JOIN US TONIGHT AT 7PM
Gifts of All Shapes, Kinds, and Sizes — Even Mistakes
Oh, and bring example links.
The rules are simple — be nice.
Do be nice. 🙂
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?
Here is a good place for a call to action.
by Liz
Oh, and bring example links.
Do be nice. 🙂
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?
by Liz
Last week at lunch, Patrick Rooney and I were talking about the digital divide between the social media culture and the companies looking for ways to join it. We discussed how the lovely social media landscape can look a little unfriendly when you consider it from that perspective. We’ve all seen what social media backlash can do.
The expectation that a company will adapt immediately and seamlessly without error to new culture is unrealistic. You and I didn’t. Did we? What a business moving into social media needs is a way for people get to know them.
The first time I went to London, I didn’t know much beyond the language. Luckily my friend, Richard, met me at the airport that morning. We went to a local eatery — a pub really — and he gave me a quick rundown on the currency and the “rules.” As a saloonkeeper’s daughter, my favorite was Don’t you dare tip in a pub that makes you get your own drink.
Culture. We learn it by sharing it. We pass it along to each other. As communities we build it and shape it together by talking about who we are, what we believe, where we’re going, what we do for a living, what we buy and sell, and what we need, want, and desire.
Piazza, Plaza, Commons, a Town Square, a Quad, the Food Court in a mall, a water cooler, a pub … almost every culture has theirs — a space where people gather for conversations like those.
In Mexico, these ubiquitous areas are called Zócalos. They are just as important today as ever – serving as a home for leisurely chats, special celebrations and neighborhood connectivity. While the most prominent Zócalo is located in Mexico City, smaller Zócalos exist in just about every Mexican community. –Zócalo Group
Not every town square needs to be a Coliseum or an Epcot Center. People meet on the stoops of a side street in New York City.
The biggest worries to companies coming online are fear of negative response, time investment, and skepticism of return. In a culture where the value shift has gone from one-size fits all to one at a time always, every business might try thinking small — smaller starts, smaller steps — but more of them.
Listen and make relationships. Then build something small. Small communities are investments. Small communities grow and as they grow, the business can build a unique culture with them.
A great example of a business that’s doing this well is a client of mine. The core business is a seamless system of integrating human and technological translation for WordPress blogs and CMS.
To offer value and build community, ICanLocalize has build a sister site, ICanLocalize for Developers and Designers a content site that has grown out of the work on the plugin that drives the translations. I asked Amir Helzer, the owner, why he developed this second site. He said,
I wanted to create a multilingual resource and an active community for people who are using WordPress to build complex websites. So I built Baripedia on a WordPress CMS and ICanLocalize for Developers and Designers.
Here’s the beauty of building by, for, and with the community.
Everything that ICanLocalize is doing builds the community and the business simultaneously. The community has a compelling reason to participate because the value is there, yet the invitation to add more is always open. And both community sites will bring interest back to the original business site by the way that they naturally feature the skills and expertise of the business that built them for the communities.
As they say, Bariloche wasn’t built in a … few lines of code.
Any business can do this. It’s building a business like we write a blog post. Leaving room for people to come in and add their own ideas, not tying it up with a bow so that all visitors can comment is “good job!”
Twitter. It began with a question, What are you doing? Look at it now. The community interaction made most of that.
Zócalos, Plaza, Piazza
a place where all traffic stops for coffee, conversation, community
How might you add a small community to a business site? What ideas would have for a business like Motrin, or Walmart, or maybe your local book store?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
by Guest Author
At the southern end of Rainbow Bay beach, where we walk most mornings, is the world famous Snapper Rocks surfing break. Usually, and on any day of the week, there are plenty of surfers to be seen there. Sometimes most or all of them stay away, whether because the surf is too choppy or, as in the photo here, it is just flat.
But even when it is flat there are likely to be a few hopefuls, waiting for waves that, for all the casual observer can discern, are just not around at that time.
Looking at the picture this morning or three surfers waiting for a wave with none in evidence, I’m thinking that part of me actually likes the idea of people being hopeful, whether of a wave to make my surfing day, or some new business coming out of the blue and making my annual income look much healthier. I’m basically a perennial optimist.
Then my brain kicks in and suggests that if I don’t do more than wait and hope, I’ll be like Charles Dickens’ Mr Micawber, a man who owed much and earned less, and who lived in hope that something would “turn up”.
And in the business context, given the parlous state of the global economy, it’s probably even more foolhardy than usual to be just living in hope of growth, or even survival. It might be boom times for receivers and administrators. For the rest of us it’s a time to get really focused and take systematic action. Indeed, 2009 looks like being a year to test us all.
Something might well turn up, but just hoping for that is probably a recipe for tears before bedtime.
What’s your tip for a way to ensure good business in 2009?
by Liz
Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,
I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.
They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.
I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.
Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.
If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Michelle Vandepas talks to Liz:
Come join me while I ask Liz why being Nice is so important to her, her addiction to Klondike Bars, and why we should come visit Chicago in May. (for SobCon!)
What does Liz do? In her words, Liz says:
I help businesses, universities, and service professionals . . .increase ROI and attract fiercely loyal fans . . .
by communicating with customers as people.
by Liz
A 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.
Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.
We study writing. We can read the work of great writers we admire. We ask for the advice and help of those who’ve mastered some skill, but in the end, all of that advice and input is influence not a handbook. Every blogger and writer finds his or her voice without much help. We practice until we discover which rules work for us. A great writer, a great blogger, gets to be one by doing to it.
Here’s what William said . . .
1. why are ‘great writers’ typically associated with fictional stories?
2. is writing not a form of art left to the eye of the beholder?I’m told that Hemingway is a great writer… What about Orson Scott Card, Bill Bryson, or even the one writing this blog or this comment?
I agree that we (as writers) should be reading great writers, yet I completely disagree at the same time. For example, I have a very unique style of writing… The style is simply a reflection of how I speak and teach. Same pauses, inflections, and YELLING… sometimes.. Yet the last thing on my list is to sit down and read some Shakespeare, simply because the style is absolutely nothing I can relate to.
Douglas Adams (Last Chance To See) is perhaps the single book with a writing style that I can COMPLETELY relate to and respect. Now, is he a great writer? Certain circles, he is a respected author. This book? Relatively unknown. Bill Bryson is another author, who in my opinion, is absolutely brilliant!
I guess I’m not entirely sold on reading great writers helps with great writing. I think having a grasp of your chosen language is key, and just simply reading is key. I would sooner read something by a great THINKER than a great writer…
A successful and outstanding blogger said that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss