Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

Four Human Reasons People Participate and Keep Coming Back

Filed Under Community, Marketing, Successful Blog | 5 Comments

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

It’s about Me!

cooltext443809602_strategy

When new clients start talking social media, it’s not long before they get to “engagement.” They want to know what moves crowds and individuals to genuine participation. What attracts us? What connects us? What keep us coming back and bringing our friends with us?

What makes one space more fun to participate in than another that looks like the same thing?

Why we participate might vary with each participant, but participants all have things in common — simple human reasons that give experiences meaning.

When we’re looking at an online experience, we have to consider what the human payoff is. What is the most basic reason that people will come and come back? That reason will underscore and validate that the environment we’re building is right for the ones we want to come to share it. Incorporate the values of the folks you want to be there, and people will participate and keep coming back.

Seems simple doesn’t iit? Humans will be human.

Which reason do you think attracts most folks to participate on Twitter?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Register Now!! for sobcon-vmc

It’s True! Unlimited Paid Leave for Employees! Will It Work??

Filed Under Comments, Community, Great Finds, Marketing, Successful Blog, Trends | 4 Comments

Change the Question

cooltext443809437_relationships

In an article in Business Week this weekend, Roger L. Martin and Jennifer Riel explored how approaching new ideas with an eye toward precedent and previous proof could be a killer. They told the story of a bank so risk averse it missed a huge opportunity and then held up the “abductive thinking” of Research In Motion who moved from a pager company to a smartphone contender.

In the mid-1990s, RIM was a modestly successful pager company. But Lazaridis saw potential in the idea of a portable e-mail device. He began to consider what it might look like, what it could do. He imagined something much smaller than a laptop but easier to type on than a phone. Laptops were already shrinking and bumping up against limitations on how small a QWERTY keyboard could reasonably get. Lazaridis stepped back to consider how a much tinier keyboard could be feasible—and he achieved a leap of logic: What if we typed using only our thumbs? He soon had a prototype and concrete feedback from it.

Asking what could be true—and jumping into the unknown—is critical to innovation. Nurturing the ideas that result, rather than killing them, can be the tricky part. But once a company clears this hurdle, it can leverage its efforts to produce the proof that leaders depend on to make commitments—and turn the future into fact.

Social Strata also saw potential and achieved a leap to a what if? of another fashion.

Unlimited Paid Leave for Employees?

Social media brings passionate people together in business relationships. And we look to them to show us how business might be if we work with trust and transparency. At Social Strata in Seattle, President Rose O’Neill, takes that idea seriously. Social Strata has recently surprised employees by announcing a revolutionary plan to offer its employees unlimited paid vacation benefits. At first the employees thought it was a joke.

There’s no maximum, but there is a minimum of two weeks.

From the Social Strata Founders blog post. Unlimited Paid Leave? Oh yes. :

… we decided that, if we have the “right people on the bus,” i.e., people who are passionate about what they’re doing, we don’t need to set artificial limits on the amount of time they can take off, or why they can take time off. Disciplined people will ensure that their responsibilities are handled, and still be able to recharge their batteries with time off. Undisciplined people who take advantage of the system will reveal themselves and be naturally sorted out.

Bruce Watson of Daily Finance points out that the plan relies on

With those in place, Watson says could make for an energized workforce that feels appreciated and is inspired to loyalty and higher productivity. He also points out that in a workforce larger than Social Stratas 14-person, close-knit team, it might be hard to accomplish.

Here’s an interview Ms. O’Neill had with King5 News Seattle,

The environments we build often shape our behavior. Will this radical move bring the response that Social Strata is after?

What do you think needs to be there for this benefit to work? Do you think the plan is destined to falter at some future point?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Isn’t it time you registered for

SOBCon?

Develop strategies and tactics with the best of the Social Web for an entire weekend.

Win a FREE SOBCon Weekend — $2000 Value !! AND Get a Discount Code to Explode Your Network!

Filed Under Community, Great Finds, Marketing, Successful Blog | 26 Comments

150 People to Fine Tune Your Web Presence

sobcon-vmc

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise of the Internet …

Imagine a weekend work retreat with these people totally invested.

Would you write a blog post to get a chance to win a FREE SOBCon Weekend?

An Expense Paid Ticket!! AND the Return of The BlogIt EarnIt Discount

I’m delighted to announce that Terry and I get to make this offer …

We had such fun last year with the SOBCon “BlogIt, EarnIt” discount. We’re bringing it back again. Again this year, we’d like to hear from you — this time about what “The Virtual Meets the Concrete” means to you. We want to celebrate how our relationships online help our lives and businesses online and off.

Tell us why online and offline relationships and strategies matter.

Here’s how to qualify for the discount and enter to win

1. Write a blog post about a person (or people) online who has (or have) made a difference in your life. Celebrate how they have made your life easier, better, smarter, more productive, more meaningful.

2. Then let us know by tagging your post #SOBCon2010 and leaving a comment on this post. Include a working email with your comment and as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $250 off the $895 FULL conference rate - that’s over a 25% savings! (We won’t use your email to spam you.)

We’ll also tweet your blog post so that we can celebrate the folks we all think make us stronger.

Get your posts up before Noon EST on February 14th, 2010, and noon EST pm the next day (February 15th), to kick off a special SOBCobn2010 Webinar with Chris Garrett, Chris Brogan, Amber Naslund and Liz Strauss (details coming soon), we’ll put all of the entries in a random drawing and choose one lucky winner who will receive:

  1. a free ticket to SOBCon2010 - $895.00 value
  2. airfare and three nights at Hotel 71 - up to $1105 in hotel and airfare

A total package value worth as much as USD $2000 - nontransferrable, nonrefundable

Blog your thoughts, share it, link it back to this post, and broadcast it on Twitter (hash #blogitearnit). We’ll also encourage you to link to the SOBCon blog for others to see and learn. And remember as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $250 off the $895 FULL conference rate - that’s over a 25% savings!

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon2010, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

We’re doing everything we can to bring you all the value, the experts and expertise, and the time to work and network that you need to make your business outstanding and extremely profitable in 2010.

What could you do with a weekend of the time, expertise, and support you need to focus your business?

We’re all coming for the same reasons.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon2010 NOW!!

Make the investment.

Trusting and Tracking the People Who Help Us Thrive

Filed Under Community, Marketing, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

cooltext443809437_relationships

It was a train ride to my first meeting with Nick Sarillo, new client. We met over a pizza in his Crystal Lake restaurant — a rare experience. It felt like “going home.”

As Nick showed me around and told me about his restaurants, as I watched and listened, I realized this guy — whose social presence was basically a website — already had the keys to community and social media. I saw proof in the faces and the stories of the people who worked with him.

It’s been a pleasure to work with Nick and his team on their integrated social marketing plans. But this post is about what I’ve learned from watching what Nick has built and what he does.

10 Trust and Track Keys to Community Culture

  1. Invest creatively, emotionally, financially, and personally in your commmunity. Care about the people who help you thrive. Realize their stories are your stories. Take a risk in favor of the folks who support you. The right risks show you are with them.
  2. Intentionally attract amazing people. Set a standard or a process that makes them proud to be participate. Nick’s hiring process is strategically organized to bring in only the most dedicated employees.
  3. Learn together and share rewards. Let everyone know what works for the community and what doesn’t. Let them participate in ideas. Reward and promote the folks who contribute in predictable and surprising ways.
  4. Trust and be trustworthy. Trust people to be intelligent, responsible, and trustworthy human beings and live up to that standard. Make your trust visible in your actions and systems. Support structures and flexibility that build the community.
  5. Know when to say “no” immediately. Deal with disrespect or destructive behavior as soon as it happens. Tell the hard truth in a careful, gentle manner. Protect the culture and the people who invested in it.
  6. Value the input of experienced people outside the community. You can’t be inside and outside of a problem. You can’t have all of the new ideas. You don’t need to test out everything on your community.
  7. Let people tell you the “bad news.” The most useful information is the hardest to find out. Make it safe and easy to share what’s wrong. Trust people to protect what they’ve helped to build.
  8. Care more about their mission. It’s not what they do or say that’s important. It’s what they value. Build a culture around common values and let folks choose how to they use it.
  9. Pay attention to what’s working and quickly lose what’s not. It’s easy to hand over all of the community direction once things are going well. But that brings us back to point 1, be invested in the community. You can’t neglect what folks love.
  10. Take your time to build it together. Every great community started with two people and took time.

This month on the newstand issue of INC. magazine, Nick’s story is on the cover. Bo Burlingham did a brilliant job of capturing the client I’ve come to know. Do go read about him.

This is Nick’s story, but it’s my story too. It will be a long time before I forget him or how well he does what he does.

Can you share a story about a client or a customer who helps you thrive?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

Teaching Sells

Isn’t it time you registered for

SOBCon?

Develop strategies and tactics with the best of the Social Web for an entire weekend.

The Only Way to Attract a Vibrant, High-Trust Community

Filed Under Comments, Community, Design, Inside-Out Thinking, Liz Talks Corporate, Marketing, One Way to CC It, SEO, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats, Tools | 35 Comments

Last summer at AdTech, a VP at huge corporate brand extended her arms completely — way out in front her — and used her hands to gesture as she said something close to this about her goal for building a community:

I want to build a community in which peers are talking to peers openly.

I’m sure she didn’t mean it the way it looked … Her hands were so far away from her. — or sounded … peers talking to peers?

cooltext443809437_relationships

I couldn’t help thinking … Where will YOU be? Studying me? Is that what you think of me? I’m not a peer. I’m a person. I only do well in places where people “get” me.

Users. Consumers. Buyers. Customers. Leads. Eyeballs. Peers. Those are faceless, flattening labels. They come from the time of one-size-fits-all.

People are individual human beings complete with aspirations, intentions, ideas, opinions, habits, behaviors, thoughts, and emotions.

Which community would you join?

More Communities and More Time for Them

Online social communities aren’t a new thing. People have been linking and sharing via blogs since the 20th century. Organized social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn have become a part of our lives.

Our communities are becoming more about communicating and being creative about what interests us. It’s all about making it relevant to the people we want to attract. As this Pew Internet Slideshare describes …

Social Media – Making it Business Relevant
View more presentations from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.


We’re participating more. We’re spending more time in communities. We’re building more of them. How do attract people to the communities we’re building that are perfect for them?

The Only Way to Attract a Vibrant, High-Trust Community

Just as a building is not a business, a community is not a collection of profiles or a url. People won’t visit our community because it’s pretty. People will come because it offers them something they value.

From two people to more than plenty, a community is a social structure that shares personal values, cultural values, business goals, attitudes, or a world view. What binds it is a culture of social rules and group dynamics that identify members. In the most concise terms, an online social community is a group of like-minded individuals connected by relevant interactions and protected by a high-trust environment.

A high-trust community is an agreement, a pact or contract, like love or friendship. We can’t order, build, or wish our way to one. What we can do is attract people who want to join what we’re doing. The only way to do that is clear passionate commitment, obvious generosity, trustworthiness, and a touch of intentional serendipity … which looks something like this.

  1. Be a person (or people) who likes people. People work with, talk with, and relate to other people not a business.
  2. Articulate a clear and passionate vision worth investing in. Live your commitment. Get your hands dirty.
  3. Seek out people who would love what you’re doing. Find them where they are already gathering and talking. Join THEIR conversations. Get to know them.
  4. Be a beginner, but keep the vision. Learn from everyone who’s been anywhere near where you’re going. Learn to sort wrong from unexpected or different. Ideas that jar you could be the best ones.
  5. Invite everyone who “gets” the vision to help build this new thing. Look for ways to include their skills and their passions.
  6. Keep participation efficient and easy. Curb the urge to add cool things that get in the way of conversation and sharing.
  7. Let trust sort things. Model the standards of behavior. Keep rules to a minimum.
  8. Be visible authenticity. Lean toward full disclosure, but avoid over-exposure. Most of us look better with our clothes on.
  9. Protect everyone’s investment. Forgive mistakes. Ignore little missteps. Eradicate what is destructive. Know the difference by holding thing up to trust, values, and the community vision.
  10. Stop doing what isn’t working. Be lethal about keeping things easy, efficient, and meaningful.
  11. Promote your members … and honor your competition! Secure communities need both to thrive and get new ideas.
  12. Encourage mutation. Let the environment change to meet the changing needs of the people it serves.
  13. Celebrate contagion. Make it heroic to share what’s going on!
  14. Be grateful and always about the people. The community wouldn’t be a community without them.

An online community isn’t built or befriended, it’s connected by offering and accepting. Community is affinity, identity, and kinship that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions. –What Is a Social Community?

We create vibrant, high trust community by letting other folks raise the barn with us, by being their first offering trust and a passionate vision, and valuing the trust and energy they give us.

What attracts you to a community? What keeps you coming back again?

-ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

Teaching Sells

keep looking »