by Des Walsh and Suzie Cheel
Amusing number plate at the beach or maybe just LOL
We loved this number plate that we saw at the beach recently. The owner was a happy guy- who wouldn’t be with a number plate LOL?
Here is a good place for a call to action.
by Guest Author
Amusing number plate at the beach or maybe just LOL
We loved this number plate that we saw at the beach recently. The owner was a happy guy- who wouldn’t be with a number plate LOL?
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
by Guest Author
Why do teachers blogs? They use them as a networking tools, to share news and tips with other teachers, to let parents know what’s going on in the classroom, and to distribute information to their students. Teachers are using blogs to post student assignments, handouts and notices, and to offer instructional tips. Teachers provide links to websites related to topics and concepts discussed in the classroom. Blogs are also used by teachers as question and answer forums. Also, school administrators are increasingly using blogs to communicate with parents, faculty members, the community, and other administrators.
Some teachers use blogs to showcase exemplary examples of student writing, ideas, and creativity. Blogs are utilized by teachers to create a classroom that goes beyond the boundaries of the traditional school setting.
Many teachers encourage parents to read their blogs. If parents follow these blogs they’re more likely to take an active role in their child’s education. The blogs may include summaries of what the students have been studying each month and the projects they’ve been working on.
Many teachers encourage their students to maintain a blog, which can be assigned as an individual or a team project. A blog gives students an opportunity to express themselves and to enhance their writing skills. It provides students an opportunity to work on assignments as a group and improve their ability to work in a team. Students can also share course-related resources.
Blogs provide opportunities for students to express their ideas who may be too shy to participate in the classroom. They also provide students the opportunity to get feed back from their peers and discuss a variety of issues. Students can use a blog to create a digital portfolio.
Blogs are used to focus on a variety of topics. Some of the popular categories are education news, college, E-learning, Internet culture, education policies, library and research, learning, technology, and teaching.
TeacherLingo (http://www.teacherlingo.com/) is an educational community of teacher blogs, lesson plans, and other teacher resources. Teachers can share experiences and advice with other educators.
Blogs are increasingly being used by teachers and students throughout the nation. They’re easy to create and use, and they certainly can enhance the education experiences of both teachers and students alike.
_____
Brian Jenkins contributes content related to elementary school teaching careers, among other education and career topics, to the BrainTrack website.
Thanks, Brian!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
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by patty
I am often asked to speak about how to have more influence.
Managers often feel like they are getting blocked or ignored by the power structure in their company.
Influence
How can you make sure you are included when important strategies are being decided? How can you impact them?
There are many aspects to this including the need to increase the impact of your work, build your credibility, make the right connections with people, and create a network of support for your ideas, your work, and your career.
But today I want to talk about something very specific. A powerful, practical approach to dramatically increase your influence with your stakeholders.
I canât overstate the importance of translating what you talk about into the language of your stakeholders.
It starts hereâ¦
No one really cares what you doâ¦
(At least not as much as you do.)
Donât try to educate your stakeholders. I often talk to managers who say, I need to educate my boss about what my group does.
My advice. Donât bother. It doesnât work and it only annoys both of you!
But the important thing to realize is this:
If you have to educate people about what you do, you are not relevant.
Just think about that. If you have to educate, you are not relevant…
What IS relevant? What they already know and care about.
If you want to increase your influence, the way to be more relevant is to always start your conversation with something they already know and care about.
Use that as a hook, and then hang your information that hook.
They will think you are smart and be motivated to listen to you because you are starting the conversation by making them feel smart.
You are engaging them on terms they already know and on things they want to make progress on. Once they are thinking that, they will be ready to listen to you.
To follow the marketing example, donât talk about a multi-quarter integrated marketing campaign. While you are at it, donât even use the word marketing. Talk about building pipeline, decreasing the time to close a sale, or opening new revenue streams.
If you are in IT donât talk about data centers and virtualization. Translate to improving sales effectiveness, helping reach new markets, or reducing the cost of acquiring customers.
Here is a very specific bit of magic to make your work and your ideas much more relevant to the rest of the business.
1. Interview your business stakeholders about what they care about. What is driving their business? What are their pressures and opportunities? What are their key âcanât failâ initiatives right now?
2. Listen for two things:
3. Go back and summarize their top initiatives in their words.
4. Prepare your next communication about what you are doing or trying to influence and ONLY USE THEIR WORDS.
Remember your plans and your budget are riddled with jargon from your own function. I call that your âinside voiceâ. You need those things to run your function but donât â under any circumstances â use those those same artifacts to communicate outside your function.
You need to use your âoutside voiceâ. You need to specifically create new communication tools that are versions of your plans, your proposals, and your budget, but using the language of your stakeholders.
The magic then happens when you are suddenly asking them to approve budget for things they want anyway!
When you translate and use their words, not yours, you are more relevant, you appear more credible and you dramatically increase your ability to influence.
What things have you done to increase your influence? Please leave your ideas in the comment box below.
—–
Patty Azzarello works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. She has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello
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by teresa
Iâm Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors & writers to manage their book promotion and social media marketing. As part of my job I read a lot of books (I love to read anyway!).
This week I will be highlighting two books; one author I am currently working with ‘#PRIVACYtweet’ by Lori Ruff and one book on the social media Amazon list ‘Share This!’ by Deanna Zandt.
The books I discuss in the Social Media Book List Series will cover a range of topics such as social media, marketing, blogging, business, organization, career building, finance, networking, writing, self development, and inspiration.
by Lori Ruff
âWhatever you believe about online privacy and its implications on your life and business, this book will help you better understand what you need to believe.â
Jay Deragon, @JDeragon, Coauthor The Virtual Handshake, The Emergence of The Relationship Economy, and http://www.relationship-economy.com, one of the top 150 blogs in the world
âVery relevant, entirely timely, proper perspective: all the elements you want when youâre going to learn.â
JoshuaABarnes, @joshuaatbarnes, Director of Information Technology, Socialmatica, Inc.
Here are a few of the tweets from the book:
#2 You canât hide in The Cloud. If youâre going to participate in the online community, do it with deliberation & thought.
#13 Being online is like being a player on a professional football team. You know youâre being watched. Act like it.
#15 Business professionals need to be on LinkedIn and engaged. Share only what you would at your office.
#35 Bullying is not only alive and well; it is more common than youâd hope. Call out cyberbullying: help those attacked.
#48 Did your computer come with security software? Use it, keep it updated, run it on schedule. It will
help save your A$&.
#76 Each individual has sole responsibility for posts published in any form of online social media. Via @maltaee
About the Book*:
Concerns about privacy are not new. Since time immemorial, we humans have valued and guarded our privacy, often jealously or violently. It is therefore no surprise that privacy online is of such great concern in our connected world. Today, when we conduct so much of our life online–bank transactions, credit card payments, transmission of personal messages and images to friends and family–it is completely understandable that we should be concerned about the privacy of our communication and information.
Privacy concerns in the virtual world are often compounded by lack of information and awareness. Not all of us are completely clear on how we should guard our privacy on the Internet. Especially in the corporate world, privacy becomes a huge concern, since it is not only the individual employee who can be at risk, but co-workers and the corporate entity too. Can privacy be guaranteed? How can you raise employee awareness on privacy issues? These are just a few of the questions that Lori Ruff is so well-qualified to address.
In #PRIVACYtweet , Lori tells you–in the succinct and ever-popular tweet format–what exactly privacy on the Internet means to your organization. To cite just one example, she addresses the need for privacy issues to be part of a hiring firm’s requirements and why they must be in line with customer relations. You don’t have to be an Internet guru to perceive and benefit from her experience and wisdom. Using Lori’s book you can secure your privacy at the individual, group and corporate levels without paranoia. Read PrivacyTweet to clear the fear, so that you approach the Internet with caution, yet confidence.
About Lori*:
Lori Ruff, author of numerous books and famed speaker at conferences and training sessions, has taught technology and Internet courses since 1999 and helped thousands of people find success online. She is now living her life out loud in the social media world.
Dubbed The LinkedIn Diva, Lori is the 9th most connected woman on LinkedIn, with a full Facebook friends list and close to 50,000 followers on Twitter.
You can purchase a copy of ‘#PRIVACYtweet:Addressing Privacy Concerns in the Day of Social Media’ online on the publisher site, Happy About or on Amazon. *I did receive a copy of this book from the publisher to help in the promotion of the book
Next, I would like to introduce you to a book on the social media list on Amazon and on my reading list: ‘Share This! How you will change the world with Social Media’.
by Deanna Zandt
“If you are an activist or a concerned citizen and you are new to social media, start with Share This! Deanna Zandt has deep knowledge, broad experience, a knack for clear and simple explanation, a talent for storytelling, and a wonderfully engaging voice.”
âHoward Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs and lecturer, University of California Berkeley and Stanford University
About the Book*
Social networks can be so much more than a way to find your high school friends or learn what your favorite celebrity had for breakfast. They can be powerful tools for changing the world. With Share This! both regular folks of a progressive bent and committed activists can learn how to go beyond swapping movie reviews and vacation photos (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
At the moment the same kinds of people who dominate the dialog off-line are dominating it online, and things will never change if that doesn’t change. Progressives need to get on social networks and share their stories, join conversations, connect with others–and not just others exactly like themselves. It’s vital to reach out across all those ethnic/gender/preference/class/age lines that exist even within the progressive camp. As Deanna Zandt puts it, “creating a just society is sort of like the evolution of the species–if you have a bunch of the same DNA mixing together the species mutates poorly and eventually dies off.”
But there are definitely dos and don’ts. Zandt delves into exactly what people are and are not looking for in online exchanges. How to be a good guest. What to share. Why authenticity is more important than just about anything, including traditional notions of expertise or authority. She addresses some common fears, like worrying about giving too much about yourself away, blurring the lines between your professional and personal life, or getting buried under a steaming heap of information overload. And she offers detailed, nuts-and bolts “how to get started” advice for both individuals and organizations.
The Internet is upending hierarchies and freeing the flow of information in a way that makes the invention of the printing press seem like an historical footnote. Share This! shows how to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to make marginalized voices heard and support real, fundamental change–and, incidentally, have some fun doing it.
About Deanna Zandt*:
Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and the author of Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking (forthcoming: Berrett-Koehler, June 2010). She is a consultant to key progressive media organizations including AlterNet and Jim Hightower’s Hightower Lowdown, and hosts TechGrrl Tips on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. Zandt specializes in social media, and is a leading expert in women and technology. She works with groups to create and implement effective web strategies toward organizational goals of civic engagement and empowerment, and uses her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications and finance to complement her technical expertise. She has spoken at a number of conferences, including the National Conference on Media Reform, Bioneers, America’s Future Now (formerly “Take Back America,”) Women Action & The Media, and provides beginner and advanced workshops both online and in person.
In January 2009, Deanna was chosen as a fellow for the Progressive Women’s Voices program at the Women’s Media Center. She also serves as a technology advisor to a number of organizations, including Feministing, The Girls & Boys Projects and Women Action & The Media.
In addition to her technology work, Deanna writes and illustrates graphic stories and comics, and volunteers with dog rescue organization Rat Terrier ResQ.
*courtesy of book website and Amazon
You can purchase a copy of ‘Share This!’ on Amazon.
I truly hope you will check out these books and please comment and let me know your thoughts on them.
by Guest Author
By Terez Howard
A couple weeks ago, I got Sisterlocks. For those of you who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, it’s basically like getting very tiny dreadlocks (like hundreds) in your hair. If you would have asked me six months ago if I would ever make such a permanent decision, I would say, “Never!”
Why not? Locs are not versatile. Locs are not beautiful. Locs are too permanent. Locs are not for me. Those were my excuses, and yet here I am with a head full of Sisterlocks.
What changed my viewpoint? In short, an education.
Blogging is a beneficial endeavor. It gets your business heard on a more social level. It gets your audience to trust you. It makes you appear as an authority in your niche. So, why would you stop blogging?
1. You don’t have the time. You have a life. You are a parent, a spouse, a full-time worker, and you’d like to keep up your hobby. Blogging takes the back-burner.
I am the same way, and yet, I find the time to write. How I do it is with simple scheduling. However, I find that most people will agree that a schedule looks good on paper, but it doesn’t help with motivation. I love blogging because I write about topics that interest me. So, I have my schedule, and I have something interesting to share, which brings me to my next point:
2. You ran out of ideas. You don’t know what to write about. You feel like you’ve covered every single topic in your niche, so you’re ready to give blogging a break.
Been there. Maybe you need a creativity boost. I’m not saying to create a whole new blog, but maybe you need to repurpose your blog. Do you have a tight niche?Do you have a creative slant on it? Do you share information in a way that interests you and your audience?
Take some time to read other blogs, whether they relate to yours or not. Talk to friends and family. Observe your day-to-day activities. Then sit down and write as many topics that come to your mind. You’ll soon have more topics than you ever imagined.
3. You are not a good writer, so why keep up a blog?
Well, you could try some of the editing tactics Jael mentioned last week. You could also hire a professional blogger to write for you.
If those ideas don’t appeal to you, have you tried starting to video blog? Writing is talking with letters. If you cannot string your letters together in an intelligible manner, but you love to talk, try talking to your audience. Uncomfortable with your face? Two words: Audio Podcast.
4. Your blog doesn’t look as nice as other blogs, and you’re ready to shut it down.
I’m no graphic designer. I know as much about html as a newborn knows about pizza. It looks good, but I can’t do a whole lot of anything with it. There is such a thing as a template. Shop for a new template, and it doesn’t have to cost you anything. Of course, if you do hire someone to design your blog, you are more likely to get exactly what you want.
If you just want to tweak your existing look, search for some help. I recently got some help from a fellow blogger with my blog’s appearance. And guess what? She didn’t charge me a cent! Enlist the help of bloggers you know.
There are more reasons you should stop blogging. But before you indulge yourself and call it quits, educate yourself. See how you can make your blog work.
I became educated about Sisterlocks, and now I wish I would have gotten them sooner. Don’t be like me, wishing you would have solved your blogging problems sooner. Take action.
How do keep yourself motivated to continue blogging?
—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas. You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger.
Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!