Successful Blog

The Travellers Three

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It’s that time of year when people are planning events, gathering together, sharing in laughter, food and friendship. Many stories will be told, old and new. As people come together with family and loved ones, many will be thinking of the infamous event many years ago, which led to the celebrations, most of us are now having.

 

I like to think about all the stories being told at that time in history, long, long ago. My favorite story goes something like this: It was dusk in the desert. Three travelers from different parts and backgrounds gathered together to share food, fire and companionship. They began to tell stories and someone mentioned the divine birth of a mysterious child, a miracle, which was intriguing and spoke of hope. The night goes on and many more stories are shared and passed on. In the morning the strangers part ways leaving for their respective lands and taking with them memories. These stories travel and get re-told, passed on for years to come. The story changes as each teller recounts the memory of that night around the fire, just as the stories you share change with time. Remember to make sure your message is clear so even if the details change and subtle nuances are added, the central message or theme remains true to your intent.

I like to think that the story told that night about a mysterious child, a story of hope, remains clear through whatever lens you choose to view it.

Thanks to you all for sharing your stories and for the ones I know you will. A sincere thank you to @iamkhayyam for helping me understand my story.

Peace to you all.

Kathryn aka@northernchick

 

A Metaphor: When a Brand New Blog Flowers

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Guest Post by Stefan Knapen

I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some. – Herbert Rappaport

I was thinking, is the opposite happening to blogging? So many blog planters, but are there enough people to smell the blog flowers?

The problem is that readers don’t know where the great flower beds are. In the great field of flowers, it is getting harder and harder to find the unique and thriving flowers, those that keep growing, and keep showing more and more unique and compelling content.

See your blog as a flower — a single forget me not. Give it water, new posts, frequently. Make sure it grows and grows. Don’t be shy to invite people see it. And after waiting, the one who finds it will tell other people to come smell that flower. And the scent of that flower will become known. Your blog is being read more.

The conversation is like seeds and spores on the wind. Given to each other, everywhere. But it isn’t the beginning of a new flower, but it can be the beginning of a new post. So it can be fruitful.

Are there enough people to smell the flowers? Maybe yes, maybe no.

But there are too many small flowers. So for flower to be found in the big field, you have to wait and make it noticeable. Make sure your flower will be seen.

Do something with every seed and spore of conversation you get. Use those words to inspire you to grow your blog even bigger, even better. And after that your blog will be the prettiest flower field of flowers because you used what you had.


Stefan writes as The Dutch SchoolKid

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Stefan,
Your comments on this blog have often inspired thoughts that are like flowers to me.
Thank you for this.

How do you keep your flowers growing, thriving, and blooming?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Images: sxc.hu
Work with Liz!!

Beach Notes: flipflop

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When Does Flexibility Become Flipfloppiness?
The Business Owner’s Challenge
by Guest Writer Des Walsh

The picture I took recently of an abandoned pair of flip-flops prompted my thoughts today on what I regard as one of the most serious challenges business owners face today.

The challenge of balancing flexibility and openness to change with the need for consistency in what we do and how we present it. 

Because if there is one thing all of us know about doing business in the 21st century it’s that we have to be flexible and adaptable. The business environment, the economy, the global political environment all change rapidly and with developments, twists and turns that leave even the most respected commentators and pundits scrambling to catch up and re-interpret, re-explain what they thought they had nailed just a few months ago.

If you are not flexible and adaptable you can look forward to the kind of future once arranged for themselves by buggy whip makers who saw the new-fangled vehicles we now know as cars going by and said “Won’t last. Give me a good pair of horses any day.”.

Equally, a business owner can overdo flexibility, with constant changes to the business model, the product or service on offer and the marketing message. Although the market can often respond to novelty (and especially in some industries, toys for instance), the market can also punish businesses that don’t know or are unable to communicate coherently what they really want to be, what need they are trying to meet or what they stand for.

But it can be confusing and even unnerving when the external environment is changing very rapidly, massively and unpredictably.

Right now, for instance, what is the small business owner to do when captains of industry, government leaders and seasoned observers give every sign of not knowing which way is up, or even whether indeed there is an up anywhere in the offing?

Well, we probably need to have a Plan B (which assumes we already have a Plan A). We definitely need a risk management strategy.

And we definitely need to be flexible.

As long as we don’t become so flexible that we do not develop or sustain any consistent vision and coherent, persuasive message about who we are and what we offer, to meet specified market needs.

We have to find a balance, in the long term and also on a more immediate basis, between being so consistent that we are too rigid and miss opportunities or threats and being so flexible that we come to be and be seen as master practitioners of flipfloppiness.

If you agree that finding that balance is a challenge, I hope you will share with us what guiding principles or rules you use to be the Philippe Petit of 21st century business.

Des Walsh

Picture “flip-flop flipped” Copyright Des Walsh 2008

STORY TELLING

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Usually I’m the one telling stories here, but when I find someone who’s better than I am, I stand aside. Today is one of those days. I’m pleased and delighted to announce that a woman I admire has agreed to write with me on Successful-Blog. I won’t say more. Her words introduce her better than I ever could, which you know is saying something … meet Kathryn Jennex, who’ll be writing a column called, Practical Communication, every week (and more when I convince her she must.) — Liz Strauss

Story Telling

by Kathryn Jennex

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” ~ Ursula Le Guin

We are all storytellers, each and every one of us. Studying public relations and sociology led me to an understanding of how to tell stories for business and to study people and gain an insight and understanding of the human story itself. I have been a closet writer for years telling fictional stories and in the last few years a very part-time filmmaker creating visual stories. My work as a project manager for an online web space provides me the opportunity to gather stories and share them, inviting people to participate.  

 

Whether we’re talking among our friends, writing a social media strategy for a non-profit, taking a photo, or designing a marketing strategy we’re all telling stories. The best stories are the ones you can relate to, that remind you of something similar in your experience and cause you to engage and hopefully, take part. Good storytellers rely on audience participation and make the experience shared.  

When I hear your story, I want to be able to tell you are PASSIONATE about it. I want to sense and feel you believe in what you’re saying. Beth Kanter does this so well. When I read what she writes I believe her, I hear passion, concern, and I hear her knowledge about the story she is telling. How to do this?

  • be clear and direct in what you are saying
  • say what you mean and mean what you say
  • provide value – be it information, facts on a topic, points of interest that encourage others to look further
  • share – offer tips on technology, services, and resources; offer help
  • engage, don’t state – provide, ask if the information was helpful? (use a survey or just a question) and ask if there is something you could provide what would be meaningful

By all means be real. If you’re going to take the time to tell the story, make sure you do it honestly and be prepared to engage in the response.

I listen now to lots and lots of stories every day and I love it. My work in social media fits in perfectly with all this and gives me exposure to many, many stories. The best stories, make me want to reach out and somehow respond or comment back, whether that is a post on SEO, a really cool product or service. ROI, or mentoring.

Are you telling good stories? Please share one way you tell your story.

Kathryn aka @northernchick

Social Networking: User Generated Content and Community

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Guest Post by Richard Reeve

Social media intrigues me on many levels, especially as it relates to those platforms which have chosen to publish publicly. The poet Charles Olson predicted a day would come “when the private would be public.” I think that day is dawning.

International Space Station

If you are doing business within social media, what I have to share should be useful. If you think you’re not doing business in social media, I’d like to challenge that notion. I know, I know: “where’s the profit? show me the ROI.” Coming as I do from an arts background, I’m quite comfortable seeing engaged and talented folks not turning a dime from their activity. None the less, to call their work a hobby is both disrespectful and untrue. They are producers. No matter what you might take away from your social media experience, including the dollars that many are already realizing, you are also a producer contributing to the front edge of the largest data bloom in history. It’s a collective business you’re engaged in, and whether you realize it or not, you’re playing your role quite nicely.

Then you might protest: “But isn’t social media just today’s version of the chat room?” Unlike the proto-social media chat room experiences, your activity across platforms like blogs, twitter, and friendfeed allows for public access, and at least in theory, forever. You’re never replying solely to the person you are replying to, nor even to those currently in your network, nor to those currently on-line. Take for example this post I shared about a NASA website. It guides you to locate the space shuttle going overhead from wherever you live. Now I posted this over a month ago and through search it remains both fully functioning and as useful as the day I wrote it.

My experience has been that communities arise around content clusters emerging in the data bloom. While these clusters often have a personality shepherding the interest, it’s the shared interest in the content that aligns everybody. And shared interest eventually creates opportunity for the liquidation of social capital. That being the case, it’s through contributing to the data surrounding your interests that you are building the potential for your business.

The poet Robert Creeley wrote that “form is never more than an extension of content.” Social Media allows content to extend in previously unimagined ways, carrying the details of our commonplace lives, our deepest interest and our wildest aspirations into digitalized perpetuity. And that’s serious business, no?

—Richard Reeve
Image: flickr –International Space Station
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Richard, aspiration means breathing toward. I hope that’s where we’re headed.
Thank you for this and everything you contribute.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

If you haven’t had a chance yet, add your $500 wish to the list. I hope you win!

Beach Notes: Do You Acknowledge Your Greatness?

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by Guest Writer Suzie Cheel

Last Friday in a strategy session I was asked what it was that people saw in me that would have them want to work and engage with me. I was stumped.

While we were walking on the beach I discussed this with Des.I said I know that people find me helpful and inspiring. I have written and illustrated a book emergings – a meditation on the emotions of change, which Liz launched for me at Blog World Expo, and which is inspiring people. I have received many words of praise.

Why is it hard for me to acknowledge this? Des asked whether there was some social conditioning at work? I think that could be right.

Many of us have been conditioned from an early age not to think too highly of ourselves. I am no exception. I am just surprised that after all these years I stil have to work on this. A work in progress.

Looking at myself,

sometimes realize

I don’t see in me

the gifts and talents

the way others do !

Do you see in yourself what others see?


This is Liz’s special page from the book, you can see Liz claiming this in the launch video

Suzie will be doing a special Xmas launch of emergings as an e-book on Tuesday.
Suzie