Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 02-13-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

PR 2.0 sets the Twitter Bar on quality of relationships.
The surmounting ploys, friending races, theatrics, and contests to tempt those into following individuals can be fun, but short-sighted, when in fact the true technique for building relationships, regardless of volume, is the genuine act of earning and investing in them. It’s rooted in selflessness and rewarded with a rich stream of relevance and a network of valuable contacts that can also help you in the real world.

the paisano sets out useful social healthcare sites.
We’re not just talking about the traditional WebMD type of service either. This new breed of health service has incorporated many of the cool and useful social media tools we’ve come to expect from web 2.0 startups and social networks. Here’s a roundup of some of the best.

All Things Workplace sets up a series on Influence within and into an organization.
When you want to influence into or within an organization, it’s almost mandatory to find out what style it has and adjust your approach accordingly. If you are an employee or part of the organization, this may help you understand why you feel totally at home or out of place.

Patricia Martin sets out research on colorful thoughts.
What color most improves brain performance and receptivity to advertising, red or blue? Both can, it just depends on the nature of the task or message. According to a new study undertaken at the University of British Columbia, red is the most effective at enhancing our attention to detail, while blue is best at boosting our ability to think creatively.

SEOmoz sets out the 500 Most Linked-To
First off, we’re launching a free Linkscape API to access two of Linkscape’s most popular metrics – mozRank of a URL and the number of external links to a URL. Second, we’ve launched a list of the top 500 sites & pages on the web, ordered by the number of unique root domains linking to them (alongside other interesting SEO metrics).

Related ala carte selections include

@ColderIce recommended that we read this and I agree.

@dubster2k recommended this. It’s just plain fun!

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

SOB Business Cafe 02-06-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

The Buzz Bin explains the burden of listening.
Our ears are always on, sometimes to our chagrin. But although we listen non-stop, we often don’t hear. Therein lies the challenge and opportunity associated with assessing an online environment.

Listening requires depth and patience regardless of the situation.

Remarkable Communication explains the value of slowing down
A few days ago, Mara Rogers wrote a post for Copyblogger about SpeedBlogging. Her post had a lot of smart tips for writing blog posts more quickly and efficiently, and I don’t disagree with any of the advice she gave.

But I’d like to propose another way to approach your posts: SlowBlogging.

Drew’s Marketing Minute explains what we have to do with “it.”
I was talking to a friend of mine who owns a small business last week. He admitted they’re having a fantastic start to the year and everything looks good moving forward.

He went on to tell me that he needs a new company car. He has the money to pay cash for it. Car prices have never been lower. But he’s holding off.

ripple explains how lingo and lines.
“Peppers?” I was California perplexed.

“Yeah, sweet or hot giardinare.” Mario barked.

(Someone in my new found social community chimed in and suggested the sweet peppers. And to have Mario spoon the beef juice rather than dip the sandwich. Too soggy otherwise.)

Login + Emotion explains what we do what we’re teaching.
Imagine someone comes up to you at a cocktail party. And they’re wearing a mask—while everyone else isn’t. You don’t know much about that person because they’re not really telling you a great deal about themselves. How much would you tell them about yourself in return?

Related ala carte selections include

Todd Smith Photography shows where he is.

Twittersheep shows what folks who follow me say about themselves. Click the image to go there.

My twitter name is @lizstrauss . What else would it be?

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

10 Blogger Best Practices: Guides as You Extend Your Reach

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How to blog series

Know Who You Are

All year long I’ve mulling on a thought I first considered when I was under 5 years old. I wrote about it on my first blog.

“Square peg in a round hole.” That’s what people used to call it.

Even as a kid I knew it was a silly waste of time to put a square peg in a round hole. That was just plain common sense To make the peg fit, it wouldn’t be a square peg anymore. It would hurt the peg, and the hole wouldn’t like it.

Whenever I try to make myself fit a situation, it’s like trying to teach a pig to sing — sounds awful and the pig gets mad. I turn into a louder, sort of a shiny green spandex facsimile of the real me. Is it a wonder then that people don’t respond well?

It’s really no surprise that trying to be something “other” doesn’t work with a blog either.

Relationships are a lot more fun with people who know themselves. Our blogs are reflections of how well we know who we are.

10 Blogger Best Practices

Here are 10 Blogger Best Practices for the social web. These 10 best practices guide me as I write and meet new people on the social business web. They help me stay focused on my quest and explain it when people ask. When I remember them, they serve me well. I hope they’ll serve you too.

  1. Know yourself. Know what you’re about and always walk, talk, and blog your own truth. You can’t write my blog post. I can’t write yours. More on that from this great speech about how Oprah found her voice.
  2. Find the people who explore thoughts the same way you do. They’re the ones who’ll enjoy what you write. Share what they say. Pass links to comments on Twitter. Use Twitter Explore to find people talking about common questions and ideas. They’re the one’s who will constantly inspire you. We always think that people who think as we do are incredibly smart.
  3. Talk about what you blog in ways that show you value what you have to offer. Talk about what you want to share in ways that make people proud to pass them on. Don’t fear the blog link that points to a blog post a friend wrote. I know you’d never use a blog link to attract attention from away someone else to you.
  4. When you meet someone new, be interested in who they are and what they’re about. Ask questions. Learn details. Find out their passions. Ideas come from being curious about what people are doing and why. Meeting someone new can be as revealing and invigorating as a rare celebrity interview.
  5. Step away from the podium. Forget what you learned in school. Writing on the internet is about conversation and listening, not presentation. Write for an intelligent friend who just doesn’t know what you do. Leave lots of room for questions and thoughtful interpretation.
  6. Whatever you blog, bring your experience to it. Tell how you learned it, how you found it, how you felt before and after you knew it. Tell the story of the information from your point of view. People come for the you in the information — the information without the you is in other places.
  7. Leave room for visitors to add to the conversation. Be complete but not thorough. You can start a list and let the folks who come add to it. If you end with a question, consider the question carefully. Make it intriguing enough that you would want to stop to answer it.
  8. Open doors and showcase others whenever you can. Connect people to information, to other people, and to answers to their questions. Serve the people who love what you do. The best promotion for your blog is promotion other people. Talk about the the people who visit your blog.
  9. Always be happy to see people who say hello! Call them by name and let them know you see them. Let them feel that they can move around freely. Make sense?
  10. Be you. Information is everywhere. It’s the you inside the information and the you that responds that will bring people back.

I’m about how relationships, conversation, and how businesses and communities grow. I help people understand the culture and sensitivities of the written word in the fast-paced Internet world and show companies how to connect with people. I’m always going to write more about how to use the social media tools to forge relationships than I’ll ever write about the tools straight out.

Knowing that makes it easier to extend my network. I can do what I love in service to people who think what I do is pretty special.

What guides you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOB Business Cafe 01-30-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Brian Gardner Media explores real life action on the Internet.
Haven’t you ever seen that video clip, where the guy drops his camera at the zoo, and panics, because he just spent a lot of money on it? So he climbs over the fence and just when he thinks his life is bad enough, he realizes that he just entered the lion’s den?

Duct Tape Marketing explores tools we may have forgotten.
Having lots of channels and lots of ways for folks to receive relevant, education based content is a must.

While social media and other web based marketing tools are getting most of today’s hype, email marketing to a list of willing recipients is still a very powerful way to market.

Beth’s Blog explores insights of online experiences.
Last year at this time, I was in Austin, TX doing a keynote workshop for Legal ervices Corporation on the ROI of Nonprofit Technology. I interviewed technology practitioners from the poverty law community about how they approach ROI and significant technology systems investments like client databases, document assembly systems, or video conference systems.

CC Seed explores a finding a new place in time.
The empty aisles I found while visiting Binghamton, NY should not have surprised me, but they did.

Related ala carte selections include

PerkettPRsuasion explores do-it-yourself work of the wrong kind.

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

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

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