Successful Blog

Internet Slang Dictionary and Translator

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And now for something completely different . . .

Internet Shorthand

Ever find yourself reading along in a post or a comment–or worse an email–and suddenly you encounter a set of letters that mean something. You’re sure they do, but you don’t know what. They are some sort of email and Internet shorthand. For whatever reason, you don’t feel comfortable asking anyone what they mean. Finally, there’s a place where you can sneak away and find out on your own . . .

The Internet Slang Dictionary and Translator

Yes, folks, you never have to feel out in the cold again. You can join the in crowd and be one of the gang, tossing around Internet slang like the rest of them. Best of all, you’ll actually what they mean. Imagine what boon to your business life this little tool could be! 🙂

Beyond the dictionary and translator, you will also find a number of good articles on net slang and net etiquette worth reading under the tap NET GUIDE.

Seriously click the screen shot, and go have some fun.

btw, syl. ttfn. hago

While you’re there, check this one–> PEBKAC

I’ll wait here for you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

More fun:
Fun Find: Button Generator.com
Top 10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger
65th Crayon Finds that Google Doesn’t Use Search

Leaders and Higher Ground

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Leaders and Higher Ground

Leader's Uphill Trail photo

There’s no person on the planet
who has not been a jerk.
That’s a fact.

Circumstances change.
People adapt.
Those are also facts.

Arguing with facts
wastes time and energy.
It’s not good practice
or effective leadership.

Leaders deal with facts about their weaknesses.
They work on building up their strengths.
Then they relace their shoes.

They keep on walking toward higher ground.
They don’t turn back.

They do all of this because that’s what leadership is.
It’s a harder hike, but the view is better.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
[for Sabine]

Blogs: The New Black in Corporate Communication

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PART 2 IN A SERIES

BusinessWeekonline Logo

. . . Has the blogging sensation passed corporations by?

Not by a long shot. Instead of public blogs, think about blog technology. That’s the focus for many leading companies around the world. From McDonald’s (MCD ) to Cannondale Bicycle, corporations are using the software to revamp internal communications, reach out to suppliers, and remake corporate Intranets. Often the site doesn’t look much different from what it’s replacing. Sometimes there’s nothing particularly bloggy about the results.

But these corporate initiatives are interactive and cheap to deploy — making them an attractive form of communication. “Blogs are a way to bring our knowledge together,” says Dave Weick, chief information officer at McDonald’s. –Stephen Baker, Business Week Online, The Inside Story on Company Blogs

Who Said Blogging Has to Be Public? We might not find many Fortune 500 blogs on the Internet. That doesn’t mean that Fortune 500 companies don’t have them. It means that we’re not invited to their private party. Corporations are taking advantage of blogging technology inside their firewalls.

Move Over Website, Bye-Bye Intranet

Blog technology is slowly overtaking the traditional website and Intranet structure at some corporations. Why is that?

  • Blogs are low in cost to set up and less expensive to maintain.
  • Blogs require less technical expertise.
  • Blogs offer a sophisticated content management system that’s meant to be updated daily. They invite communication.
  • Blogs are interactive. They allow relationships to form between people.
  • Folks can blog from their desk, their home, the local coffeeshop, even their telephone.

Like employees from another era, websites and Intranets constantly need to be brought up to speed. Blogs have the right skillset for today’s knowledge-based enterprise–they’re innovative, fast, accessible, and made for constant changing . . . and they can be as beautiful as any website. What’s not to like? I’d hire one.

Communication in Every Direction

Ever heard the saying, We’re all 100% responsible for communication? Blog software is being used to make 100% communication happen in almost every direction.

  • Blogs are carrying on conversations between management and employees that allow them to get to know each other as people.
  • Blogs are providing safe storage and collection of team project information, so that the entire team can literally be “on the same page.”
  • Blogs are connecting vendors with buyers, replacing fax machines, messy email inboxes. and lost correspondence.
  • Blogs are establishing and maintaining unprecedented information flow between field reps and home office folks, drawing companies together.
  • Blogs are ensuring everyone in a group has access to the same information at the same time in the same way from almost any point on the planet.

Choose your options. You can have any color as long as it’s blog technology.

Why Do We Need to Know This?

Rare is the person who doesn’t already do business with, work for, or buy from a company who is already using blogs in these ways. It’s reasonable to think that a Fortune 500 company that has made any step toward putting a public blog online has experimented with internal blogging. Think–McDonalds.

The Internet website and company Intranet are quickly becoming just so . . . old hat.

If we want to be invited to the party, we need to dress the part, know the culture, and speak the language. We need to be prepared as vendors, consultants, customers, and employees. We need to factor in this data when we think about where we fit. How does this change the way I interact with companies? How might this information affect my brand, my business, or my life in general?

For this black tie party, blogging technology is definitely the new black.

The world is getting smaller. I’m starting to think there really is only one party.

If I’ve got this wrong, please set me straight. I’ll listen. I’m the nice one.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Blogs Aren’t Mini-Websites. They’re Powerful Tools.
Business, Blogs, and Niche-Brand Marketing
Chicago Goes Wi-Fi . . . What Does that Mean to Business?
Related articles:
Marketing Strategy ala Mickey Mouse

Blogs Aren’t Mini-Websites. They’re Powerful Tools.

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PART 1 IN A SERIES

Personal Computers as Tools

In Companies
When personal computers first became standardized and affordable, and software for using them was readily available, it wasn’t that long before they were sitting in every office. The ability to push rote tasks down to the lowest level has always been a strength of an effective business. Taking advantage of computers to do that–calculate spreadsheets, retype and revise documents, generate mailing lists–was an immediate no brainer for business folks focused on productivity. It wasn’t long before Information Management and IT became terms, then whole departments.

Personal computers changed how we work. They changed how we organized information, how we stored it, and share it, and even how we thought about it. Businesses–some more quickly than others–recognized that the computer was a tool of great value.

In American K-12 Schools
Schools, on the other hand, didn’t see the computer as a tool. They saw it as a subject, a class called Computer. Its highest honor was the day it replaced the class in touch typing. Even now in some prestigious New England high schools, the college prep strand kids still only officially see computers in the mandatory class called, “Computer Applications.”

It’s worth saying again. Schools don’t see computers as tools–like pencils and paper and textbooks or desks. Granted this a is gross generalization, but as an entity, Amercian K-12 schools can’t see past the contraption to take full advantage of its uses. The problem is not one of resources; it’s one of not enough folks feeling the need for them.

Blogs as Tools

Now companies and the mass media are acting like schools did. They see the physical blog and not the uses for it. They stop at the idea of what they think a blog is. Just as the school who sees computers as another subject, companies often see the contraption–blogs as another form of website, possibly as a way to do viral marketing.

We’re all missing that blogs are technology too.

The beauty of blogs is they are a flexible tool. The technology allows them to be that website and so much more–intranet, team project site, email replacement, advertising platform, billboard, company picnic, conduit to ideas, real connection to customers.

What Every Company and School Should Know

What most non-bloggers should know is that the number of both public and private blogs will continue to grow. They will outnumber websites based solely the fact that the expertise required to run a blog makes it inevitable. Small businesses start blogs because they already know that blogs are more flexible–can do more things, more easily, more quickly, and for much lower start up costs.

We owe it to our readers and our customers to to let them know that a blog isn’t just a poor person’s website.

If you want to add value to a business relationship, share that information with someone who needs it.

Let’s talk about how many ways blogs can be used. What do you see when you look at your blog as a tool?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Part 2–Blogs: The New Black in Corporate Communication
Business, Blogs, and Niche-Brand Marketing
Chicago Goes Wi-Fi . . . What Does that Mean to Business?
Marketing Strategy ala Mickey Mouse

Here’s Four for Mike

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Four for Four

When my son was four, my husband was forty-four, they both were my business managers of sorts. We’d discuss my business problems, and they’d give their advice, each in their own fashion–one the engineer and process piper, the other the master of alphabet letters and all things thoughtful or graphic.

Now I face a dilemma, and I need that four-year-advisor now.

You see, one of my dear, dear readers has “tagged” me. You might know him. His name’s Mike Sigers. His blog is Simplenomics. The tag in question is a tag of fours.

I read his post link four times. And answered it with four sounds. “ouch, ow, ooh, oh.”

You see, in my life I’ve had four jobs as a teacher, wholesales shirt rep. for Van- Heusen, a Publisher, and a writer. That’s easy. I’ve been to more than four places on vacation and business–Sydney, Dublin, Bologna, and London. I’ve seen four movies I can watch over and over Beautiful Mind, Armageddon, Silverado, and Sleuth, but I’ve only ONCE been tagged by a blogger.

To tell the truth, deep down I get self-conscious when people are looking straight me. My life is pretty boring. Who’d want to read about it? But this is for a friend and a reader. Business is all about relationships. So what does a blogger do? Especially a nice one. I am the nice one after all.

A Four-Year-Old Advisor

I thought about what my four year old’s advice would have been,

Mom, I thinked about it and my think said “Is there a clown suit involved? No. Do you have to stand on your head? No. Are there letters? Yes.”
Mom, you should do it for your friend.

How can I argue with sage business advice like that? Okay so here I go.

Four TV shows I love to watch when I watch TV (if they’re still on) NCIS, The Apprentice, Two and a Half Men, and Business Unusual. Four books I read I really love are The Once and Future King (White), I Touch the Earth, the Earth Touches Me(Prather) Creativity (Csikszentmihalyi), A Beautiful Mind(Nasar), and a bonus Illusions(Bach).

Four websites I visit daily? It’s more like forty. Let’s see there’s Tom Peter’s blog, all of those at Bloglines, several SOB blogs, check the b5 media blogroll, and I go exploring business blogs daily. Four places I’d rather be are the same four places I mentioned earlier. My four favorite dishes are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, flourless chocolate cake with no extras, pizza in Bologna, Italy, and a good porterhouse steak with mushrooms.

A special note to Mike and all of my readers:

As I finish this I hear four tunes that play in my head
I Live in the Groove (Paul Carrack) and Surrender (Lisbeth Scott). I know there must be More than This (Peter Gabriel) and I will be your friend when you feel your Back Against the Wall (Alan Parson Project).

Now I tag Chartreuse BETA , Copyblogger Brian, Brian Shih, and Cas at Brightmeadow.

Can’t wait to hear more about you guys now. Don’t leave me standing here. Say something. 🙂

I think I need to go find the automatic flatterer now. I’ll be back right after.

–ME “Liz” Strauss