Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 07-16-10

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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.

The Specials this Week are

AdBusters
Psychologists have long known that North Americans overestimate their own distinctiveness, especially in comparison with East Asians. When asked to describe themselves, Americans and Canadians tend to talk about their individual personality and personal outlook more than Japanese do. North Americans tend to settle arguments in terms of right and wrong, whereas East Asians tend to seek compromises. Dirty Harry is an extreme and violent example, but he is emblematic of Western culture and he sums up our single-minded, goal-oriented behavior with aplomb. “When I see an adult male chasing a female with the intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard. That’s my policy.”

Pure Natural Diva
The session echoed many of the thoughts that have been running through my mind & dancing through my notes during the past few months. It challenged us to; OWN our irresistibility, really define our goals for our businesses, and it reminded us not to underestimate our worth.

Gwen Bell
In 2005, during yoga teacher training, a teacher explained the importance of off-the-mat time. She recommended we go on retreat four times a year – once a quarter. I recall internal resistance. As the discussion unfolded, it turned out I wasn’t alone. How could we take time away from yoga?

Digital Sabbatical

Purple Wren
It should be all set up now to post to my facebook, linkedin, typepad, twitter, flickr accounts at the same time. That’s cool. It’s been a hit or miss lately as I pick whatever is the most handy. I’ll see how this goes. Depends on the content. Let’s upload a photo just for fun.

Copyblogger
The good news is that writing makes you a better writer. Just like practicing the piano makes you a better pianist, or riding a trail bike makes you a better biker.

hugoguzman.com
Back in the Spring of 2009, I created a short video that summarized my thoughts on how some marketing executives were getting social media all wrong. I called it “Social Media Idiot”:

Related ala carte selections include

The Old Spice Guy Responds
via @IttyBiz Old Spice guy is responding to comments w/ indiv videos. I am DYING. Start here

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

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

I Still Don’t Do Weekends – How Are You Finding Time for the Time of Your Life?

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I wrote this blog post much like this two years ago, but it seems so important to share it again today.

I've been thinking . . .
One Friday ritual that happens in offices is that people ask What are you doing this weekend? I’ve never been good at small talk in general, but I had to study to answer that question.

I kept a list of responses that sounded somewhat normal.

“I’m going for quiet and relaxation.”

“I think a good book is in order.”

“I have an appointment with my pillow.”

“I’m just so happy to be having a weekend.”

You might note that all of my answers basically say the same thing that my friend, KB, once said, “Liz doesn’t do weekends.”

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I used to say, “Hey, the speeding train of week is over, I made my quota of decisions at the office. The last thing I want to do is come home to make more of them — decide what to do, where to go, what to eat, where to eat it, when to go there, what to wear.”

So instead I’d stay home and let life happen.
Sometimes life happens in ways worth remembering. Most often it doesn’t. Time just passes.

That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately. I don’t make plans — too many options. I can talk myself out of almost anything.

“Let’s something.”
“Do what?”
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

“How about this place?”
“Too crowded.”

“This?”
“Too expensive.”

“This?”
“Too far. . . . too early . . . too late . . . too extravagant . . . too boring . . . too edgy . . . too too.”

“but I’ll be there…”
“Then I’ll go.”

I care more about people I do things with than what I do. So when a friend would suggest something, I would go. Most cool things I’ve done have been because someone invited me.

That’s a passive way to live a life, waiting for life to come to me.

I’ve changed since those days.
I’ve realized my life is my own to make.
I decided to find time for the time of my life.

I still don’t do weekends …
Now, I do life every day of the week … including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday … finding time for people I care about, people I want know, and even myself.

Life isn’t made of weekends.
It’s made of memories.

I can’t think of a better way to spend the time of my life.

How are you finding time for the time of your life?

Liz's Signature

Cool Tool Review: Toggl

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Todd Hoskins Reviews Tools for Business

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: Toggl
A Review by Todd Hoskins

I have a confession: I am an obsessive tracker and quantifier. As much as I love art and language, I find some comfort and satisfaction when numbers tell a story. Perhaps this explains my love of baseball and its box scores, or why I love web analytics. For over a year, I experimented with assigning prioritized value to daily tasks, tracking my success or lack thereof. I stopped when I realized my creativity was being hampered by my desire to improve my average weekly scores. I was looking down too much, not looking up enough.

Still, tracking, whether it be your blood pressure, web traffic, or time management can be valuable information. Toggl, a time tracking tool, makes it easy to capture this information. If you bill by the hour, you should definitely be using some type of time tracking tool. Even if you don’t, it’s a useful exercise to check in for a week or a month and see how you spend your time. (The book Lifelong Activist makes a strong point that time tracking is an important measurement in personal development, and offers great tips on interpreting the results and implementing change).

Toggl can be installed or run on about any platform. It’s simple – a running clock that allows you to assign projects and clients to time spent. Start the clock. End the clock. But you do have to remember to do this with every project transition. Of course, there are pretty charts and graphs, especially useful if you have the whole team collaborating on various projects.

toggl

Word of warning: If you impose time tracking on employees who are not billing by the hour, make sure you jointly establish some reasonable expectations. It’s not good for the soul to feel like every minute is being monitored. Nor is it good for the soul to play the workplace role of hall monitor. For example, in an eight hour workday, you may expect web developers to spend 6 hours on specified projects.

There is a free version. The paid version, starting at $5 per month, has more features. For a team, it may run up to $100 per month. A good value for the information you receive.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 3/5 – Good programming tool, but doesn’t replace the elegance of Pivotal Tracker

Entrepreneur Value: 3/5 – Freelancers gain credibility when they can show their client when hours were worked

Personal Value: 3/5 – Commit a week. See what you learn. With the iPhone and Android app, you don’t have to limit your tracking to work. How much TV do you watch? Time spent wiith kids?

Are You Allowing Your Blog To Be Spamtastic?

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By Terez Howard

Spamtastic is not good.

I went on vacation for one week and didn’t touch my blog. When I returned home, I found 112 comments on my blog. Do you know how many I approved as legitimate? Two. And I wasn’t even sure if one of those two was just really good-sounding spam.
Last week, I talked about making valuable comments on other people’s blogs. What about your own blog? Do you give just any comment a passing grade?

 

How can you determine if you’re receiving an actual comment to your work or plain old spam?

Here is one basic rule of thumb: Approve a comment if it contributes to your discussion. If it doesn’t say anything meaningful, trash it.

Some spamtastic comments that don’t belong in your blog

The empty compliment. Perhaps you’ve seen the commenter who says this: “Sweet post.” I’ve gotten that one dozens of times. There’s nothing wrong with a compliment. We all love to get them. But it does not contribute to your blog’s discussion. It doesn’t say anything at all.

Here are a couple comments from my blog that I sent to the spam folder (I did no editing to these comments):

“I found your blog on Yahoo , this is a good blog , i will come back.” People like to say they bookmarked your blog and will return for more. Check out what website they link to, and you might find that exact same comment over and over again waiting for approval, linking to the same blog. That’s what I discovered.

“Keep posting stuff like this i really like it, Good job My friend” This direct quote was from sunglass. I don’t know who sunglass is, but I oftentimes (not always) will not approve authors who do not provide a name. Sunglass, Pc tv and replica handbags have not as of yet provided anything that contributes to my blog. Yet, they keep continuing to post their spam.

Unrelated nothingness. I cannot stand the person who goes off on a topic that has nothing to do with my blog. Perhaps such comments would be of value on another blog, and perhaps not. I’m not really sure. I know one thing: They do not fit my blog.

Let me share some of this nonsense:

“If you are willing to buy real estate, you will have to receive personal loans (There was a link on the keyword personal loans). Furthermore, my mother commonly utilizes a financial loan, which is really useful.”

“Kyle Shelley of All in Education has given me very substandard service. I am amazingley angry in the data that he has provided.”

String of html text. Lately, this has been the most popular form of spamtastic comments on my blog. I will get seven or eight of these in a row every other day. They say absolutely nothing. Their obvious sole purpose is to provide the webmaster with endless links back to their site.

English, people! Besides English, I have gotten comments in Spanish. I can only tell because I know un poco from my four years of high school Spanish. I also get comments in what appears to be German. Isn’t it obvious that these comments don’t contribute to my English-speaking audience? I would post some examples of these, but I have no idea what they say.

Be fantastic, not spamtastic

Don’t approve every comment that comes your way, just so it looks like your posts are getting tons of conversation. It’s not conversation if there is no real communication.

Make your blog a high quality one by encouraging discussion with your readers. When those comments appear, savor the real contributions and don’t hesitate to trash the garbage.

What kinds of spamtastic comments do you avoid?

 

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!

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

Social Media Book List – Red Fire Branding and The Zen of Social Media Marketing

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors to help manage their online book promotion. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!). I am here to offer a weekly post about one book author I am working with and one book I have put on my reading list. This week I will be highlighting ‘Red Fire Branding’ by Liz Goodgold and ‘The Zen of Social Media Marketing’ by Shama Hyder. The books I discuss will cover a range of topics such as social media, marketing, blogging, business, organization, career building, networking, writing, self development and inspiration.

‘Red Fire Branding’ by Liz Goodgold

red_fire_brandingmid

Talk about a book chock full of some great information—this is one of those books! One of the first things Liz states in this book about branding, “The invisible secret to success in business today is your personal brand; you need people to remember you in order to do business with you.”

Here is another great bit of advice from Liz, “…but that we can become a star in our own field by taking a page from their (rock stars and celebrities) stage notes.”

And the book includes after every chapter concludes with hands-on exercises entitled Your Turn to Act. These exercises allows you to take the advice you read into action with your business right away.

Another great bit of advice from Liz, “I recommend that you create a Council of Advisers: colleagues, clients, investors, or even family members to help you get an outsider perspective. You’ll see the Council referred to often in your exercises to act as a reality check.

These helpful tips were in the first few pages…see what I am saying. Great information throughout the book such as her Words of “LIZdom”.

Here are a few:

***SPECIALIZATION IS THE KEY
Great brands are specialized; they stand for one thing only. To brand successfully, you cannot be all things to all people.

***USE SIGNATURES AS GREETINGS AND FAREWELLS
See if you can create a signature hello and goodbye. It can be as simple as “hola,” or as casual as “yo.” Of course, just make sure it’s already a natural part of your speech.

***MUSIC
Explore any type of trademark music that might fit with your brand. Transcriber or wordsmith? Try “Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.” Perhaps a travel agent? Try “Red Sails in the Sunset.” Sell whirlpool baths? Try “Tiny Bubbles.”

***NETWORKING
People do business with people they know, like, trust, and respect. Without any of these qualities, you cannot succeed. Take the time to truly learn about your colleagues and you might be able to help in growing their business, resulting in a possible chance to grow your own.

About the Author:

Liz Goodgold is a marketing and branding expert, speaker, and author, with more than 25 years of experience working for such major companies as Quaker Oats, Times Mirror, and Arco Oil. Currently she is Chief Nuancer and CEO of The Nuancing Group, an identity-consulting firm that helps companies understand the nuances of naming and branding.

Some of her clients include Proflowers.com, Fair Isaac (of the FICO score fame), Univision (largest Hispanic Media conglomerate in the world), and Sharp HealthCare (2008 winner of the prestigious Baldridge Award.)

She also works with a myriad of corporate clients and entrepreneurs for whom she has developed compelling product names, taglines, brand identities, and Internet domains that have generated flawless recall and increased market share.

You can purchase a copy of ‘Red Fire Branding’ online at ThinkAha Books or at Amazon

This blog post is part of a virtual book tour done by Key Business Partners, LLC and I have received a complimentary copy of ‘#PROJECT MANAGEMENT TWEET’ by the authors.

‘The Zen of Social Media Marketing’ by Shama Hyder

Now I would like to highlight a book on my “review” reading list–‘The Zen of Social Media Marketing’ by Shama Hyder.

This book offers:

*Why and How social media works, and how to use it to drive traffic to your website

*Step by step guidelines for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, plus effective web video

*Insights from more than two dozen leading online marketers and entrepreneurs

*Shortcuts and tips to help you make the most of you time and energy, and proven strategies for success from the businesses Shama works with every day

Here are a few tips she gives in the book:

~ Bring offline networking online (page 53): When you go to conferences or mixers and bring home a stack of business cards, search for the people on Facebook and add them as friends. Then throw away their cards! Facebook will even remind you of their birthdays.
Teresa’s added tip — when it is a colleagues’ birthday, take the time to send them a card.

~Regarding following on Twitter (page 82): Leave out mundane details unless they add value. Avoid things like, “loving this veggie burger.” Use, “Loving this veggie burger at the new San Francisco join on 45th and Lemon.”

~About web video (page 130): After training thousands of people across the world on how to create, get traffic from and profit from web video, I can tell you without a doubt that those who find success always follow these principles: they stop thinking about it, they start doing it and they never quit.

About Shama:

Shama Hyder is the founder of The Marketing Zen Group, a full-service online marketing firm that serves clients around the world. Fast Company has dubbed her “an online marketing shaman and a millennial master of the universe.” She holds a Masters degree in Organizational Communication from the University of Texas at Austin. Her Web sites, marketingzen.com and Shama.tv have turned into high-traffic destinations for people looking for advice on how to successfully market their businesses online. Companies of all sizes and the media look to Shama to guide them when it comes to the vast world of social media marketing. She has been named one of the 10 Most Influential and Powerful Women in Social Media and, in 2009, BusinessWeek honored Shama as one of the Top 25 under 25 entrepreneurs in North America.
*courtesy of Amazon

You can purchase a copy of ‘The Zen of Social Media Marketing’ on Shama’s site at MarketingZen.com or Amazon.

I truly hope you will check out these books and please comment and let me know your thoughts on them.

The Mic Is ON: We’re Back to Talking about Summer Before Twitter!

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Has Twitter Ruined Blog Conversation?

Just a few years back, it was so simple. We met on each other’s blogs like meeting for coffee or wine at the back fence. Now we meet on so many public platforms that we’re talking more, faster, and in shorter bursts.

Are we losing the long conversations we used to have?

1108003_say_what

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring example links to share —

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: sxc.hu
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