Successful Blog

How to Enter the Social Media Space Gracefully

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Start by Learning the Culture

A few months ago, Jim McGee and I were talking about how businesses and individuals have different experiences upon first entering the social sphere. It wasn’t long before we were into the usual cocktail party analogy.

The problem seemed to be as simple as this.

Two people, both new to a group, attend a social gathering.

The first person is interested in who will be there. She dresses nicely with thoughts about the people attending and the venue — as she would for any event. She comes alone. Most folks don’t notice her entrance. She smiles when someone looks. As she walks over to say “hello” she trips on a loose rug. Someone who caught that friendly smile reaches down to help her up.

A nice person … We identify with her. We’d want help too.

The second attendee wants attention. She floodlights her walk as she enters dressed in sequins and stars. She’s followed by an entourage who are flashing cameras and opening doors. She’s noticed long before she trips.

Think about which person is likely to get helped up and which is likely to be left on her own.

To pull off stars and sequins in a social situation, you have to be friends with the folks you’re meeting. Shine the lights on yourself before people know you, they’re unlikely to see fun and clever. They’ll see disrespect or arrrogance.

Grace enters quietly reflecting light on everyone.

@comcastcares entered gracefully. You’ve probably seen example of folks who made their entrance with too much noise.

How would you counsel someone looking to enter social media gracefully?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Hate Self-Promotion? … Could Trust Be the Issue?

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Deliverables Depend on Trust

Ask a venture capitalist what moves him or her to invest, what you’ll hear is a definition of the word trust. How could it be otherwise? A VC is betting on an investment to pay off. It’s a trust situation. A sure thing doesn’t exist in business.

Trust is part of most every purchase decision we make. We trust that we get what we paid for in working order. We trust that the people who offered it will stand behind their offer.

Trust is also part of the offering. Marketing and promoting what we do also requires trust — trust in ourselves, trust in our products and services, and a bond of trust with the person we’re telling about them.

  • If we trust ourselves, we’re confident that we’ll deliver on the promises we make.
  • If we trust our products and services, we know they’ll meet and surpass the expectations of the person who invests in them.
  • If we have a bond of trust with people about what we do, we’re not worried about our credibility. We talk to them as we talk to our friends, fully expressed and enthusiastic to share something we believe will help. They hear us as we want to be heard.

Do you hate self-promotion and marketing? Could it be that you’re trying to sell before you know the potential buyer trusts you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your irresistible offer.

World Business Forum: A View from the 3rd Mezzanine

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Up here the front row of the third mezzanine of Radio City Music Hall, world leaders speaking on the stage look like miniatures. On the video screen behind them, they appear larger than life.

I can’t help but notice the lovely irony that to us invited to blog about this event, the video version is easier to see and identify with.

rWe stepped out of the online culture to listen in here and report back. We’re tweeting, writing, and making opinions … listening to statements from a world of experience.

Most profoundly I see some connections that only we online might see. From Bill George challenged us Who’s going to step up today and make a difference?
Bill Conaty spoke of CEOs who need to support truth and candor. Patrick Lencioni said, We spend a lot of time making an organization smart, but not a lot of time making them health.

and Kevin Roberts brought it home with these statements …

reason leads to conclusions
emotion leads to action
inform … inspire …
do one thing

The chance to listen to outstanding people speaking about what they know has been huge and hugely thrilling. I’m sure many will detail the report of what was said.

What I notice is how, when we meet at the core of the matter we’re not so different online or off.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence.

How To Announce Your New Blog Post In Your Twitter?

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This is a how-to post.  I’ll keep this post simple.

Background

I think I am a lazy person actually.  Whenever I write a blog post, I know that the next thing I must do is to tweet about it in my Twitter account so that I can let my followers know.  Such a task can be leveraged to the computer to help us do it since it is just telling our twitter followers about our new blog post.

Requirements

  1. You must be using a WordPress platform.
  2. You must be an administrator in order to configure this properly.
  3. It is ok if you are using the free wordpress.com platform, or if you have installed wordpress in your own domain name.

Let’s get it started!

Step 1: You will need to download “Twitter tools“.

Step 2: Unzip the contents of the entire folder “twitter-tools” and upload into your wp-content/plugins/ directory. (You’ll need to know how to use FTP)

Step 3: Go to the Plugins page in your WordPress Administration area and click ‘Activate’ for Twitter Tools.

Step 4: Go to the Twitter Tools Options page (Options > Twitter Tools) to set your Twitter account information and preferences as shown in the screenshot below.

twitter-tools-1

This is my way of tweeting automatically after adding my new post.  What other methods have you used?

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,

We Think We're Asking What They Think, But Are We?

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When we first start blogging, we’re anxious for feedback. We want to know what we’re doing is reaching someone, anyone, who cares. So we put it out there and sometimes add question that we think will help us get better at reaching even more readers who like what we do. . . .

What follows is one of my favorite articles about that. You may missed if you only recently tuned in to my blog.

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That Couldn’t Be Us Or Could It?

Customer Think Logo

I share a joke with a friend in California. It’s like a script. It goes like this.

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 tell him he’s wonderful.

Then he says, “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think about my sweater?”

That’s when we laugh to think that we’re not like the people who actually do that.

This morning at Poynter Online something made me realize how it is to do what Eddie I joke about.

Butch Ward gave five New Year’s Resolutions. It’s number 2 that brought this thought home to me. His second resolution was talk to your readers. My thought was I do that. He offered fine advice on ways to engage in dynamic conversation. Then Mr. Ward made a suggestion for this New Year’s conversation . . .

Don’t ask him what he wants you to put in his newspaper or on his news broadcast. Instead, ask what he does. What she thinks. Then you decide how your newsroom can be more relevant to their world.

That’s when I realized it.

Those standard, customer-survey questions sound like “What do you think of my sweater? What do you think of ME?”

Sure, we need to ask how we’re doing, but those can’t be the only questions, or we’ll never know our readers.

Authentic values aren’t revealed by survey questions.

Relationships and understanding come from listening to what folks want to talk about — dreams, desires, unexpressed needs and wishes — what they find marvelous, annoying, heartwarming, concerning, breathtaking. At least, that’s my experience.

But hey, enough about me. Let’s talk about what you think.

What could you talk about all day long?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Beach Notes: Draw a Line in the Sand

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

In business it’s easy to get distracted and then get into that feeling of overwhelm.

When we see this is happening we need to draw a line in the sand. On one side put all the things that dont’t matter. On the other side put all the things that do matter. Then take action on what does matter and propel you and your business forward.

drawlinesand

How you decide where to draw a line in the sand?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh