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Cool Tool Review: Dabbleboard

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Todd Hoskins Reviews Tools for Small Business

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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.

Cool Tool Review: Dabbleboard
A Review by Todd Hoskins

The dreaded dial in . . .

I had a colleague who referred to virtual meetings as “pajama business.” It is only within the last few years that we have gained the luxury of clipping toenails during a CEO update, or making egg salad during a development team scrum. The gain in freedom has often been offset by a loss in engagement. When I can’t see your smirk, or feel your trepidation, or witness your enthusiasm, I am less connected to you, my client or co-worker.

A few weeks ago I reviewed Prezi, my favorite tool for visualizing a presentation. There are plenty of collaboration tools out there for bridging the visual divide in virtual meetings, from screen sharing to video conferencing. This week I want to highlight a simple digital whiteboard called Dabbleboard that can encourage participation, and aide the visual learners and thinkers among us (like me).

The visual component of any meeting is important. Dan Roam received considerable attention a couple years ago for solving problems and selling ideas in pictures in his book The Back of the Napkin. Dabbleboard provides the necessary functionality to place a blackboard or napkin in front of anyone with whom you want to share.

For a sales pitch, a site redesign, a strategy meeting, even reviewing financials – all of these situations improve with pictures and shapes. A different part of our brain gets activated and you’ll keep the attention of your people or prospects.

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I have also tried Scriblink, which worked fairly well. Both tools offer chat, real-time sharing, and phone conferencing. I like Dabbleboard’s personal image library – you can reuse graphics you’ve made. I also like their commitment to their users, evidenced in their blog and the creation of a toolkit.

A Pro (paid) version is available that includes customization, permissions, data portability, and security. If you’re going to create highly confidential drawings, you may want to pay the monthly fee. Discounts are also available for not-for-profits and educators.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 3/5 – Adobe and Microsoft lack the whimsy of Dabbleboard

Entrepreneur Value: 4/5 – excellent, though the UI could be better. AlmostMeet in beta (Please, please change the name).

Personal Value: 2/5 – great for school projects

4 Headline Types that Grab Attention Immediately

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By Terez Howard

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One Blogging Secret That Everyone’s Telling You

I have something to tell you. You’ve heard it before. You know it’s beneficial to every blog. The great bloggers write about this regularly and practice what they preach.

Attention-grabbing headlines. There, I said it. Secret’s out. or it’s been out for years.

4 Headline Types that Grab Attention Immediately

When I worked for the newspaper, my editor told us that our headlines had to tell our readers something. Sounds simple enough, right? It is pretty straightforward.

I wrote the following story back in 2005: “Katrina victims in Chester tell their story of survival.” I could have written “Hurricane story.” My now five-year-old headline told readers what to expect from my story and why they would want to read it. My second, obviously bland headline example doesn’t tell you anything. It sounds like a fictional piece on a hurricane’s journey through an area.

Your headline needs a voice. While it doesn’t have to be a summary of your entire blog post, it should give your readers a taste of what to expect.

What kinds of headlines should you write? Here are four:

Raise a question

You can specifically ask a question, but your headline does not have to be a question. Rather, readers will ask themselves a question and want to know the answer.

For instance, my headline for today: “One Blogging Secret That Everyone’s Telling You.” What secret? Why’s it a secret if everyone’s telling me? Who’s telling me? These are the questions my headline raises, and I provide the answers in my blog.

So when you write a headline that raises a question, be sure to provide a satisfactory, thorough answer to your audience.

Include a list

“101 Blogging Topics That Will Keep Readers Coming Back In Hundreds”

Once again, readers know what to expect, that when they click on your post, they will see a numbered list, from 1 to 101. Why do lists make wonderful headlines? Bloggers will tell you how the search engines love numbers and how numbers are memorable to readers. These points are true, but not my focus.

From a blogger’s standpoint, lists are easy to write. As a writer, a list organizes my thoughts for me from 1 to whatever. From a reader’s standpoint, lists are easy to read. You expect a comprehensive, systematic piece of information.

Make a how to

People love a good how to. I love how-to’s. I followed a how to count calories and lose weight story and shed 10 pounds.

Tell your readers exactly what they will be able to do if they follow your how to. A how to headline does not have to be so basic, though. It could be a “How to not…” or a how to do something metaphorically, like “How to pop eyes with your headlines.”

Be compelling – Make it urgent

What makes you want to click on a blog post? It piques your interest. With the three aforementioned types of headlines, each and every one should be compelling. It kills me that bloggers spend their time writing a well-researched, thoroughly engaging post and don’t give any time to the headline. It’s an afterthought.

That doesn’t mean you can’t write your headline last. That’s a fine idea and preferable to many bloggers. I tend to write my headline first and tweak it as I write make it fit the entire post. Do what works for you, just so you give time to your headline.

Your headline is your appetizer. It prepares your audience’s appetite to the main course. Does your headline induce hunger? Hey, sounds like a headline!

What do you do to write an attention-grabbing headline?

 

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Author’s Bio:
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

Social Media Book List: Book Outlook on Seth Godin

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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 and writers to manage their online promotion efforts. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!).
I decided to change things up a little this week and do a book “outlook” on two of Seth Godin’s books: ‘Linchpin’ (his latest) and ‘Meatball Sundae’ from 2007.

Lately the buzz around Seth Godin has been surrounding his latest book ‘Linchin’. As you can see here is an example: one where he was Skyped in to a university classroom to talk about the elements of this book. In the video, the highlight I caught was how Seth was talking about people wanting to be around you (or tweet with you, or befriend you on Facebook) because of “how you make them feel”.

That is one thing I have always admired about Seth, is his ability to make people stop and think. And most of the time the concept is very simple. Because most of the time he is right on point.

Think for just a moment, why do you listen to certain music? Because of the words and the voice of the person singing, right? Why do you read certain books? Because of the emotions the words on the page touch your heart, right?

Well, that is what Seth is talking about here—-you can become a “want” to other people because they can’t (or don’t) wish to be without you and your services.

And while ‘Linchin’ has been all the buzz lately, I have picked up one of Seth’s earlier works, ‘Meatball Sundae’, to take a look and share some ideas I found interesting in this book about marketing and how it has changed over the last decade. Because the subtitle to this book is “Is your Marketing Out of Sync?

Meatball Sundae

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Here are few concepts I would like to explore with you:

The first concept I would like to discuss is the difference between “old marketing” and “new marketing” and driving innovation deep. On pages 22-23 Seth talks about how some companies found “new” ways to market their products and did so successfully.

Did you know that Cafepress.com (they sell promotional products) sell millions of dollars of imprinted items each month? I figured they were doing pretty good, but I didn’t realize they were that popular. They took a concept (personal promotional products) and found a way to do it on a bigger scale by allowing the individual person customize their promotional products. Then they took it one step further and allowed people to set their prices for their own products. And to top that, it is all done over the web and the person doesn’t have to have inventory. What a great concept, right?

Also, did you know Audible.com carries more books on tape than any store or library….all on the web without needing to set up a physical location.

My point here is (well, really Seth’s point is) the way you are able to set up your business and get it to other people has changed drastically and you can thrive with it.

Next concept is realizing how the technology has changed the environment but human nature hasn’t. Seth offers this—(page 48)
“Marketing has always been about discovering what people want and need and telling the story about how they can get it (from you). It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that the list represents a change in what people want and need. Human nature hasn’t changed a bit. What has changed is the environment we live in. The combination of technology and competition has lead to a world where many people can get what they want, when they need it…what we’ve wanted all along is to be treated with respect and to be connect to other people.”

Again, he made me stop and think. Because when I first read this I thought, “No, Seth human nature has changed!” But we have just adjusted as a result of the environment around us.

Another concept he talks about his offering your clients a way to receive what they want (from you) in a way that allows you not to break the bank either. One example he used was Lulu.com. You can work with Lulu to get your manuscript turned into a book. They will offer you a online storefront to sell it from and will give you an ISBN to allow you to sell your book from any bookstore in the word. Of course, now their are more than just Lulu.com to do this, however, the concept is the same.

There are many more great concepts in this book and you can pick up a copy for yourself at Amazon and from his website.

You have more possibilities and opportunities for marketing and to get out to those who will want and need your services and products more than you have before. And it is your ability to find your own UNIQUE way to be authentic that will get you connect with those who will want to network, buy and share with others about you.

I hope you have enjoyed this “outlook” on Seth Godin and two of his books.

How do you keep you marketing in sync with the ever changing technology?

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

What Social Media Strategists Don’t Know About Growing Your Business

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Less Is More

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Recently, after a long introductory phone call, I received an email from a client about how he thought I might help his business. The list included almost every facet of online and offline presence and interactions with customers, vendors, and employees.

I was flattered and also bowled over by his commitment. I had to tell him that I needed him to participate equally in making those things reality.

I started to write a response that turned into this blog post.

What Social Media Strategists Don’t Know About Growing Your Business

Social media — the tools and social networking sites — have come to be looked upon as some sort of “industry.” But it’s not. in the same way a mechanic’s Craftsman tool kit and his classes in who to use it aren’t why we hire him, our fluency with tools and knowledge of sites we use aren’t what grows businesses.

The art and the science of a social media professional is understanding your business and helping you choose the right tools and sites that will connect you to the customers who love what you do.

Our experience, our expertise, and our ability to build strategies and tactics that move businesses forward are what can bring, but they’re limited by what works in general. The answer for you isn’t a “general go do these things.”

Strategy is a realistic and practical plan to gain ground over time. It’s sets the plan of campaigns and tactics that will gain you visibility, traffic, brand identity, and loyal customers and fans. Upon meeting you and working with your business there are five things every social media strategist doesn’t know … (though every strategist should know these things about his or her own offering.)

  1. Is your business culture fit ready to participate and make relationships that last beyond a single transaction? A social media strategist can help you choose and learn how to use the tools to do that, but only you can follow through and make the relationships.
  2. What do you offer that no business like yours offers? How have you removed what customers don’t like and enhanced what they love? That single clear message is what your social media strategist can amplify, magnify, and help you connect people with.
  3. What is unique about the customers that you’re reaching out to? If you reach out to everyone, you’ll look just like the thousands of other businesses doing the same thing. Find that one group who needs what you offer and tailor all you do to make their lives easier, faster, and more meaningful. A social media strategist can help you find those people using the speed and the reach of the Internet.

A social media strategist can help you build tactics to reach goals and grow your business the ways business have been growing since business started … with relationships that stand behind your work and your products and services.

Yet no social media strategist can know whether a business is willing to invite the people who help it grow to participate, collaborate, and be part of what makes that business great.

If you’re a social media strategist, how do you find out whether a business is ready to grow? If you’re a business how do you know you’ve got the right social media strategist?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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8 Powerfully Subtle Ways to Let Your Work Show Your Expertise

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It’s the Work We Do that Adds Value

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The Internet is fast being filled with people with skills and talent for hire. Some have worked online and off for years to attain experience and expertise. Some are using the Internet to re-career and reinvent themselves and us as a chance to prove themselves. Most folks who can afford it want to connect with the people who’ve got real expertise, not those who hope to practice until they do.

There’s no question that to be an expert, we have to be knowledgeable, authentic, and hardworking. Everyone pays dues to get to the top, but knowing what to work at helps a lot too, because …

For the rest of us, it’s hard to tell the guy with a professional camera from a professional photographer unless you share what you know with the rest of us in the right way.

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To be recognized as a expert requires communication skills and social skills as well as technical expertise.

8 Subtle, Powerful Ways to Let Your Work Show Your Expertise

A true expert isn’t a preacher or even a teacher. He or she is a guide who cares about and understands the folks he or she serves. Lead me value to your work and know its quality, then help me understand how it can be relevant and useful to the customers, clients, and people I value and serve.

A true expert, like a truly rich man, doesn’t need to tell you he is one … his value shows in his confidence, competence, consistency, generosity, humility, and his work.

Here are 8 often powerfully subtle ways to being recognized as a true expert.

  1. Be the expert you are, not the expert someone else is. You are the only you the world has. That differentiates what you offer from the start. Play to your strengths. Let your work demonstrate your strengths. When people ask about what you do … point to something you’ve done well and talk about it.
  2. Get known first as an expert in ONE thing. Decide what sort of problems you solve quickly and well. Find ONE niche or one vertical and solve that problem there. People look for a “go to” person for a specific need. You’ll grow a following faster if you solve one problem well. It’s easier to refer the expert who can prove one great solution than the one who can’t be pinned down. Once folks learn about you as a master one skill, they can find out about the other wonderful things you do.
  3. Write expert content in the language of the folks you want to serve. Readers want top-notch, quality, relevant content — information, answers, AND analysis. Your market can get news anywhere. Add your expert opinion, analysis, evaluation, synthesis, or predictions — in words and thoughts they can relate to and apply immediately..
  4. Be an expert at keeping track of your niche. Don’t overwhelm yourself … but don’t live in your own head and don’t live online only. Look for great ideas and innovation everywhere. Follow Alltop to get the latest news. Read print magazines, blogs, and news that cover the topics you cover. Pre-select it for people interested in what you do. Add value by explaining why you’re passing it on.
  5. Be an expert at specialized search and information mining. Make finding interesting content tidbits your expert quest. Get to be friends with Google Alerts and similar services. Follow terms around the Internet.
  6. Be an expert at sharing your work where your customers are. Be where your potential customers are. Don’t just Tweet a great photo. Say something about it. Tell a story about it. Not every great client is on Twitter. Not every great mind is either. Go to conferences; meet local businesses; visit universities; get to know the other experts and authors in your niche. Ask everyone for their stories and tell anyone who cares about the stories you’ve collected. Tweet, speak, visit, and comment on blogs. Get opinions and think about what people say. Talk about your work like you to talk to your friends about what you do.
  7. Be an expert at thinking deeply. Saturate yourself in the trends, and think about how they influence your work. Go deeper too. Find out what researchers are thinking so that you can offer your readers how you think the highest quality and most relevant information might change what you’re doing today and in the future. Always tie it back to them in real and relevant ways. It’s your field be interested in it and they’ll be interested in you.
  8. Have an opinion. Don’t just pass on information. What the Internet is missing is your informed expertise and unique point of view. You’ve learned and earned something. Show us how you got there and why you care about it. Share your passion for your expertise. Nothing is more appealing than an expert who loves what he or she does.

Awards are nice, but they’re not something our customers can use. Quality is important, but if my customers can’t see or at least feel the fine lighting, perfect composition, or the artfullness of that photograph … then the time it took to add it … to them will be just cost. Some folks need basic transportation to get to work not a Ferrari this time around — an expert recognizes that too.

When we do the work, invest, and offer what we learn freely and care about those we serve, our true expertise shines through. People need what we know and sharing it isn’t shameless promotion, it’s contributing value to the community.

Are you an expert? How do you let your work speak for you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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To the Moms We Look Up To … Live Your Thank You

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Moms Are People

My own mother was barely 9 years old when the Stock Market Crashed in 1929. I suppose there’s not a person today who can’t imagine what it might have been like to grow up, a child of a single mom with six brothers and sisters and no meat on the table. They all worked on a ranch and went to school when they could. She knew the hard work of living.

Lots of folks had it worse than she did.

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Back then, some folks lost their homes. Some became hobos. Some lived wherever they could. The ones I knew were called “family.” People took them in. I had a lot of “aunts,” “uncles,” and “cousins” who weren’t blood relations.

My mother never forgot those times or people who found themselves in similar situations.

When I was in grade school, she helped two boys I know find places at “Boys Town” because their family couldn’t afford to raise them. In some ways she was their mother too.

And just recently on a visit to our hometown, my closest friend said she met a woman I know who’s parents hung out at my dad’s saloon. The woman told my friend that, growing up, she always looked forward to my mom’s Christmas presents. “She gave us the “good” pajamas in the pretty boxes. She always put something sweet inside with them.”

My mom used to baked tens of dozens of cookies to give away every holiday season. She would frost and decorate every one of them. Sometimes I got to help with the decorating.

When we’re lucky we have a mom like that in our house every day, but even when we don’t, moms like that are all around us.

Look around. No matter our circumstances. Moms give us powers that make us better people. Moms are models of strength and rising above bad situations. They have to choose for other people to keep things in balance and moving forward. They feed our bodies, our minds, our souls. They believe in us even when we have trouble believing.

Moms are heroes.

Sometimes moms do their jobs so well, we forget they are people. We cast them in their role and only see our relationship with them, never thinking about who they were before we were there.

Sometimes we don’t see what comes to us easily.

My mom had a girl baby that died nine days after that little girl was born. That happened 3 years before there was a me. I didn’t understand what that might have meant to her and her life, until fully a year after she died. That’s when I began to understand my mom as a human being.

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They say there are moms who don’t do well. It’s an overwhelming job that requires some experience of love and fearlessness.

I say there are mom all around us, even moms who are dads, even moms who’ve never had children.

If you have a mom who has given you life or know a mom who has changed your life, let her know how you’ve looked up to her when you’ve needed her.

Without the moms in the world, we wouldn’t be us.

Let the world see the moms you look up to, the moms who have made you.

Live your thank you … to its highest value.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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