Successful Blog

1:00 Lucretia Pruitt on Twittering the Way that Works Best for You

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. Relationships with customers, employees, colleagues, coworkers, builders, contractors, developers, and CUSTOMERS — in the form of readers, buyers, clients, and others — are the success of any business.

How do we form the best relationships; bring our best to them; build environments that nurture them; and measure our success?

Join the Comment Box Conference. Ask questions. Discuss answers. Meet people in the comment box. Find out.

Lucretia Pruitt

Lucretia Pruitt, also known as GeekMommy has been blogging since she had to hand-code her site’s HTML back in 1997. The advent of push-button blogging was a god-send as it allowed her more time to write needing less to publish.

Then in 2007, she got sucked into Twitter… and microblogging entered her world in a big way. Already a student of Social Media tools, she’s spent a lot of time analyzing this medium. Catch her hanging around a dozen or more social media sites at any given moment – just look for GeekMommy! She’s here to talk about …

Twittering the Way that Works Best for You

  • Twittering At Volume
  • Twittering Only To Family & Friends
  • Twittering As A Company’s Face
  • Twittering As An Individual, When Not Representing Your Company
  • Twittering To Get A Retweet – Size, Link, Description

Folks on Twitter People look to her for leaderships, best practices, outright wittiness, and a huge heart. Who’s got the first question? Let’s get talking!

Lucretia Pruitt’s Twitter bio says she’s a Random Muse – Social Media Strategist, Speaker, ex-CIS Professor, Geek, Mom, Wife, and Insomniac. Talk to her once or talk to anyone who’s worked with Lucretia and you’ll find out she’s even more than that. Lucretia writes about 21st Century motherhood at GeekMommy’s WebLife and handles social media as one of the Walmart Moms, among other social media projects.
Follow @GeekMommy at Twitter.

Social Media Fatigue (SMF)

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Do you suffer from Social Media fatigue (SMF?)

Unless you’re aware of your goals and understand why you’re using the many social platforms you may be involved in, it’s easy to get caught up in the sharing of links, music and personal tidbits. Everyone has had an hour fly by on Twitter when they’ve just meant to pop in for a few minutes right? Was there anything specific of value that you found during that time or did you just get caught up in the flurry? Blasting about in social media can take a lot out of you.

If you spend time in the stream on Twitter,  Face Book, Friendfeed  (or on any of the myriad of social platforms ) you form relationships with people. These relationships may be based on business interests or friendships or both. Last week, a close friend and I both noticed a friend was in trouble. His tweets tweets were sporadic and talked of being in ill health. We checked in. Our interaction had brought us beyond our keyboards into a real sense of human empathy. When you see someone tweet about a bad day, a mis-hap, or a loss do you check in – DM a little message? visit their blog and leave an encouraging comment?

Recently, I read along as Seth Simonds held a discussion on Twitter about how many users felt like they could freely admit to having a bad day in a tweet. Then, without warning, he asked everybody to “tweet” ME with a bowl of curried lentils. I love curried lentils! My screen was suddenly filled with tweets from strangers “giving” me a hot bowl of lentils. It’s random and silly, right? Then why did it put such a bright spot in my day? Because it reflected that brightness of empathy and community that brings me back into social media time after time.

The next time you sit down for “just five minutes” in social media, make a point to lift up another person. You don’t need to attempt profound conversations on deep subjects at every turn. Just try to stay open to the signals we all give when discouragement, loneliness, and fatigue set in.

Only you can prevent SMF! 😉

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from: Kathryn Jennex @northernchick

photo: Vito’

A Twitter Survey, RSS Feeds and Jethro Bodine: How to Use All Three to Increase Subscribers

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A Guest Post by Duane Lester

I wanted more subscribers.

All over the Internet, I see Feedburner chicklets with more subscribers than my blog. I wonder what exactly makes a reader pull the trigger on a subscription? So I turned to a great resource, my tweeps.

Using Tweetlater I scheduled a Twitter survey — the same question day and night. For 24 hours, I asked what it took for them to subscribe to a blog.

Here’s what they told me:

  • sarahtymeson Guess it depends on what site has & what I’m looking 4… i.e they offer training in an area & I’m looking @ getting n2 that area.
  • PEP010 I hate excess email, so a website must offer well-done material that’s directly relevant to my work needs.
  • susan_s_smith content in my areas of interest, but it must be written well
  • readmylipstick Sites s/b related to my interests, well put together, recommended by friend, no pop ups, no noise / fluff / flash, good content
  • clarky07 for me its usually not that much. an insightful article or comment about something i’m interested in will do it.
  • OmegaSpreem If they have lots of new content on a regular (more often than weekly) schedule, I’ll subscribe to their RSS feed.
  • blogdesigner useful information and a feeling that doesn’t overwhelm me with "faceless blogger" personality is a must (coupled with useful in
  • my3boybarians sense of gaining something by reading it.
  • HighPlainsBlogr RE http://is.gd/crlI : Generally links to articles, etc. I enjoy. Frequency of "match" boosts odds – name recognition w/prev posts.
  • ppmartin Theres is no "rule" before I subscribe to a website, it all "depends".
  • EndTheRoboCalls Free, remarkable, useful, save time, save money
  • lynngg For a website? All over the place. For a blog, write like Hemingway.
  • crystalclear3 If a website has a topic I am interested in with good writers, then this makes me a subscriber to their RSS feed
  • lukegoossen value… the more value I find initially, the more likely I am to subscribe… to get more "value added" content
  • rinosafari For me, mostly interesting content. Good first impression is key, or I’m usually outta there.
  • rinosafari Also, regular updates are important, though it doesn’t have to be high volume. Visual site appeal comes in at distant third.
  • Mauricio_TN 1st, I would have 2b highly interestd in the subject matter, 2nd I would have to trust the owner/author is an expert in the field
  • redbloodedgirl To subscribe: consistently good content, good writing, unique perspective, original. Not "me too" or just agreement with me.
  • meanolmeany Strictly the content, on any topic. I read about 100 sites completely a day with Google Reader.
  • sharilee To subscribe, I need to see really rich content, something that will help me be smarter. Sadly, not much that compelling out there
  • RadioPatriot I want timely accurate info in user friendly format — HATE ads & widgets that slow up the download
  • InstructorG Re: answer to survey = immediately useful information
  • JesseNewhart cutting edge content
  • GrayRinehart I take RSS from blogs >> websites. If I go to a blog > 5 times, or know the blogger, or love it at 1st sight, I feed from it.
  • Jaustin intriguing content of which there has potential to consistently be more of. Like new software downloads or new commentary
  • infidelsarecool Constant fresh content, unique and interesting headlines, first-movers of news, content including multimedia [pics,videos]
  • chasrmartin mostly, the RSS icon. I put them in "possibles" and see later if I come back to them.
  • freedomist has to be something I need or want but can’t get elsewhere or has to offer me a chance or means of helping my own cause/bus.
  • lleger If I find myself continually checking a site for new content–because I know it’s good content–then it’s time to subscribe.

In order for a reader to subscribe:

“a website must offer lots of new, consistently good content, something I can’t get elsewhere.”

Really not a blockbuster surprise. We all know that content is king. The intriguing part of the survey came from the following responses:

  • Subscribe with money? Or just fill out the form that pops up?
  • not really sure how it works, if I knew how to do it and what it did I might subscribe
  • If you mean pay for it. I don’t believe I would.
  • Do you mean like newsletters? I sub’d to 1 recently; a site w/ supplies of interest to me. So I can see what’s new. That kinda thing
  • minimal info required – email maybe, zip code yes, real name no, address no, phone number no.

These responses reminded me of two things. The first a lesson I learned in military journalism school. The second was was an article at Copyblogger.

Write for Jethro

In military journalism school, we were taught to write our news stories for Jethro Bodine. (For those who don’t know who Jethro Bodine is — he was a character on a TV show, the Beverly Hillbillies who couldn’t add past 10.) If we wrote so Jethro could understand it, we were confident anyone could.

Pay attention. I am not saying that Twitterers are as dense as Jethro. I’m agreeing with Willy Franzen.

In this article from Copyblogger on how to increase subscribers. Willy Franzen at Copyblogger asks:

Are you being completely clear with your word choice? When you ask your readers to subscribe, are you asking them to do the virtual version of writing their name underneath? Or are you asking them to agree to pay you a sum of money?

In other words, are you writing for Jethro?

It’s a valid question.

I checked my site. I wasn’t. I had the square orange RSS logo in the top right corner. Savvy Internet users know this symbol for the blog’s RSS subscription. Would Jethro? No. Neither did some of my readers. Some who did, didn’t know
what to do with it.

To fix this, I added

  • a question the reader may have been asking: What is RSS?

    • and linked that question to

  • a page detailing the ins and out of RSS, including a video from Creative Commons.

Now when a person has a question about RSS or subscribing in general, this will lead them to the answer. And along the top are links to all our feeds so they can start right away with us.

Two small additions that could result in an increase in RSS and e-mail subscriptions. Are you inviting readers to subscribe assuming they understand what you mean, or are you writing for Jethro, ensuring you get maximum subscriptions?

Duane Lester writes for All American Blogger. He’s a friend, an SOB, and a Navy journalist who finds the answer to what he wants to know.

Thanks, Duane.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Muppet Metaphors of Social Media

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Sometimes I meet Liz – in the city, or on Twitter – to talk about not talking about social media.

“So here’s what I want to know,” I asked one night, “Does talking about not talking about social media count as talking about social media?”

“I think I talk more about the muppets,” she responded.

We decided I’m Cookie Monster. She’s Grover.

I giggled a little as I wrote back, “This is you.” And I linked to this video:

She proudly retweeted. Because this is who we are. And this is what we do.

We go around and around, thinking up ways to change the world by connecting with it. Talking, walking, sometimes getting tired…

I don’t know much about social media.
I know more about cookies.

Since I was a kid I’ve had a delicious talent for intuitively choosing the best cookie in the jar. And as a kid, if you were my friend and I only had one cookie, I’d always give you the bigger half. I like to think that’s the most valuable thing Liz and I have in common. (I mean, who needs tools when you’ve got COOKIES? Ahem.)

Liz knows how to share, how to connect, how to get people through things – how to get to the core of who they are and walk them through the stuff they need to do to get to the places they want to go.

Sometimes she speaks in metaphors. Sometimes she’s like Grover. Sometimes the other kids don’t understand her. But the ones with the best hearts love her, because she’s like them.

Liz once told me, “Every star shines — brilliance is relative.”

I don’t remember why she told me that, except that that’s who she is. Her heart is always golden. Even in the moments I have no idea what she’s talking about, I trust her with all my heart because I know she would never let me fall.

We don’t have to talk about social media to teach social media. But to learn it, we’ve got to live it.

That’s what Liz does. That’s what Liz helps me do.

So when Liz asked me, “While I’m at WordCamp Las Vegas, will you hijack my blog? Maybe you could write five things people don’t know about me, like I wrote 5 Tips about Surviving on the Road with Lorelle that one time?”

…. And my response was….
“Huh? You did what? Who’s Lorelle?”
… “I don’t know five things!”

… I knew I probably know just this one:

I’d rather learn the Muppet Metaphors of Social Media than bang my head against the wall studying the Cruel Calculus of Communicating Online.

I’d rather share cookies with a friend.

What has Liz taught YOU?

Or, um, who’s your favorite muppet and why?

People Unfollow Me on Twitter and Sometimes I Know Why They Do

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I’m Coming Clean Now

It’s a trick of the numbers — more coming than going out. Most people don’t know. I’ve managed to keep it quiet, but folks are going to find out. Google has my gmail notifications. Twitter could have my data somewhere on file — can’t count on a fail. Someone like that reporter who found out that Dan Lyons was the fake Steve Jobs could break the story. So I might as well come clean now.

People unfollow me on Twitter.

[Excuse for a minute while regain my demeanor.]

People unfollow me. I glad you know. It happens every day and sometimes I know why they do.

  • Some didn’t want to follow me from the start. They just wanted me to follow them. Every day someone unfollow me as soon as I follow back.
  • Some unfollow me because I don’t talk about what’s interesting to them. That’s got to be it because I look what they talk about and nothing say matches their Twitter stream.
  • Some unfollow me because I talk too much. I found that out from a good friend who said, “Love you, babe, but my stream is too small, and you overpower it.”
  • One unfollowed me because she didn’t like who I was talking to. She told me she did.
  • Another unfollowed me because he misunderstood a comment I left on his blog. Somehow whatever I said to explain it just made the situation worse.
  • Some unfollow because Twitter lost the connection. We usually figure that out.

I don’t “get” all the reasons people have for why they follow and unfollow folks. I suspect that some are as irrational as the reasons we buy things, sell things, and marry the people we do. Contrary to urban legend I don’t know anyone who’s died of “unfollow embarrassment.” For me, the conversation gets better the more I know who I’m talking to.

Got any ideas about why people unfollow the people they do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Image source: sxc.hu
Work with Liz!!

Get Positive Attention in the Twitterverse and Other Networking Situations

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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!!