Successful Blog

Ever Been in a Community on the Same Frequency?

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My SOBCon09 ROI

relationships button

Long before there was a SOBCon, I fell in love with a character in a book Radical Edge by Steve Farber.The character was so humanly written, the first question I asked Steve when I met him was whether Agnes is a real person. He said, “No,” and looked off at a vision. To this day, I’m thinking he got off on a technicality. Not important. What matters is her message. Here’s a dialogue between the character Agnes and Steve (also a character in the story.)

“I don’t know how much of that I could have accomplished if I hadn’t found my frequency.”

Steve questioned the idea, “Human beings are more complicated than than that.”

He got this answer.

“Yes they are, But it’s not about finding your frequency by ruling out everything else; on the contrary, it’s about finding the frequency that includes all those other important values and ideals. The very act of trying to wrap it all up is what’s really important, because in order to do so, you have . . . define them, think them through, understand them to their core, and evaluate your life against each one.”

A bit of challenge to say the least. Every year SOBCon brings that conversation back to me.

A Community on the Same Frequency?

Putting on an event that is not the usual has its downside. How do you explain to sponsors, speakers, attendees what they’ve never experienced? Ever tried to explain Cirq du Soleil to someone who doesn’t know it? I have such respect for the street team who first launched it.

Words alone aren’t adequate. Images are ambiguous. Even the passionate vision of an evangelist drawing details and answering questions is only a promise of a future reality. I can talk about what happens. I can talk about the value propositions and the offers. But until people experience it, I have to believe that a big part of their investment is trust.

In business you can contract schedule and budget. You can write specs and standards, but you can’t define human experience. The quality of experience is a function of how people invest their time, energy, and trust. I saw trust in every step of SOBCon

  • Trust with the planning. I trust myself. I trust my integrity. I trust my advisors who get relentless phone calls about the content ideas that change, evolve, grow, mutate like living organisms. I trust their honesty, patience, and good will for the conference.
  • Trust in my partner. Trust in Terry means I never think about whether he’s there to support me, whether I’ll need to defend my ideas. I trust that he’ll tell me when I’m off my rocker. I trust that he’ll be there in the dark of night when everyone else is sleeping.

  • Trust in the folks who offer the time to the project. It’s more than delegation when your house payment counts on it. It’s more than getting help when your name is on the letterhead. Trust is a big word when it’s possible that people could be making more work not less. It’s even bigger when some volunteers disappear or soon show they want the benefits of participating without much investment.

  • The mutual trust with the sponsors, speakers, and attendees. We all trusted that we all would deliver.

  • Trust that serious work can be fun. Being in a room where we can finally ask unabashed questions and get solid answers … or create new solutions is invigorativing and reminds us that we can do things we forgot we knew how. Our minds release different chemicals when we play with ideas.

  • Trust in ourselves. Letting go, asking unabashed questions to get solid answers … and creating new solutions … is invigorativing. How cool is it to be reminded that we can do things we forgot we knew how.

SOBCon runs on trust and produces actionable ideas.

It was 130 people all set on learning this new world of ours, all set on helping each other out. That kind of energy is electric, spontaenous, and self-generating. In a high trust environment, we talk and think faster and laugh more. The ideas come at the speed of the Internet with humanity and just don’t stop.

Trust doesn’t rule out everything else. It wraps up the other values … competence, integrity, generosity, comaradeship, and so many others. But trust is the fuel and the frequency of SOBCon.

Ever been part of a community on the same frequency?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

The Trans-Atlantic Class at the Legendary School of Journalism

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A Virtual Class, A Virtual Brief Case

At Twestival last night friends asked me about my experience teaching a class on the social web and blogging for the Masters Degree students at City University of London. They suggested I blog about the details of it — the software applications, the equipment, the people who were present, what worked and what didn’t. This blog post is meant to do that.

A Virtual Class with Virtually Everything

The journalism school at City University London, which “Has accrued legendary status within the media,” according to The Independent, was the scene for a cutting edge student experience on February 4th — a transatlantic class on the power of digital publishing. Course Director of MA Publishing Studies, Mary Ann Kernan, arranged for her MA students in the Work Placement Module to meet virtually with publishing veteran and social web strategist — Liz Strauss (um, me) — in the university lab.

The purpose of the class was a direct connection with an industry advisor who understand the uses of digital publishing in this time of rapid change as students begin their own “placement blogs.”

Preparation — the Materials: With limited time to cover a huge subject, I wanted to offer students lingering value toward developing their placement blogs –a requirement for their degree and placement in future employment. I invited students to join a group at YUDU.com group (a client site) which is built out as a “virtual briefcase” of resources. The online group would allow them to access the materials from any computer at any location. Rather than a single class syllabus. It was filled with examples of publications, resources, and links to webpages to help students see the motivation, depth, and breadth of opportunities for expression and connection that digital publishing allows. The students could review the materials at their leisure before, during, and after the session. They still have access to everything.

Preparation — the Application and Equipment: The day before the class we met via the Internet, using the lab’s Adobe Connect application, my dual screen PC, and the City U’s lab equipment, which would included every student on their own computer. After several hours of attempting a full connection, the video only worked in one direction — from the UK to the US. We weren’t quite sure what caused the problem. The audio was up and working. The chat was fully functioning. We moved forward.

I wasn’t entirely disappointed. The Chicago to London time difference meant I would be meeting the next morning at 4 a.m. Perhaps we saved the students a sight in the dark hours of my early morning …

Class Content — The class was an exciting conversation with the next generation of digital publishing professionals. We discussed the use of blogs, Twitter, the variety of e-commerce opportunities for publishers. The YUDU collection made it easy to demonstrate uses such as, groups, publishing, linking — the hyperlink feature is a standout for web users — messaging, and most importantly, the ways that the e commerce and digital publishing can be professional and easy for publishers of any size.

Class Participants The City University of London Work Placement class enrollment is half male, half career changers, with world citizens that include two from India, one from Taiwan, two from Brazil, two from the US, two from Ireland, one from France. They’ve had a thorough grounding in the strategic impact on the publishing industry of the digital shifts; several will be doing digital projects on their imminent placements (from 16 Feb) – Penguin, HarperCollins, LittleBrown, a literary agency, CUP, Haymarket Mags, Sage, Wiley; in a variety of depts and potential roles.

Also participating were Professor Kernan, the lab staff, myself, and Jonathan Cornwell, COO of YUDU, who had graciously accepted our invitation to be a part of this use of his company’s product.

It was the second City University of London session, I’ve been a part of. The first was last year (and in person) with both the school of Journalism and the Cass Business School. We look forward to continuing our ongoing relationship as we both learn more about each other and how the technology can serve us across the Atlantic.

It’s virtually thrilling to share a real-time conversation about publishing from Chicago to London with an entire university class and to finish before the sun has risen.

Any questions?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Q&A All Day TODAY! Discuss, Share, Find Out! Meet Smart Folks!

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12 Hours of Conversation — Looks Who’s Here!!

Everyone is invited. Stop by, listen in, ask questions, and meet some new friends.

Think theater of the imagination meets speakers and participants in the comment box for conversation.

Why the comment box and not some new technology? The comment box offers a different experience — slower, more intimate, with room for everyone to bring long thoughts and serious questions.

When: TODAY 11 AM Central Time (GMT -6hrs)
(See the clock in the sidebar)

Where: Successful-Blog.com

What: New Post and Speaker Every Hour

How It Works:

  • Each hour a new blog post will publish.
  • The featured expert will be ready to talk with you about your ideas, questions, predictions, and thoughts in the comment box.

It’s that easy. You know how.

Who:

11:00 – Liz Strauss on How to Build a Personal Development Network
12:00 – Mark Carter on Saving The World With Social Media
1:00 – Lucretia Pruitt on Twittering the Way that Works Best for You
2:00 – Andy Sernovitz on Amazing Word of Mouth for Your Blog
3:00 – Mary-Lynn Foster on Podcast and Blog Interviewing Tips
4:00 – Easton Ellsworth on Visionary Blogging Improvements
5:00 – John Haydon on Social Media and Trust Online
6:00 – VickyHennegan on Writing for the Web
7:00 – Becky McCray on Successful Entrepreneurship
8:00 – Shannon Paul on Internet People and What They Do
9:00 –Angela Maiers on Literacy and Learning in the 21st Century
10:00 –Terry Starbucker on Pitching Social Media to Clients — 5 Key Questions for Potential Clients

Bring your own link to leave to share information about blogging, social media, and ROI of Relationships on the Social Web

C’mon Let’s Talk!

We haven’t done something like this since 2007!

Special thanks to Vicky H ( @eeUS ) for helping to get this arranged and together.
— ME “Liz” Strauss

Register Now for SOBCon09 Explode your network!

SOBCon09 Comment Box Conference / Q&A — 12 Hours Tuesday Feb. 10

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An Expert Every Hour and Q&A for 12 Hours

Everyone is invited. Stop by for a while listen in and meet some new friends.

Think theater of the imagination meets speakers and attendees in the comment box for conversation.

Why the comment box and not some new technology? The comment box offers a different experience — slower, more intimate, with room for everyone to bring long thoughts and serious questions.

When: Tuesday, February 10th

Where: Successful-Blog.com

What: New Post and Speaker Every Hour
11:00 a.m. – 10 p.m. CT (GMT -6hrs)
Watch the clock in the sidebar.

When and Who:

11:00 – Liz Strauss on How to Build a Personal Development Network
12:00 – Mark Carter on Saving The World With Social Media
1:00 – Lucretia Pruitt on Twittering the Way that Works Best for You
2:00 – Andy Sernovitz on Amazing Word of Mouth for Your Blog
3:00 – Mary-Lynn Foster on Podcast and Blog Interviewing Tips
4:00 – Easton Ellsworth on Visionary Blogging Improvements
5:00 – John Haydon on Social Media and Trust Online
6:00 – VickyHennegan on Writing for the Web
7:00 – Becky McCray on Successful Entrepreneurship
8:00 – Shannon Paul on Internet People and What They Do
9:00 –Angela Maiers on Literacy and Learning in the 21st Century
10:00 –Terry Starbucker on Pitching Social Media to Clients — 5 Key Questions for Potential Clients

Bring your own link to leave to share information about blogging, social media, and ROI of Relationships on the Social Web

C’mon Let’s Talk!

We haven’t done something like this since 2007!
— ME “Liz” Strauss

Register Now for SOBCon09 Explode your network!

10 Blogger Best Practices: Guides as You Extend Your Reach

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How to blog series

Know Who You Are

All year long I’ve mulling on a thought I first considered when I was under 5 years old. I wrote about it on my first blog.

“Square peg in a round hole.” That’s what people used to call it.

Even as a kid I knew it was a silly waste of time to put a square peg in a round hole. That was just plain common sense To make the peg fit, it wouldn’t be a square peg anymore. It would hurt the peg, and the hole wouldn’t like it.

Whenever I try to make myself fit a situation, it’s like trying to teach a pig to sing — sounds awful and the pig gets mad. I turn into a louder, sort of a shiny green spandex facsimile of the real me. Is it a wonder then that people don’t respond well?

It’s really no surprise that trying to be something “other” doesn’t work with a blog either.

Relationships are a lot more fun with people who know themselves. Our blogs are reflections of how well we know who we are.

10 Blogger Best Practices

Here are 10 Blogger Best Practices for the social web. These 10 best practices guide me as I write and meet new people on the social business web. They help me stay focused on my quest and explain it when people ask. When I remember them, they serve me well. I hope they’ll serve you too.

  1. Know yourself. Know what you’re about and always walk, talk, and blog your own truth. You can’t write my blog post. I can’t write yours. More on that from this great speech about how Oprah found her voice.
  2. Find the people who explore thoughts the same way you do. They’re the ones who’ll enjoy what you write. Share what they say. Pass links to comments on Twitter. Use Twitter Explore to find people talking about common questions and ideas. They’re the one’s who will constantly inspire you. We always think that people who think as we do are incredibly smart.
  3. Talk about what you blog in ways that show you value what you have to offer. Talk about what you want to share in ways that make people proud to pass them on. Don’t fear the blog link that points to a blog post a friend wrote. I know you’d never use a blog link to attract attention from away someone else to you.
  4. When you meet someone new, be interested in who they are and what they’re about. Ask questions. Learn details. Find out their passions. Ideas come from being curious about what people are doing and why. Meeting someone new can be as revealing and invigorating as a rare celebrity interview.
  5. Step away from the podium. Forget what you learned in school. Writing on the internet is about conversation and listening, not presentation. Write for an intelligent friend who just doesn’t know what you do. Leave lots of room for questions and thoughtful interpretation.
  6. Whatever you blog, bring your experience to it. Tell how you learned it, how you found it, how you felt before and after you knew it. Tell the story of the information from your point of view. People come for the you in the information — the information without the you is in other places.
  7. Leave room for visitors to add to the conversation. Be complete but not thorough. You can start a list and let the folks who come add to it. If you end with a question, consider the question carefully. Make it intriguing enough that you would want to stop to answer it.
  8. Open doors and showcase others whenever you can. Connect people to information, to other people, and to answers to their questions. Serve the people who love what you do. The best promotion for your blog is promotion other people. Talk about the the people who visit your blog.
  9. Always be happy to see people who say hello! Call them by name and let them know you see them. Let them feel that they can move around freely. Make sense?
  10. Be you. Information is everywhere. It’s the you inside the information and the you that responds that will bring people back.

I’m about how relationships, conversation, and how businesses and communities grow. I help people understand the culture and sensitivities of the written word in the fast-paced Internet world and show companies how to connect with people. I’m always going to write more about how to use the social media tools to forge relationships than I’ll ever write about the tools straight out.

Knowing that makes it easier to extend my network. I can do what I love in service to people who think what I do is pretty special.

What guides you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!