Successful Blog

4 Reasons You Should Stop Blogging

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By Terez Howard

A couple weeks ago, I got Sisterlocks. For those of you who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, it’s basically like getting very tiny dreadlocks (like hundreds) in your hair. If you would have asked me six months ago if I would ever make such a permanent decision, I would say, “Never!”

Why not? Locs are not versatile. Locs are not beautiful. Locs are too permanent. Locs are not for me. Those were my excuses, and yet here I am with a head full of Sisterlocks.

What changed my viewpoint? In short, an education.

Stop blogging now!

Blogging is a beneficial endeavor. It gets your business heard on a more social level. It gets your audience to trust you. It makes you appear as an authority in your niche. So, why would you stop blogging?

1. You don’t have the time. You have a life. You are a parent, a spouse, a full-time worker, and you’d like to keep up your hobby. Blogging takes the back-burner.

I am the same way, and yet, I find the time to write. How I do it is with simple scheduling. However, I find that most people will agree that a schedule looks good on paper, but it doesn’t help with motivation. I love blogging because I write about topics that interest me. So, I have my schedule, and I have something interesting to share, which brings me to my next point:

2. You ran out of ideas. You don’t know what to write about. You feel like you’ve covered every single topic in your niche, so you’re ready to give blogging a break.

Been there. Maybe you need a creativity boost. I’m not saying to create a whole new blog, but maybe you need to repurpose your blog. Do you have a tight niche?Do you have a creative slant on it? Do you share information in a way that interests you and your audience?

Take some time to read other blogs, whether they relate to yours or not. Talk to friends and family. Observe your day-to-day activities. Then sit down and write as many topics that come to your mind. You’ll soon have more topics than you ever imagined.

3. You are not a good writer, so why keep up a blog?

Well, you could try some of the editing tactics Jael mentioned last week. You could also hire a professional blogger to write for you.

If those ideas don’t appeal to you, have you tried starting to video blog? Writing is talking with letters. If you cannot string your letters together in an intelligible manner, but you love to talk, try talking to your audience. Uncomfortable with your face? Two words: Audio Podcast.

4. Your blog doesn’t look as nice as other blogs, and you’re ready to shut it down.

I’m no graphic designer. I know as much about html as a newborn knows about pizza. It looks good, but I can’t do a whole lot of anything with it. There is such a thing as a template. Shop for a new template, and it doesn’t have to cost you anything. Of course, if you do hire someone to design your blog, you are more likely to get exactly what you want.

If you just want to tweak your existing look, search for some help. I recently got some help from a fellow blogger with my blog’s appearance. And guess what? She didn’t charge me a cent! Enlist the help of bloggers you know.

Educate yourself

There are more reasons you should stop blogging. But before you indulge yourself and call it quits, educate yourself. See how you can make your blog work.

I became educated about Sisterlocks, and now I wish I would have gotten them sooner. Don’t be like me, wishing you would have solved your blogging problems sooner. Take action.

How do keep yourself motivated to continue blogging?

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Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas. You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger.

Thanks, Terez!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

How to Attract the Leaders in the Pack

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(Updated in 2020)

Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash

10-Point Plan — Attracting Second Generation Heroes and Champions

Employees as Volunteers and Volunteers as Employees

Whether you’re a small enterprise like SOBCon building a brand and a legacy to stand upon or you’re an internationally known brand with a legacy of success and relationships that you want to nurture and protect, your employees and volunteers are the heart of your brand.

What makes that heart beat?
What gets those people to invest their time into your quest rather than into some other endeavor each day?
One of three reasons brings us to work and that reason that drives us runs through every nuance of every interaction that we undertake — every success we enjoy and every error we miss, overlook or turnaround in a fabulous way.

Whether you’re paying for a job role or enlisting volunteers, what you want is a volunteer who leads like a $200,000 / year employee. Leaders like that are learners who are focused on the cause and willing to put their minds, hearts, and vision into making the best things happen.

The Three Kinds of People Who Show Up to Work

People often say “There are two kinds of people, those who … and those who don’t.” In this case there are really three. Knowing all three will help you find and identify the leaders you need.

  • It’s a job. These volunteers are looking for an in-kind return. They are worker economists in that they do a hard day’s work for a hard day’s pay. The return might not be money. It might be a free seat, new clients or contacts that translate into potential work, a chance to raise the level of their pay grade by raising their skills and contacts. Be aware that they aren’t working for your brand or cause. They are executing a transaction.
  • It’s a career. These volunteers are looking to build their resume.They are politicians in that they look for a return that will enhance their own value proposition. The return is not financial it’s power and positioning. They do a hard day’s work for the ability to say they were part of the team. They might be working for a recommendation or entrance into a new network that will offer more opportunity. Understand that their first purpose isn’t working for your brand, it’s to extend their reach.
  • It’s a quest. These volunteers care about money and reach, but are driven by a need to build something no one can build alone. They look for a situation that will allow them to invest their best and want the same in return. Leaders will actually work for less if they’re convinced that the quest, the people, and process will be tied to values and intelligent ROI.

I bet you could phrase a set of questions and conditions to attract the best volunteers to that outstanding project you want to take off.

How would you start?

READ the Whole 10-Point Plan Series: On the Successful Series Page.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Does Your Brand Promiscuously Sleep with the Whole Football Team?

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Here Everyone Gets It All!!

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Will take a trip with me into ancient history?
I was in my early twenties. A friend, a young lady who was unique, beautiful and fun to be with, was insecure about her personal value. She couldn’t see why any guy might want to be with her. She had a string of bad relationships. She’d meet a guy and almost instantly sleep with him. The next day she’d call him a “boyfriend.”

I would watch it happen over and over. What she wanted was guys who’d get to know her. What she attracted was a huge following of guys who wanted to sleep with her. Some of those guys told me later that they didn’t even like her.

She was promiscuously giving away the wrong thing.

Is Your Brand Guilty of Promiscuous Giving

Now I go to events and trade shows and sometimes I see the business version of the same thing. Big brands and small companies not thinking through their “offers.” They put out samples that attract people people who want “free” rather than people who want a relationship with their brand and their products.

It may be easier to plan one giveaway for a population. But it’s not necessarily the best way to connect with people who want to “love” your brand. That single giveaway is likely to attract people who take anything free whether they need it, want it, or can use it in any meaningful way.

How many bags, water bottles, t-shirts, and hats end up left in hotel rooms because suitcases had no room when they were packed for leaving?

Here’s how to avoid promiscuously giving away the wrong things.

Don’t give everything to everybody. No one wants to marry the girl who sleeps with the entire football team. Have something for the people who are just meeting you. Have a second thing for the folks who’ve tried something in your product line and are beginning to like you. Have a third set for the folks who are madly in love with you.

How Might Brands Do that?

  • The People Who Don’t Know You Ask them about what they love in their current favorite product. Invite them to be on an advisory board that will get special offers and invitations to meetups in their town. Recruit them as “nonusers” to review new products from your line — for internal publication only if they prefer. The best swag for this group might be an elegant portable screen cleaner kit that carries your logo or maybe that flash drive that is huge enough to back up an entire computer. Everyone can will use those and see your logo.
  • The People Who Like You, But Aren’t Customers Introduce them to a service person on a first name basis. Take a hint from the car companies develop a serious test drive offer. Invite the folks who use your competitors to a demo to compare their product with yours. For those who attend extend a special limited price offer. Match them up with the machine that perfectly suits their use and needs. Invite them to test drive your machine for 30 days trial. Give them a price point that they can’t help to talk about. As a swag gift for their participation, give them that screen cleaner kit and add to that a portable power pack with adapters for every gadget in their repertoire. Who doesn’t need more power?
  • Your Loyal Customers and Those Ready to Become One Have your database ready when they walk up and talk about the products they already own. Get to know their favorites and their wishes. These are the folks who should go home with the special new product that you’re just releasing. They’ll talk about it with their friends. It might even work to give them two or three coupons to pass on to folks they know would use your products and talk about them. Let your true friends decide who should be the ones to get the super swag. They’ll choose well for you and you’ll win their loyalty for it.

People get to know people and brands in small steps that break down boundaries and build relationships. If you overwhelm me with too much too fast, it’s hard to trust that you value what you give or that you value the relationship. I don’t want to you see me as the girl who sleeps with the whole football team and I don’t want to see you like that.

How might you step the swag you offer to meet the needs of your fans?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Create a Powerful Core Community by Building a Brand Values Baseline – PART 1

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(Updated in 2020)

10-Point Plan: Build a Brand Values Baseline PART 1

A Decision Model for All

Any time we interact, we have a chance to build and strengthen relationships. When we strengthen relationships with the people who love what we do, we strengthen our business. When we know the values on which those relationships stand, we can identify, attract, and connect with more people like them.

That’s the thinking behind building a brand values baseline.

Whether you’re a corporation or a solopreneur, you can start a power core community by finding 6 to 10 people who support and love what you do and bring them into this exercise.

  • Choose a location that is good for thinking and honors the participants. Think of the place you might take your most valued client or customer group to talk strategy and future relationships.
  • Invite 2 – 8 heroes — people you’ve identified as social stars, training stars, influence stars — to a meeting. The wider diversity of their skills, levels and backgrounds, the richer the experience will be. Also invite a trusted non-participant to record notes.
  • Explain that the room is designated a free conversation zone — that you’ve asked them to join you in a conversation because of their leadership skills and the respect they show for the people who work for the business. Let them know you’re counting learning from them so that the company might grow.
  • Without much talk or fanfare, ask them to reflect on the highest reason they might believe in the work your business does. Allow them time — as long as 10 minutes — to gather their thoughts as individuals. Encourage them to write words and phrases, draw images, or make a mind map of what comes
  • Allow each individual to share his or her thoughts with the group. As they speak, write notes for reference and track words that express values on a flip chart.
  • When the entire group has spoken, review what you heard and confirm that you’ve heard correctly what was said. Add your own thoughts. List your own values words to the flip chart.

Review the list of words, noting the similarities between them and poses these questions.

  • How might we take this list back to entire company to distill it down to no more than five words — a values baseline — that describes the values that drive what we do?
  • Should we distill down now and get their approval?
  • What process might we use to include everyone in this quest?
  • Who does everyone include?
  • How long will that take? What should each of us bring back to this meeting, if reaching a true values baseline is our goal?

As your heroes and champions get more interested in the values that underpin your business, so will the people who look up to them. A single meeting with the heroes and champions who love what you do can bring out the best in your company in less time than a whole team from a huge consulting firm.

Live your values and you’ll attract the people to your brand who value what you do.

How will you / did you find your brand values baseline?

Related
To follow the entire series: Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

3 Traits Winning Social Media Teams Bring to the Tools

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Hard Work Isn’t the Same as Great Work

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Pick a passionate team at random people, tell them your vision, and hand them the best materials and power tools. Then ask them to build the new building where you’ll meet your customers. Does that make sense to you?

The passion of random people and the best tools aren’t enough to create a team to build that vision for me or for you. Key to a winning team lies in what those passionate people bring to the tools. For a quality building to be strong, functional, and efficient, the randomness of people who are passionate about building with a passel of fabulous tools won’t build anything useful if they don’t bring something more than passion to the tools.

It’s true in any team endeavor that the tools don’t deliver the great results, the people do.
Great people can build amazing things even with less than the most powerful tools.

3 Traits Winning Social Media Teams Bring to the Tools

A winning social media team is more than people who are passionate about the tools. Look at the teams who are working and you’ll find they have outstanding traits in common that fuel the ways and whys of how they choose and use social media tools.

  1. Brand Identity and Values – The Who — Winning social media teams are anything but random people in a group. Even at the lowest levels, they are leaders who know how to think in service to their customers and as a true ambassador of a brand. This comes as much from who they and from how they’ve been brought into the team. They’re people who share the same values and higher cause of the business and they’ve learned how to their values align with and enhance the core value proposition of the team, the business and the brand.
  2. Purpose and Focus — The What – Winning social media teams have focus on goals that serve those values and that value proposition. They can easily in few words what their purpose and how it fits the higher cause of the business and how it serves a brand and it’s customers. Bringing customers closer and finding meaningful ways to learn from them, serve them, and connect them to other great customers, employees and great resources is what a winning social media team is about. They way they use the tools underscore the vallues and enhance the value proposition.
  3. Bias Toward Action — The When – Winning social media teams pay attention so that they can be there when something needs their personal touch. They respond quickly yet within the values of their brand. Their bias toward action is timed to make things faster and easier for the customers … and all of them see communication as their responsibility — no matter their specific role. They listen, learn, and contribute when the conversation is going on … not hours later after the conversation has moved, changed, or lost it’s audience.

So what about the where AND the how?

You’ll find winning teams choose their tools they use and to be where their customers are and to use the tools their customers already use. In other words …

Winning social medias teams configure their strategy rather than trying to reconfigure their customers.

What qualities drive the winning social media teams you know?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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