Digital Detox: A Modern-Day Sabbath

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Digital Detox: A Modern-Day Sabbath

A Sabbath is a day of rest, observed by some Jewish people from Friday evening to Saturday evening and by some Christian people on Sundays. Within these religious traditions there’s also a ritual of worship on these days. For the past few years, I’ve created my own Sabbath rituals and I thought it was about time I wrote about them.

Since 2014, I’ve blocked off “Sabbath weekends” every few months. On these weekends, I don’t work, I unplug from the internet and all digital devices, I don’t schedule too many projects for myself, and I focus on restful activities, like reading, meditating, going for walks, and journaling. On a few Sabbath weekends, I’ve even tried not to spend money.

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7 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Blog

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7 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Blog

Many non-profit staffers and small business owners start blogging because they “know” they “need” to do it or because someone suggested it would help their cause. These are innocent nudges in the right direction, often doled out by a board member with marketing experience or a CEO who wants to write or by a consultant who is ready to set you up with a blog, whether it’s right or wrong for your needs.

I’ve personally cautioned more people out of blogging than into blogging because a blog wouldn’t best serve their goals or because they just wouldn’t be able to devote the appropriate time to it. Blogging can be a huge undertaking and first one needs to ask if a blog is right for your cause or your business.

Here are some questions to ask before starting a blog:

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Managing social media in 10 minutes a day (non-profit and small business edition)

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Managing social media in 10 minutes a day (non-profit and small business edition)

There’s no denying that social media can be a huge responsibility to take on within your work. For those who use it personally, it becomes real obvious real quick how much of a timesuck Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and other channels can be. So it corresponds that managing social media professionally can be intimidating.

But how much time does it really take to have a professional presence on any given channel on behalf of your organization?

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Five Days in Raleigh, North Carolina

Posted by On Filed under Art, Travel 4 Comments
Five Days in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina is a quietly bustling capitol city. On the surface, things are quiet. But once you plug into the scenes Raleigh has to offer (food, beer, coffee/donuts, art, history, politics) you’ll quickly find that a lot is going on.

I recently spent five days in Raleigh, visiting friends while working remotely for two clients. My work kept me at the laptop part-time, but the rest of my days and nights were fun and relaxing.

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Case Study: A Website for Coastal Maine Getaways

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Case Study: A Website for Coastal Maine Getaways

Coastal Maine Getaways was a great opportunity to start a website from scratch. Lindsey, the owner, had been managing vacation rental properties for some time, but hadn’t yet named her company and had only advertised her listings on VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner). It was working fairly well for her, but she wanted more control over her web presence, including the name of the company, SEO (search engine optimization), and the ability to add and highlight more options than VRBO allowed.

Lindsey engaged me to do some market research and to eventually design and populate the site.

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Recommendation from Chris Meehan, Chief Community Impact Officer at Vermont Foodbank

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Recommendation from Chris Meehan, Chief Community Impact Officer at Vermont Foodbank

“Over the past three years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Michelle in her role as digital media specialist for the Vermont Foodbank. From the beginning, Michelle took a keen interest in going above and beyond her official job duties to offer her experience and expertise to the Foodbank’s network of 225 food shelves and meal sites. The majority of food shelves and meal sites are run by volunteers and do not have the capacity to enter into the social media realm. Michelle helped to build their capacity by creating a series of classes that were offered in person and online. This made all the difference for many of these small mission driven organizations. She was always interested in improving the classes offered; each year, she sought feedback and made adjustments to ensure that she was providing the best service possible. I would highly recommend Michelle.”

Chris Meehan

Chief Community Impact Officer

Vermont Foodbank

Learn more about the marketing I do for nonprofits and universities.

Recommendation from Chris Meehan

Recommendation from Jessica Cox, Director of Harpoon Helps at Harpoon Brewery

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“I got the opportunity to work with Michelle for a couple of years specifically promoting the Harpoon Point to Point, presented by National Life group, which is the Vermont Foodbank’s largest fundraiser. Michelle took ahold of our digital promotion, specifically with Google Adwords and really drove exposure for us. Her attention to detail, creativity in making sure we were maximizing every dollar we spent, on top of trying to get conversions (registered riders) was top-notch. She was thoughtful to give the team reports on how things were going on the back-end, which I admittedly didn’t always understand due to my lack of knowledge on digital analytics, but had full trust that every decision Michelle made was a good one. We were a bit behind on some of the social media opportunities available to us, and she has a kind, patient demeanor and was careful to suggest changes and push where needed to take on new opportunities. She’s analytical, thorough, competitive and forward thinking in her approach and was a real asset to our team and our event.”

Jessica Cox

Director of Harpoon Helps & Sponsorships (2005-Present)

Harpoon Brewery

Learn more about the marketing I do for nonprofits and universities.

Recommendation from Jessica Cox