Tag Archives: Reality checks

Full Disclosure

Seal of the United States Federal Trade Commis...

I’m not sure if this goes into the “well DUH” file or if it’s actually a good reminder. You’ll have to tell me. I’m talking about the FTC‘s publication of some new guides for bloggers with respect to disclosing relationships they may have with those companies or products they review. In a nutshell, bloggers are advised (they’re not actually rules or pay a fine) to say if they’re being given free product or paid somehow for their review by the reviewed entity. Those same standards don’t apply to “traditional” media such as newspapers. There is a good explanation of the arguments here and of course the blogosphere is buzzing but to me it’s a whole lot of “so what.” Continue reading

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Filed under digital media, Huh?, Reality checks, Thinking Aloud, What's Going On

Night and Day

A 1960 slide projector

There’s an old saw about only having one chance to make a first impression and it got to be that way because it’s true.  It never failed to surprise me when companies would come calling with their sales pitch and it was obvious in the first three minutes that they hadn’t done their homework.  It was also sort of surprising that in many cases they’d do a lame job and expect that you’d have them back another time to make amends after they got blown up in the discussion period. Continue reading

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Winemakers and Farmers

Wine grapes.

Farmers and winemakers have more in common than just planting things. They share a dependency on climate and as a businessperson I’m not sure I’d like to be so dependent on something so out of my control. But they also share another quality which I think we all should emulate in our daily lives, both business and personal. Continue reading

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Filed under Reality checks, Thinking Aloud