We’re tied to our electronic devices. Writing? Blogging? Emailing? Texting? No problem. But when it comes to oral communications, many of us fall short. We pepper our conversations with “uhs,” “you-knows” and other annoying sounds and filler words. Poor body language, vocal variety and tone distract from our message. We ramble and bury (or omit) the important points we want to make. And we wonder why people don’t “hear” what we’re saying. These shortfalls are magnified when we speak in front of an audience, whether it’s a small group of peers or [yikes] hundreds. (more…)

A challenge for today’s communicators is to keep pace with the new lingo that seemingly pops up out of nowhere. If we’re not paying attention, a whole new vocabulary appears overnight.

We can choose to ignore all of this and simply stick to the AP Stylebook and our handy Webster’s Dictionary, or we can go “whole hog” and pepper these buzzwords through our own communications. But even if we choose to stay with the tried and true, it pays to acquire an understanding of the more common terms since they have a nasty habit of migrating beyond their borders and popping up in places when we least expect them. (more…)

I’ve never been in a room of more nervous marketers than when I sat down to listen to Mike Grehan of SearchEngineWatch interview Maile Ohye of Google Webmaster Tools at SES Toronto’s day 2 keynote panel.  On the heels of several algorithm changes to Google search, many in the crowd needed to hear reassuring words from the world’s most popular search engine for themselves.  Thankfully, Maile wasn’t dodging hot topics like Google’s Mayday algorithm update or Google’s Caffeine infrastructure changes, two hot topics at SES Toronto this year that promises to have significant effects on optimizing websites and news articles for search. (more…)

During the recent mesh10 conference in Toronto, I interviewed Jason Fry, former columnist of The Wall Street Journal Online. As a panelist of the session “How Do Platforms Change Content Consumption?” he and three others discussed the onus put on new high-tech devices to save traditional media and convince the public to pay for content. Afterward, we focused on journalism as it stands today. (more…)

Did you know that the word “translator” derives from the Latin root word for “traitor”?  The translator can indeed be a traitor, if she translates incorrectly and conveys an erroneous message.

Case in point: During the 1987 Miss Universe Pageant, Inés María Calero said, in Spanish, that her favorite dish to make was ropa vieja.  The translator told the audience that the Miss Venezuela contestant liked to cook “old clothes.”  That was the literal translation, but in fact it’s a very common Cuban dish consisting of shredded beef in a tomato-based sauce.  Although she received 3rd place, the translator’s faux pas may have cost her the crown.

For translation services, accuracy is key, but the understanding of local and cultural nuances, innuendos and colloquialisms are equally as important. (more…)

I recently presented at the OMS Virtual Summit 2010, an online-only event that included an all-virtual expo hall, keynote theatre and breakout sessions in a variety of marketing disciplines.  As a featured presenter, I decided to put on my tech hat and present a webinar and case study on “multivariate testing.” (more…)

A dynamic and passionate group of 300 Hispanic marketing, PR and communications professionals gathered in Dallas for the first annual Hispanic PR and Social Media Conference presented by Hispanic PR Blog, Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).  Over the course of three days, May 10-12, Marketwire participated as a sponsor of the conference to support multicultural communications and, more specifically, to engage companies and industries in conversations on the Hispanic market. (more…)