17 Years

As a kid you live in a bubble where the idea of terrible things happening is unfathomable, that it’s fiction. I realize this is a privilege not afforded to every child, I wish it was, but it was true for me; I was lucky. When I was 13 on September 11th, 2001 that bubble burst …

The #1 Way To Engage Your Audience On Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Social media isn't social without engagement; it's just you shouting into the void hoping you'll be loud enough that someone will eventually like your photo from brunch. There are all kinds of tips and tricks about what time you should post on each platform, what kind of hashtags you should use, and even how frequently …

3 Big 2017 Social Media Trends That Apple Is Embracing In Their WWDC Reveals

Apple just had their Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California and announced a lot of exciting updates to their computers, watches, and tablets but what's extremely interesting are their new updates and products. Apple revealed some new features that are perfectly aligned with many 2017 social media trends which tells us that these trends …

Battle of The Social Media Stories

In the beginning there was Snapchat who ruled the land of social media stories unchallenged and worry free. Now Snapchat's reign is being threatened by Facebook stories and the Facebook owned Instagram stories, Messenger stories, and WhatsApp stories. Facebook has been steadily copying Snapchat since Snapchat refused Facebook's $3 billion dollar acquisition offer in 2013; …

Facebook Fights Against Fake News

We've all seen fake news pop up on our Facebook newsfeed with friends and relatives sharing the links to these false articles with comments like "can you believe this?!" No, I can't; the Pope isn't throwing his support behind candidates running for office, he has other concerns. Since the 2016 election fake news has been …

My WordPress Experience

"Based on your experience with WordPress, what are your impressions with working with WordPress – the pros and cons? It started as a blogging platform but has evolved – should it still be relegated for small blogs, or do you see enterprise use?" I was excited to read this question because I have experienced and …

What Is The Future of Communications?

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy Thinking about what is to come in the future is not an easy task. Just ask anyone who wants to know where the flying cars and hover boards are …

Has Advertising Become Too Invasive?

"The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be." -  David Ogilvy In John Carpenter's 1988 movie "They Live," advertising and mass media are used to send subliminal messages to consumers by the secret alien ruling class to encourage spending and acceptance of the status quo. If you ask people now, in 2016, …

Citizen Journalists – Friends or Foes?

"A lot of people, myself included, are excited about blogging and stuff like that, citizen journalism, but I do remind people that no matter how excited we are, there's no substitute for professional writing, no substitute for professional editing, and no substitute for professional fact-checking."         - Craig Newmark We are living …

The Digital Divide

“The Internet is not a luxury, it is a necessity.” – President Barack Obama To most of us reading this blog, internet access is something we take for granted. At any given time during the day I am online on some device: a PC, Mac laptop, smartphone, iPad, Kindle, etc. There are even refrigerators that connect …