Reader's Corner No. 115: Listening is a Social Media Myth, Technical Skills for Project Managers, and Python 3 Decorators

October 24, 2019

Calling all Marketers, Project Managers, and Programmers, keep your eyes peeled because you might something worth reading in this week's Reader's Corner! Today's staff submissions of the week include the limitations of social media "listening" for small businesses, the top 3 essential technical skills for Project Managers, and an introductory tutorial on using Decorators in Python 3.


A social media myth: Do we really need to “listen to our customers?”

David Minton

Source: The {grow} blog

Takeaway: Top brands such as Nike, Starbucks and Wendy’s dedicate teams to monitor their social media accounts around the clock. In addition to their own, they review third-party posts to interact with customers, as well as gain business intelligence. But when it comes to most businesses, there is a fraction, if any, inbound social media activity. If so, should they really follow the best practices of the top brands, or is there a more efficient and effective strategy? Mark Schaefer addresses limitations of “social media listening” for small business, and injects some often missing “common sense” into social media strategy in his recent blog post.

Tags: #SocialMedia


Top 3 Essential Technical Project Manager Skills

Michael Nicholson

Source: Wrike Blog

Takeaway: Technical Project Management is a growing subset of Project Management. In addition to the standard Project Management practices, a Technical Project Manager is expected to be able to communicate technical ideas to non-technical clients in an accessible manner. The article identifies a few key suggestions to help with that:

  • Never assume knowledge, no matter how simple or rudimentary it may seem to you.
  • Use stories, metaphors, and analogies to engage the audience and help illustrate ideas.
  • Be as succinct as possible.

I will say that while I have a lot of practice with the first two suggestions, I do occasionally struggle with the third. It's a difficult balance to give a complete picture without overwhelming someone with details.

Tags: #Project Management


Python 3 Decorators

Jay Roberts

Source: Python Course

Takeaway: Decorators are a powerful tool in the Python programmer's toolbox but they can be tricky to "wrap" your mind around at first. This tutorial breaks down the concepts and provides a gentle introduction to decorators.

Tags: #Programming, #Python


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