Successful Blog

How to Enter the Social Media Space Gracefully

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Start by Learning the Culture

A few months ago, Jim McGee and I were talking about how businesses and individuals have different experiences upon first entering the social sphere. It wasn’t long before we were into the usual cocktail party analogy.

The problem seemed to be as simple as this.

Two people, both new to a group, attend a social gathering.

The first person is interested in who will be there. She dresses nicely with thoughts about the people attending and the venue — as she would for any event. She comes alone. Most folks don’t notice her entrance. She smiles when someone looks. As she walks over to say “hello” she trips on a loose rug. Someone who caught that friendly smile reaches down to help her up.

A nice person … We identify with her. We’d want help too.

The second attendee wants attention. She floodlights her walk as she enters dressed in sequins and stars. She’s followed by an entourage who are flashing cameras and opening doors. She’s noticed long before she trips.

Think about which person is likely to get helped up and which is likely to be left on her own.

To pull off stars and sequins in a social situation, you have to be friends with the folks you’re meeting. Shine the lights on yourself before people know you, they’re unlikely to see fun and clever. They’ll see disrespect or arrrogance.

Grace enters quietly reflecting light on everyone.

@comcastcares entered gracefully. You’ve probably seen example of folks who made their entrance with too much noise.

How would you counsel someone looking to enter social media gracefully?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Hate Self-Promotion? … Could Trust Be the Issue?

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Deliverables Depend on Trust

Ask a venture capitalist what moves him or her to invest, what you’ll hear is a definition of the word trust. How could it be otherwise? A VC is betting on an investment to pay off. It’s a trust situation. A sure thing doesn’t exist in business.

Trust is part of most every purchase decision we make. We trust that we get what we paid for in working order. We trust that the people who offered it will stand behind their offer.

Trust is also part of the offering. Marketing and promoting what we do also requires trust — trust in ourselves, trust in our products and services, and a bond of trust with the person we’re telling about them.

  • If we trust ourselves, we’re confident that we’ll deliver on the promises we make.
  • If we trust our products and services, we know they’ll meet and surpass the expectations of the person who invests in them.
  • If we have a bond of trust with people about what we do, we’re not worried about our credibility. We talk to them as we talk to our friends, fully expressed and enthusiastic to share something we believe will help. They hear us as we want to be heard.

Do you hate self-promotion and marketing? Could it be that you’re trying to sell before you know the potential buyer trusts you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your irresistible offer.

World Business Forum: A View from the 3rd Mezzanine

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Up here the front row of the third mezzanine of Radio City Music Hall, world leaders speaking on the stage look like miniatures. On the video screen behind them, they appear larger than life.

I can’t help but notice the lovely irony that to us invited to blog about this event, the video version is easier to see and identify with.

rWe stepped out of the online culture to listen in here and report back. We’re tweeting, writing, and making opinions … listening to statements from a world of experience.

Most profoundly I see some connections that only we online might see. From Bill George challenged us Who’s going to step up today and make a difference?
Bill Conaty spoke of CEOs who need to support truth and candor. Patrick Lencioni said, We spend a lot of time making an organization smart, but not a lot of time making them health.

and Kevin Roberts brought it home with these statements …

reason leads to conclusions
emotion leads to action
inform … inspire …
do one thing

The chance to listen to outstanding people speaking about what they know has been huge and hugely thrilling. I’m sure many will detail the report of what was said.

What I notice is how, when we meet at the core of the matter we’re not so different online or off.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence.

We Think We're Asking What They Think, But Are We?

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When we first start blogging, we’re anxious for feedback. We want to know what we’re doing is reaching someone, anyone, who cares. So we put it out there and sometimes add question that we think will help us get better at reaching even more readers who like what we do. . . .

What follows is one of my favorite articles about that. You may missed if you only recently tuned in to my blog.

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That Couldn’t Be Us Or Could It?

Customer Think Logo

I share a joke with a friend in California. It’s like a script. It goes like this.

I call him up. He answers.

I say, “Hi, Eddie, how am I?”

He replies, “Oh, you’re fine. What do you think of me?”

I tell him he’s wonderful.

Then he says, “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think about my sweater?”

That’s when we laugh to think that we’re not like the people who actually do that.

This morning at Poynter Online something made me realize how it is to do what Eddie I joke about.

Butch Ward gave five New Year’s Resolutions. It’s number 2 that brought this thought home to me. His second resolution was talk to your readers. My thought was I do that. He offered fine advice on ways to engage in dynamic conversation. Then Mr. Ward made a suggestion for this New Year’s conversation . . .

Don’t ask him what he wants you to put in his newspaper or on his news broadcast. Instead, ask what he does. What she thinks. Then you decide how your newsroom can be more relevant to their world.

That’s when I realized it.

Those standard, customer-survey questions sound like “What do you think of my sweater? What do you think of ME?”

Sure, we need to ask how we’re doing, but those can’t be the only questions, or we’ll never know our readers.

Authentic values aren’t revealed by survey questions.

Relationships and understanding come from listening to what folks want to talk about — dreams, desires, unexpressed needs and wishes — what they find marvelous, annoying, heartwarming, concerning, breathtaking. At least, that’s my experience.

But hey, enough about me. Let’s talk about what you think.

What could you talk about all day long?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Thanks to Week 206 SOBs

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muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

design-sponge
futurenow
happinessisbettercom
poetry-notebook
web-design-booth

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.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

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

SOB Business Cafe: 10 Posts that Inspired My IZEAFest Talk

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

IZEAFest Edition

This weekend I get the pleasure of speaking at IZEAFest at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. What an awesome experience that was and how cool to be among so many Internet friends. You can out more about the experience and how to be part of it at IZEAFest.com

izeafest

My conversation, Navigating and Networking in the Seamless Concrete-Virtual Universe, is about the question How can you leverage relationships to become successful in business? Naturally personal identity, an irresistible offer, conversation, and community online and offline will be important and featured throughout.

The Specials this Week are

Ten posts that inspired my IZEAFest talk.

Internet famous isn’t “Oprah famous” . . . not even close . . . and the Internet forgets quickly.

When I asked Internet Rockstar, Guy Kawasaki, about what bloggers should know about blogging as business, he said. …

I call him up. He answers.
I say, “Hi, Eddie, how am I?”
He replies, “Oh, you’re fine. What do you think of me?”

I heard them talk and laugh. They were talking “cool talk” about how cool they were and how cool I was not.

Barn Raisers avoid the risk by building the community as they build the site. They believe that people will help build a powerful idea. Barn Raisers invite collaboration from the people they’ll be serving and so what they build is often a gathering place for people even before it’s fully finished.

I was in the game, but I wasn’t playing with all that was in me.

I looked around and saw I wasn’t the only one that was holding back.

He was instant community. He was kind of like Tom Sawyer. He could smile around a corner.

Strategy isn’t a plan, a decision, a goal, a destination.
It’s a tool for leveraging who you are, what you know, where you are, the environment, and how people think and respond to each other. Strategy is a system for improving your position.

The Traffic Game, Auditioning Ants, and How Communities Grow

… by the time I came along, the neighborhood wasn’t much more than a huge space that people came to eat and sleep.

The beauty of enlisting a social media community from the start is that communities only have time for ideas that will work.

Because deeply knowing where you’re going is irresistibly attractive.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss