To, Not Past

So he was old enough to retire

to become a former PR guy, and

he suspected he had never really

been a PR guy so what had he

done for forty years, except try

to convince people to talk

with each other not

past each other

because he knew what we all do

is talk past each other

as we tweet

post our secrets to Facebook

trade Instagram snarkiness

because it is better to score

than to talk, than to care 

So he wrote, he wrote

because that is what he did

that is who he was forty years

after he first tried to convince

people to talk with each other

not at

not past

not at

but to

but with

because Jesus talked

with us

to us

and he changed the world 

Photograph by George Hodan via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Throw Out the Marketing Campaign and Start a Real Conversation

An article that I wrote and was originally published by The High Calling has been republished by Mission-Work, a channel of The High Calling at the Patheos Network. Here’s how it starts:

I attended a talk on social media by Jay Baer, co-author of The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social. He was the perfect speaker for the topic– slightly geeky, articulate, deep and with a dry sense of humor.

What he said was this: Business faces a new reality in the online world. People have almost instant access to information, and business must be able to react and respond — fast. Every customer is now a reporter – and every employee a marketer and a customer service person.

Gone are the days when a company can take its time responding to an issue, getting all the experts to weigh in, verifying the situation, and then contemplating and coordinating a proper response. Now you have hours at best. You have to know enough to be able to move — and move now.

To continue reading, please see the post at Mission-Work.