On Words and Business

A fascinating blog I just discovered: The Numbers Guy

It’s all about how numbers are reported in news and business; and how sometimes they can confuse an issue (purposely or not). Statistics made fun. Sort of.

In case you missed it, yesterday (the last Monday in January) was Bubble Wrap appreciation day. Some sort of silly, sort of addictive fun for those of us who don’t work in the business.

Enjoy Bubble Pop, in case you don’t have any bubble wrap on hand to pop in celebration

Have you ever wanted to learn how to predict the future?

Check out Eric Garland’s book Future, Inc. It’s all about how the futurists predict the future. And how you can, too. It’s not as hard as you might think.

Or check out his blog about forecasting.

Fun stuff, with the potential of serious impact on your business.

One thing I love about January–predicting trends.

The top three marketing trends from my perspective:

• Integration of marketing messages. There’s hardly anything more frustrating than getting different stories from different touchpoints. Like I did the other day: the website, the recorded telephone hold message, and the customer service agent all conveyed different information about the same service (and not a trivial aspect of the service, either). Which to believe?
• Social media. Judicious use of, that is. It is where a lot of consumers are. But it bears thinking about whether your customers are interested (or ready) to read your message there, or if it will come across as intrusive. The answer isn’t to shout louder or to bombard.
• Mobile marketing to consumers. This will take some skill to do well. Because ads and marketing come at us from everywhere (even the floor of the subway station) it’s getting easier to tune these messages out. Like with social media, the answer isn’t shouting. The leaders here will be those who figure out the subtleties.

A few other predictions to check out:

• Optimism, accountability, social media top trends (B2B)
• 13 signs the marketing industry is recovering (interactive)
• 12 digital marketing predictions for 2010 (digital)
• 10 marketing predictions for 2010 (general)

Librarian: Craig Buthod, Director, Louisville (KY) Free Public Library

Color: Pantone 15-5519 Turquoise

China: Tiger (starting Feb 14)

Finance Minister: Korn Chatikavanij, Thailand

Check out this year’s List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

Those I truly hope will never be used again:

• Tweet
• Stimulus
• Bromance
• Chillaxin’