Walking on the path this week, past what we call Froggy Beach we saw a new view. The changing shape and views of this small beach frequently surprise us.
The view this day, was like a Japanese Zen Garden, the rocks so inviting as a place for contemplation. I could see myself meditating there, listening to the sounds of the sea, refreshing, rejuvenating……… – Suzie Cheel
Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,
I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.
They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.
I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.
Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.
If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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.
Ramblings from a Glass Half Full
âIt canât be doneâ
âYou canât do thatâ
How many times have you heard these words? Plenty of times, I bet. âCanâtâ is a big, fat, stop sign designed to sabotage a dream.
The Social Media Marketing Blog
It turns out that it’s pretty simple to understand what women want. All you have to do is ask them. Of course, you have to be listening and willing to put it into practice. Having been married for nearly 9 years, I’m no genius at dating; but there are some parallels here that even my feeble brain can pull out.
Read more: http://www.scottmonty.com/2010/05/online-ad-targeting-is-pretty-much-like.html#ixzz0oXCwqvf5
ReveNews
The service is called CinemaNow, partnering Best Buy with Sonic Solutions Inc. The service will start as a la carte, and hopes to progress to a Netflix like subscription service. Movie rentals will start at 2.99, videos for purchase will run from 9.99 â 19.99.
C-Level Strategies and Awakenings
To be honest, I used to avoid networking events if I was not absolutely sure that someone I knew would be there â someone for me to âhang out with.â This was a real detriment to my career as it drastically limited my exposure to executives outside of my little âbubble,â and prevented me from making wonderful new business connections.
One Mann’s Opinion
It’s scary and exciting and big monsters are there to eat you and you don’t know where to start. The best place is with your personal or business strategy. You don’t need to embrace it all, you don’t need to be everywhere and frankly no one can.
Des Walsh
Conversations about social media in business often start with questions about tools. âShould we have a Facebook page?â âShould we be on Twitter?â âShould we have a blog and if so how do we go about that?â
These are perfectly reasonable questions. But they jump the gun.
Connie Reece
As they say about a picture …
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
This week at the Windy City Social Marketing Challenge I had the wonderful responsibility and opportunity to be part of the Team Chevy Cruze Challenge.
Chevy is launching their Cruze for a Cause program, a grass roots awareness building program that challenges people to âChange the World in a Weekâ using a fleet of Chevy Cruzes. The purpose of the program is to create name awareness of Cruze in advance of the launch and to foster positive feelings about Cruze and start to address social acceptability
My teammates were an intelligent group of awesome and invested people. They were in it for the experience of making some thing good together, not for winning some prize.
I had just left a great meeting with Carol Roth in which we had talked about working with a new team that was incredibly smart. We had discussed the value of stating the objectives and possible ideas, then letting the team work so that someone stays outside the system and doesn’t know what built the thoughts.
It was my first time doing the challenge. That approach seemed a good approach for a time like this.
It seemed to work well with the team.
What I lost sight of was that … we weren’t the only team in the room.
A leader wants to be there for structure and thinking, but more than that a leader knows that too much of one voice means great thoughts and ideas of others don’t come up. At times any person’s voice becomes amplified into a leader’s voice even when we just want to be one of the team.
It happens when we are considered to be …
so realizing when our words carry more weight than we want and stepping back a little can be a good thing.
Sitting at the table while folks are thinking and planning doesn’t remove you from their thinking, you still know how they built it so you can’t look at the whole to question how they got there when the time to question comes.
So what do you do when you leave the group? Sometimes we can use our louder voice to be a cheerleader, but that’s a tricky thing too.
I know because I did it wrong.
Other teams were working in different ways toward the same outcome. This is the big learning …
I learned how brands, teams, and any one of us can be other-centered and self-absorbed at the same time …
You see I was so invested in supporting my own team. I was blind to how I interrupted other folks while they were supporting their own.
My apologies to the other teams. My apology to the folks on my team too. You deserved better from me.
Thanks for all I learned from all of you.
And it underscores something I have to keep reminding myself:
The minute I’m sure I’m right, I’m most certainly wrong.
Does your brand, your business, or you have your own version of this? I’d love to hear how you manage it.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
By Terez Howard
We all have a story to tell. Some naturally have more interesting stories than others, while the great story tellers have a way with words, even if their tales are not particularly earth-shattering. What we experienced in the past and experience at present, whether it directly relates to our niche or not, makes its way into our blogs.
But what is a blog? If youâre reading this, you have some idea. My husband recently asked me how the term blog got started. This definition is for him and anyone like him who would like to know the etymology of the word.
William Safire put it so well back in 2002. He wrote this: Blog is a shortening of Web log . It is a Web site belonging to some average but opinionated Joe or Josie who keeps what used to be called a ”commonplace book” — a collection of clippings, musings and other things like journal entries that strike one’s fancy or titillate one’s curiosity. What makes this online daybook different from the commonplace book is that this form of personal noodling or diary-writing is on the Internet, with links that take the reader around the world in pursuit of more about a topic.
That 8-year-old definition still applies to the present blog. It isnât just about writing a journal. Itâs about making a difference.
That old adage has been recited to me many times. What does it mean to bloggers as a group? According to Safire, a blog would âstrike one’s fancy or titillate one’s curiosity.â When I read this, I wondered whose curiosity he was speaking of? The bloggerâs or the readerâs?
It should be both. A blog is meant to be shared and get an audience involved in a subject. You write what you know. You write what you love. You write what you hate. But more basically, you write what you find is interesting, and you hope that others will be interested, too.
Letâs go back to our history. Safire said bloggers should âtake the reader around the world.â One way to keep your audience interested is by guiding them through the world wide web with links that explore your topic deeper.
Bloggers can link to the following:
You can place these links at the beginning or end of your posts, depending on the link. You can have a designated page for these links, such as one that includes links to your other websites. You also can put links in your right or left panel, so theyâre easily accessible to visitors.
When your blog thoroughly provides answers to readers through content and external links, your audience will look to you as an expert in your niche. They will come back for more.
Now that you know your history as a blogger, how will that knowledge affect your future in blogging?
—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clientsâ 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!!
Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in a small 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.
(Disclosure: I currently work with Aquent)
The free agent revolution predicted by Fast Company more than a dozen years ago never fully happened. The rising costs of healthcare, along with our collective drive for security as a result of war and economic turmoil made many people choose employment rather than a life of freelancing.
For reasons of choice or necessity, there are still a lot of independent workers looking for the right gig. Large businesses often will use contractors to provide flexibility, cost savings, or to rent skill sets they do not have. Small businesses should use freelancers more often.
I recommend a couple companies that match talented people with organizations in need of help: Aquent and crowdSPRING.
Aquent has been in business for 24 years. With offices around the globe, and specialized practices in online marketing, interactive design, user experience, traditional marketing, and graphic design, they find the best people either offsite or locally to fit your culture and need.
It works this way. You have a project, or perhaps someone is taking a one month vacation. You contact Aquent. They assign an agent who will select some candidates from their talent pool based on budget, skill set, and working environment. You interview one or a few, and make a choice. Aquent pays the talent and bills you. The whole process can take less than a week.
For a small business, this gives you access to the most talented designers and marketers for a time period and cost that you dictate, without needing to screen a bunch of people or take on a full-time employee.
crowdSPRING offers logo, graphic design, and writing services, with a much different approach. You post the project on their site, including deadline and a price. Then you wait for the creatives to submit their entries. In addition, crowdSPRING has one of the best small business blogs out there. They are smart people, now with a network of over 60,000 freelancers.
Summing Up â Is it worth it?
Enterprise Value: 4/5 â Revive the Free Agent Revolution. There is great talent ready to help. Compelling alternative to paying agencies to do execution work.
Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 â A 2 week SEO engagement, site redesign, or copy rewrite can make a big difference
Personal Value: 2/5 â if you’re a freelancer, these companies can help you