Successful Blog

How Experts Can Really Help Beginners

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A Guest Post by Amanda Markham

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My Story:

I wanted to take my blog, Desert Book Chick, from its place on WordPress.com to a self hosted WordPress.org site. I signed up with a webhost, got my shiny new domain name, got in the driver’s seat, and off I went. It took two painful weeks before I finally had my site looking vaguely like I wanted it to look. Along the way I learned a lot. Being an anthropologist, I’m always looking for hidden cultural ‘memes’ and understandings. In the course of reflecting on my experiences, I found I wasn’t alone – and this conversation was born.

The Trouble With Beginners:

In our mind’s eye, we beginners have ‘the picture’. It’s the biggest, best, most eye-popping blog or website you’ve ever seen. It’s our baby, part of us, and we want to get it happening as soon as we can. Even worse, we desperately want to do it ourselves. Yet, lurking just beneath the surface of our shiny new websites are various shady characters like code, blogging platforms and flashy custom themes. Pretty soon, we beginners are stumbling around in the dark, losing weeks as we ogle tutorials, cut and paste code like mad cows, and trawl forums for answers.

And it’s a jungle out there! There are hundreds of thousands of sites offering tutorials and help, and the forums are like labyrinths, complete with the occasional cranky, biting creature that leaps at you from out of a dark corner.

Most of the time, (a nod in the direction of Donald Rumsfeld) we beginners simply don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know that it’s not etiquette to ask for help in the comments sections of expert’s blogs (I’m not sure why this is), nor we do know that the same question we’re asking might have been asked 1000 times before in seven different ways. To be blunt, we just want to get on with creating our blogs and adding content.

A Few Words on Experts:

Whilst I can’t speak about setting up a blog from the point of view of an expert, I can speak about the characteristics of experts. They’re experts at writing code, plugins, tweaking the intestines of SQL databases, and other even more arcane and mysterious rituals that I can’t begin to imagine. Expert at things that make my mind go blank – in the same way the phrase patrilineal exogamous moieties probably looks like incomprehensible dribble to you. But I’m an expert in my field, I hang out with other anthropologists, chat online with them, read journals and ethnographies. Not for a moment is the phrase ‘patrilineal exogamous moieties’ strange or meaningless to me or my ‘tribe’.

The Anthropologist’s Gaze:

Beginners and experts are two very different ‘tribes’, speaking very different languages. I’m not telling you anything here that you don’t already know. What I’m highlighting though is the importance of listening and learning to speak each other’s language. After all, the ultimate purpose of tutorials and other resources written by experts for beginners is plain old communication and education – in other words, a conversation aimed a imparting knowledge.

Sometimes, however, the language barrier gets in the way: beginners can’t really hear what experts are saying. Other times, the way in which beginners work gets in the way, using both blogging platforms and tutorials in very different ways to which experts do.

That’s where some anthropological fieldwork -some user-based ethnography- comes in handy. Microsoft, Xerox and IBM employ ethnographers and anthropologists to go into homes, observe and understand just how people are using their products. They then use this information to improve existing or create new products. But rather than hire an anthropologist to start such a conversation, I’m going to suggest that beginners and experts get together and start a ‘conversation’.

One way to overcome the language barrier and really get into the minds of beginners is to get a group of them together and say:go for it guys! Give them your tutorial and get them to record step-by-step what they do and what it is they have in mind to achieve at each step of the process. Get them to write down the problems they had in understanding instructions. Ask: What do they do? How do they do it? Why are they doing these things? From this, you’d really be surprised what you’ll learn.

As an aside, I’ve used this method when consulting with Aboriginal Elders about all kinds of major works projects (like phosphate mines!) -trialling posters, 3D presentations and 3D storylines set up in creek beds and dusty tracks in the Australian outback. The process of asking people whether the story I tell is one they can understand, and their gentle advice on how to improve the stories I tell, has helped me learn how to speak their language and do my ‘thing’ better. It’s been an invaluable lesson that I’ve taken into every aspect of my life.

So think about it. Conversations, storytelling and listening: hardly rocket science, but the foundation of speaking each other’s languages.

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Amanda Markham writes at Desert Book Chick about books and the people who write them. You also find her on Twitter as Amanda467

Thanks, Amanda. We all need reminders like this one. Talking inside a fishbowl is a real social web problem for all of us!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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How to Promote Your Business Without Being Seen as a Smiling Shark

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Gotta Be Visible Authenticity

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The entrepreneurs and brand managers I work with both often start by asking how to use the social web. Their goal is to promote their business or their brand. The worry that seems consistently common in every first question is that they appear professional and helpful. No one wants to appear to be too aggressive in social web space.

How to Promote Your Business Without Being a Seen as Smiling Shark

When the wrong kind of promotion comes our way, it feels like we’re not being seen as people, but more like prey. Who wants to do business with someone that comes at us like a shark? No one in a marketing or sales role wants to be perceived like that.

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I’ve found that the key to elegant and authentic promotion is being fully present in the conversation. Too often we start talking before we listen. Too often we haven’t fully considered what brought us to be interacting. Knowing who we are, what we offer, and how it fits our reader-customers before we even start a conversation can make promoting a blog, a business, or a brand as seamless as talking to a friend about how our day went.

These questions can get us to that information.

  1. Are you truly passionate and excited about it? If not, go find out how you can be. Be clear on what drives you.

    “Can I tell you why I’m so excited to be working with big companies on big ideas that connect people and change lives in ways that really mean something.”

  2. Can you articulate that passion and excitement? What words explain why you are willing to invest the time of your life building that blog, business, or brand? Be able to tell the story that connects you to what you’re sharing. People will identify with that.

    “Every day people I work with tell me that they think that what we’ve put together to connect with new business is going to be so much easier and so much fun.”

  3. Can you name and claim what you offer so that folks can attribute it you? Can you explain how your blog, your brand, or your business will change people’s lives in a clear and specifically good way? Give that a name so that the idea stick. Draw a picture with words and name that. Become the person who is the only one who provides that.

    “Folks who know how to talk about their unique value attract amazing people who want to be part of what they’re doing. Knowing what you offer is powerful.”

  4. Do you call folks to action and offer them an easy way to talk about what you’re building? Can you show them how joining you will make what they do easier, faster, and more meaningful? If you don’t tell folks how to join, be a part, they could think you don’t want them to. Gotta invite them.

    “If want you to talk about how to do that, it only takes about 45 minutes.”

  5. Do you invite people offer their experience? Do you ask folks how you might reach more people who could benefit from your brand, your book, or your product? If they offer suggestions, do you follow through?

    “If you were me, what would you differently to offer folks like more value in faster, better, more meaningful ways?”

  6. Do you ask people to talk about you? Do you give them ways they might do that, ways that make them feel proud for helping you?

    “So glad you found value, would you tell your colleagues about our work together? I’d love to help them too. We can all grow together.”

Not every questions fits into every conversation. The thing is that when we know ourselves, our business goals, how to partner and how to extend an irresistible offer, promotion gets to be as passionately authentic as the other parts of the work we do.

How do you make sure that your promotion is authentically you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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What Makes a Blog Compelling?

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Talk to Me

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What will make a blog compelling to a user?

It’s a favorite question. Getting people to come and stay is what I do, and talking about it is almost as much fun. I might have said it in a slightly more corporate way, but what I answered was basically this.

Humanity is what’s compelling. We’re all hungry for a connection that makes us feel real.

Quality content that serves real human needs served up by a real human being is the combination of three things: head, heart, and practical meaning. Put them together and a blog — or rather one who writes it — can make a reader feel inspired, moved to action, and wholly alive.

People recognize the real deal.

Visitors to a barroom or a blog figure out quickly whether they get to be who they really are, and whether that’s okay with everyone already there.

Authenticity allows everyone to tell their own truth and feel valued for it.

When that “feeling valued” happens, we give back — in attention, participation, and loyalty. When we’re invested, we don’t walk away.

That’s the heart of compelling.

A compelling blog is human in every way.

What makes a blog compelling to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Recently, working with a client, I was asked the question,

SOBCon BlogIt EarnIt Discount Get $250 off until April 1

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Because You Asked …

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Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise of the Internet …

  • to focus entirely on your business
  • to work with the support of a mastermind team
  • to get quality time to interact with the top people in social media
  • to get the best information AND time to discuss how you’ll apply it
  • to work with sponsors who are doing the same thing
  • in a room limited to 150 people — all focused in the same direction
  • without worry because the food and the wireless are outstanding.

Imagine a weekend work retreat with these people totally invested in sharing this content.

The BlogIt EarnIt Discount Until April 1!!

I’m delighted to announce that Terry and I get to make this offer …

Write a blog post about what “The Virtual Meets the Concrete” means to you. We want to celebrate how our relationships online help our lives and businesses online and off. Tell us why online and offline relationships and strategies matter.

Here’s how to qualify for the discount

1. Write a blog post about a person (or people) online or off who has (or have) made a difference in your life. Celebrate how they have made your life easier, better, smarter, more productive, more meaningful.

2. Then let us know by tagging your post #SOBCon2010 and leaving a comment with a link to it on this post. Include a working email with your comment and as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $250 off the $895 FULL conference rate – that’s over a 25% savings! (We won’t use your email to spam you.)

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon2010, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

We’re doing everything we can to bring you all the value, the experts and expertise, and the time to work and network that you need to make your business outstanding and extremely profitable in 2010.

What could you do with a weekend of the time, expertise, and support you need to focus your business?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon2010 NOW!!

Make the investment.

6 Cold Truths about Building New Business in 2010

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Strategy and Focus

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Yesterday I was working with a serious professional on how to use the Internet to grow his national business. He had sent me a list of questions about strategy, productivity, time management, SEO and directories, how to use Twitter, how to write stronger headlines, and how to follow Chris Brogan’s advice from the SOBCon2010 webinar that online business should concentrate on finding revenue. We looked at his blog for a few moments and talked about what makes a compelling blog post.

Strategy and new business is all focus and knowing the cold truth.

6 Cold Truths about Building New Business

My business client said some thing like,

“I’m having so much fun figuring out Twitter. It’s hard to know that I’m doing the right things with my time.” I suggested he Google, “I’m addicted to Twitter” to see that he’s not alone.

Part of the Internet addiction is the lovely relationships and community that it brings to us. Keeping that going can be very alluring, even when it takes our time and focus away things that might be earning. Managing time and ourselves as we build and manage our relationships is crucial to surviving and thriving as a business.

Until you know and feel your focus as an Internet citizen, review these these cold truths often.

  1. Perceived productivity won’t move you forward. Tweaking a blog, updating a status, and talking on Twitter can all be useful business actions. But stop often to make sure what you’re doing is on the path to getting new business and not work that doesn’t connect to it. Everyday I see folks who talk on Twitter only to their friends … as if some customers or clients will “discover” them. Just as often I guide folks who spend all of their time working their blogs, never meeting a potential client – kind of like someone who stays home forever, dressing up every night to go out, wondering why a date never shows.
  2. Your friends don’t owe you work. A wonderful and cherished ethic of the social web is “givers get.” It’s true, but don’t over-invest in it. It’s not about friends taking their time, their work, and their reputation to build your business for you. We start our work lives getting told what to do and it seems natural to go to our friends and say “put me to work for you.” But a simple “what can I do to help you?” puts the work of finding your strengths, carving out a role, and figuring out how you might fit into their business on them. That’s asking more than most folks have time to do.
  3. An idea is not an offer. Have you noticed that ideas are everywhere, but people who execute on their ideas are fairly rare? If you want to work with someone, go beyond the idea to a plan that shows at least in broad brush strokes how the idea would roll out. Be able to explain the benefits, the timing, and the budget. Even if the client you approach can’t buy in, he or she will be able to tell you more specific reasons. You can tweak the plan and have something tangible to present to the next one.
  4. Most new business is outside your current network. It’s fun to hang on Twitter and talk about business with our colleagues. It’s also easy. We already know where to who’s there and how to start the conversation. But new clients and customers are usually not the people in our existing networks. Move into circles and networks that don’t know you or what you offer.
  5. Negotiation is never about your goals. Align your goals for funding revenue with the goals of the folks you want to buy in. If you can sit on the same side of the table and show how doing what you want will make them a hero while it also makes their jobs easier, smarter, and more meaningful, then you’ll get the attention you’re looking for.
  6. You can’t stay offline. You can’t stay online. Growing businesses are learning that a seamless existence of multiple channels that reach out to clients and customers. Telephone and email are still great social tools and many deals still need to get sealed in person. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the tools determine your strategy. Your customers and the worlds they habit do.

As the recession eases, you might notice that we’re hearing less and less about following links and “shiny objects.” Businesses are realizing that time well invested on the Internet can reap huge benefits.

What other cold truths do we need to know about building new business? Bet you know one I’ve missed.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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Irresistible Value Proposition … Won’t You Always Wonder What Might Have Been?

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The Proposition of the Old Spice Super Bowl Man

blockquote>Designers of the former type loved the theater of their demos. They loved an audience. They loved performing. Designers of the latter kind of demo preferred participants to spectators. They wanted to watch people having fun with their inventions instead of putting on a show. Their demos weren’t props — they were playgrounds. — Let Your Customers Persuade Themselves

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Both can work. Yet both depend on how well the features of the product are communicated in the demonstrations. These days allowing people to interact can have limitations … such as getting the people and the product into the same real time space.

Either way, could bring a customer to find what we’re selling is remarkable and worth purchasing. But neither will necessarily about the irresistible value proposition … that we, our brand, or our product knocks all competition out of the field.

For that to be so, we need to add one further idea that this ad from Old Spice does beautifully.

The message is in every frame:

  • he gets it — seamless, flawless work.
  • he sees you need — heart.
  • and you’ll have getting things done with him.

Did you notice how it doesn’t seem self-promotional or pitchy? Despite the humorous over-stating of his abilities. Imagine just walking into meeting and talking about who you are, what you brand and your products do that the others can’t. When we are fully expressed in our message it looks like that.

Simply stated it sounds like … “Work with all of the rest, they aren’t me.”

Look at them. Look at me.
Look at them. Look at me.
Won’t you always wonder what might have been, if you choose other than me?

A true value proposition sets you apart from the rest of the world.

And delivers on that promise consistently.

What’s your irresistible value proposition?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want help with your value proposition? !!

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When we want to get a customer interested in ourselves, our brand, or our products … common wisdom has been that we can sell them — give them a demo and tell them — or we can let them sell themselves, give them a problem and let them use the product to solve it.