Polymer Studios::Web Consulting

Optimists among us

4. January 2009

Talk of the recession is, well, everywhere. And it can get depressing. So, where are the contrarians? Who’s looking for (and telling others about) the silver lining in this grey economy? Who’s trying to describe an alternate reality? Well, here are a handful for you to consider. Graeme Thickins, in The Clear and Simple Solution to the Current [...]

A letter from the corazon

2. January 2009

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Regular visitors (read: my mom) might remember that I took my son to Peru last summer. What follows is a vignette from our visit to some impoverished villages in the high Andes. I wrote it as part of a donation drive for Comunidad, a non-profit whose board I sit on. At first glance, you could be [...]

Call off the lawyers

15. December 2008

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We’ve all seen (or at least heard of) Web sites that were created by disgruntled consumers to complain about crappy service or unserviceable products. Perhaps even more common nowadays are blog or Twitter posts that disparage the name of some corporation. So, what’s a vigilant corporate lawyer to do? Nothing, according to Bruce Johnson, partner [...]

How to get your head around social media

8. December 2008

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What follows is a slightly edited transcript of a recent email to a friend who is a marketing manager for a large healthcare organization in Chicago. Like many of us, she is wondering how to begin talking about the potential of social media for her organization. +++ First of all, it’s important to be clear with your [...]

A huge social media headache for Motrin

23. November 2008

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Have you heard about Motrin Moms? On November 16, Motrin released a commercial suggesting that baby carriers are both painful and unfashionable. Check it out below. What probably seemed clever in the mind of a 23-year-old, childless copywriter turned out to be quite offensive to many moms (and dads, to be sure) and unleashed a social [...]

6 ways to increase your “employability”

8. November 2008

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The headlines say it all: NYTimes: Jobless rate at 14-year high WSJ: Labor data show pain across economy AP: Running on fumes; GM could soon run out of cash By these accounts, we are headed toward a period of significant unemployment or are already there. Either way, if you don’t already, you will soon have a number of colleagues, [...]

Market recovery

6. October 2008

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At the exquisite Thai food blog of photographer Austin Bush, I found this video of the Samut Songkhram market, which is set up over the town’s railroad tracks! Watch how the vendors quickly get back to business after the train passes. Could this be a lesson on how to cope with disruptions in business? See the [...]

Touching the third rail of business

5. October 2008

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When I was a grade schooler, my dad was in sales. I don’t know if he was any good, but he had some immutable rules about business that he would share with me, the most important of which was “Don’t ever mix religion or politics with business.” This election season, however, I’m amazed how many professionals, [...]

Is “it” in you?

25. September 2008

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My wife, who is a teacher at St. Paul Schools, has been working with Karen immigrants for the past couple years. These folks come from Burma, but have been chased through the jungles by the Burmese Army for more than 50 years. To a person, the Karen people my wife has met all have stories [...]

A massive, subprime bailout of links

24. September 2008

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Oh my, has it been a week since we last talked? If we follow each other on Twitter, then it’s probably been more like a few minutes, as that’s where I’ve been spending/wasting my time. Which brings us to the first in this cavalcade of content: Graeme Thickins, of DoApp and Tech~Surf~Blog fame, ponders whether using [...]