Successful Blog

Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Chris Brogan!

by

Be the Original

My younger older brother was bigger than life He wa the coolest kid in the neighborhood. I was 8 and half years younger. I watched him all my life and I learned.

He was instant community. He was kind of like Tom Sawyer. He could smile around a corner.

  • He had 5 girlfriends before he was 10.
  • If he said “baseball,” the team formed before he finished the word.
  • If he said, “hockey,” the ice was cleared and smooth.
  • Kids called him “Bugs” and I never knew whether it was because of the famous bunny or the Las Vegas gambler. They were always too busy laughing to tell me.
  • He’s the one who had me trained to come when he whistled.
  • He still has a magnetic personality.

Grownups, teachers, kids, … everyone enjoyed his company.

Problem was some kids tried to be him.
Maybe we all did.

It never worked. Our voices were different. He was taller or his smile had a different tilt. We just became bad copies of my younger, older brother, instead of the really cool kids that we were.

So Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up trying to be Chris Brogan. He’s as magic as my younger, older brother … but only Chris Brogan can be Chris Brogan. Tell your babies to be an original.

Everyone has our own magic.

I know. I’ve been watching all my life.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Meet Chris Brogan close up at SOBCon09

Get Positive Attention in the Twitterverse and Other Networking Situations

by

Anyone who’s spent time in the Twitterverse knows that every person uses it in a way uniquely suited to his or her own purpose. That’s the beauty of a great tool. But if your goal is social networking and conversation, you want to have folks around. Conversation without a few and followers is usually called a monologue.

The art of attracting fiercely loyal twitter followers can make the time we spend twittering useful, productive, and significantly more fun! Great Twitter followers are friends, business colleagues, and people who inspire us. Be a great Twitter conversationalist and those followers will bring their friends join in. These traits in a Twitterer always catch my attention.

Want to have new Twitter friends? Here’s how to be one …

  • Have a presence. Make a Twitter home page with some self-expression. Have a name that I can remember, even if it’s not the name your family calls you. Have a picture as your avatar to let me know that you’re serious about being around long to finish a conversation.
  • Don’t wait for people to talk to you first. Follow about 30 people who are interested in these same things you are. Find them at http://search.twitter.com Take a look at their profile or their blogs. Reach out to them using the @ sign and their name to share a comment on what you found.
  • Show up in new places. Sound obvious? Maybe it’s not obvious as we think. Most of us tend to hang where we are. If you want to make new friends, show up in new places and new times and talk to new people about new ideas. New situations stretch our brains.
  • Respond personally. When someone follows you, explore their profile before you say hello. Know who you’re talking to. A statement about something someone wrote will get you noticed in a way that a “Thanks for following” response never will.
  • Share your best ideas and strategies. Get them out there. Let other folks use them too. Everyone likes a generous soul. Generosity come back to you in the most interesting and intriguing ways. Just as @inspiremetoday about that.
  • Showcase great stuff. It’s charming to point to something another person has done well. It shows generosity, gives respect, and adds value to your conversation. Showcase the people you care about. Care about the people you meet.
  • Give credit, give links, give a hand. Be generous of mind and of spirit. People remember and respect generosity. It’s a statement of character. It also gets their attention. You never know who might want to thank you one day or what shape that thank you might take.
  • Treat everyone as an influencer. Everyone wants to feel a part of something bigger than they are. Let your influencers be a part of what you do in every way that you can. Encourage participation. The more they feel they belong, the more they will bring friends along.
  • Be passionate, fun, funny, and human, If you are, other people will feel they can be too.

Be the kind of fiercely loyal, intriguing follower-friends you’d want to have and you’ll find those are the kind of fiercely loyal, intriguing follower-friends who are attracted to you.

But you knew that.

What gets your positive attention in the Twitterverse?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOB Business Cafe 12-26-08

by

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

COLOURlovers has a legendary gift.
Why does Santa wear red?

Believe it or not, present-day Santa owes his red robe not to an ancient legend or to an early myth but to …

How to Split an Atom has 33 gifts that worlk
Here are a few resources to help you out. This list focuses pretty heavily on design, development, marketing, advertising and “Social Media” jobs but there is something here for everyone.

mousewords has a gift for seeing things.
My synesthesia has been giving me troubles.

It’s not the sort of thing an aspirin will cure. Synesthesia—specifically, in my case, grapheme ? color synesthesia—is a neurological phenomenon that causes people to see letters and numbers in different colors.

Zocalo Group has a gift advice on behavior and a cool treehouse. One of the keys to successful social media for companies is to avoid being creepy.

The Viral Garden has a gift of intelligence.
Is he wrong? I would say his methods would work, at least in the short-term. But the idea that you ‘have to target the influencers’ is SO 2005.

Here is what I did; Instead of targeting ‘influencers’, I targeted smart people.

Related ala carte selections include

The Paisano has the gift of song …

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

Do Try This at Home Over the Holidays

by

The Real Test of Our Social Skills

Families — fond memories, sentiments that bring us closer together. I’ve sure we’ve all got those. Unfortunately, it seems families aren’t absolved of people who aren’t a joy to the world, of incidents involving human error. Bad times, miscommunication, and conflict come along with the package family deal.

I know more than one person who has thought of starting over — electing a new family, demoting those currently in familial roles — she just doesn’t know how to tell the family she was born into.

It’s not a solution as far as I can see.

I have noticed that we often cut our new friends and new clients more slack than we do our families. Family history gets in the way of our relationships moving forward again.

It sure seems that where we have relationships — yeah even those stuck in a time warp — we might try our best social practices for connecting in positive ways when relationships aren’t happening.

Here’s a four-point plan to reconnect with people that you’ve had a history with.

  • Smile. Be joyful to see them. It’s a chance to change history. Be the change you want to see. The surprise alone often changes their demeanor.
  • Live that smile through and through. Folks we’ve had history with have put us into a content and context box. They use their experience and how we look, what we say, what we do — to recognize signs that might validate that smile. Belief and consistency in the smile through every test gives you and them a place to stand.
  • Never let ’em see you sweat. When we’re at our best we’re authentic. If they ask, tell them life is good and that you’ve decided to look at the world with a positive view. If they bring up bad events, agree that the events were bad and be glad that they’re over. If you need to point out that the happy occasion isn’t the best venue for sorting out history.
  • Make everything about everyone in the room. Be a great guest who is helpful, curious, and interested in the folks who came. Talk about what they want to talk about. It’s an afternoon with the audience who knows you better than any client ever will.

We know how to meet, interact, and build communities with our friends and customers here. What if we do that with our families too? If we let go of old stories, we might find that the curmudgeon in our family is really someone who wants to be listened to. The hardest ones to know can be holding great bits of wisdom. What if we made it a quest to get to it?

Lots of us know that our families don’t see us clearly. It seems only logical that it must be true the other way too. If we start connecting, imagine what we could be learning. We’ve got the skills and the tools.

What if we try this at home over the holidays?

Meet someone you already know this holiday season.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

25 Traits Of Twitter Folks I Admire and 25 Folks Who Have Them

by

Conversation, Relationship, Then Transaction

Those of us who’ve read the Cluetrain Manifesto and experience community working together have no desire to go back to a transaction-based business model ever. We see the value of working with people we know, like, and trust. And as we learn how to use the tools, we don’t lack people to connect with to get our business done.

Certain signs and characteristics seem to show in the folks who live the social media culture. Certain value and actions make people who care about having relationships and conversation before transactions easy to spot. I’ve listed 25 traits of Twitter Folks I admire.

These social media folks …

  1. don’t seek to be the center of any universe.
  2. find great conversations and get to know the people there.
  3. realize that every venue has it’s own culture and rules.
  4. do their own talking and their own listening.
  5. talk mostly about the accomplishments of others.
  6. ask intriguing questions that invite others to join the conversation.
  7. don’t worry when folks don’t respond to something they say.
  8. have time for new friends, talk to them, listen to them, read their sites and bios, ask them questions — avoid assumptions.
  9. have a different conversation with every individual and every business.
  10. take embarrassing or private conversations offline.
  11. are inclusive and encourage folks who exclude people to exclude themselves.
  12. shout out good news, help in emergencies, and celebrate with everyone.
  13. say please, thank you, and you’re welcome, and mean them.
  14. are incredibly curious about what works, what doesn’t work, seek feedback often, and look to improve what they do.
  15. study the industry and trends, watch how things occur, share information about those freely, but never break a trust.
  16. offer advice when people ask. Help whenever they can.
  17. aren’t “shameless.” Ask for help in ways that folks are proud to pitch in.
  18. are constantly connecting people and ideas in business conversations that are helpful, not hypeful.
  19. get paid to strategize business, build tactical plans, but won’t “monetize” relationships.
  20. ignore the trolls.
  21. keep their promises.
  22. can be transparent without being naked … most of us look and behave best in public with our clothes ON.
  23. listen to the hive mind, but think their own thoughts.
  24. send back channel “hellos” to friends when there’s no time to talk.
  25. understand that the Internet is public and has no eraser.

The relationships with people — social in social media — is what is changing things. It makes a business experience worth looking forward to and turns a transaction into a relationship. It’s different online because I can’t see you. When I meet folks who make that distance and darkness disappear, I respect and admire them.

Updated slightly for to replace those who’ve gone.

Of course, I admire @@chrisbrogan, @guykawasaki, @problogger and the others you already have read on every other list. I’d like to add some great social stars that you might not know yet. Here are 25 more great conversationalists I admire and learn from every day.
@LucretiaPruitt
@BethHarte
@MackCollier
@AmberCadabra
@ShannonPaul
@mark_hayward
@zaneology
@Tojosan
@AaronStrout
@nanpalmero
@hdbbstephen
@rainesmaker
@SheilaS
@DanielleSmithTV
@caroljsroth
@remarkablogger
@melissapierce
@BeckyMcCray
@jnswanson
@BawldGuy
@inspiremetoday
@jasonfalls
@northernchick
@ernohannink
@jonathanfields
@joannapaterson

I suspect you’ll enjoy their conversation as much as I do.
Feel free to add your own 25 to the list or make a list of your and link it back to here.
Great folks are worth celebrating.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

If You Remove the Social from Social Media Tools …

by

Hammersmith or Nail Banger?

This weekend on Twitter, I passed along Beth Harte and Geoff Livingston’s fabulous post, Top 25 Ways to Tell if Your Social Media Expert is a Carpetbagger. I encourage you to read it.

Not everyone who does things differently than we might have them do it is a carpetbagger. I’m sure Beth, Goeff, Jason, Chris, Amber, Mack, or any other well-respected social media adviser would agree with that statement. Individuals and individual companies need to find their own voice and their own path.

Yet in this fast growing context and culture of experiments and experiences, the chance is high that folks may not have found the information they need for every decision. The world is full of “Swiss cheese knowledge.” Some folks get taught by bad teachers. Some things get past all of us.

Add to that the creativity factor, the drive for innovation, and the necessity that is the mother of invention. Experimentation is a good thing, especially as we test new tools. No one gets to pick who’s qualified to experiment and who’s not.

I’ve used a wooden-heeled shoe to pound a nail when I didn’t have a hammer.

What happens when the experiments change the nature of the tools?

If You Remove the Social … What’ve You Got?

Social media tools — blogs, social networks, Twitter, Facebook, Ning — what happens when you take out the social and just use the tool? What happens when messages and conversations become automated and future dated? What have you got if you don’t know whether you’re responding to a person or a bot?

It’s a fair question.

Some folks see the world with a different filter. They find uses for books and hammers that I’d never imagine. Some folks find uses for social media tools that, in my mind bypass the social. Allow me three extreme — of course no one actually does these things — metaphors to explain what I mean. Here are three people who would surely not see the social in social media tools.

  1. The person who sends a singing telegram rather than meet for coffee. That person probably won’t understand why socially inclined social media advisers don’t take to auto responders.
  2. The person who enters into a new neighbor’s house, saying “Cool boxes! Glad you picked my neighborhood! Check out my roller skate store.” That person probably won’t see the problem folks have with a “Just found you. Will you review my blog?” requests that come before “hello” has been mentioned.
  3. The person who interrupts people at parties to hand out business cards might not put together why a Twitter profile page filled with his / her website links and no @ signs would be considered unsocial.

Don’t get me wrong. Tools are meant to solve problems and experiementing is how we learn. Guy Kawasaki says there’s no wrong way to use tools such as Twitter. Within reason I have to agree.

I’m just sayin’ … when I use a wooden-heeled shoe to pound a nail, I’ve not become a hammersmith or a journeyman carpenter. I’m a nail banger who reconfigured a shoe.

For a hammer to be hammer, its design, function, and use involves setting nails. When I use a hammer as leg on a artfully made table, it’s no longer a hammer. It becomes a table leg.

The primary design, function, and uses of social media tools involve community, conversation, and relationships. A social media advisor brings social skills, relationships, and conversation into the mix. Without using the tools as they were designed, the tools change into something else.

If you remove the social from social media tools, what have you got? More Internet Marketing tools. Spammers and bots figured that out.

Scary thought.

How do we keep the social in social media tools?

If you disagree with what I’m saying, please set me straight. If you agree, please help me explain.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!