Water Words That Work

Completely Off Topic — and Extremely Funny

Eric Eckl

Awkward Family Photos. Painfully embarrassing photos, sarcastic comments, and lots of laughs. Sent my way by L.M. of Texas. Click here to laugh your backside off.

Nice Use of Photography Here

Eric Eckl

The website “Environmental Education in Georgia” features some skillful use of photos in their header image. Look how deftly they have blended the children’s faces with symbols of the environment: the beach ball/globe and the flower in the little girl’s hair. Well done!

Job: Environmental Writer

Eric Eckl

The Media Consortium, which describes itself as “a network of leading progressive independent journalism organizations,” is seeking an environmental writer for its environment/sustainability blog. It’s a part time, telecommuting kind of thing. Wages run in the $15 to $20 per hour range. Click the link for all the details on this environmental writing job.

Spitfire: Create a “Story Bank”

Eric Eckl

Spitfire Communications, a PR firm focusing on do-gooder nonprofit types, has posted its latest e-newsletter, “Spitfire Sparks.” All of the articles are quite good, but one of them is great: Create a “Story Bank” of people whose personal story brings life to your work. Statistics and charts have their place, but personal stories humanize an issue [...]

Email is King, Long Live the King

Eric Eckl

Facebook is cool. Twitter is red hot. Blogging is not as cool as it used to be, but I still do it anyway. And Email rules. It rules. According to this latest survey from Marketing Sherpa, when Internet users come across something that gets their attention, they are still more than three times as likely to [...]

Ghastly Newspaper News

Eric Eckl

Editor and Publisher, a journal covering the newspaper industry, has released the latest circulation figures for the top 25 newspapers across the country. The news is just ghastly. In the last six months: The San Francisco Chronicle lost 25% of its subscribers The Boston Globe lost more than 18% of its subscribers USA Today lost more than 17% [...]

Can I Pick YOUR Brains for a Second?

Eric Eckl

Have you ever wanted to pre-test some important communications materials on some every day citizens before you release them to the public? Are you daunted by the cost, effort, and time associated with traditional polls, surveys, and focus groups? I thought so. Today, I’m inviting you to provide some advance feedback on a new market research [...]

Jobs: Walton Family Foundation and Silicon Valley Leadership Group

Eric Eckl

I’ve been on the road for a bit, and here are a couple of interesting job openings that have been sitting in my inbox waiting to be shared: Walton Family Foundation There’s an opening at the Walton Family Foundation for an Environment Program Associate, to be based in the Washington DC office. The individual will be involved [...]

Hey Baby, Hey Baby!

Eric Eckl

Here’s an attention-grabbing picture that’s hard to beat! And although the rest of the brochure is text heavy and not quite as clever, I think it does the job (Click here to see the full thing). Here’s the rundown: Step One: Begin with Behavior. Check — dispose of your used motor oil and household chemicals properly Step [...]

Environmental Marketing, Done Right!

Eric Eckl

So I have no idea if Marcal’s line of recycled and environmentally-friendly “small steps” paper products live up to their claims, but you might want to steal a sheet from their marketing playbook. They do a terrific job of making it seem easy to do something for nature – they’re completely candid that purchasing recycled [...]