Over the years I have had dozens of interns, probably hundreds, from colleges all over New England.  Sometimes I have had one intern at a time.  Other times I have had up to nine interns working for me simultaneously.  I’m still in touch with lots of my former interns – some of them, more than 20 years later.  They are a great group of people and I am honored I got to work with them.

Over the years I have developed a method of managing the primary logistics of internships that has worked quite well for me and the interns.  As I have installed this process in several companies, it has even perpetuated a bit.  So, by request, here’s an overview.  (Note: This has little to do with the actual management of the interns themselves but more the process surrounding their internship.) (more…)

I watch how the big boys play the marketing game.  Sometimes I learn stuff and sometimes I am not amused, nor impressed.  The recent campaign from TGIFriday’s, its let’s get 500,000 fans on Facebook project, is an example of the latter. (more…)

I just finished “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith and am happy to see they used the “Vowel Method” of  Business Book Writing.  Here’s how you write a truly terrific and useful business book using vowels — and based on some of the business books I’ve read, all business book writers should employ this method and far too many don’t. (more…)

This week Jeff Cutler (@jeffcutler) and Christine Koh (@bostonmamas) were the oh-so-gracious hosts for the Boston #fordtaurus Tweetup (see the new Ford Taurus SHO and drive it!)  The local event was part of a grand tour (The Summer of Taurus) for the new cars, pairing the vehicles in different cities with local Twitterati/bloggers and a (semi-random) Ford executive.  (Boston’s event brought Corporate Counsel David Leitch out from Detroit.)  There were lots of interesting PR, Social Media, events and business lessons to be picked up from the Ford event.  Here are just a few:

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I was reading Chris Brogan’s Blog — always highly recommended — and one of his recent posts, Quid Pro No, got me thinking about how some social networking websites are un-naturally inflating their user numbers by creating an environment where reciprocal friending is de rigueur.  Everything from address scraping to spammy auto-tweeting when your friends sign up, to old-fashioned guilt is used to get you to sign-up for sites you never intend to visit again. (more…)

Except they aren’t really strangers.  I “know” them from social media. (more…)

A friend of mine asked me some questions about Twitter and since I was answering one person, thought others might find this useful too! Paula wanted to know where/how/why complete strangers suddenly start following her. (more…)

In the comic books, the mad scientist is intent on taking over the world through devious means.  Some nefarious plot will lead to utter chaos and ruination for the good guys and a world controlled by the evil genius.  Sometimes, you get the world domination play in real life. (more…)

Last night I went to the Social Media Club meeting (#SMCBoston) held at Hill Holiday’s State Street offices.   Hill Holiday kicked things off with a multi-media overview of their incredibly creative Chili’s campaign (using P.J. Bland’s.)  I loved the idea of using social media to “activate assets.”  (Sounds like Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, doesn’t it?)  And, the entire connected universe, wow.  Impressive…budget.  With a short introduction for and from each, the panel was introduced. (more…)

Last night I attended the Geek Girls dinner in Cambridge’s Betahouse (a shared workspace for entrepreneurs.)  I’m probably not geeky enough to be a full-fledged member of Geek Girls but I love and appreciate my sisters in tech enough where they kindly overlook my own lack of tech credentials. (more…)