Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Social media questions for Industry Canada’s conference on Canada’s Digital Economy
I’m at a Canadian Government’s conference in Ottawa today on “Canada’s Digital Economy: Moving Forward“. Since the conference seems to consist largely of folks from the “traditional” tech world, I’m curious to see how the panelists and audience engage with the question of how social media changes the challenges and opportunities for Canadian IT.
6 ways to customize your Mac’s Finder and user experience
Happily, it’s easier to tweak your Mac than to upgrade your boyfriend or girlfriend. Here are some adjustments that any new Mac user should undertake, or at least consider, until your computer is exactly right for you.
![Tony nominee [title of show] is a case study in social media creativity](https://www.alexandrasamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20090607-kqdh8auxx64w1q9ix4cx9fr3dr-1.png)
Tony nominee [title of show] is a case study in social media creativity
If you want to tap the expressive and marketing power of social media, you can learn a lot from the Tony-nominated [title of show].
12 questions for meaningful online conversations
My recent blog post for Harvard Business Online looks at how companies can best engage the Trojan Horse of social media, and it’s drawn some insightful comments.
4 Mac applications that make you more productive
Here are four Mac-only apps that will warm the heart of anyone who’s made the jump from Windows — and thrill long-time Mac users, too.
18 tools for effective social media participation on blogs and beyond
An overview of the tools I rely on to participate effectively in the thriving world of social media.
5 ways to protect your Mac’s looks and performance
Like any passionate affair, your romance with a new Mac can fizzle when you discover the limitations of your beloved. Your new Mac is much less likely to drive you crazy than that old machine running Windows Vista, but it’s not without the occasional quirk. Here are five highly recommended investments that will help protect you from software frustrations or hardware failures.
Engagement planning worksheets to engage your users and move them to action
It’s often hard for nonprofits to figure out how they can engage people effectively online. It’s hard enough to get visitors to your site or social media presence, let alone drive them effectively towards action. This post gives you two tools that can help: a user profile worksheet, and an engagement planning worksheet.
The 9 software choices every Mac user needs to make
Choosing the right applications for your Mac often feels like a choice between these two different identities: the choice between a shiny, stylin’ Mac-specific app, and an often less-shiny, cross-platform-compatible alternative. Here are my recommendations on the key software choices for every Mac user.
Getting the most from your new Mac
The first part of a series in which I’ll walk you through the five steps to becoming a happy and fulfilled Mac user after years in the PC closet.
The Harvard Business Review
Social media questions for Industry Canada’s conference on Canada’s Digital Economy
I’m at a Canadian Government’s conference in Ottawa today on “Canada’s Digital Economy: Moving Forward“. Since the conference seems to consist largely of folks from the “traditional” tech world, I’m curious to see how the panelists and audience engage with the question of how social media changes the challenges and opportunities for Canadian IT.
6 ways to customize your Mac’s Finder and user experience
Happily, it’s easier to tweak your Mac than to upgrade your boyfriend or girlfriend. Here are some adjustments that any new Mac user should undertake, or at least consider, until your computer is exactly right for you.
Tony nominee [title of show] is a case study in social media creativity
If you want to tap the expressive and marketing power of social media, you can learn a lot from the Tony-nominated [title of show].
12 questions for meaningful online conversations
My recent blog post for Harvard Business Online looks at how companies can best engage the Trojan Horse of social media, and it’s drawn some insightful comments.
4 Mac applications that make you more productive
Here are four Mac-only apps that will warm the heart of anyone who’s made the jump from Windows — and thrill long-time Mac users, too.
18 tools for effective social media participation on blogs and beyond
An overview of the tools I rely on to participate effectively in the thriving world of social media.
5 ways to protect your Mac’s looks and performance
Like any passionate affair, your romance with a new Mac can fizzle when you discover the limitations of your beloved. Your new Mac is much less likely to drive you crazy than that old machine running Windows Vista, but it’s not without the occasional quirk. Here are five highly recommended investments that will help protect you from software frustrations or hardware failures.
Engagement planning worksheets to engage your users and move them to action
It’s often hard for nonprofits to figure out how they can engage people effectively online. It’s hard enough to get visitors to your site or social media presence, let alone drive them effectively towards action. This post gives you two tools that can help: a user profile worksheet, and an engagement planning worksheet.
The 9 software choices every Mac user needs to make
Choosing the right applications for your Mac often feels like a choice between these two different identities: the choice between a shiny, stylin’ Mac-specific app, and an often less-shiny, cross-platform-compatible alternative. Here are my recommendations on the key software choices for every Mac user.
Getting the most from your new Mac
The first part of a series in which I’ll walk you through the five steps to becoming a happy and fulfilled Mac user after years in the PC closet.
OneZero
5 ways to get authentically naked
What’s the line between authenticity and over-disclosure? This post offers 5 ways you can keep track of the boundary between sharing and over-sharing.
Social media vs reality
There's been a lot of hand-wringing lately about how the Internet is impoverishing our minds, souls and relationships. But Matthew Gallion has written what may now be my favorite articulation of why we should worry about the web in his post on Social Media and the...
Family movie night: The 2×2
Like everything in life, the conundrum that is Family Movie Night can be reduced to a 2x2 table. Common Sense Media has solved a lot of our household media selection challenges, but it's yet to resolve this one. Your kids will find this movie... Appropriate for...
How to use Thesis to customize your teasers by page and category
I use the Thesis theme for my Wordpress blog. Thesis is much beloved in the Wordpress community because it allows a high degree of customization using its two pages of configuration menus, so even if you know nothing about PHP or CSS you can do a lot to customize your...
How to win friends and influence people…through social media
Dale Carnegie's How to win friends and influence people could be described as the father of relationship marketing and the grandfather of social media. Two recent blog posts revisit the book and highlight its implications for the social media era. J. Eddie Smith's...
The single woman’s guide to texting
My husband and I are closing in on our 10th wedding anniversary, and for the most part, that is great news. About 11.5 years out of our past 12 years together have been very very happy, and if you zero out the months that were tense because one of us had a new Macbook...
Research reveals people can survive up to 24 hours without Internet access
I'm fascinated by the number of people who are experimenting with different forms of unplugging: journalists, bloggers and tweeters who take some kind of solo holiday from connectivity. But a recent study at the University of Maryland took a larger-scale approach,...
An evangelical perspective on information overload
I was fascinated to come across an evangelical take on the problem of information overload. Becky Sweat's article in The Good News reads: information overload can distract us from the most important priority in our lives—our relationship with God. Indeed, a healthy...
JSTOR DAILY
5 ways to get authentically naked
What’s the line between authenticity and over-disclosure? This post offers 5 ways you can keep track of the boundary between sharing and over-sharing.
Social media vs reality
There's been a lot of hand-wringing lately about how the Internet is impoverishing our minds, souls and relationships. But Matthew Gallion has written what may now be my favorite articulation of why we should worry about the web in his post on Social Media and the...
Family movie night: The 2×2
Like everything in life, the conundrum that is Family Movie Night can be reduced to a 2x2 table. Common Sense Media has solved a lot of our household media selection challenges, but it's yet to resolve this one. Your kids will find this movie... Appropriate for...
How to use Thesis to customize your teasers by page and category
I use the Thesis theme for my Wordpress blog. Thesis is much beloved in the Wordpress community because it allows a high degree of customization using its two pages of configuration menus, so even if you know nothing about PHP or CSS you can do a lot to customize your...
How to win friends and influence people…through social media
Dale Carnegie's How to win friends and influence people could be described as the father of relationship marketing and the grandfather of social media. Two recent blog posts revisit the book and highlight its implications for the social media era. J. Eddie Smith's...
The single woman’s guide to texting
My husband and I are closing in on our 10th wedding anniversary, and for the most part, that is great news. About 11.5 years out of our past 12 years together have been very very happy, and if you zero out the months that were tense because one of us had a new Macbook...
Research reveals people can survive up to 24 hours without Internet access
I'm fascinated by the number of people who are experimenting with different forms of unplugging: journalists, bloggers and tweeters who take some kind of solo holiday from connectivity. But a recent study at the University of Maryland took a larger-scale approach,...
An evangelical perspective on information overload
I was fascinated to come across an evangelical take on the problem of information overload. Becky Sweat's article in The Good News reads: information overload can distract us from the most important priority in our lives—our relationship with God. Indeed, a healthy...
THE VERGE
3 reasons to make TV social & connected with the new Plex & myPlex
I want you to think really carefully about how happy you are right now, because as soon as I describe the killer features of the latest iteration of the Plex media center software, you're going to be plunged into deep despair. Despair over the fact that you don't have...
Learning from social media failure at Qantas and beyond
My latest post for Harvard Business tackles the lessons other companies can learn from the latest social media disaster, this time brought to you by Qantas Airways: [A]irlines are far from the only businesses to face a newly redrawn balance-of-power between company...
Social Media Fail, Airline Style
The capacity to operate a 747 is incompatible with social media smarts. That’s the conclusion one might draw from the…
5 ways to maximize computer use — and happiness
Q: How many computers does it take to enjoy a relaxing evening at home? A: 7. Five to use simultaneously, a sixth to blog about how you're doing that, and a seventh to keep your spouse entertained while you do. Yeah, I know, it reads like a formulaic joke. But that...