Whether I’m initiating the controversy, or the debate comes about of a question I ask, I love a good argument. Here are six of my favorite debates, complaints, and arguments of 2011
1. Top 9 Unsubstantiated Accusations of Brand Journalism
Spark Media Solutions is a custom publishing firm with a social media bent, or as I have rebranded it, a brand journalism firm. It makes more sense as we still behave as journalists, but we’re doing it from the editorial viewpoint (not marketing) of the company. While we’ve got happy customers, the “brand journalism” industry has not fared as well. This article provides some clarity to the confusion, and opens up a little bit of debate as well.
2. 21 of the Most Insulting Business Requests
If you’re ever feeling down about your career or think nobody respects you, then you need to read this article. I asked people around the Internet what were some of the most insulting requests for work they’ve ever received. You may have had it bad, but you haven’t had it as bad as some of these people.
3. 16 Annoying Communications that Must End in 2011
This is hands down my most popular article. Wow, this piece really struck a chord with people as they agreed heartily with most, and yet had some disagreement on a few. For example, not everyone would come on board with my complete disinterest in my friends’ photographs of their meal.
4. 10 Ways Meetings Suck and How to Fix Them
Unless your company has come to its senses and completely revamped the way it handles meetings, in general most meetings suck and they’re pure drudgery for the people who have to be in them. Often the only person who is interested is the person leading the meeting. If you’re that person, take charge and make your meeting suck less.
5. 10 Tales of Condescending Morale Boosting Efforts
So often companies talk about “What can we do to improve morale?” And instead of just treating people with basic respect and listening to their issues, they try to come up with a party or some idiotic game to “improve morale.” The people you hired are not stupid and therefore they’re not going to be thrown by such a ruse. These tales were so astonishingly horrible, especially the one company who hired a clown to improve morale. Uggh.
6. Why Sharing Online Content Might Be Too Easy
I once posted a video entitled, “How to Get Everyone to Watch Your Video.” It appeared to be very popular because it was getting lots of shares via social media. But then I looked at the view counts and witnessed that there were more shares than their were views. Meaning people were sharing my video without even watching it. In a report that I wrote for Mashable, I wanted to prove that people share content without consuming it. This was probably the most difficult piece I’ve ever researched because the data on this subject doesn’t exist. I was able to uncover some more starting examples of sharing without consumption.
Stock photos courtesy of Shutterstock.
