitely more effective and engaging than droning on endlessly, even if you employ 15-cent words and $1.50 phrases and $15 paragraphs that have each and every punctuation mark—including the oft-used […]
Do you know what to look for in a publicist? If you type “what to look for in a publicist” into Google, you get little more than vague platitudes like the importance of being a “people person” and “following up on a press release.” Here is one pontification: “A publicist is adept at establishing core […]
Last week, I was at the Jewel in neighboring River Forest, Ill. when I came upon a 2009 desktop calendar that, understandably, was drastically marked down. With nearly half the year already done, and stacks of the calendars on the shelf, Jewel was clearly in fire-sale mode with “Fact or Crap.” Its cover promises “a […]
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Stephen Green, a fellow Oak Parker and the Chicago Cubs’ official photographer, for a segment to air on Oak Park’s Channel 6. Through the end of the month at the Oak Park Public Library, Green has an exhibit of some 30 of the thousands upon […]
Facebook has a whirlwind of momentum and plenty of neat widgets that do cool communication-related things well beyond my earthly comprehension. But until a few days ago, one of its lingering weaknesses was the lack of a user name (or “username” in Facebook parlance) that you could assign to your personal Facebook page. To track […]
Father’s Day is 11 days away–have you thought about how it may help you promote your business or organization? One of my clients is Nakamura Chiropractic & Acupuncture in Schaumburg. Its leader, Dr. Hiroya Nakamura, is continuing a wonderful, international family legacy that makes it a natural fit for the media. Today, Sara Lugardo, Chicago’s […]
Writing clearly and compellingly doesn’t come easily. Every word and every punctuation mark brings a new decision. Which word to use next? Is this really the moment to whip out the semi-colon? Should I pose a third question in this rhetorical series? In the quarter-century since I began writing for publications (or should I simply […]
A rather rough day on the PR front for Patti Blagojevich, the beleagured wife of the former governor of Illinois. She eats a tarantula on “I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here,” but the charity of her choice can’t stomach being associated with her. You can read about it here in the Chicago Tribune’s account. […]