Jeanne Grunert, Award-Winning Writer and Marketing Expert, Appointed to Second Term as NAIWE Expert Panel Member
PRESS RELEASE: AP NEWS
PROSPECT, VA, UNITED STATES, March 4, 2024 / EINPresswire.com / -- Jeanne Grunert, an award-winning writer and marketing expert, has been appointed to a second term as a member of the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) Expert Panel. Grunert serves as the organization’s branding and marketing expert, sharing her extensive knowledge with the group’s members. The NAIWE Board of Experts consists of individuals with expertise in writing, editing, publishing, and marketing who help their fellow members grow as writers and learn to promote their writing, editing, and related services.
“We are delighted to welcome Jeanne back for a second term as our branding and marketing expert,” said April Michelle Davis, Director of NAIWE. “We have so much more to learn from her! She did not hesitate to dive into the depth of each question asked of her and to provide examples to enhance understanding. NAIWE offers writers, editors, and other publishing professionals access to the publishing industry through its many member benefits and benefit partners.”
Independent writers and editors face an entirely new set of marketing challenges this year,” said Jeanne. “With the growing use of artificial intelligence in many industries, including writing, knowing how to build a positive personal brand and promote your work online is essential. I look forward to continuing to share marketing and branding best practices with my fellow wordsmiths.”
Jeanne Grunert is the founder and president of Seven Oaks Consulting, a business-to-business content marketing agency located in Prospect, Virginia. Prior to founding Seven Oaks Consulting in 2007, Jeanne led marketing for financial services and education organizations in the New York City area. Known worldwide for her exceptional leadership and communication skills, Jeanne works seamlessly across cultural and corporate barriers to achieve outstanding results. She holds an M.A. in Writing from CUNY Queens College and a M.S. in Direct and Interactive Marketing from New York University, as well as certification in Personal Branding from the University of Virginia.
Jeanne is also no stranger to the writing world. She began her professional freelance writing career as a teenager, publishing numerous articles and short stories. She is the author of eight books, including two well-received mystery novels and a business book, Pricing Your Services: 21 Tips for More Profit.
As a fellow author with extensive marketing industry experience, Jeanne looks forward to sharing her expertise with NAIWE members. She may be contacted through her company, Seven Oaks Consulting, or through the NAIWE website.
FCC Bans AI Robocalls: What About Other Marketing Using AI?
Listen to the Podcast or Read the Article
In this week’s edition of Bricks, Brambles, and Bytes, I spoke about the new ruling by the Federal Communications Commission regarding AI use in robocalls.
For those who are unaware, robocalls are automated, pre-recorded telemarketing messages. Have you ever picked up the phone and heard a recorded female voice say, “Your Google listing is…” (I don’t know what comes after that because I always slam down the phone). That’s a robocall. Robocalls are prevalent during election season. Politician A records his endorsement of Candidate B, and the parties use automated dialers to phone every registered voter in the precinct to hear how much Politician A loves Candidate B.
The FCC’s new ruling states that marketers using AI to create voiceovers for robocalls must disclose them. Now, for many people reading this, the ruling has no bearing, right? You don’t use robocalls as part of your marketing, so why should you care?
You should care because this is just the tip of the iceberg. The use of AI is controversial – highly controversial. It was so controversial that when an astute journalist realized that Sports Illustrated had weird phrases in their articles and did a little digging, he discovered that not only were they likely using AI to write the articles, but the ‘writer profiles’ were bogus, too. Nothing was real. He pulled back the curtain on the SI Wizard of AI. And like the famous Wizard of Oz, Sports Illustrated said, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” and tried to scrub all of the AI-generated content from their site. It failed. It failed miserably. Readers rebelled, sponsors fled, and the venerable magazine declared bankruptcy.
So, where does that leave you? You’re a business owner. AI is free to use (at least it is now, but that may change.) Why pay for content when you can use AI?
Just as Sports Illustrated found out the hard way, using AI without disclosing its use can lead to a huge loss of trust in your brand. How much is that trust worth? Quite a lot. Trust is earned slowly over time when your company keeps its promises to its customers. Brand promises are taken very seriously by customers even if they recognize them subconsciously. Once lost, trust may never be regained. And, with a loss of trust, sales, and opportunities are lost.
Marketers who dabble with AI need to be cautious. AI certainly has its place – as a great resource to improve headlines, write social media messages, and summarize original works. It can be used to outline articles and help you get past writer’s block or “blank page” syndrome, that frozen feeling when you start at a blank page and know you are expected to write 1,000 words or more on a topic. All of this is fine for use as a software tool.
What AI cannot do is write original content. Everything it creates is cleverly plagiarized from millions of web pages, books, and other documents it has ingested over time. It may read well and pass the SEO duplicate content test, but it is not original.
AI also comes with a lot of quirks, some of which are bizarre. It messes up gender quite a bit, switching genders even if writing about a person identified as male or female; it sometimes goes off on weird tangents or makes statements that are incorrect, and when confronted with this, insists the mistake is correct. The infamous “There is no country in Africa that begins with the letter K” AI-generated response is a case in point.
As more and more regulatory bodies buckle down on the use of AI, expect to see additional laws like the one enacted by the FCC this week. They are moving forward with the ban on AI voiceovers in robocalls to prevent election fraud, a preemptory move that I think most people would applaud. The courts must quickly tackle the use of AI to create fake images. The Pope in a puffy white rapper coat is funny; downloading a random photo of a person and using it to create porn isn’t, but that’s where the state of AI imagery is at in this brave new world of ours. And someday, the ability to mimic written tone may be there, too.
Ready to get to work?
Let’s talk about how I can help you develop your brand, communicate it with confidence, and build a content marketing powerhouse that generates leads, supports sales, and provides solid marketing.
NAIWE Appoints Jeanne Grunert, Noted Content Marketing Consultant, to Expert Panel
EIN Presswire - News Release March 2023
PROSPECT, VIRGINIA, USA, February 22, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) announced the appointment of noted writer and content marketing consultant Jeanne Grunert to the Association’s Board of Experts. The NAIWE Board of Experts consists of individuals with expertise in writing, editing, publishing, and marketing who help their fellow members grow as writers and learn to promote their writing, editing, and related services.
“We are so pleased to have Jeanne Grunert join NAIWE’s Board of Experts as the Branding and Marketing Expert,” said April Michelle Davis, NAIWE’s executive director. “Board members provide a valuable service to NAIWE members and to the publishing community at large by leading a webinar in their area of expertise, and we are excited to learn from Jeanne Grunert.”
Ms. Grunert is the founder and president of Seven Oaks Consulting, a business-to-business content marketing agency located in Prospect, Virginia. Prior to founding Seven Oaks Consulting, Jeanne led marketing for divisions of McGraw-Hill Education; Teachers College Columbia University; The College Board; and retail, publishing, and financial service companies in the New York City area. Known worldwide for her exceptional leadership and communication skills, Jeanne works seamlessly across cultural and corporate barriers to achieve outstanding results.
Jeanne is also no stranger to the writing world. As a teenager, she won a national short story competition and published numerous articles in hobby magazines. She continued writing for magazines for many years. Her essay, “A Teacher Named Kricket,” originally published in Equus, was included in the anthology Straight from the Heart – True Stories of Horses. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul, Equus, Horse Illustrated, and many other publications.
She has also published three nonfiction books, two novels, and several works of short fiction.
As a fellow author with extensive marketing industry experience, Jeanne looks forward to sharing her expertise with NAIWE members. She may be contacted through her company, Seven Oaks Consulting, or through the NAIWE website.
Happy Anniversary, Seven Oaks Consulting!
Happy anniversary Seven Oaks Consulting!
Celebrating 15 Years of Service: The Anniversary of Seven Oaks Consulting
You've got to go with the flow for content creator success.
Saturday, October 1, represented a big milestone for my company, Seven Oaks Consulting. We celebrated our 15th Anniversary! According to the SBA, only 25% of small businesses make it to the big 1-5. Half close in 5 years, more by year 10, leaving a scant 25% still running 15 years later.
I had a lot of exciting promotions I wanted to launch on October 1. The remnants of Hurricane Ian, however, decided otherwise, smashing trees down and wiping out the power for my area for most of the day. (It's back now, thank you Dominion Energy).
Like that first day we moved in here 15 years ago, nothing this past Saturday was working. Although unlike that October day 15 years ago, at least I could find my coffee pot (albeit the old-fashioned 1950s stovetop percolator!).
We've Grown and Changed from Acorn into Oak
As I sat at my kitchen table with pencil in hand, writing down a few thoughts and wondering when the power would be back on, I realized the symbolic significance of the events today compared to the events 15 years ago...
You have to go with the flow!
A successful business must adapt, change, and grow with the times. We as a company haven't remained static. We've changed with the times. We started out as a small consulting firm to the education marketplace (the industry I left when I left I moved from New York City.) Over the years, we adapted, adding writing services when my skills as a writer were in demand, finally melding the two skillsets into content marketing. A flair and passion for technology and manufacturing stories made that part of the agency come together, and two years ago, we branded as a B2B content marketing agency for the technology and manufacturing industries.
Today, as the sun shines, and the power is back on, I have to laugh at how my big plans - press releases, an online event - all came to naught thanks to an oak tree, of all things. Seven Oaks Consulting's 15 year anniversary celebration was temporarily postponed due to an oak tree wiping out the power.
You've got to laugh at the fun the universe has with us.
Happy anniversary Seven Oaks Consulting, and here's to another 15 years of great content marketing and writing!
Celebrate International Dog Day!
Celebrate International Dog Day with us!
Here at Seven Oaks Consulting, a day at work is a day we share with our dogs. Nearly every single person who works at Seven Oaks Consulting owns a dog (or two) and enjoys time working alongside their favorite canine.
So, in honor of International Dog Day (yes, it's a thing), we thought you might enjoy meeting the Dogs of Seven Oaks Consulting!
Kathleen Marshall, Senior Writer and Editor, is never without her dogs, Maggie and Zoey.
It's not a meeting unless Maggie, Zoey, or both leaps into Kathleen's lap! Her two mixed breed pups love to be on conference calls. They're also key to Kathleen's happiness. Thanks to Maggie and Zoey, Kathleen doesn't have to worry about intruders - she can focus on your writing and editing projects!
Freelance writer Laura LaFrenier is also the proud pet parent of not one, but three canine writing companions!
"This first photo is my English bulldog Libby. She is the newest member of the family and loves to go fishing and going out on the paddle boat. She likes to eat the hot dogs they use for bait."
"The second photo is of my terrier mix Layla. She is about 6 years old and we have had her since she was 8 weeks. She is very spoiled and the least trained out of the bunch lol. She loves to sleep under the blankets every night to stay warm."
"Last but not least is a photo of my black lab mix Boon. He is 12 years old and still acts like a pup. We adopted him when he was 5 months old and he helped to welcome my daughter home from the hospital when she was born. He considers himself to be the protector of the family and never leaves my side."
And of course, my dog, Zeke. His full name is Temper's Ezekiel. He joined our family as a puppy and turned my life upside down. He's goofy, giant, protective, and the best meeting companion a girl could want.
I keep a jar of peanut butter dog biscuits on my desk. If you see me reaching over during a Zoom call, it's because I have to bribe Zeke to maintain silence during our calls.
What Is International Dog Day?
August 26 is International Dog Day, a day set aside to remember dogs, both purebred and mutts, owned and loved by all. Its founder sought to raise awareness of the dogs waiting in shelters for adoption.
Whether you've adopted your dog from a shelter, as I have in the past, or obtained him from a loving home, as I did not with my Zeke, here's to all the dogs in our lives! They give us unconditional love, lots of laughter, and plenty to talk about.
Seven Oaks Consulting Featured in Fundera
There's greater interest now than ever before in rural small businesses. Journalist Priyanka Prakash interviews me for this piece on rural small business in the online publication, Fundera.
Rural Small Businesses Earn Better Profits and More Financing
Among business owners, rural areas get a bad rap. But I've found that conducting business in a rural area - thanks to the internet - offers many advantages.
Read the article for the full story. Thank you again to Ms. Prakash for the opportunity.