Author Archives: debmcalister

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About debmcalister

I'm a Dallas-based marketing consultant and writer, who specializes in helping start-up technology companies grow. I write (books, articles, and blogs) about marketing, technology, and social media. This blog is about all of those -- and the funny ways in which they interesect with everyday life. It's also the place where I publish general articles on topics that interest me -- including commentary about the acting and film communities, since I have both a son and grandson who are performers.

Getting to “Wow”

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I had a “wow” shopping experience the other day at Central Market, picking up ingredients for a salad. Since I have a serious tomato allergy, I’m not one of those people who picks up and tests each tomato before it … Continue reading

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KY Judge Rules Lawyers Can’t Speak Freely

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Check out the interesting blog post from lawyer Jennifer Lubinski’s Work Product blog about the Kentucky Bar Association’s decision to constrain one lawyer’s free speech rights after he wrote letters to the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission alleging fundraising violations.  The local bar … Continue reading

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The End of IT As We Know It – And We Feel Fine

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When I finished business school, the graduates who got snapped up for corporate jobs first were those in finance, and those in IT.  Us lowly marketing types were a distant third in the MBA recruiter’s minds. For years, as I … Continue reading

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Time for Spring Cleaning

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I have a fairly high tolerance for clutter. But I absolutely, positively, cannot STAND a disorganized hard drive or email folder, and I’m not the sort to put up with a drawer full of non-working cell phones, old digital cameras, … Continue reading

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Online Review Lawsuits: Sometimes the Truth Isn’t Enough

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Today, I ran a Google search for the phrase “sued for online review.” The search engine returned 9.4 million results in 17 seconds. I’ve been running that search regularly for the last couple of years, and the numbers keep growing. … Continue reading

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Productivity: Back to the future?

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The media seems to buzz an awful lot about “alternative productivity tools” like Google Apps premier Edition and Open Office suites. There’s talk about how mobile, cloud, and collaboration are the next frontier for productivity – and how integrated touchpoints … Continue reading

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What to do if you get SLAPPed

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In the John Huston film of the Dashiell Hammett novel, The Maltese Falcon, Humphrey Bogart (Sam Spade) says, “When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it.” Not likely if the SLAPP you get is a Strategic Lawsuit against Public … Continue reading

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Customer Retention: Take 2


Today, I took our 9-year-old shopping.  He’s outgrown every school uniform shirt he owns, and taken the knee or the hem out of every pair of pants.  He can wear khaki shorts to school, but he has to wear plain … Continue reading

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Customer Retention: It’s Easier Than You Think


I’ve been a customer of the same insurance company since I was 16 — and I have grandchildren older than that who are insured by the same company.  I’ve been married for 14 years.  One local agency has had my homeowner’s … Continue reading

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Copyright Infringement: 7 Costly Blogging Myths

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Copyright law hasn’t changed much since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the DMCA) – but social media has changed the way people think about what copyright law actually means.  And the number of lawsuits is growing at an amazingly high … Continue reading

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