Successful Blog

Hidden Assumptions and Business Likeability

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Twitter Conversations and Reality

One strength of Twitter is the speed, reach, and ease of connection that is social business. In a few tweets and direct messages, we can gather a team and make a project happen.

The Likeability Factor as Tim Sanders defined it — friendliness, relevance, empathy, and authenticity — is a critical component to online social business. We make business relationships and referrals from our “friends” list on Twitter.

Social business connections happen so quickly and easily. It’s not hard to develop a false sense of a person’s abilities. Extended online business conversations that explore theory, philosophy, and expertise can overshadow the reality that we’ve never actually seen or worked with a person.

Hidden Assumptions and Business Likeability

As a young manager making my first hire in the offline world, I was swayed by whether I liked the candidates sitting across from me.

But when folks can’t or don’t do the job, they become problematic no matter how likeable they are in a more social context.

Tim Sanders suggested likeability was necessary, not a replacement for, traditional skills sets. It’s easy to get caught in hidden assumptions about these equally important business “abilities.”

  • CAPABILITY – Does this person actually have the skill set that job requires? Conversation is not the same as the ability to actually do something well.
  • “RESPONSE ABILITY” – Does she respond quickly, thoughtfully, with a focus and a solution that will last longer than 140 characters?
  • BELIEVABILITY – Does he tell the truth, even when it’s not easy? Have we actually experienced that?
  • ADAPTABILITY – Will the person understand when change happens without responding like a frustrated 4-year-old?
  • ACCOUNTABILITY – Does she own what she does, fix what she breaks, and strive for quality?

BUSINESS LIKEABILITY – competent, trustworthy, and a pleasure to work with.

No time before has any culture had the power to build deep, strategic networks so efficiently. The connections have incredible potential to keep our businesses growing with minimal overhead and maximum accomplishment. No time before has business been so global and fluid. We’re learning to navigate a new reality.

We have to keep remembering to ask questions.

Do online conversations to lead to hidden assumptions more often than the offline equivalent?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

BRAND NEW BLOG Slide Show and the Now YUDU IT! Challenge

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A Time Line of Digital Publishing Buzz

YUDU Media

Four weeks ago I tried to break WordPress here by releasing a blog post every minute to showcase 260 of your blogs. That event got the attention of BlogDesignStudio, who said to me, “We’d like to offer to your readers 50 of our Edge, Premium Theme, to boost their blogs.”

A new event came from the first.

Eleven days ago: We launched that event. It was called, That Brand New Blogging Feeling Event. Fifty participants each received a copy of the Edge WordPress Theme and a copy of my eBook The Secret to Writing a Successful Blog in return for submitting a photo with a caption describing the feeling of writing their first blog post.

I promised to compile the entries into a published whole.

Three nights ago, Tim Sanders and I were talking about the Responsibility Revolution happening in business. He spoke about green publishing which got me talking about the carbon free digital publishing platform I used to build the Brand New Blog slideshow.

Two days ago YUDU.com — that carbon free publisher, who now officially is my client — thought it was great idea when I said this a cool opportunity to sponsor a contest. So check out the slideshow of all your cool photos and captions on YUDU — where the site links actually link back from the photo pages.

But do remember to come back because what we have planned next is something also cool with cool prizes too.

Yudu Nav bar

OR click the link under the slideshow to see the ENLARGED version
in its natural habitat as two-page spreads.

ARE YOU READY TO KICK IT UP A NOTCH?

I made this slideshow. Now it’s your turn.
The folks I work with a YUDU are blogger friendly. When they heard about what I was doing they wanted to be a bigger part. We talked about the possibilites and the next thing you know we were defining

NOW YUDU IT! Challenge at 1pm 3pm Chgo Time Today

Start with a free YUDU account.
Get a chance to win a MacBook Air!
The TOP entry will get a US$180 professional acount at YUDU.com

Details will be on this blog at 1pm 3pm Chicago time today!
(See the clock in the sidebar to set your watch.)
Will you take the challenge?

C’mon, I did it. Now YUDU It!

If you would like a .png of the slide for your photo, you’ll find in the flicker set.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
See the Work with Liz!! for how to start some business rolling for yourself.

Great Find: YUDU!

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Document Elegance

YUDU Media

I’ve been having a conversation about working with a digital publishing company in the UK. So naturally one of the first things I did was try their product. It was of particular interest because of my recent eBook experience and also because I’m always looking for new ways to share information with readers, clients, and friends. After years in publishing, I like to stay current on digital publication tools.

YUDU Freedom is elegant.

Great Find: YUDU
Permalink: http://www.yudu.com/
Target Audience: Anyone who shares digital documents
Content:
YUDU Freedom allows you to publish any document online for free. I did myself and can speak from experience. I uploaded two documents — both .pdfs, 24 pages and 68 pages, both with photos. The upload took seconds. I was able to title and tag my file. The email with the link to my file arrived far faster than I expected, maybe within 90 seconds. The links inside are private unless I choose to share them.

But what impressed me most was the beauty of the result. In particular, the document below was designed to showcase light and space . . . the YUDU enhances the design far more than any other document reader. I hadn’t prepared or edited the document here — for example the Table of Contents isn’t true and I haven’t spent time considering the type font — still YUDU show this work in progress beautifully. Click the screenshot and stretch your browser to full screen to see the entire 24-page document online inside YUDU.

Notice how you can turn pages like a book using the lower corners or like a .pdf using the arrow above. Nice touch. Options allow you to remove the sound or the page turn, if you don’t want to be distracted by them. YUDU has more features rolling out soon. Watch this product.

Updated to take to you to yudu.com

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like an hour of Liz’s consulting time, see the Work with Liz!! page for details.

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