Successful Blog

Thanks to Week 296 SOBs

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muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

dreaming-of-beatles

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Thanks to Week 295 SOBs

by

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

the-chief-listeners-blog
freerangemom
im-from-nothing
sean-clark
vlenxx

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Bid for the Presidency…Tweeted? What Does that Mean to YOU?

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Guest Post
by Riley Kissel

On May 11th, House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced he’s running for President of the United States. According to CNN, he officially announced his intentions to run via the popular social networking site, Twitter.

Anyone who takes their online marketing seriously needs to pay attention to the 2012 election starting now. Political action at the national level was always executed with the intent to cast the biggest net possible, similar to business advertising, but those tactics are changing. In traditional politics the customers transcend all market “types”. There’s a particular focus put on the means to reach everybody all at once through television or radio, because votes can come from anyone, kind of like how money can leave anyone’s pocket and go into your business. But today’s political arena is focused on strike force access to niche markets through social media, with the expectation that these strikes will go viral and the effort will be more cost effective than alternative mass-media means. Your entrepreneurial arena is undoubtedly the same.

President Barack Obama is estimated to raise $1 billion dollars for his re-election campaign. This number is unprecedented in presidential politics, but it won’t be for long. President Obama’s comparatively enormous war chest is the result of his presidential efforts back in 2008. Obama was the first national politician in American history to utilize the power of social media and social networking effectively. Nearly half of that figure was attained through donations of $200 or below made online. It wasn’t that Obama pulled the right strings, it’s that his team saw the possibilities of these online marketing techniques when opponents hadn’t yet. Never again will a serious presidential contender not have Twitter and Facebook accounts.

What about You?

Consider then, what this says about the future of social media marketing as it applies to your business. I’m assuming you don’t have presidential ambitions, but you can still relate. If no competitor is Tweeting or updating a Facebook status, why aren’t you? If they are, you need to right away. It’s going to be hard to compete against someone who can instantly notify their customers of sales when all you have are weekend coupons. Find an online marketing consultant who can help you get started. Once you’re active in social media, it’s time to utilize it effectively. Big announcements need to be made on it. Subscribe to competition and do a little (perfectly legal) espionage. These are important tasks to achieve when you’re getting your social network foot in the door, and consultation will help.

Television was perhaps the most important communications invention of the last century. People often forget that it wasn’t until the Nixon-Kennedy debates of 1960 that the world began to understand the potential of its power to influence and persuade. The Internet will no doubt be the most important piece of communications technology for at least the first half of this century. Don’t wait to let its power start working for you.

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Riley Kissel is a freelance writer who covers many industries with style. You can find out more about him at RileyKissel.com

Thanks, Riley, for simply showing how great thinking has built great success.

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

The Book List: 42 Rules to Jumpstart your Professional Success and We First

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The Book List: a weekly series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, aka The Author’s Cheerleader and I work with authors & writers to help them with their online book promotion and marketing. As part of my job I read a lot of books (I love to read anyway!). The books in The Book List series will cover a range of topics such as social media, product development, marketing, blogging, business, organization, career building, finance, networking, writing, self development, and inspiration.

’42 Rules of Professional Success:A Guide to Common Sense Career Development, Entrepreneurial Achievement’ by Bud Bilanich

About the Book:
Written in a straightforward, common sense manner, 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Personal and Professional Success provides the reader with practical, down to earth advice on how to create a successful life and career. In this book you will learn how to:

take responsibility for your life and career
become more self confident
create positive personal impact
become and outstanding performer
become a dynamic communicator
become more interpersonally competent.

’42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success’ is a guide to common sense career development, entrepreneurial achievement and life skills. Author Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy, has been helping people succeed for over 30 years. He’s spent the last 10 years studying successful people, cracking the code to success. He shares what he’s learned in 42 rules to Jumpstart Your Personal and Professional Success. Bud shares stories of personal and professional triumphs and failures and what he learned from them. He also tells other people’s stories that he finds inspiring.

About Bud:
Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy, is an executive coach, motivational speaker, author and blogger. He is the Official Guide for Executive Coaching at SelfGrowth.com, and the Careers Group Coordinator at FastCompany.com. He is a member of the USA Today Small Business Advisory Panel. He writes the popular blog (www.SuccessCommonSense.com) to which he posts five days a week. Dr. Bilanich is Harvard educated but has a no nonsense approach to personal and professional success as a result of over 35 years of business experience, 10 years of research and study of successful people and the application of common sense. Bud is the author of seven other books, including Straight Talk for Success: Common Sense Ideas That Won’t Let You Down.

His clients include Pfizer, Glaxo SmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Abbot Laboratories, PepsiCo, AT&T, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citigroup, General Motors, UBS, AXA Advisors, Cabot Corporation, The Aetna, PECO Energy, Olin Corporation, Minerals Technologies, The Boys and Girls Clubs of America and a number of small and family owned businesses. Bud is a cancer survivor and lives in Denver Colorado with his wife Cathy. He is a retired rugby player and an avid cyclist. He likes movies, live theatre and crime fiction.

You can pick up your copy of ’42 Rules to Jumpstart your Professional Success’ at the publisher’s site

Another book that is on my Book List is ‘We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World’

We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World by Simon Mainwaring

“We First lays out a movement to transform corporate America, providing plenty of food for thought for the business leaders of today and tomorrow.”–Tony Hsieh, New York Times bestselling author of Delivering Happiness and CEO of Zappos.com, Inc.

“Mainwaring is an inspiring leader that truly understands the dynamics in play in the new world of business, online consumer behavior, and how they can collaborate to rethink and rework paths to true global renewal.”–Brian Solis, award-winning author of Engage

“Simon Mainwaring shows how to use social technologies to create and deepen business relationships, which in turn drive profits. Put meaning back into your business by buying this book. Actually, buy two and give one away to someone who is also yearning to take their business to the next level.”–Charlene Li, author of Open Leadership and Founder of Altimeter Group

About the Book

A social media expert with global experience with many of the world’s biggest brands —including Nike, Toyota and Motorola—Simon Mainwaring offers a visionary new practice in which brands leverage social media to earn consumer goodwill, loyalty and profit, while creating a third pillar of sustainable social change through conscious contributions from customer purchases. These innovative private sector partnerships answer perhaps the most pressing issue facing business and thought leaders today: how to practice capitalism in a way that satisfies the need for both profit and a healthy, sustainable planet. Mainwaring provides case studies from companies such as P&G, Walmart, Starbucks, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Nike, Whole Foods, Patagonia, and Nestlé as well as a bold plan for how corporations need to rethink their strategies.

About Simon:
Simon Mainwaring is a branding consultant, author, blogger and speaker. A former Nike creative at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy, he is the founder and CEO of We First, a social branding consultancy that helps brands and creative companies use social media to reinvent their industries and our world.

He is a member of the GMI Digital Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School, AdAge’s Power150 and is an Expert Blogger for Fast Company. Most recently he was a guest of the Brookings Institute at the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha as part of their New Media working group and a speaker at the 2010 Cannes International Advertising Festival.

In 2011 Simon’s first book entitled We First will be released that presents a new vision for the practice of capitalism, the role of the private sector, and for how brands and consumers use social media to build communities, profits and positive impact: www.wefirstbook.com

Simon has received over sixty international awards at the Cannes Advertising Festival, the One Show (U.S.) and the British Design & Art Direction Awards, among others. He studied Law and Fine Arts (1st Class Honors) at Sydney University and lives in Los Angeles. His website is www.wefirstbranding.com, he blogs at www.simonmainwaring.com and tweets @simonmainwaring.

You can pick up your copy of ‘We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World’ on Amazon.com.

How To Socially Date Customers.

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A Post by Matt Krautstrunk

We all know how important customer service is to your long term success as a business. You probably don’t need a briefing on that, so I’ll spare you the lecture on why the “customer is always right.” However, what you probably haven’t realized is the fact that customer relationships are becoming more fragile.

 

We all remember the days, going to the local grocery store with our parents, and having the employees greet us by name. Loyalty is a wonderful thing; however something seems to have changed since the 50’s. Customer relationships aren’t what they used to be, they are becoming more fragile than ever. As businesses strive to create relationships it seems one negative experience can cause a breakup, according to Social Media Paige, “negative online shopping experiences result in brand abandonment. Smart consumers are very unforgiving.72 percent said they would share a negative online experience with friends and family. Another 70 percent said they would turn to a competitor as a result.”

Many managers also fail to realize how important social media is to their customer service. Whether you are trying to attract new customers or keep existing customers engaged, having a social presence gives your company a platform to reach your audience. I think businesses who try to “date” their community are able to retain a higher percentage of customers for life.

Link Multiple People To Your Businesses Social Account. Putting your PR, customer service and sales people on the same account, not only improves your reach but integrates your customer knowledge. Say for instance you only have one PR professional running your Twitter, he/she may not realize who they are actually speaking with. Having an integrated internal social media account improves your communication strategy by leveraging knowledge across multiple units. A good idea would be to add email contacts to your social networks from multiple accounts within your business. You can use your salespeople’s, marketing department, and anyone you deem fit’s email address book to upload their contacts and follow them.

Although it’s important to integrate your internal departments on social networks, make sure they understand their roles. Have your sales person answer all sales inquiries, and all customer inquiries be handled by customer service.

Build Loyalty. Building loyalty is essentially taking your customers on dates. Keep your community engaged, active and excited about your brand. When the spark dies, you are much more willing to have a tragic breakup. Do this u

Solve Simple Problems Transparently A major advantage of conducting your customer service on social media is the fact that everything you do is transparent. Other followers will see your activity and you generate good PR for every issue you’ve solved. Don’t limit yourself on these platforms; figuring out how to work in social in to your strategy will help you keep your date for longer.

Keeping a customer for life is one of the most valuable things any business can ask for. We all know that 80% of business comes from 20% of your customers, so it makes sense to make sure that these people are happy to the fullest extent.

Matt Krautstrunk is an expert writer on postage meters based in San Diego, California.  He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions at Resource Nation.

 

 

How To Hack Knowledge Through Online Resources

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A Guest Post by Lior Levin

The aim of going to college is to learn new things to further your education. Whichever class you take, it is supposed to help you to get further towards the career that you choose. Unfortunately there are some instances where the tutor isn’t as great at explaining things as they should be. If you end up stuck in a class that doesn’t seem to be teaching you anything then there are some options available to you. Maybe you are learning things but you would like to increase your knowledge even more quickly? If so then you should consider using online resources.

What Are Online Resources?

With the Internet you need to be careful which information you study. There is a lot of conflicting information online. Not all sources are credible. This means that you will need to really search the Internet until you find reliable sources.

Online resources basically comprise of websites, blogs and forums. There are several blogs for example, which are run by students just like you and by university professors. Some are even run by scientists. These types of online resources can be extremely useful and you could learn some really fascinating things.

The Benefits of Online Resources

There are numerous benefits of online resources. The main one is that you get to learn things at your own pace. Perhaps you struggle to ask questions about your course in the seminar? Maybe you find your lecturer too hard to understand? If so then online resources can help you to learn everything that you need to know, but in an easier to understand way. Many of these sites also have a community section where you can meet new college students.
The Best Online Resources

If you are struggling to find decent resources then a good site to try out would be Ted.com. There you are able to view talks on various subjects. If you are studying science then you could listen to Paul Root Wolpe talking about why it’s time to question bio-engineering. Or you could view demos about human exoskeletons. There are so many interesting and educational talks on the site. From science to technology and entertainment to business – no matter what you are studying you should find this resource really useful.

If you have any science related query then a good online resource to visit is Refdesk.com. It provides a large number of links to websites that will give you the answer to practically every science related question that you could have.

Another great online resource that you should check out is the Khan Academy site. It provides information on maths, chemistry, economics and history. The site is designed to try to change education. You will find more than 100 different self paced exercises that you can complete. From algebra to biology and brain teasers to currency – there is so much to learn in the form of videos and blogs on this site.

BetterGrads is helping current students connect with older ones to expand their knowledge base. You could take part in eMentoring and there are great college question and answer resources. It is actually a program that you join, and it is run by a non-profit organization.

Overall the above are just a few of the online resources that can help you with your education. Don’t forget to double check the credibility of each resource that you use. There is a lot of misguided information out there. If you do find a resource that you aren’t sure about then you can always ask your lecturer after class.

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This was a post by Lior Levin who works for a psd to css company that does psd conversions. Lior also advises to the MA in security program at the Tel Aviv university. You can find Lior on Twitter as Liors

Thank you, Lior. I love the way you approach ideas!

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