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What Do You Do When One SOB Wants to Meet Another?

January 4, 2008 by Liz 12 Comments

This Was Not Pre-arranged

one2one blog post logo

I just got home from a day of meetings. I had plenty of catching up to do. I was getting ready to write a post to make an exciting announcement, but I thought I might check in on a few of my friends first.

Blogger synchronicity!

Can’t believe that I found a perfect way to pass on the information I had to share. It was in a one2one conversation response from Dawud.

Dawud, I’d Like You to Meet Muhammad

Dawud Miracle

It seems that one Successful and Outstanding Blogger, the designer of the SOBCon08 blog– Dawud Miracle —

would like to meet another Successful and Outstanding Blogger — a social media rockstar and SOBCon08 presenter, — Muhammad Saleem.

Somehow the two didn’t get a chance to meet when they spent an entire day in the same room. . . . at SOBCon07!

Muhammad Saleem

So what’s the SoBCon team to do, but do the conference over?

We’ll keep doing it, and doing it, and doing it until . . . aw c’mon, word was we got it pretty darn right last time.

The Dates Are UP!!

Oh yeah, the announcement I was going to make: Today we posted the dates, May 2,3,4, 2008.
Click the logo to visit the official SOBCon08 blog.

SOBCon08 May 2,3,4, 2008

The schedule is up and registration will be opening soon, before the month is over.

Hang in there! The SOBCon experience is rolling again!
If you want to volunteer or join us as a sponsor, leave a note in the contact form.

Who do you want to meet at SOBCon08?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Dawud-Miracle, Liz-Strauss, Muhammad-Saleem, sobcon08

121: We Met, But Did I Ever Say Hello? [blush]

October 4, 2007 by Liz 27 Comments

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A Meeting of the Minds

This cross-blog conversation that I’m having with Dawud is taking some windy turns and travels. Have you been riding with us? My last question to him was Do you see a difference between your online relationships and those offline — beyond the obvious physical differences?
Dawud didn’t take a breath before he answered. “Without a doubt!” He remarked on how easily he’s been getting to know virtual strangers in this virtual land. . . .

Then he asked me, What’s the oddest beginning to a relationship that you’ve developed through your blog?

I guess it would have to be the odd start to how I met Chris Brogan. I knew about Chris from the wonderful and insightful, people-person Ms. Becky McCray. One day, I read a post in which Chris talked about how we should extend the conversation to people outside our circle.

That struck a chord.

I picked up the phone to tell him . . . punched his number and waited. I got a message that said something like, “Hi, I often don’t get these messages. If you want to be sure to reach me, send a text message.” I thought it was ironic. The guy who said, “Reach out.” Was out of reach.

I didn’t realize that, he was at a conference at the time.

I figured I should be doing my real work and got back to it. It was April 26. SOBCon 07 was only 16 days away.

In June, Jeff Pulver came to town for a conference and a party. We met in the afternoon for a conversation. He graciously invited me to join his group for dinner. I waited at the restaurant. Jeff came in with another man. The man turned and smiled across the room It was a sharp, clever smile filled with playful mischief.

While Jeff checked on the reservation, the man came over to introduce himself.

“I’m Chris Brogan. You must be Liz.”

“Ah! Chris Brogan! You don’t pick up your voice mail.”

I’m not sure that I ever said a proper “hello.” [blush]

I’ll blame the smile . . . it’s killer.

Who’s the person that you’d like to meet?

Since this is a conversation, if you’re reading this, I’m not just asking Dawud the question, I’d love to hear your answer too, in the comment box below.

PS To Chris Brogan and to everyone, I’ll offer this song, “Hello, I love you. Won’t you tell me your name?”

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

One2One is a cross-blog conversation. Find the answer at dawud miracle on Monday. You can see the entire One-2-One Conversation series on the Successful Series page.
In Case You Missed It: Writing 06-13-07

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: 121 Conversation, bc, Dawud-Miracle, Liz-Strauss, one-2-one-conversation, relationship-blogger, relationships

3 Ways the Blogosphere Made Me a Better Business Person and Human Being

September 27, 2007 by Liz 8 Comments

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It’s the People

On my blog I finally took the time to think through what I believe. On my blog, people asked what I meant by what I said. On my blog that I dared to think and to dream — out loud and with commitment.

On my blog, my head and heart connected to the people I met.

The relationships I’ve made as a blogger have made me better as a marketer, a better writer, and a better human being. Here’s how and why.
I’m a better marketer.

    As a blogger, I live with my readers. Every morning, I meet the folks who read my blog. I know by their response, or the lack of it, whether I’ve hit the mark. How could I be more intimate with my “customers”? As a publisher, I used to think I knew a thing about readers. I didn’t know anything compared to what I know now. Now I know what they are thinking. They tell me.

I’m a better writer.

    As a blogger, I came down off the podium. I learned not to tie everything up with a bow. I quit lecturing and started listening. That’s when the real thinking and idea swapping started happening. Real people read what I wrote and added their own thoughts. When they did, I learned to write with my own voice, no self-consciousness. My relationship with words became my relationship with the people who read them.

I’m a better person.

    As a blogger, it became about the conversation. How could listening to folks talking back and learning to talk in my real voice not lead to an improvement? Suddenly, it wasn’t about me. Suddenly, everyone was an opportunity to get to know one more incredible person who offered something to learn. The more I bring to the folks who come to read, the more they give me. My readers make me smarter, better every day.

How has my blog changed how I think of relationships? It’s only made them more dear, more important, and more cellular to every letter, every link, every learning that is in this text.

I can’t imagine looking at any part of my blogging career without seeing the people who in a word, have made me who I am.

The people of blogging have made me a better person.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

One2One is a cross-blog conversation. Find the answer at dawud miracle on Monday. You can see the entire One-2-One Conversation series on the Successful Series page.
In Case You Missed It: Writing 06-13-07

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: 121 Conversation, bc, Dawud-Miracle, Liz-Strauss, one-2-one-conversation, relationship-blogger, relationships

121: I Knew Everything about Relationships Until an Audience Came

September 20, 2007 by Liz 11 Comments

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It’s Not About Thinking

Did you catch Dawud’s Monday installment in our ongoing conversation? He deftly answered What Do You Do When A Commenter Just Isn’t Hearing You? Dawud described a gracious way to respond and reminded us that we’re always talking to another person, not just words in a box. Then, he followed with a question for me — Liz, the relationship blogger.

How has your blog changed the way you think about relationships?

Ah Dawud, what a question.

The short answer is completely.

I Knew Everything about Relationships Until an Audience Came

I used to think I knew about relationships. They were an idea, involving people. I thought that relationships were a choice — take part or not. I thought they fell into neat categories like blog posts in my sidebar do — family I claim, family I don’t, friends of my heart, folks at work, folks I’ve known, . . . folks I’ve met — the fiends, the forgiven, the forgotten, and the forgettable.

I used to think I had a big heart, but obviously I was suffering from relationship myopia. It’s a common malady.

Then I got a blog.

I was already a writer. I made a blog place under a white oak on the riverbank. I prepared to write alone. A few friends would be listening — the friends of my heart. They were a handful at most. After all, how many folks want to know what I know, what I think, what I dream, what I remember, what stories I have to tell? That’s what I thought. That’s who I was.

I knew everything about relationships. I was a writer, a manager. I had been there.

Then an audience came, an audience who talked back to me.

I met a fine writer, who blogged the most marvelous stories of his past and present days. I met another who made sense of life in California . . . . and on a lonely Friday night I found someone who reveled in the glory of a weekend with a child, a poet who understood what I meant when we disagreed, and a science fiction artist/writer who virtually visited me when I wrote — I’m still inspired by them.

I met a brilliant scientist . . . moms who shared their families, an artist, a home builder, the small business guy, the crusader, the hero, the leader, the guy in charge. They didn’t fit in categories.

Someone said, “I never expected to care so much about these people who have become so dear to me.” I know exactly what she meant.

That audience, those readers, changed the way that I think and the way that I see.

I don’t think about relationships anymore. I see the people I have relationships with and the incredible differences they make. I see the changes we make in each other.

I got a blog. An audience came and changed everything. It’s still a wonder.
________________

Now a question back, Dawud.

Do you see a difference between your online relationships and those offline — beyond the obvious physical differences?

If you’re reading this, I’m not just asking Dawud the question, I’d love to hear your answer too, in the comment box below.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

One2One is a cross-blog conversation. Find the answer at dawud miracle on Monday. You can see the entire One-2-One Conversation series on the Successful Series page.
In Case You Missed It: Writing 06-13-07

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: 121 Conversation, bc, Dawud-Miracle, Liz-Strauss, one-2-one-conversation, relationship-blogger, relationships

121: How a Colossal Mistake Taught Me 3 Keys of Blogging and SEO

September 6, 2007 by Liz 15 Comments

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Boy, Was that a Bad Idea!

Lately some folks have felt defeated, wondering whether their readers have left them. Dawud tackled that question in his post, What To Do When People Aren’t Paying Attention To Your Blog? Did you see it? His advice was right on the money.

When Dawud finished his counsel, he tossed the ball back here with this question.

What have you thought would work on your blog that bombed with your readers? And what did you learn from it?

Oh my! Many things have bombed, and I just let them go. But those don’t make for interesting stories. For me, only one stands out as the Bomb of the Century.

How a Colossal Mistake Taught Me 3 Keys of Blogging and SEO

It’s been long enough now that no aftershocks will come from speaking of it. At the time it was noisy and I owned no small part of it. It happened just a few short weeks after I started at Successful Blog and just a few short months after I wrote my very first blog post.

I tried to do a series on SEO when I couldn’t even spell it yet.
It wasn’t pretty, but in the end, it was beautiful.

The story goes something like this:

It was the wild, early days of the blogosphere, not even the trains had arrived yet. I think there were 15 million blogs about then. Picture me in Mankato, Minnesota, straight out of “Little House on the Prairie.”

I had done a popular series on Blog Promotion and maybe I was a tiny bit pleased with myself. I decided the next week would be on SEO. I had no clue what I was doing. I asked a friend to help — a young man from the UK, a programmer, not an SEO guy. He was as new to blogging as I was. Neither of us understood what we were taking on.

I announced the series. It got some attention.

One post in the series delivered information on metatags that was totally, entirely, and unabashedly out-of-date. The musicians, the sales folks, and the kindly tech guys began gently correcting the errors via their comments. They were both gracious and gentle with their replies.

Despite their grace, it was not fun nor particularly pretty.

I apologized.

Then, I caught up with my friend, Yaro Starak, and borrowed some of his knowledge to correct the misinformation we had supplied. He was most generous.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end.

A prominent SEO guy used us as the reason bloggers shouldn’t talk about SEO, leaving out the part where he had been invited to help.

A couple of posts went up from bloggers I still know and respect, who said, “Yep, she was wrong, but you didn’t need to shout her down like that.”

They just stood up like that.

It was about honor and community.

The prominent SEO guy and I talked offline and made peace with each other. He bought me a copy of Aaron Wall’s famous book so that I’d never find myself there again. What a beautiful resolution to the conflict!

The rest of the story is myth and legend of the wild, early blogosphere.

Sure I wish I would have been smarter, more circumspect, but I’m at the same time I’m grateful for the event. I learned these things from that colossal mistake.

  • No one will ever know enough about SEO to go it alone.
  • Conflicts are best handled without an audience.
  • If you build relationships, folks are there when you need them.

I guess, you might call the learning part a success.

Which leads me to the very next question.

What do you do when a commenter seems to misinterpret what you’re saying no matter how hard you try to explain what you mean?

If you’re reading this, I’m not just asking Dawud the question, I’d love to hear your answer too, in the comment box below.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

One2One is a cross-blog conversation. Find the answer at dawud miracle on Monday. You can see the entire One-2-One Conversation series on the Successful Series page.
In Case You Missed It: Writing 06-13-07

Filed Under: Business Book, Successful Blog Tagged With: 12+1, 121 Conversation, bc, bestof, Business Life, compelling-writing, Dawud-Miracle, Liz-Strauss, one2one-conversation

121: From a Blog Writer to a Conversational Dynamo

August 23, 2007 by Liz 30 Comments

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Dynamo? Oh Wow!

Sure, Dawud, put me on the spot, why don’t you? . . .

Have you read, Dawud’s latest one-2-one post? He answers the question, Are You Having A Conversation With Your Niche Audience? and he invites you to help him come to his best answer. The conversation in the comments brings up some fabulous thinking on the subject.

Then what does he do? He asks me (and you folks reading) about how I got to be a conversational dynamo. I sort of feel like I’ve been asked to explain what a great kisser I am — whether I am one or not.

His actual question was.

What’s helped you go from just being a writer on a blog to becoming a conversational dynamo?

I won’t waste your time, I’ll pretend like he knows what he’s saying. We all know I can talk and that there are a few comments here and there on my blog. So let’s start from that premise. What makes the conversation happen here? Am I a conversational dynamo or is it smoke and mirrors?

I vote for the second.

Conversation is two or more people talking together. I can talk all I want. That doesn’t mean anyone will listen. Does it? Some days, I feel pretty sure that no one does. So what makes it special when they do?

It’s got to be more than me. Of course, it is. I can only guess at the recipe, but here goes.

A Recipe to Be A Conversational Dynamo

  • Write with one part heart. Put it out there open wide and let everyone see what it is you have to say. Don’t hedge your bets. Know that some days everyone will disagree and that all days some people will not see eye to eye. Be okay with that. Like them anyway. They’ll respect you for that.
  • Then write with another part thinking mind. Offer it without fear and let folks know what you’ve learned lately about life and yourself. Don’t be stingy with your knowledge thinking that one day you’ll need to know more than someone else. People can tell when you’re holding out on them.
  • Lavish it all with room for everyone you meet to be who they are, to come in and change your ideas, and expect them to be every bit their best. Hope they expect it of you.
  • Welcome every person at the door. Call each one by name. Let every one of them know that you are glad he or she is here.
  • Then after you make all of them feel at home, stop talking and listen.
  • Stop talking and listen some more to each one individually.
  • And care about what they say with your head and your heart.

That would be my recipe for becoming a conversational dynamo, if I were to guess how.

I leave you with this question for next week.

What do you do when suddenly no one seems to be paying attention to your blog?

If you’re reading this, I’d love to hear your answer in the comment box below.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

One2One is a cross-blog conversation. Find the answer at dawud miracle on Monday. You can see the entire One-2-One Conversation series on the Successful Series page.
In Case You Missed It: Writing 06-13-07

Filed Under: Business Book, Successful Blog Tagged With: 12+1, 121 Conversation, bc, bestof, Business Life, compelling-writing, Dawud-Miracle, Liz-Strauss, one2one-conversation

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