Successful Blog

Be Weird

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Rosemary O’Neill

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When I was in fifth grade, my mom sent me to school with my lunch in one of those silver ice cream bags from the grocery store. I was already “the new kid,” so this cemented me as “Silver Bag.” It started as a put-down, but grew into a term of endearment. I was weird, but weird-good.

As a new person encounters you and your business, do they think you’re weird? Do you allow them to see your weirdness?

It can be a secret weapon that throws people off-guard, especially in a purchasing situation. When people approach a new company, or new business contact, they try to put it in a bucket they’re familiar with. If you refuse to be categorized easily, their brains will keep processing you, trying to put a button in you.

Seth Godin’s book “We Are All Weird,” seems almost contradictory…if everyone’s weird, how does weirdness get recognized? And yet we are in a time now where off-beat is celebrated. How else to explain the rise of Nyan Cat?

One of the defining characteristics of Instagram is that you can do odd things to your photographs. They are also weird because they don’t have a web component—it is strictly a mobile application (we’ll see if Facebook removes some of that weirdness, I hope not).

Most businesses actively try to suppress their weirdness; I say “let it out!” Your target audience will have a much easier time finding you if they can see and relate to your particular brand of strange.

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Have Cool Traditions, Inside Jokes, and Shared Experiences

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Rosemary O’Neill

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Traditions, Inside Jokes, and Shared Experiences

If you’re trying to build a true community, you must incorporate this type of shared experience. It creates fodder for conversation, bonds people together, and acts as the glue that keeps members coming back for more.

Here are some ideas for creating shared moments in your community:

  • If a discussion starts to look like a “meme,” highlight it. Make t-shirts, write a blog post about it, create a Twitter hashtag.
  • Celebrate things. It could be birthdays, anniversaries, made-up holidays within your community…when people come together to celebrate something, they bond.
  • Practice some mild hazing. Welcome new members and make them feel included by having them accomplish some task or ritual.
  • Explain some of the traditions. It’s always good to have an “intro to our community” page where you spell out why every Friday is “post a picture of your desk” day.
  • Offer a shared “scrapbook” space where your members can post picture or videos.
  • Host offline meetups or video events. Seeing someone’s face definitely creates a shared experience.

Do you have any cool traditions in your community? How do you honor them?

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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How to learn from your mistakes

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Rosemary O’Neill

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What? You’re not perfect? Nah, me neither. But here’s a little secret: it’s what you do after a problem, crisis, or failure that really counts.

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, every day offers new opportunities to learn, grow, and strengthen your enterprise. When you take the time to document your learning experiences, you’re getting leverage for the future. I’m the child of an Army officer, so I refer to these as “after-action reports.”

Once you’ve weathered the storm, and the dust settles just a bit (not too much), do the following:

Bring together all of the players
It’s essential to get together in an atmosphere where there’s no blame assigned. It should be in the spirit of doing things better next time.

Figure out whet led up to the crisis and whether it could have been avoided
Was there a broken process that led to the problem? Perhaps you’ll decide that the problem could not have been avoided, and focus on how to respond next time.

Assign someone to document and make recommendations for change
Ask someone on the team to write a summary, and suggest ways it could be done better next time. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, this would be an ideal time to tap into your mastermind resources or your mentor. It’s possible they have already been through a similar situation.

Share the recommendations
Be sure to share the recommended changes with everyone on the team. Sometimes retraining or new training is necessary. Reinforce the training with some roleplaying if it’s helpful.

How do you formalize your “lessons learned?”

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Start Doing

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Rosemary O’Neill

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“First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.” Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Stop messing around and just throw the grenade already!

King Arthur, Galahad, and Brother Maynard wasted a lot of time debating the proper way to hurl the hand grenade while the killer bunny escaped unharmed.

What are you doing that is sidetracking you from your real purpose? Your 200 blog subscriptions are useful, but only if you do something with the information you’ve read (and the ones you aren’t reading…I give you permission to delete them). The teetering stack of business books on your nightstand might contain ideas that will launch your business to the stratosphere, but only if you have a way to implement the ideas (and yes, they still count if they’re clogging up your Kindle instead of your bedside).

Instead of counting to three over and over again, take action that will get you closer to your ultimate goal.

Here’s how to toss the grenade:

  • Every time you read a blog, article, or book, write down the “action items” you pull from them. Keep a notebook handy so that you can remember what you decided to do.
  • Check off the hardest task first thing in the morning. That thing you’ve been delaying because it’s hard or unpleasant. That thing you need to tackle in order to get to the next step. Didn’t do yours yet today? Go do it right now!
  • Find something that will snap you back to the original goal. Some people keep a dream board, or a written “big picture” list that they refer to at least daily. Keep your eyes focused on the prize, and feel free to turn off your social network notifications in order to do it. (Note to self: read your own blog posts, lady.)
  • Spend some time mentally considering how you will feel once you’ve taken action. Give yourself the mental image, how it will look, feel, taste. Savor that feeling and it will give you the power to start moving.
  • Take one bite at a time. Often, inaction or indecision is the result of feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of a project. If that’s happening, you need to stop and break the project down into manageable pieces. Then, you can gain momentum as you check off each task.

What strategies do you use to get yourself to take action?

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Build a house made of bricks

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Rosemary O’Neill

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When my dad used to read me The Three Little Pigs, he’d put a lot of gusto into the Big Bad Wolf’s famous threat…”I’ll huff, and I’ll puff….and I’ll BLOW your house down!” He’s an amazing storyteller, and that one has stayed with me. I always strive to assemble bricks, rather than straw.

Every day on the internet, status updates, blog posts, pins, and various pieces of social flotsam and jetsam flow by. You’re probably contributing to the flow yourself. (I know I am!)

Today’s question is…

Are you contributing anything of lasting value, either to your business or to the world?

Take a look at last week’s social output and see whether any of it will:

  • Be true 3 years from now (evergreen content)
  • Add beauty to the world (original artwork)
  • Teach someone a valuable skill (how-to)
  • Build a searchable resource (SEO)
  • Help make your business case (customer support)
  • Lift others up (inspiration)

You’ve heard of the Three Little Pigs …
Which little pig are you?

The house made of straw – you’ve got a Facebook page, which you haven’t updated in a couple of weeks, and a website that’s “brochure-ware” from 2005. They aren’t linked together. You think you’ll get around to fixing it “someday.”

The house made of twigs – you’ve got an up-to-date website, and social accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, but the content is not connected, and there’s no editorial calendar, no plan behind it. You spend the day flitting around from one platform to the other, ignoring your core business.

The house made of bricks – your website is an interactive, social hub, with deep resources for your customers. It’s optimized for search, and you put out a steady, consistent stream of varied content. Your audience responds and shares their own related content on your site, building a valuable asset that’s under your control. Your social streams are all accessible from one elegant, branded home.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day social whirl, and never take the time to make a blueprint for your house. My recommendation is to set aside a few hours a week to work on the plan, build an editorial calendar, and be sure you’re building with bricks.

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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The Power of a Mentor

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Rosemary O’Neill

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The GPO Style Manual was my Bible. But technical writing for a Federal Government contractor was slowly sucking the soul out of me. I’m not knocking it in general, but it really wasn’t for me.

Then one day, my supervisor called me into her office, and there sat a red-faced, genial guy with an easy laugh. His name was Dave Denne, and he changed the course of my life for the next 10 years. He was looking to recruit someone to join his marketing team, and he thought I might have the right stuff. My supervisor was dubious, but for some reason Dave believed in me. He persuaded her to let me jump ship, and I literally leapt at the chance.

Over the next several years, he taught me everything he knew about corporate marketing, networking, business communications, and specifically Federal proposals. I’ll never know why he came and plucked me out of the Flood Insurance Project, but it changed everything for me.

I share this story because often we don’t realize why certain people or opportunities are placed in front of us. The universe sends us messages all the time, and we simply need to be in receptive mode to tap into them. Are you in receptive mode right now?

I found out the other day that Dave passed away several years ago; he and I had finally fallen out of touch, but I will always be grateful for his invitation to start another path. He left me with the ability to walk up to a group of strangers at an event with confidence, and an amazing recipe for barbecue beans.

Perhaps we all need mentors for a certain time and place. Do you have a mentor right now? Who is giving you an invitation to a new path?

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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