Justin Case You Were Wondering

TweetShare    A few years ago at a leadership conference, I heard a story that has stuck with me to this day. The story went a little something like this… I don’t remember the name of the guy who told the story. What I do remember is that before he was a professional speaker, he [...]

TweetShare                        You’re online relationships aren’t as strong as you think. There, I said it. I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships this past week. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all Dr. Drew or Dr. Phil on you in this post. I don’t [...]

TweetShare  I’ve been feeling left out lately. Kind of like a 35-year-old who just heard about snap bracelets for the first time. Everyone’s been blogging about Peter Shankman-this and Morton’s Steakgate-that. And I’m just now getting a chance to cut into the issue — obligatory steak joke required. So here goes nothing. I think I’ll [...]

TweetShare                            I’m quitting influence. Like people quit smoking or drinking. Because I have a problem. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Actually, I’m not going to quit using the word influence entirely. But I do plan to cut back. If [...]

TweetShare                    Have you ever read something and been completely and totally shocked? I mean, that happens less and less these days because of the proliferation of information online. Or what you might call the Interwebs. But it happened to me this weekend when I stumbled upon [...]

TweetShare                        I’ve been hard on Klout. Maybe too hard. But as a communications professional, I’m worried about our industry. And I think I have reason to be. As my friend Gini Dietrich calls out in the title of her award-winning blog – Spin Sucks. [...]

TweetShare                      Nails scratching across a chalkboard. Major league hitters that don’t protect the plate with two strikes. My sister watching the movie Grease every day for a whole year (that one’s for you, sis). We’ve all got our pet peeves. Those are some of mine [...]

TweetShareInfluence is a hot topic at SXSW. Imagine that. And Klout CEO Joe Fernandez was talking about it in the blogger lounge yesterday. Here’s what he had to say:   I caught up with Joe after the interview and had a chance to chat with him briefly. He made a couple of key points: Klout [...]

TweetShare                          Have you ever changed someone else’s mind? How did you do it? How long did it take you? What finally worked in the end? Changing someone’s mind is like having sex in the ninth grade. A lot of people talk about it [...]

TweetShareRecently I was at a social media marketing conference. The final speaker of the day was the owner of a local business. He gave a great presentation. The passion for social media and his work was obvious. He talked about the culture of the company, how they value customer service and how they listen via [...]

Influence is one of those raise-your-hand topics. As in, when you mention it online or offline, every person raises his/her hand because everyone has an opinion. That’s not a bad thing. The first time I heard someone mention influence, it was about as clear to me as William Shakespeare was the first time I read it. But once you’ve be’d, not be’d, done some research on the topic and developed a better understanding, how do you explain influence to a person who has never had a reason to understand it — a person like your client’s CMO?