Candidates for the trash bin

Company Mission Statement:We exist to dramatically leverage existing resource-leveling technology as well as to proactively supply parallel materials. Does that sound a bit suspicious? What business is this company engaged in? Well, the mission statement I have given you is a bit of a red herring. It comes from the Dilbert mission statement generator. What I find interesting about this tool is that it lists a collection of adverbs, verbs, adjectives, and nouns that can be randomly combined to generate plausible "mission statements," presumably words that find their way too frequently into business documents today. What I think the list actually does is help you to consider what words you should only use with some consideration.

Media 2.0

[By the way, are you tired yet of everything new being called "2.0"? I am, such as Web 2.0, which by the way has 82 million pages on Google. And here I am using the "2.0" moniker, so I am as guilty as anyone.] In any event, Robert Scoble used to be the official Microsoft blogger, but now he's moved on to other venues. In this post he talks about how social media such as blogs is different from traditional media. For example, you can mix the content, and add text, photos, video, or sound clips. Additionally, it has an immediacy that "old media" lacks - you can comment on the content, you can see how many other people have commented, you can add information if the content of the post becomes dated, you can add widgets like polls and advertisements.

I sometimes wonder if bloggers are too enamored of their own selves and the blogosphere, though. Will newspapers go away any time soon? I certainly hope books stick around. However, the influence of new forms of media will certainly change the way people can communicate with each other.

The Resume as advertisement

I just read a great post on the San Francisco Women of the Web blog about writing resumes. Two key things to remember: first, it's not your whole life story, just the tool to get you an interview, and second, make sure your resume talks about what great things you have done instead of just telling about the company you worked for, or the job you had. This second point has been the key to every great resume I've ever seen - tell about how you redesigned the marketing brochure, or how you improved the customer satisfaction rating. Most hiring professionals can imagine what tech support jobs include, but they don't know your response time was better than other people working there, or whatever. Think of what contributions you made that you are particularly proud of, find a way to quantify them, and make sure they are the focus of your resume.

Blogging and Politics, a brave new world

So, John Edwards, Democratic presidential candidate, hired two bloggers for his campaign. Then it became obvious that they had been outspoken and perhaps crude in their choice of words in some blog posts they had made before they worked for him. This post in Thomas Scoble's blog outlines the original issue and makes some comments on Edwards' situation now. He also suggests some things to think about when blogging for work. Would it be better to make only neutral comments, or does that make a blogger boring? How much does an employer need to know about your past before considering hiring you, and how does your past web presence affect your new job? Is only the opinion of the blogging community important to bloggers? As blogging matures, there will be lots of related questions to consider.

What does a memorable ad look like?

So, what was your favorite Super Bowl ad? I was listening to a discussion on the radio today between the news anchor and Stanford Professor Chip Heath, author of Made to Stick, which is about making ideas (and products) memorable, about what ads worked the best. Prof. Heath made several really important points. For an ad to be successful, it has to be not only memorable, but also good at selling the product. He thought the two best were the one showing the performance of the Toyota truck, because it demonstrated in a very concrete way what the truck could do, and the one for the dog whose fortune was changed by the addition of "spots" that made it look like a Dalmatian, because it told a story. I can remember a funny ad with a gorilla in it, but I can't remember what product it was promoting. I guess that suggests it didn't really do its job, eh?

Why don't we understand each other?

Great article on why the communications are so often misunderstood. Two key points: first, your ownership of a communication will affect how you understand it, and second, you have to use the language of your intended audience if you want to be understood. What is meant by ownership? Well, what stake do you have in the message? For example, if you are in the market for a new cell phone, you will be more interested in cell phone advertisements and reviews. And what about "language"? This is not just English versus French or Italian. Think about how clear your meaning would be to your intended audience. Just because a concept is blindingly obvious to you, don't assume your audience will see it so clearly. If your message is technical, this is especially important.