Successful Blog

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

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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

7 Things I Learned about a Shining Offer … from the Stars

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The Stars Never Interrupt Me

I’m an introvert. Always have been. Painfully shy when stretched too far.

I love people. Interacting, talking, learning. No holds barred conversations exhilarate me like a thrill ride edging out of control. I leave conferences and speaking gigs ready to be alone and … um … kind of cranky.

It’s then that I need permission to think my own thoughts, find my own feet, realign with the universe, on my own.

After a day of conference talks and highly engaging meetings, I went to dinner with two of the best folks in the world. They were fun and lovely. The food was marvelous. The conversation got better for me when it started to slow. It was a nice transition. We stayed up late talking about companies and events and ways to use the web in this new conversational world.

One by one, the others went their ways to crash. I went for a walk with the night sky, delighted to see Orion waiting like an old friend. I got thinking about people and stars. Then I thought about stars as the original shiny objects — how, unlike the shiny things on the Internet, stars don’t demand our attention. Stars are experts at permission marketing. Here are seven things I learned about permission marketing from looking at the stars.

  1. The Opt In. Stars shine with understated elegance and beauty waiting for me to opt in.
  2. The Respect. Stars don’t interrupt, steal, or borrow my time. They anticipate and await my attention with a distance that allows me to move, breathe and live my life without them, if I choose.
  3. The Signal without Noise. Stars don’t draw overdue attention to themselves. Falling starts don’t fall in my face to get me to notice them.
  4. The Relevance. When I look at the stars the message is always fresh, inspiring, and meaningful in my life.
  5. The Emotional Attraction. I always feel better for having participated in a star show.
  6. The Viral Response. I always want to tell folks about what I saw and how it moved me.
  7. The Delivery on the Promise. I’ve never been disappointed by looking at the stars.

Stars are available, relevant, and personal. Even when we look at them from afar, they put on a show.

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If we take a cue from the stars, we can offer value that will lift folks up and make them feel good to pass it on. And like the stars we won’t have to worry about having an audience who values us.

People and stars have a lot more in common than just what we’re made of.

Have you seen any shining offers lately?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence.

Have You Found the Irresistible Rock Star in You?

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An Ever-Growing Group of Fans

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Social media can be an interesting exercise in watching the number of people who click on the button to become followers or fans. Yet you’ve probably met that fickle group who easily buy in on a whim bo become a friend of that kind.

Sometimes we connect to be around in case we need each other. Not every friendship needs constant maintenance. We make conversational networks of acquaintances. We make large groups of Twitter friends. We know that they not really fans. Some might be around for the longest time without actually listening. Or they might clearly participate for “15 minutes” until something or someone shinier or more interesting happens their way.

It’s unreasonable and unrealistic to think that every person would be a lifelong friend. I’m not sure anyone could handle the load if it were possible for a life like that.

But some folks have a way of attracting dear friends and loyal fans. They’re the rock stars of whatever world they’re working in. They so love what they do and do it so well that they attract an ever-growing group of devotees and fans. These rock stars have three unmistakable traits that make what they offer irresistible.

  1. A Beginner’s Mind …

    “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” –Steve Jobs

    Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to get from good to great. Music, science, acting, cooking, art, architecture, engineering, writing — any domain you might name — has core group of knowledge, insights, and best practices that defines a solid, quality product in that space. A real rock star has the curiosity, takes the time, and puts in the work to saturate his or her mind in finding out how every bit of that works. Until we understand how the notes in the scales or the colors in the palate combine in positive, structural forms, reaching for the creative or the beautiful will be a random attempt to make something that sticks and stays.

  2. A Creator’s Heart …

    If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it. — Albert Einstein

    All that learning of the traditional pieces and parts becomes a real rock star’s tool kit. Rocks improvise and innovate by making new connections and new relationships. They see opportunities to solve problems, make art, and surprise us with the results because they know their domain well enough to play with it. They don’t fear failure or small risks.

  3. A Giver’s Outlook …

    Do what you love in service to the people who love what you do. — Steve Farber

    Rock stars aren’t stingy with their talent. They also know that their core group of fans will never include everyone. A jazz musician doesn’t try to be a star pitcher in the world series. Rock stars make simple and elegant offerings to the people who value what they do. They don’t worry about the folks who want something else.

Knowing, playing, and centering in on the people who thrive on what you do. Those are the keys to an irresistible offer. Every one of us has the power to reach inside to find that rock star potential and make it evident.

Look to the ideas, the topic, the thing that you can’t NOT do. Learn everything you can about it. Go deep and wide learning and experimenting with combination and creations just to see what happens. Then have fun showing other folks how you can use what you love to solve problems for them.

Have you found the irresistible rock star in you?

Make new connections …
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Why You Should Be Involved In Twitter While Having Your Own Blog?

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Blogging is fun! I started blogging casually since 2001, moving into my own domain name in 2004, and then decided to blog professionally on my own blog since June 2007.  For some reason or what, I checked out the traffic behavior of my blog.  I have come to realize that the traffic’s up and down has very much to do with the activity that I am doing inside and outside my blog.  The reason is very simple:  I started off without any traffic, hence I need to bring in the traffic!

Many ways to bring in the traffic

While you are blogging, you have unknowingly attracted crowd from the search engines.  You may have also attracted people to link to your attractive articles.  Or, you could have linked to an attractive blog post from a stranger, which caused a trackback link from that stranger’s blog.  Technically speaking, your blog posts are helping themselves to bring in the traffic. However, blogging alone is not enough.  You need to do more things to reach out to the untapped market out there waiting for you.  There are two ways you can do it.

  1. You can spend money to bring in the traffic.
  2. You can spend time to bring in the traffic.

By the way, I’m sorry to tell you that you have no choice but to choose “spend time to bring in the traffic” because I am going to talk about Twitter very soon. 🙂

Using social media to bring in the traffic.  It’s free! But it takes effort.

So far as I know of, the only way to reach out to the untapped market with a single cent is to participate in social media.  Because that’s the only way we can put in our information almost freely.  The social media website owners are more than happy to welcome you to introduce your sites to the visitors.  This is social media’s way of sustaining their businesses.

By the way, blogging is also a form of social media where people can comment on your blog and maybe providing links to their website.

Participating in the social media is all about building your own community who follows your thought leadership.  There are so many different social media websites out there of all kinds.  Well, it will be perfect if you can spend enough time to participate in all of them!  However, all of us  have less than 24 hours a day.  Hence, choosing one or two major social media is sufficient enough!  Or else, you may not be able to build a strong community supporting your thoughts. And I will strongly recommend you to participate in twitter as your first choice of building your strong community.

Why Twitter, and not other social media?

With more and more bigger players jumping into this large whale of tweets, Twitter is definitely a social media not to be taken lightly with.

Twitter has also matured over time.  I can still remember making my first few tweets and there is nobody listening to me.  I virtually have no local friends who can follow me on twitter.  I started to look out for the big names like Robert Scoble on Twitter.  I can still remember I can even chat with him back then.  Now, it’s so hard with so many people trying to talk to him on Twitter.  Back then, retweet was eventually invented by someone who just want to share a tweet he has seen.  It came in various forms such as “RT @charleslau the message”, “The message (via @charleslau)”, “Retweet the message (from @charleslau” and many more.  In fact, it is becoming more or less standardized now to be just “RT @charleslau the message”.

twitter-logoBecause Twitter is based on a very simple 140 characters, it turned out that there are a lot of growth to expand in Twitter because it provides a lot of API to leverage on to expand into different types of third party webwares.  As such, if you can establish your strong followers in time, you will soon be able to leverage on the future expansion that Twitter potentially has with many smart Social Media entrepreneurs out there! So far as I know, Twitter can be used show pictures, sound and links to your followers.  Some others even use Twitter to monitor certain things such as their health status, sleeping patterns, and even track what a plant wants to twitter about! With all the various tools establishing and more to come, your only goal today is to build a strong community around a certain topic which relates back to your blog!

How is Twitter linked to your blog?

While you may still be establishing your blog presence to the world, twitter is a good place to be more personal and to build your community with.  It’s like asking your interested visitors to subscribe to your blog posts, or even to subscribe to your newsletter via email.  Twitter is yet another form of establishment that you will want to work it out as you will learn and grow with this community.  Chances of them visiting your website is very high because they like you through your tweets!  Let’s see how you can start off by connecting yourself in Twitter…

Connecting yourself in Twitter

Twitter is indeed a whole new world out there where you are basically trying to woo more people into your own blog.  However, the methodology must be set properly.  First of all, you must not have the mentality of “What’s in it for me” in the twitter environment.  In twitter, it can be like micro-blogging where you get comments about your tweets.  It can also be like a chat room where you get to socialize with strangers (and of course your good old friends included). Let’s see some bad examples here:

  1. If you try to tweet the same message consistently over time, I can tell you safely that I will be the first one to unfollow you!  I am in Twitter to enjoy myself, while you are out there to hard sell me something!
  2. If you are caught tweeting affiliated links consistently as well, I will surely unfollow you!  It is so irritating to see affiliated links so many times.  Yes, I know you want to make money online… Can you just be more personal and talk to me with no money attached?
  3. Can you not be so robot?  There are some twitter accounts which are basically bots.  They do nothing but to churn out contents after contents.  If these contents are verified properly, I probably won’t mind to follow you so that I can retweet the benefits to my followers!  But if you are basically controlled by keywords, I will surely unfollow you!  That’s because keyword filtering is not always accurate.  I will rather follow people who are more human, and are willing to tweet quality stuff!

Now let’s see some good examples:

  1. If your twitter account is very clear about your topics, I will follow you because it’s part of my passion and beneficial to my followers.  You basically tweet really good stuff that it will not be good for me if I miss them!
  2. If you are really friendly to me, I would love to talk to you.  For that duration of chat, you can be really shocked that people may want to follow both of you just to listen to the conversation that they are interested in.
  3. Retweeted messages are very powerful.  They basically help me to transfer my friends’ tweets to my followers without much effort on my part other than just reading.  And because of the attraction in this tweet, it will just get retweeted a couple of times.  This will increase your followers pretty significantly.
  4. Tell your followers that you have just blogged a new post! We’ll love it!  Look! A chance to connect your blog to twitter.
  5. Do up your own Twitter wallpaper.  It really helps in your brand building for your overall business and eventually for your blog.

Conclusion

I wish to clarify that social media is definitely not going to be helpful to you if you are consistently looking out to make quick money out of it.  Social media is here to have fun!  It’s only with the more hardcore fans, they are more willing to spend some money to get a better deal!  Treat twitter as a brand awareness exercise for yourself.  Do everything that you can to get connected with the media with no strings attached.  Very soon, everybody will connect your blog and your twitter account as one brand! In other words, Think of what you can do to the social media, instead of what social media can do for you!

How has Twitter added to your blog?

This post was written by Charles. He has been an Internet reviewer since June 2007.  He pours his passion for Internet marketing and Internet branding into his Twitter account actively at @charleslau,

A Bike Ride Refresher in Social Media Success

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You Already Know How

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Do you remember when no one knew the word blog? Suddenly, it’s everywhere ? in the New York Times, on the TV News, and in our kids’ elementary schools. The BBC has a blog. So does PBS. Not only are blogs showing up everywhere, but Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are too. You’ve probably heard stories of companies who’ve had great success with blogs and companies who’ve had horrible results.

Perhaps you’ve even had a social web something go wrong.

Social media is a lot like riding a bike.

When you bike, you need to know how all of the parts ? the bike’s and yours ? work together, where your bike belongs on the road, and how to interact with cars and other bikes. When you enter the social web, you need to know the same kinds of things before you start ? how what you’re doing fits and balances with your company culture, your overall marketing strategy, and your customers needs and desires.

It’s easy to be wildly successful at social ? to get it to take you exactly where you want to go. But it takes a bit of learning at first — like biking does. It’s no fun learning by falling down. Still staying off the bike isn’t the answer, when the kids you want to reach are across town in a park where only a bike can go.

Here’s how to get started on that wildly successful social web presence that you keep hearing folks talk about.

Learn from someone who already knows. Almost every really successful new blogger learned how from some one who’s blogged before. Twitter is way easier to “get” if you work with someone who knows it first. Learn from a social media oldtimer and you’ll raise the speed at which you’ll connect with people and leverage the tools most useful to your business.

Social media is about conversation and community. It’s a chance to talk with customers everyday as you do at a trade show ? only longer, more relaxed, and without the lower back pain that comes with standing on a concrete floor. It’s ongoing discussions with customers about the business. It’s getting close to where your audience, or at least a part of them, thinks and lives. AND it’s inviting them to get to know you and your business in the same way. It’s hard not to like a company, when you interact everyday with someone who works there that you like a lot.

Read some blogs. Join a social network. Follow Twitter before you start. Make a few blog comments too. It’s like getting to know the neighborhood you’re thinking of moving into. You’ll learn a lot from watching and interacting with the folks who are already blogging. Bloggers and social media folks are incredibly friendly, helpful people. You’ll have a network going as soon as you’ve commented on the same blog or in the same Twitterstream for a week or two.

Be a social person people can trust. You don’t need to be from any special department or to have any special title. Be passionate, curious, and happy to learn from others. Reach out to people to learn what they’re about.

Don’t worry if customers have issues. Issues are opportunities to make authentic and human connections. Customers know that things go wrong sometimes. Let them know someone is listening. Invite customers to be part of the team, and products can get better because of it.

Give customers great content — a reason to follow you. That’s what search engine want too. Great interest and great content are great value to folks who meet you. Become a source of content and pay attention. You can pick up the latest trends by interacting on the scale of the web.

Once you get the hang of the social web culture, you’ll be seeing how much your friends and customers can invest in what you’re doing. They can become your eyes and ears for you. They can become your biggest evangelists. They’ll be doing it because you opened the lines of communication to talk to them. ? one human to another.

Grab a bike. Rent one if you have to … the social part is getting to where the people are.

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Are you having trouble explaining social media? What analogy do you use?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Trust the Customer … Especially When Learning the Tools

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A Guest Post by Jonathan Lansner of the Orange County Register

The Living Web

Trust the customer. It’s never been truer than in the social media world.

This summer, I started collecting for my newspaper’s on-line audience a sampling of lessons learned from folks who ventured with their professional personas into the social media world. While there’s ton of expert opinion available of what works in social media, to me it’s often most valuable when the lesson learned comes from folks using the tools in the fields.

Here’s a sampling of what I’ve learned, and told my “SMagazine” readers at the OC Register Social
…

1. Foremost, it’s really about listening to others. Marty Furman of penmaker Pentel gives a great example of market research gleaned from the social networks, like Twitter: “We’ve heard that Bible study groups use this (eight-color) pencil to highlight areas they’re studying. We’ll tweet to let Bible study groups know about the pencil.” ( @PentelOfAmerica)

2. Yes! What you do write, can be problematic. Tracy Marks of Souplantation
says of the restaurant chain’s social media efforts: “We know we can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time, but we’re finding ways to please the majority. But that piece – about not pleasing everyone all the time – is important to learn and understand; and let happen.”

3. Don’t be pushy. Corin Ramos of the National Fibromyalgia Association tells me: “Don’t keep reminding your (Facebook) fans to help you get more fans. Pages who do this come across as whiny, needy, ungrateful and, well, annoying. Remember: The page really belongs to the fans, not just to your organization.

4. Embrace criticism. Jennifer Seaton of the Transportation Corridor Agencies says the toll-road agency had to learn how to deal with critical posts made to their Facebook pages. “We tend to respond if there is a question, or just leave the post if it doesn’t include a question. We try to be open, provide information requested and allow negative posts to become part of the dialogue.”

5. And, sometimes, you have to give in. Matt Paulso, marketer of two professional beach volleyball tournaments, admit that “I did find that the things that don’t offer prizes, i.e. polls, don’t really get much response.I was hoping simple intellectual engagement might elicit responses.”

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Jonathan Lansner is a columnist/blogger for The Orange County Register
newspaper, where he writes SM Magazine, http://ocregister.com/social and the housing blog, http://ocregister.com/lansner You can find him on Twitter as @jonlan

Thanks, Jon! Great points every one.
Bring us more. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!