There’s been much ado about the millennial generation for the past few years. Whether decrying the cohort’s fondness for selfies or analyzing its symbiotic relationship with mobile devices and the Internet, there’s a glut of judgments and think pieces that attempt to define the attitudes and behavior of those born between 1980 and the early 2000s.

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Social media has reinvented the phone’s pound sign, giving birth to the now ubiquitous ‘hashtag.’ If you immediately understand what I’m referring to, you have one-up on my mother. Despite the barrage of TV ads referencing the hashtag and the fact that it’s been clickable since 2009, my mom has no idea what one is or what it’s used for, and she’s content to continue living in her hashtag ignorance.

Unlike my mother, there are those who would argue that they know exactly what a hashtag is and just how to use it. My Facebook newsfeed begs to differ.

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Rake up the excess on your old blog, and rake in new connections.

Ah, fall: my favorite time of year. I’m not a full-fledged drive-thru maven in yoga pants with an uncontrolled addiction to #PSLs, but I do love a touch of fall flavor. Interestingly, autumn is really a season of decay in some senses: the leaves wither and fall, the air turns colder, and warm ovens turn the harvest’s bounty into pie after pie.

Even though this season is about things falling away, it’s still impossibly joyful for many people. Perhaps it’s our collective recognition of the fact that when things wither and die, they will come back renewed after a winter of rest. Whatever it is, we can’t get enough of fall. And perhaps the world of business writing, copy, and marketing could use a touch a pumpkin spice.

Here are a few lessons we can all glean from some of fall’s most cherished pastimes and traditions. This is an excellent time of year to do a bit of “cleaning house,” just as we pack away the shorts and bring out the sweaters with October’s first chill.  

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Can any business really exist without an online presence? This slightly existentialist question is really one of practicality rather than philosophy:

• 89 percent of consumers use search engines to learn more about businesses and the products or services they offer before making a purchase
• 71 percent of purchase decisions start out with an online search
• There are 100 billion searches conducted on Google every month

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