Rob’s blog
Engage your audience before your speech
A lot of speeches begin with someone introducing you to the audience – reciting your background and qualifications, and then encouraging them to greet you warmly as you head to the microphone.
And once the applause dies down, you’re looking at a sea of…
The social speech: How your friends and followers can help you write your next presentation
Speechwriting is a notoriously solitary profession. You might have a few conversations with a client, their staff or — if you’re writing for yourself — a mirror. But a lot of your work is going to be just you, a keyboard and the unforgiving blank s…
How to spur reluctant bloggers
“Why won’t they blog?”
That’s a lament I hear from community managers, social media practitioners and communications directors who are begging, cajoling, coaxing and wheedling coworkers, trying to get them to post something to their organization’s or c…
When social creations take flight
Five years ago this summer, in a boardroom at Vancity, William Azaroff was unveiling a new online community to an audience of Vancouver-area bloggers — a community we had worked with Vancity to conceive, build and launch. Also in attendance (maybe ex…
Why attribution is important – even (especially) on Tumblr and Posterous
Not long ago, I saw a reference on Twitter to a clever illustration of either Wolverine or one Batman looking at another. I clicked through to a Tumblr page, where someone had reblogged it from someone else on Tumblr, who had reblogged it from someone …
Updating this plugin (just killed my site) (a WordPress song)
So I saw this from Alex a few minutes ago: I have a shiny toonie for the person to write, record & upload a song called "Upgrading this plugin just killed my site."Tue May 17 17:19:34 via HootSuiteAlexandraSamuel.com awsamuel I'm comping you, sweetheart. Upgrading...
Everything I needed to know about social networking, I learned from my mom
When my mother died in early 2004, Friendster was the domain of the young’uns, MySpace was barely out the door and Facebook was still a month from launching.
But for someone who never saw used the word “friend” as a verb in her life, JoAnne Cottingham…
10 things they do for you on your blog’s 10th anniversary
Tiffany's gives you jade-and-ruby-encrusted "Previous" and "Next" buttons. Comment spammers begin to leave actual Spam™. Six Apart upgrades you to Seven Apart. (Damn... missed out on this by a few months.) You get invited to glitzy, celebrity-packed closed betas....
"Persona management": how automated fake profiles threaten the heart of online community
There’s a reason social media analysts and practitioners harp so much on authenticity: it’s one of the underpinnings of the “social” in “social media”.
Online community works because of our relationships with each other; those relationships can only ha…
"Persona management": how automated fake profiles threaten the heart of online community
There’s a reason social media analysts and practitioners harp so much on authenticity: it’s one of the underpinnings of the “social” in “social media”.
Online community works because of our relationships with each other; those relationships can only ha…
Social Change Institute: June 8-12 at Hollyhock
I won't be able to make it this year—and actually, it's been way too long since I've been able to make my way up to Hollyhock—but there's an annual event happening there this June that anyone should consider, if social change is their bag. It's the Social Change...
One Oscar nominee has special relevance for social media. And it isn’t The Social Network.
The official Oscar nominations are out, and there’s a movie up for best picture that has a lot to say about social media and the online communications revolution sweeping the world.
The Social Network? Hell, no. I’m talking abo…
Why, yes — I’d LOVE to speak at your event
Public speaking and speechwriting: the essential guides
Looking for advice on public speaking, speechwriting and leadership communications? Here are some of my most comprehensive posts, on topics that people ask me about most often.
