ResumeBear Blog
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- Coaches Who Should Not Of Been Fired?
- Headline Bloopers That Probably Got Someone Fired
- Questions For Your Social Media Expert, Wizard or Guru
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Posted: 16 Apr 2012 05:42 AM PDT
 Sam Mitchell Former Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell may have been honored as the NBA’s coach of the year for 2006-2007, but his unfair termination proves that even the league’s most prestigious awards don’t hold much weight if your team isn’t winning. Toronto decided to let go of Mitchell after only 17 games into the 2008-2009 season and a disappointing 8-9 start, which was mostly due to injuries. Although Mitchell’s last season was an ugly one, he did help rebuild the Raptors and propel them into the playoffs during his last two seasons. Todd Haley In 2009, the Kansas City Chiefs took a chance on a young, lightly experienced Todd Haley and gave him the job as head coach. In Haley’s second season, he helped bring the Chiefs its first AFC West championship since 2003 and finish the season with an impressive 10-6 record. In 2010, the Chiefs made a six-win improvement, marking the franchise’s biggest victory jump ever. But the 2011 season proved to be less than stellar, falling to a 5-8 record before he was pulled from his role as head coach. Terry Francona The firing of Boston Red Sox coach Terry Francona in 2011 was a controversial decision considering the incredible record the team had under his eight years of coaching. Last year was one of the most unforgiving seasons for Francona and the Red Sox, who went 7-20 during the month of September and had one of the worst collapses in MLB history. It was the last straw for Francona, and he was let go at the end of the season. It was an ugly showing on his part, but what about all of the amazing records and milestones Francona helped bring to Boston? Under Francona, the Red Sox won 744 games and took home two World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, which ended the legendary “Curse of the Bambino.” What else could Boston ask for? Mike Leach Texas Tech’s decision to fire football coach Mike Leach was a controversial one that left many wondering if it was justified or set up. Leach coached for nine years at Tech and helped propel the team to new heights. The Red Raiders quickly became known for their high-scoring offense and dramatic comeback victories. 2008 was a great year for the Red Raiders, who defeated the No. 1 Texas Longhorns and ended the regular season with an 11-1 record. Leach won several awards and honors for the successful season, including “Big 12 Coach of the Year” by the Associated Press and the 2008 George Munger Award. In the December 2009, Coach Leach was suspended by Texas Tech in relation to an investigation of alleged mistreatment of one of his players, Adam James. Although Leach denied the allegations, he was fired for insubordination because he refused to apologize to James. Bill Belichick Bill Belichick has certainly had a successful career coaching the New England Patriots over the last 11 years, but before he was winning Super Bowls with Tom Brady and Co., he was busy rebuilding the Cleveland Browns franchise from 1991-1995. As head coach of the Browns, Belichick helped lead the problematic team to a 36-44 record and get them to the playoffs in 1994. Despite the noticeable improvements, the Browns continued to disappoint both offensively and defensively, and Belichick was let go by owner Art Modell before he moved the team to Baltimore. Hue Jackson After wrapping up an 8-8 season, the Oakland Raiders fired coach Hue Jackson after just one year of coaching. Over the last seven years, the Raiders have become notorious for firing coaches every one to two years, which has left many players and fans frustrated beyond belief. Jackson was the fifth coach the team has had in seven years. Although the season ended with a handful of losses and a devastating 28-27 loss at home, Jackson wasn’t given enough time to show what else he could do for the team. Roger Neilson Roger Neilson was a legendary hockey coach who, despite his important contributions to the game, was consistently mistreated by those above him. During his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Neilson helped lead the team to a .500 record and a conference final with a 41-29-10 record. The following year, Neilson was fired by the owner, Harold Ballard, because the team was having a bad slump. But when the owner couldn’t find a replacement, he was forced to hire back the distraught Neilson and even asked if he would wear a paper bag over his head for more publicity, but like any self-respecting coach, Neilson refused to do it. Avery Johnson Avery Johnson has been praised for rebuilding the Dallas Mavericks and guiding the once lowly team to the highest winning percentage in franchise history. Under Avery, the Mavericks made their very first NBA Finals appearance in 2006. The following year, the team and its beloved coach set an NBA record for winning 67 regular-season games over the course of Johnson’s first 82 games as coach. But the winning streak came to a halt in the 2007-2008 season, when the Mavs failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs and Johnson was sadly let go as head coach. |
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Posted: 15 Apr 2012 08:16 AM PDT
 Chink in the Armor This headline about Knicks star Jeremy Lin was almost as big of a story as Lin’s rise to fame. Anthony Federico, an ESPN editor at the time, wrote and posted the now-infamous headline at 2:30 a.m. before heading out for the night. It was taken down from the site within 35 minutes because of its inappropriate use of the Chinese racial slur, chink. Federico, who had been at ESPN since 2006, was fired the day after the incident. He has apologized, saying that it was just a mistake and he hadn’t considered the connotation of the word that appears in the common phrase. Gook double earns victory You might think that the Lin headline fiasco would make ESPN.com editors hyper-sensitive to any ethnic slurs, especially against Asians. Apparently that wasn’t the case, because just a week after the Lin debacle, the headline “Gook double earns victory” appeared on the soccer home page. The soccer player the title refers to is Lee Dong-Gook, a member of the South Korea national team. Considering Dong-Gook is his first name, in the style of many Asian countries, and that even if the headline writer didn’t understand that, he should’ve written Dong-Gook rather than just Gook, this mistake is as offensive as the Lin blooper. Gook is a well-known derogatory term for Koreans and East Asians. The headline has since been changed to “Lee double earns victory.” Reader fingers murder suspect Commuters in D.C. were treated to a weird mental image when they picked up their free copy of The Examiner in early December 2011. On first read, it sounds like a reader and a killer were having a romantic tryst, which definitely should not make front-page news. The real meaning is more significant, with a reader helping police get a new lead in a cold case — more newsworthy, but not nearly as scandalous a headline. Those copy editors probably felt a little sheepish after they realized the meaning they had conveyed. Can we all just agree that “fingers” is no longer an appropriate verb to use for anything that you want to be taken seriously? Tired Gay succumbs to Dix in 200 meters You can hardly blame the copy editor for going with this headline. When you get a chance like this to make a perfectly innocent, informative title so dirty, you take it. The story refers to runners Walter Dix and Tyson Gay and the outcome of a race. They just happen to have unfortunate last names to be put together. If Reuters got any complaints about this one, I’m sure they just told the reader to get his mind out of the gutter and then giggled when they got off the phone. French B.O. up 9% The French are getting stinkier? Is that even possible? Most people associate the abbreviation B.O. with body odor, though it apparently stands for box office in some circles. It’s unclear exactly why it needed to be shortened since it’s on the Internet and there is plenty of space, so we can only assume that some headline writer had a personal beef (or maybe boeuf) with the French. Pow wow wow yippee yo yippy yay The Union Weekly, a student newspaper at California State University, Long Beach, ran this headline on top of a review of a campus event involving American Indians. The event was called a Pow Wow, which may have prompted the headline writer to come up with this offensive line, but there’s no justifying it. Not only is it offensive, basically mocking the way Native Americans sound, but it’s bad writing — you have no idea what the story is about by reading the headline. It doesn’t help that the article itself bashed the American Indian culture, as well. The newspaper apologized, and we wouldn’t be surprised if someone’s name stopped appearing in the masthead after this. After sex sting, AP governor Tiwari ejects prematurely We’ll cut this web editor a break since this headline is from The Times of India and his first language may not be English, but we kind of doubt he didn’t know exactly what he was doing. He at least got a quick lesson in our language’s sexual phrases after posting this gem of a headline. The story discusses a governor who was stepping down after being caught on film in the company of three women. Many readers blasted the paper for providing the serious news with such a sleazy, cheap-shot headline, but it’s not clear if it cost anyone their jobs. Politics in spades: why the Obama veg patch matters This headline, and others involving Obama and the word spade, might seem innocuous to the younger generation, but many older people might still recognize spade as a derogatory name for an African American. The term originated in the early 20th century and isn’t used much today, but it’s understandable that it could be incredibly offensive to put a racial slur as the title of a story about the U.S. president. Copy editors probably need to have a list handy of every racist term out there just to be safe. Missippi’s literacy program shows improvement Yes, you read that right. The literacy program in “Missippi” is improving. It apparently hasn’t made its way to the newspapers there yet, though. This mistake wouldn’t be so awful if it weren’t for the glaring irony of it — and the fact that we all learned how to spell Mississippi in the second grade. This headline writer and everyone who proofread this paper should be temporarily suspended until they complete an elementary spelling class. headline headghgh This mistake by the Times & Citizen in the United Kingdom isn’t just a matter of missing the connotation of a word. This is full-blown carelessness. It’s happened to papers all over the world: the dreaded filler headline that gets looked over and makes it into the published version. It’s rare that it happens on the main headline of the front page, though, as it does in this case. The paper blamed a new production method they and other British newspapers were using, but it’s still hard to pass the buck on something so glaring as a 50-size font, placeholder head on the front page. |
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Posted: 14 Apr 2012 07:08 AM PDT
 Sean R. Nicholson Finding a social media professional to help you with your online activities can sometimes be a tough process. There are plenty of "experts", "gurus" and "wizards" out there and many of them don't have the experience you need. Hopefully, these 1o questions can help you in the process of finding someone who really understands your business and can help formulate and execute a plan to engage with your community online. 1) How long have you been engaged in social networking and/or social media channels? Will you provide me with links to your accounts? Believe it or not, online social networking didn't start with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Plenty of social media professionals have experience that goes back to online bulletin boards, forums on CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL, and online forums. Look for professionals who have been building online relationships for more than five years. Most social media professionals will be willing to share links to their profiles and it would be a good idea to look them over for professional activity. If your social media "expert" spends more time talking about their Friday parties and drops F-bombs frequently, think twice… 2) Are you familiar with any restrictions or limitations on social media activities that might impact my industry? Every business and organization is not the same, so a one-size-fits-all social media strategy is generally a bad idea. If you're in non-profit, you might want to look for a social media professional with experience in that sector. If you operate in a regulated industry such as pharmaceutical, tobacco, alcohol, finance, insurance, or a host of others….it would be a good idea to find a professional who has significant experience in your industry and understands any limitations or restrictions. 3) What are my competitors doing? Any professional worth their salt will do some preliminary research before sitting down with you. If the person you interview doesn't know (at least at a high level) what your competitors are doing, it might be a cause for concern. IMHO, they should be able to give you insight on the way your competitors are using the major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. 4) What social networks do you specialize in? Why are these networks right for my business? Every social network is not right for every industry. Just ask anyone in the pharmaceutical industry how they could possibly engage in drug marketing on Twitter. The reality is that most organizations can take full advantage of the networks out there, but if there are limitations, you want your social media professional to be aware of them. 5) What does "community management" mean to you? Do you include community management in your social media services? Social media engagement doesn't end when you publish your Facebook page or launch your Twitter account. Heck…creating those channel profiles is often the easiest part of the process. The community engagement/management process that follows is the more difficult (and more expensive) element. It's important that you know how your social media professional approaches community management and what strategies and tactics they will use to interact with the members of your community (a.k.a your customers, members, employees, etc…) 6) Can you provide me with a list of client references in my industry? Pretty self-explanatory. If they don't have references….be cautious. 7) What is your perception of social media marketing and how will it help my in my business goals? How will we measure success? This one forces them to explain what they perceive to be your business goals. Are you selling product or services? Are you attracting members to your professional organization? Your social networking approach should be tailored to your business goals and your activities should be measurable. They might not be hard metrics in terms of sales or conversions, but there should be some measurement involved, even if its the increasing the number of positive online interactions and reducing the amount of negative chatter around your brand. 8 ) How do you evaluate new social networks and do you alert your clients of new opportunities? Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube may be the juggernauts right now but remember the days of AOL, CompuServe, MySpace and eBay? Would you hire a social media professional who pitched engaging your customers on Prodigy? Probably not. My point is that social networks come and go, and your social media professional should be constantly evaluating new platforms and making recommendations on whether you should explore them. 9) What distinguishes you from your competitors? Social media "experts" are quickly becoming a dime-a-dozen. There are thousands of self-proclaimed experts out there, but you need a professional who knows your business and cares about your success. Be sure that the person you engage as your company/brand representative knows what sets them apart from their competition. 10) Can you give me an example of a limitation of a social network that you have experienced and overcome or worked around? Bandwidth limitations, API calls, character limits…social networks come with limitations. Beware of an social media professionals who have never run into limitations and don't have experience overcoming them. If they haven't run into limitations, it doesn't mean they don't exist but, instead, likely means that this so called "expert" hasn't had the range of experiences you might need. I hope these 10 questions are helpful! Do you have questions that you consistently use to find the best social media professionals out there? Feel free to share them via comments or tweets! About the Author: Sean R. Nicholson Social Media Strategist, Tech Geek, Attorney, coffee addict. I connect people, enhance the workplace, & drive business  |
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