Overview: Communications Tactics

Easily assemble a variety of content types - videos, slides, PDF, webpages... - as an elegant and interactive reading experience that you share with your audience. We call it a “tute”

nothing about Federman’s job responsibilities at Fortune are traditional for a Time Inc. employee. He works closely with colleagues in editorial, public relations and marketing. He mines analytics for data about the best times to post stories and what’s connecting with readers. He identifies trending stories and occasionally writes one ... helps d…

This software is a clever mix between Sketch, Keynote, Flash and After Effect (plus some bonus features specifically for interactive prototypes)... Easily creating tap transitions from one screen to another is, to me, the core of the software. - Principle : the prototyping tool you’ve got to try — STARTUPS + WANDERLUST + LIFE HACKING — Medium

Here’s the trick I figured out to send a ton of personal emails automatically. - How to Send a Ton of Personal-Looking Emails Automatically — STARTUPS + WANDERLUST + LIFE HACKING — Medium

Readers aren't the only ones who want quick and easy access to information. You, the infographic creator, are also short on time. You need simple, quick ways to create beautiful infographics. Forget about Photoshop and other time-consuming image-creation methods. These tools make creating infographics simpler than ever: - 20 tools to help yo…

"... the “picture superiority effect,” whereby concepts presented with visuals or pictures are better learned and more easily and frequently recalled ... including an image with your social media posts delivers 180 percent more engagement or 150 percent more retweets,,, adding a visual element increases retention of the content to 65 percent" …

only when people are tempted to write gushing praise about a product they secretly despise that I think you have thrown away everything that you supposedly stand for... quite depressing to think that after all these years, we are still trying to put a price tag on everything that moves.,, However, there is something quite refreshing and excitin…

Masterclass time. From the Google Blog:  we’ve taken the Google logo and branding, which were originally built for a single desktop browser page, and updated them for a world of seamless computing across an endless number of devices and different kinds of inputs (such as tap, type and talk).

I'm launching a enewsletter to ensure I absorb something from the social media firehose.

Our interactive graphic offers a real-time snapshot of the race, using media attention to track the fortunes of the presidential hopefuls... explore the graphic and view a running picture of how the candidates are faring on television during the election season, or drill into the numbers by network using the explorer dashboard. - Media Cover…

The future of the web is "push-based", meaning the web will be coming to us.... the web will disappear into the background much like our electricity or water supply.. content, products and services will find you, rather than you having to find them... What people really want is to tune into information rather than having to work to get informat…

You really have two types of people you can leverage to aid your target marketing and social strategy efforts: - Influencers: Popular, well-respected, quasi-celebrities in your industry/space that share and engage in relevant content, and have a large audience and an engaged following. - Advocates: Vocal evangelists who are already a big fan o…

"Innovation is exploding in every direction. With all of these “smart” things — smart cars, smart phones, smart watches, smart glasses — it’s a designer’s job to figure out the best way to deliver content in such a vastly connected world. The projects you’re working on at this very moment will be interacted with on devices that didn’t exist wh…

The New York Times has caught the newsletter fever.... a total of 33.... Whereas its past newsletters tended to be extensions of its newspaper sections, its newer launches like Booming, NYT Living and Well encompass broader themes... The Times also is going in the niche direction, too... E-newsletters have had a resurgence in popularity lately …

We collected a trove of interesting and actionable headline formulas from some of the best sources for headline writing, and we’ve tossed in a few of our favorite Buffer headline formulas, too. - 30+ Ultimate Headline Formulas for Tweets, Posts, and Emails — Social Media Tips — Medium

Job Stories are great because it makes you think about motivation and context and de-emphasizes adding any particular implementation. Often, because people are so focused on the who and how, they totally miss the why. When you start to understand the why, your mind is then open to think of creative and original ways to solve the problem. - Repl…

... or any election, opinion poll ... "Google has amassed far more power to control elections and ... a wide variety of opinions and beliefs... easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more—up to 80 percent in some demographic groups—with virtually no one knowing they are being manipulated.. In the United …

Interesting approach to using Pinterest to curate interesting content: "Virtual Reality (and its cousin, Augmented Reality) are going to be big deals in PR and organizational communication. I'm curating articles here about the trend and the uses to which communicators can put these fast-growing technologies." - (1) Virtual and Augmented Real…

what are the characteristics of videos that engage consumers?... Depending on the expert, success is thought more likely if a video is humorous, shocking, dramatic, topical, warm, arousing, angry, scary, socially beneficial, cute, violent, sexy, uplifting, intriguing, quirky, interesting, authoritative, tear-jerking, educational, controversial…

A tl;dr version of “From One Spokesperson To Millions” the brilliant 45-minute longread by @jessedee on taking one of the most successful campaigns of all time - Paul Hogan’s 1980s Tourism Australia campaign - and updating it for the age of user-generated content. Some key quotes:

my colleagues and I have created a site entitled, “How To Pitch Me” that aims to help those who strive to pitch reporters in today’s tech landscape.... While reading these various submissions, I have noticed that there are certain tips that repeatedly come up... Here are the top ten pointers... [and finally] ... many writers we asked, includin…

"by simply learning from disciplines like urban planning, zoning regulations, crowd control, effective and humane policing, and the simple practices it takes to stage an effective public event, we can come up with a set of principles to prevent the overwhelming majority of the worst behaviors on the Internet... Businesses that run cruise ships …

"... that encourages conversation around stories and can help create community on Digg, instead of farming out that chatter to Twitter or Facebook... This year could be a tipping point in how media companies employ reader comments and conversation...expected to debut this fall. You can sign up to follow the project — and be a beta tester ..." …

"Humans are emotional creatures and they want experiences that engage them as humans. They're not eyeballs, impressions, views, likes, shares, clickthroughs, or conversions.... connect people through sharing and conversation to form communities that we can then cultivate. That takes understanding, purpose, intent and genuineness.

If you don’t want comments on your website, that’s fine, don’t have them. But don’t act like comments are some sort of intractable problem that can’t be realistically addressed by mortals. They’re not... you could fix this, but your priorities are elsewhere.... Having threads that close, having moderators that redirect entrenched disagreements,…

How a networking game can get conference attendees out of their seats

Social and mobile have fundamentally altered attention. Platforms for self-expression and communication are the largest and most important media companies of the millennial age, dominating share of attention and engagement for young people. And the behavior of the young is predictive of the future. - May I Have Your Attention, Please? — Medium

We seem to be suckers for a happy ending ... Upworthy and Viral Nova, have become skilled in coming up with headlines that turn a sad tale on its head. Shifting the focus away from sadness changes a story’s emotional footprint, helping it travel further on social networks... While bad news is a mainstay of the media, people tend to avoid passin…

"sometimes organizations get so caught up in showing off their use of social media tools that they forget that those tools have a purpose – strengthening the relationship between an individual and your organization. A healthy social strategy includes both content created to get new folks in the engagement funnel AND to strengthen the “passion-c…

In studies, people report that they feel better after venting. But researchers find they actually become angrier and more aggressive. People who vent anonymously may become the angriest and most aggressive.... We typically sound angrier in print. And when we write down something, we can reread it, over and over, and stew. With e-venting you don…