Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 01-23-09

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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

Logic + Emotion is picturing how it should be.
Effective communication is everyone’s job—whether you are trying to sell in a concept or convince a client….

Levite Chronicles is a quick study.
For the past eight years, almost every month I’ve walked into a board meeting carrying a sheet with numbers on it. The numbers reflect the previous month’s income and expense.

Altitude Branding isn’t betting the farm.
We’ve a bit of this mindset that venturing into social media is an all-or-nothing proposition, or at least we have a tendency to sound that way sometimes. As if you must step forward, but never back.

social media explorer is moving the web.
According to Engadget, some studies are predicting 100% mobile phone penetration in the United States within 4 years; at present, it’s estimated at around 84%. Some research indicates that as of 2008, as much as 3-10% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices.

Related ala carte selections include

And at Middle Zone Musings

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

How Do You Give Back a Conversation to Someone Who's Checked Out?

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Thoughtful – Huh?

Ever patiently listened while another person talked? Ever planned a mental vacation while someone, so completely wrapped up in expressing the details of a thought, didn’t notice you had checked out?

Yeah, I’ve been in there, too.

But yesterday, at least once, I was the one who forgot that I was supposed to let someone else talk. I wandered through my head while I lost the chance to hear another person’s thoughts. He was miles away before I realized he was gone. By that time, the conversation had gone woefully, off course. I wish that guy would have found a way to turn me “off.”

He was generous when I apologized, but by then, he was done. Hope he, at least, had found a mental vacation spot more intriguing than the subject I’d been endlessly exploring without him.

How do you give back a conversation to someone who’s checked out?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

YES WE DO! How Will You Begin?

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Hope They Do Too

Last night at Open Comments we were sharing quotes. I came across one I like so much I posted it on Twitter as well. This is it.

Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.
–Sigmund Freud

RobynMcMaster responded by sending me this: @lizstrauss You said “Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.” It gave impression you were inspired to write poem.

and so for Robyn, for Lucretia Pruitt, who surely would have written far better sonnet had she chosen to, and for all of us, I did.

YES WE DO!
When, in wonder of new life in my arms,
I looked upon my sleeping son,
And called angels down to keep this heart unharmed
To hold him whole, what fate might come.
Passing time finds a boy to his full height
Earth-tied like me, his world light years from mine.
Far from my mom’s eyes on me at night
Audacious hope harbored also in her mind.
When I think upon changes in that short span
I forgive the broken promises and loved lost prizes
And hear a two-year-old’s “YES I CAN!”
From White Houses to world spaces of all sizes

The awe of “YES, WE CAN!” is “YES, WE DO!”
Hope lives in places where they love their children too.

–E Strauss 01-21-09

Success requires work to realize that hope.

How will you begin?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Jim G, Mr. Detroit, and a Saloon Fight: What Makes You a Fiercely Loyal Customer?

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I grew up hearing fiercely loyal customers tell stories about my dad. Other such stories I lived myself …

I was about 20 years old, home from college for the weekend. I stopped by the saloon to see my dad. All the guys were razzing him saying things like, “Close the cash register, the Boss is in town.” I was grinning back, “A smile from my dad is all I’m after.”

Some guy from Detroit swaggered in like this was any old bar, and he was some hot stuff. The big spender sat down and ordered a 50-cent, 8 oz. draft beer. He chose the red stool to Jim G, a guy about my age, who saw my dad as his surrogate father.

I had just thanked Jim G 83 times for fixing the flat tire on my boyfriend’s car — he’d driven out 17 miles to help me when I was stranded on route 80. We met for the first time by the side of that highway just 18 hours earlier.

I didn’t notice the Detroit stranger order his beer. I never served drinks there. Everyone knew my dad didn’t want me to. By the time the guy got it, I was teasing my dad and talking to a Joey D. He was an old guy who knew me since I was still sitting on the bar with my feet hanging.

Next thing you know, Mr. Detroit threw a fist in Jim G’s face. They were having it out right there in seconds. My sixty-something dad flew over the bar, pulled the guys apart, and handed them over to a couple of friends. Then, as a deputy of the county, he called the cops to pick up Mr. Detroit for visit to the local jail.

It was then that I heard the story. Mr. Detroit had asked Jim for my name. Jim said, “I told him ‘You wanna know, ask her or ask her father.’ I wasn’t going to tell him if you didn’t want him to know.”

Later that night, my dad bailed Detroit out of jail, took him to breakfast, and sent him on his way.

In a small town saloon, personal and business relationships can’t be separated. You throw guys in jail and you bail ’em later. You feed ’em and let ’em know you’ve been there.

My dad cared about the people who were his customers and so they cared about him. He looked out for them and they looked out for him. Investment made investment returned. It’s the ROI of relationships — in spades. For me, it was like church, family, and Mark Twain to be there. Lots of others felt the same way that Jim G and I did.

What makes you a fiercely loyal customer?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Cool Kids, Granny Dresses, and Back Channel Intercoms: How Do You Trust People You Can't See?

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I Heard Them Laughing

I was 13. What an awful age, but one for learning human dynamics.

A bunch of clueless moms had arranged something, a sleepover of about 8 girls. Who knows why they thought this group belonged together? We were mismatched in maturity, in intelligence, in interests, and most importantly in that sacred cow of 13-year-oldness … popularity. I dreaded going.

Additional humiliation. We all had to wear granny gowns.

Everything went in the awkward and tensely exciting way things do when you’re 13. I was mostly listening. Mostly everyone was mostly nice to mostly everyone. We ate. We talked. We listened to music.

I was the first in the group to use the facilities up the stairs. The group didn’t realize that a heating vent connected the party room to the bath room. That vent also served as a back channel intercom.

I heard them talk and laugh. They were talking “cool talk” about how cool they were and how cool I was not. Peer pressure and insecurity drives that sort of stuff. When you’re 13, finding who’s the coolest is the coolest thing of all.

Back downstairs, I didn’t let on. Other girls left the room. Other girls heard things. I saw it on their faces.

Before I went to sleep I vowed a 13-year-old’s vow that I’d never be a smiler who talked mean on a “back channel intercom.”

Air and Empty Shoes

Now, I send you a tweet. I write a comment on your blog. You answer.

I can’t see you. You can’t see me. That can be a scary feeling.

I have to use what you give me to decipher whether you mean what you say. Who knows? You could be laughing behind the screen. You could be back channeling messages. You could contradict what you tell me when you’re with cooler kids than I am.

But then offline life is like that too. . . .

Trust doesn’t happen spontaneously. We can’t engineer a community by inviting 8 pseudo friends to the same party or dressing in the same clothes. And as a species, it’s our nature to have all too many back channel intercoms.

I can’t see you. You can’t see me.
If we’re invisible, so are the things we stand for.
Can’t build much that lasts on air and empty shoes.
But we can let ourselves and our values shine through.
Integrity, consistency, and trustworthiness show up equally as whole and as frequently as we do.

Community grows from what we see, what we are, what we imagine together.
And the more we show up, the more we find in each other.

How do you trust people you can’t see?
People ask me that all the time. Now I’m asking you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOB Business Cafe 01-16-09

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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

CK’s Blog suggests that we ought to rethink how we think about thinking.
The greatest thinkers throughout history didn’t offer the same ideas. Nope. They offered different viewpoints.

Buzz Bin suggests that we should be better by now.
Well, it’s a new year, and yes, we’re having many of the same old conversations here and other places. Realistically speaking, the repetition is necessary because a great deal of the market still needs to come up to speed on social media communications (Viva Pinata by peasap).

Insights & Ingenuity suggests that we consider our standards.
The gist of the message was “I’m Satisfied with Mr. Carpet.” Mr. Carpet, presumably, is a retailer of floor coverings. The approach was a weak (an non-attributable) customer testimonial.

Social Media Explorer suggests that we take longer look before we ask folks to blog about us.
The simple fact of the matter is that, at least for now, there is no one tool, website or service that can help public relations professional identify blogs for their outreach.

Servant of Chaos suggests that we understand the meaning of trust.
Some of the questions that have been raised go directly to the heart of social media … what does it mean to be “connected”, where does responsibility overlap “connection” and what happens to our TRUST when money is involved?

Related ala carte selections include

Being Five suggests …

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