Here’s your weekly list of links to stories we found interesting. Guaranteed 100% free of royal babies and Carlos Danger. Putting your MS Paint skills to shame Sometimes people surprise you by using a piece of technology in a way it was never intended to be used. But 97-year-old Hal Lasko is using Microsoft Paint exactly how it was meant. He just does it a lot better than you or me. Boys to Men In What the Backstreet Boys Could Learn From K-Pop, the Atlantic’s…
Read MoreHappy birthday, Benedict Cumberbatch! When’s the new season of Sherlock? Anyway, as a present, here’s some interesting stories we’ve seen or heard this week. I guess they don’t have mail-carrier unions in Wisconsin This might just be the ultimate summer job. Teens in Lake Geneva, Wis. deliver mail to the waterfront community by boat. It would take too long for the boat to stop at each dock, so the teens must jump, deliver mail into mailboxes and then jump back on board … at least…
Read MoreTropical Storm Chantal called and said you might need some things to read this weekend, so here’s some interesting things we’ve read this week. Good Matt Hunting If you want to feel like you’re having a beer with Matt Damon (and, really, who doesn’t?), Esquire has all the info you’d need in its latest cover story. The full article will run you $0.99 if you’re not a subscriber. Up Down B-A Start The worst video game ever created is a real-time simulation of a boring…
Read MoreHere’s a brief look at some interesting stories we’ve read this week, delivered a couple days early because of Independence Day. We call it HodgePodge. Social Landscaping Just when you were thinking perhaps social marketing was maybe getting simpler, Mashable has the details on the latest “Conversation Prism” (or, as Jon calls it, the social media peacock chart) from industry analyst Brian Solis. That’s a lot of logos. Make Money. Live Better. For the second year, Walmart is holding a contest that offers entrepreneurs a…
Read MoreA big part of our jobs as diligent and dedicated PR people is to read a lot of news, from pop culture to politics and everything in-between. We thought it would be fun to share some of those stories here on the blog. Here’s a sampling of what we’ve been reading this week: SCOTUS Run If you thought your internship was tough, let’s take a moment to think about the broadcast interns up in D.C. on days like Wednesday. Following major Supreme Court rulings, interns…
Read MoreMany restaurant owners have a love-hate relationship with sites like Yelp, which allow (encourage?) customers to air their grievances online, rather than asking servers to fix problems in the moment. Restaurant owners and managers are rightly frustrated by customers who don’t tell their server about their overdone steak and then log onto Yelp and post a negative review. But no matter how good the restaurant, it will have negative reviews—all restaurants have off nights and, let’s face it, some people just cannot be pleased. As…
Read MoreIt’s time to emphasize the CHALLENGE of the Big Idea Challenge. Our two teams at Hodges challenge you to out-wit us at this year’s Big Idea Challenge. We came in second last year and are determined to win it all this year. (Watch out, CarMax!) It’s great fun and great way to support the Community Idea Stations in Richmond! If you think you can take us, sign up at www.BigIdeaChallenge.org.
Read MoreLast week, the long-rumored Facebook phone came to life as Facebook Home. It’s not an actual phone, but a replacement home screen and app launcher for Android. (The HTC First, announced at the Facebook Home event, does offer tighter integration with Facebook Home.) That got me thinking: are we going to see other companies (not just social networks) following in Facebook’s footsteps to launch their own “phones”? Would that work? If, so how? I think the best first candidates for a customized Android “experience” are…
Read MoreUsually one of the first questions that comes up after a company or individual decides to commit to publishing a blog is where that blog should live. We’re talking not only the look and feel (and web address) of the blog, but also the underlying platform. There are lots of things to consider when starting up a blog, and some of them will help narrow down the choice of platform, such as whether the blog is tied to a business or an individual, and what…
Read More(Editor's note: BTW, I always refer to it as news release. The old TV guy in me. -JN) Late last month the intersection of technology, journalism and public relations was sent into a tizzy when a number of news sites fell for a phony press release posted to PRWeb in an apparent attempt to game the stock market. While other postulate whether this is a nail in the coffin of PR, journalism, Google News or all of the above (and what’s next), I wanted to…
Read MoreRecently a Chick-fil-A executive made a statement that caused a bit of a stir in the media and, especially, online. Yesterday, Gizmodo reported that Chick-fil-A (or someone representing them) created fake Facebook accounts (complete with stock photo profile photos) just to defend the company online. Chick-fil-A denies this charge, but it brings up a very important piece of advice for companies trying to navigate the digital landscape: Do not make fake accounts. It’s awfully tempting for companies that see criticism online to want to jump…
Read MoreEditor's note: Great job by Tony Scida and Casey Ferguson on our new website. One of the features that's explained below is "responsive design" which basically means the site grows and shrinks to accommodate the computer or mobile device that you're using. To best illustrate, view the site on your laptop and then your smart phone. Or just look at the images below. Cool, huh? We think so. Enjoy.-JN When I started at Hodges, the first thing I wanted to do was update the website….
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