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Ann Handley

Writer. Speaker. Marketer.

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Family

20 Ridiculously Useful Holiday Gifts for 2020

Image of a red Christmas ornament shaped like a virus, with 2020 stenciled in the center

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * It’s easy to nod along to the narrative that 2020 is a raging dumpster fire, the worst year ever—what with the pandemic and the […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Family, Ideas you can steal Tagged With: gift guide, gifts for writers, marketing gift guide, writer gifts

Love Rolls Downhill

“Are you going to write about this, Mom?” my daughter Caroline asks me. (She knows I’ve written about her brother.) The question is half tease, half challenge. I can’t tell whether she wants me to write, or not. Maybe she doesn’t know, either. Caroline is 18, and she’s about to begin her freshman year at […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Children, Family, Parenting, Teenagers, Writing Tagged With: college drop off, college goodbye

Swinging Doors and Second Chances

Usually I write about content and marketing here. But today I’m temporarily returning to this site’s roots with a personal story. 1. Nine years ago I drove from Boston to Connecticut to pick up an almost one-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Abby. She was to be a foster dog for a short while, until […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Annecdote, Dogs, Family, Pets

How to Innovate in Your Marketing: Ask a Teenager

teenagers in marketing

If you’re a company looking to use social media and content in innovative ways, ask a teenager. And not because you want to market to teens (although you might), but because teenage behavior online draws a kind of road map to where marketing is going. Here’s what I mean: My 17-year-old daughter bought a prom […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Business, Content, Media, Social Media, Technology, Teenagers

Lessons from Skype: Your Story Is about People (Not Your Technology)

Marketing is about people

Whether you sell technology or toasters, your marketing should always be about people. In other words, your customers should be at the heart of your content, not your products. Your product might be as revolutionary as an escalator to the moon, but your story isn’t about that: It’s not about what you do or what […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Business, Content, Family, Media, Social Media, Technology, Video Tagged With: content marketing, storytelling

Follow The Fear: Do Things That Scare You

Dead End

I used to think that being afraid of everything was a weakness. Then I learned how to “follow the fear,” and use fear to my advantage. This is an annotated version of a talk I gave on the Bold Talks stage at Hubspot‘s INBOUND event. I published the essay that became the basis for this […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Business, Children, Family History, Social Media

‘My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter’: The Story and Content Lessons of the Best Pinterest Board Ever

This is the story of Quinoa, a small, trendy child who wears haute couture and a model’s aloof expression. It’s also the story of how a hilarious Pinterest board for a fake child blew up this week on the interwebs, growing its follower base more than 100-fold in 24 hours, from around 100 to almost […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Business, Children, Family, Media, Social Media, Uncategorized, Writing

#ContentTools: Effortless Storytelling from Disney’s New Story App

Content Tools

I love content creation tools that put wizard wands into the hands of Muggles. Instagram did this for photos, allowing mere mortals like me to create and share photos that were beautiful and expressive. Vine allows us to elegantly create short, 6-second videos through an intuitive interface. Takes is another neat mobile tool I particularly […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Business, Family, Social Media, Technology

Some Thoughts on Leaning In: Giving Context to the Soundbites

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg

Friday I had the opportunity to see Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg speak at the Harvard Club of Boston. She was in town to promote her new book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Let me preface my comments with a preface: 1. Lean In the book had its roots in Sheryl’s 2010 TED […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Business, Family Tagged With: Harvard Club of Boston, Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg

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