Successful Blog

My 2009 WordCamp Las Vegas Presentation

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My Presentation at WordCamp Today

Presentation Is Not Conversation

Seven sentences from blog to community.

  1. Show up
  2. Be in with both feet
  3. Be a friend first
  4. Blog your experience
  5. Don’t tie things up in a bow
  6. Be trustworthy
  7. Start small … think BIG

with lots of stories and links in between.

Here are the slides with the hyperlinks. It’s one of the features I love about yudu.

From Blog to Community -- WordCamp Las Vegas Notes
From Blog to Community — WordCamp Las Vegas Notes

When the video is ready, I’ll add it here too.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOBCon09 is May 1, 2,3 in Chicago. Register before 2009 and save!

Thanks to Week 168 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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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.

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Want to become an SOB?

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

SOB Business Cafe 01-09-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Delightful Work has a clear take on achieving prosperity.
Many have experienced the emptiness of wealth without purpose. Others have experienced authenticity without prosperity. Fewer have experienced both financial abundance and authenticity, simultaneously.

Blogging Without A Blog has a clear take on community building.
People innately desire to belong. It makes us feel safe, secure and wanted. The sense of belonging gives us the courage to speak up and share our thoughts and feelings.

The Harte of Marketing has a clear take on terminology and customer strategy.
The issue at hand, as I see it, is that a lot of people are adding Social Media Marketing as part of their service offerings, but they haven’t spent a day doing the marketing part and because of that they struggle with implementing social media as part of an overall marketing strategy.

ELITEBLOGGER has a clear take on getting traffic.
One of the easiest and best ways to get new traffic to your blog, is to write a guest post for another blog.

Harding & Company has a clear take on innovation.
. . . hunger spoils our judgment. Eager to avoid a financial crisis, professionals sometimes overreach, taking on business they shouldn’t.

Related ala carte selections include

Think Simple Now has a clear take on what’s attractive.
Just imagine the things we would accomplish if we had the belief that we could do absolutely anything, especially if we could maintain a level of self-esteem that no circumstance could shake. What would you be doing?

Gas Pedal is sponsoring a social media event.
Executives from 8 Fortune 150 companies are going to share insights, stories, and case studies on how they do corporate blogging and social media.

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 Leave Today for WordCamp Las Vegas … and Other Stuff

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My Presentation Will Be Up on Sunday

I’m speaking on Sunday afternoon at WordCamp Las Vegas. No powerpoint, but I’m putting up fairly cool resource document with hyperlinks on Sunday for the folks who want the good stuff.

WordCamp Las Vegas will be at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino, on January 10 and 11, 2009. The complete schedule is here. I’m speaking on Sunday after lunch. I’ve got a brand new me with a brand presentation to share.

Anyone who’s been to a WordCamp event knows they’re a great deal. $20 gets you a t-shirt and access to some outstanding speakers, including Matt Mullenweg, Aaron Hockley, Lorelle VanFossen, Dave Taylor and many more. And did I say I’d be there?

Please, please say “hi” if you’re there too!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOBCon09 is May 1, 2,3 in Chicago. Register Now!

Story Telling: Building Community for Post-Secondary Students

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As the Holidays drew to a close and people geared up to go back to work and class, I started thinking about classes, (I could have stayed in school forever – loved it!) and how I wish I had of been blogging when I was in university. Turns out there are lots of students out there not just connecting up on Facebook, but blogging, and for different reasons. I don’t have actual numbers but I talked with some post-secondary students to find out just what blogging and being part of that community means to them.

Teresa Wu blogs with a clear love of writing. She agrees with my suggestion that it does help with academic writing in that she learned to think very clearly about what she wants to say and how it will be perceived. Interestingly enough she said, “It gives me a community to bounce stuff off of, whether that’s just… pictures of my new brother’s new puppy or sharing the ways in which I promoted my humor blog.“Again, the value of community.

Writing with a purpose in mind and great enthusiasm is David Spinks. “The purpose of my blog is not only to share my thoughts and ideas on social media in hopes that people will find my writing to be valuable and communicate back, but also to complement my professional career, and establish myself in the field.” He knows what kind of community he wants to build and is doing it! His love of what he’s doing is contagious – you want to be a part of his community.

Blogging builds community. We see and hear that here, on Successful & Outstanding Bloggers. We’ve heard about it from others, and we know it ourselves to be true. We read, share our thoughts, ideas, expertise and good “finds”. We talk about ourselves. We write comments on blogs we read and share our opinions, ask questions and provoke debate. We link out, link up and search for links. We join in, build and grow. Our strategies may vary. Some choose to build community to market for public relations, or as corporate communications. Others may blog for the love of writing, to engage, share and help out. It’s all the same, really: to build a community. Just the intent may differ.

You are part of a blogging community. Thank you for welcoming me here to this one. Please share something that’s happening in your community.

Kathryn aka @northernchick

Photo credit: forever digital

People Unfollow Me on Twitter and Sometimes I Know Why They Do

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I’m Coming Clean Now

It’s a trick of the numbers — more coming than going out. Most people don’t know. I’ve managed to keep it quiet, but folks are going to find out. Google has my gmail notifications. Twitter could have my data somewhere on file — can’t count on a fail. Someone like that reporter who found out that Dan Lyons was the fake Steve Jobs could break the story. So I might as well come clean now.

People unfollow me on Twitter.

[Excuse for a minute while regain my demeanor.]

People unfollow me. I glad you know. It happens every day and sometimes I know why they do.

  • Some didn’t want to follow me from the start. They just wanted me to follow them. Every day someone unfollow me as soon as I follow back.
  • Some unfollow me because I don’t talk about what’s interesting to them. That’s got to be it because I look what they talk about and nothing say matches their Twitter stream.
  • Some unfollow me because I talk too much. I found that out from a good friend who said, “Love you, babe, but my stream is too small, and you overpower it.”
  • One unfollowed me because she didn’t like who I was talking to. She told me she did.
  • Another unfollowed me because he misunderstood a comment I left on his blog. Somehow whatever I said to explain it just made the situation worse.
  • Some unfollow because Twitter lost the connection. We usually figure that out.

I don’t “get” all the reasons people have for why they follow and unfollow folks. I suspect that some are as irrational as the reasons we buy things, sell things, and marry the people we do. Contrary to urban legend I don’t know anyone who’s died of “unfollow embarrassment.” For me, the conversation gets better the more I know who I’m talking to.

Got any ideas about why people unfollow the people they do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Image source: sxc.hu
Work with Liz!!