Welcome to lesson 3 of the “bootstrap” series, which is intended to help anybody who needs to be a little scrappy in their work do strategic, effective marketing without a huge budget or team. This week’s topic is how to start your own Facebook Community. Follow these steps: 1. Define your goals. Are you looking to…

You’ve probably heard that developing engaging content is one of the most crucial keys to finding an audience for your brand or product and endearing them to you (or “converting” them if you want to get all business-y about it). It’s necessary for a stronger newsletter, email marketing, media relations strategy and social media, and…

One of the best pieces of advice I got when I was planning to pivot from being a college professor to a marketing strategist was to prepare three killer stories for networking coffees and interviews. These stories would illustrate that I actually had the skills, knowledge and experience to do the most important aspects of…

Video has become a crucial part of digital marketing over the past decade, and there’s no chance of it dying anytime soon, especially when you think about the fact that people under the age of 20 watch 18 hours of video a day on average.*  But compelling video content is a challenge for most of…

A few weeks ago, the director from my first gig after graduating from college (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1995-96) sent me a quick note just to say hello, and I was thinking about how lucky I am to still be in touch with her after all these years. Later that week, I met my most…

People have procrastinated writing all the way back to the times of the cave people as they stared blankly at walls that should’ve been covered in hunters and bison. (Note to self: Submit this idea as a New Yorker cartoon.) Most of us have a piece of writing that is due soon (or past due),…

Last year on November 1, I watched my neighbors across the street remove the Halloween graveyard, skeletons and ghosts from their front yard, put everything away in their garage, and then flip a switch to reveal… Christmas lights! They were hanging up all along, just waiting to be turned on for the season.  There’s always…

Several months ago, I wrote a post on LinkedIn about adding a few fun new letters to the end of my name – Ph.D. I actually just this week decided to add them to my email signature at work (after nearly three years of working there).  No need for congratulations. It’s a degree I earned…

Whether you work alone at home or in a corporate office with thousands of other people, it’s so helpful to find someone who can listen to your ideas, offer new ones and build upon them – and who will come to you to do the same. Although you can brainstorm all by yourself with a…

When I first launched this newsletter (or if you’re reading online now, let’s call it a blog) a few months ago, I was aiming for weekly perfection, but recently I’ve taken a different tack, and I’m not beating myself up for missing a week if I have too many other things happening. As I predicted…