Posts about “Marketing”
I wish I had more time to blog this month, but alas, you can look forward to a paucity of blog posts. Even my tweets are running dry. So, in the meantime, what better way to get your reading fix than to indulge in some licentious drivel. To celebrate 60 years of “pure reading pleasure”, Harlequin is offering 16 free eBooks for download in various formats including PDF, ePub, eReader, and MS Reader.
I say eleven, because Ben Minson came up with this excellent list of seven plus four more on his blog, Gryphon Mountain. His list gives reasons why a company should hire a technical writer. Check it out if you need to justify your existence or if nobody has fought through the cobwebs to your cubicle in a while and you suspect the engineering department has forgotten about you. Or maybe you need to explain what-it-is-you-do-exactly in a job interview.
It’s been almost a month since the launch of Canada’s National Do Not Call List. If you signed up on September 30th, your right to slam a deviant telemarketer will kick in this October 30th. Sweet. When will companies learn that people telemarketing is the second most hated form of privacy invasion on this planet (Door-to-door marketing holds the number one spot in my mind)? Even junk mail doesn’t seem as bad, as annoying as it is.
In this rocky economic climate, marketing yourself has never been more crucial if you want to survive the inevitable cutbacks. When it comes to technical writing, it’s a useful exercise to understand and appreciate what companies look for in a writer.
Lyndsey Amott, in an article on her website, stresses that industry knowledge should not be a primary deciding factor when mulling over suitable candidates. Her top three must-haves are:
If you’re Homo Sapien then you’ve probably heard that song by Yael Naïm. Name not ringing any bells? You know, it’s the one that goes something like this: “La-la-la-la la-la-la-la-la…” Still not getting it? Okay, it’s the song from the MacBook Air commercial. Yes, you know the one (and if you still have no clue, check out this YouTube video).
The song is called “New Soul” and was handpicked by Steve Jobs for the MacBook campaign.
Over at Wired’s video gallery you can watch some amusing tech vintage commercials. While I find the ones for the old Mac, the Vic-20, and the Commodore chuckle worthy, my vote for the funniest - and the most creative - goes to the 1980s ad for the Atari 5200’s Pole Position. Back in those days, the marketing strategy was basically to show as little of the game’s graphics as possible while hyping up the game in various ridiculous ways.
There is no denying that the iPod has become part of our popular culture. What started as a neat toy for Mac users blossomed into a fashion craze for young urban hipsters. These cool urbanites identified each other not with secret handshakes but by the white ear-buds that had become the icon for “coolness”. The rise of the iPod sub-culture has a grassroots foundation in the heart of the thriving metropolis - on gritty city streets, on crowded subway trains and in public places.
Business cards are so ubiquitous these days, but not many people consider how much of an impression their card really makes. Well, with the exception of some Asian cultures (In Asia the exchange of business cards is ritualistic - The reciever takes the card respectfully with two hands and studies it carefully before placing it carefully into a pocket for safekeeping).
Your business card is a little piece of you that somebody carries around in their wallet.