Month: November 2011

Friday Five: Black Friday edition (timing social media posts, PR vs. marketing, lessons from Occupy)

A helping of leftovers from this past week’s cornucopia of Internet goodness:

1. When to post to social media. Good insights in this infographic. Most marketers post while they’re at work, but that isn’t when their audience is most likely to be engaged (during the off hours).

2. PR, marketing and the fight to control social media. This summary of a recent study from the PR-minded folks at Ragan Communications comes pre-loaded with the subhead, “A new study suggests PR pros need to fight harder for control of social media.” The actual study (PDF) is not quite as suggestive, but Ragan’s slant should help to keep those in the PR business in a tizzy about marketing’s involvement in social media. When will this PR vs. marketing power struggle end? Can’t marketing and PR just get along?

3. The PR lessons of the Occupy movement, by Bill Sledzik (@BillSledzik). Just one of many great, topical posts at Bill’s blog, Toughsledding.

4. The value of a liberal arts education is quantified (somewhat) by this recent study by the Annapolis Group. This InsideHigherEd.com story breaks it down. Hat tip to Elizabeth Scarborough for sharing the link via Twitter.

5. One video, 40 memes. Y U No click to see if you can find them all? Via @MarkClayson.

Gratitude

It’s probably a good thing that we have a federal holiday in this country designed to help us pause and reflect, just before we gorge ourselves, on all we should be thankful for.

It’s probably a good thing Abe Lincoln proclaimed that national day back in 1863, at the height of a bloody Civil War, “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” (Talk about heavy-handed governmental interference. What would the party of Lincoln think of that? But I digress.)

It’s a good thing, I think, because when you get right down to it, most of us are ungrateful bastards.

Sorry if that sounds harsh. But you know it’s true.

That’s how I am for most of the year: Ungrateful for the many ways in which people enrich my life. It’s the least I can do to pause at one time of the year to say “thanks,” if not to that “beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens,” then to the people who should be hearing a thank you a little more often than once a year.

So, with a nod to Abe Lincoln for setting in motion a tradition that continues, somewhat, to this day, I want to thank all of you who take the time to read this blog. And now, I’m off to thank some other folks in my life for all they’ve done for me, large and small.

Happy Thanksgiving. Be grateful.