When Life Gives You Lemons

While not the first airline to YouTube-ize the mandatory safety video, Delta has gone to new lengths. Or should I say, heights?

Millennials: In Blogs We Trust

A new study by research firm Millennial Branding reveals that Millennials rely on blogs more than any other form of media as a source of trustworthy product information.

Thirty-three percent of Millennials say they count on blogs to guide their purchase decisions, while fewer than three percent allow traditional forms of media (TV, magazines and books) to influence them, according to the study.

Although a majority (58 percent) expect brands to publish online content, a mere one percent of Millennials say that ads of any sort increase their trust in a brand.

Before making a purchase, Millennials instead seek the opinions of friends (37 percent), parents (36 percent) and online experts (17%).

Clickbait Headlines Do More Harm than Good

Meager response rates are tempting an ever-increasing number of marketers—even B2B ones—to resort to using "clickbait" headlines, those sensational promises that dupe you into reading thinly related content.

You know the kind:

What this customer said was so insane it will make your jaw drop...   

But the more sensational the headline, the greater the risk of disappointing prospects once you lure them to read nothing more than your usual sales pitch.

Disappointment never does your brand credit. 

Repeated disappointments will ultimately damage it.

Civility. There's an App for That.

Worried friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter might think you're ill bred?

Your social media reputation is safe with a subscription to ThinkUp, according to Farhad Manjoo, columnist for The New York Times.

ThinkUp keeps tabs on your graceless behavior on those networks and points out, among other things, how often you refer to yourself, use profanities and ignore others.

The tracking service is designed "to make you act like less of a jerk online," says ThinkUp co-founder Gina Trapani.

A Lesson from LinkedIn

Cleveland headhunter Kelly Blazek made national headlines last week for flaming a jobseeker who contacted her through a LinkedIn group.

Blazek's victim didn't sit still for the abuse. She posted the headhunter's put-downs verbatim on several other Websites and they quickly went viral.

Blazek apologized for the breach of trust in a letter to The Plain Dealer. “In my harsh reply notes," she wrote, "I lost my perspective about how to help, and I also lost sight of kindness."

Blazek subsequently deleted all online traces of herself.

Ironically, only last year the headhunter was named "Communicator of the Year" by the Cleveland Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

We all can benefit from the advice of Florence Hartley, author of The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, published in Boston in 1860:

"Never write a letter carelessly. It may be addressed to your most intimate friend, or your nearest relative, but you can never be sure that the eye for which it is intended, will be the only one that sees it. I do not mean by this, that the epistle should be in a formal, studied style, but that it must be correct in its grammatical construction, properly punctuated, with every word spelt according to rule. Even in the most familiar epistles, observe the proper rules for composition; you would not in conversing, even with your own family, use incorrect grammar, or impertinent language; therefore avoid saying upon paper what you would not say with your tongue."