When we were walking on the beach today I saw a feather lying on the sand, I said to Des we could use this for Beach Notes today. An instant writing implement. I usually write my beach inspirations with a stone, a stick or a dried sea pod. The beach offers so many opportunities for improvisation and creativity.
Amazing how ideas appear just in time.
Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,
I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.
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.
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
San Francisco November 9, 2010 marks the first annual International Bees Awards in recognition to the best Social Media communications and marketing practices. I’m proud to serve as a member of the Iinternational Bees Awards jury. I’m also excited to report that
Social media is still an emerging market and there are a lot of questions and curiosities revolving around this new medium. Upon submission, entires have the oppurtunity to become case studies for the international press. Entries are kept 100 % confidential unless stated otherwise.
Case studies that have been shared with the public come from Sweden, Japan, and Canada, showcasing campaigns for IKEA and Cirque du Soleil’s One Drop are shared on the Bees Awards Blog.
The professionalism behind the criteria for choosing the jury, the truly international focus, and the dedication to quality make this event one to keep an eye on.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
I’m a proud affiliate of
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.
Social Media Explorer
Social CRM is being hawked by monitoring services, market research firms, traditional sales software and â if you can believe it â Twitter applications. Brand managers, marketing managers and agencies everywhere are anxious to get them some of that social CRM, by golly. Sadly, most of them donât even know what CRM stands for.
Smart Blog on Social Media
When the song does come on my iPhone via shuffle, I quickly skip it and move to the next. So why do I get so excited when a song I can listen to anytime comes on the radio? The answer is that someone else, with a far greater reach, has chosen to share one of âmy songsâ with their audience.
OPENForum
We multitask at work â flitting between 12 browser tabs, chatting on IM, taking phone calls, processing our inboxes. We multi-task in the car â driving, texting, listening to the radio. We multi-task in the kitchen â talking to our partners, chopping vegetables, checking our Blackberries or iPads. Yet, multi-tasking has been proven time and again to be a miserable failure.
So how do we fight back?
Mack Collier
Let me clear up front: If you are going to use social media, you absetively should have a strategy driving your efforts. Totally.
But simply creating a social media strategy and executing it doesnât mean you are using social media correctly. I can create a blogging strategy for your company and tell you exactly what to do, but that still doesnât mean youâll have a successful blog.
Blog for Profit
Should your blogâs domain name be a brand or your own name? Or should it contain search keywords? Grant and I get this question all time from our clients. The answer may surprise you.
EConsultancy
You can measure a thousand different metrics and still fail at social media, because youâre ignoring the hundreds of different methods involved. If you want to create true engagement, then youâll need to drop any preconceptions you might have about market behaviour and take time to speak personally to each customer.
Chris Pirillo
I spend probably 80% of my working time writing things. I communicate with people across social networks. I compose missives to be sent to various people. I occasionally author books and articles. I draft items to send to potential sponsors. I dash off the quick email
or hundred. The one thing I do not do is write a letter. Who needs to do such a thing in this day and age of 140 characters or less?
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
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A simple few minutes where a guy who is brilliant makes an observation about social media that you might have already been thinking. This column brought to you by the evil conspiracy that is Steve Plunkett and Liz Strauss.
When people say “Thanks for the RT,”, I always shoot back, “Thanks for the good info”.. I read it, I may have even blogged it. It was good info, so I passed it along, you don’t need to thank me for sharing and trusting your credibility. Believing in you enough to click on a link? That you earned anyways via engagement and professionalism. But you are welcome, again, thanks for the info. When you retweet me, you are saying “Thanks for the info”.
Hope you enjoyed these moments with Steve’s Shorts.
M/C/C’s Director, Search, Steve Plunkett, is responsible for all aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet user behavior. Plunkett’s competitive personality makes him a perfect fit in the competitive world of SEO. As a child and a gamer, he worked hard ensuring that it was his initials at the top of every arcade game unit in his neighborhood. Today, he uses SEO to ensure his clients appear at the top of the search engine results âand offers an array of optimization services that are scoring big for those clients.
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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.
Are you a taskmaster?
If you’re like me, the answer is “sometimes.” Becoming focused on tasks and ferociously managing a checklist of To-Do’s has some risks including:
1. You forget the big picture. Vision and purpose disappear, and you adopt the perspective of the mouse rather than the eagle, moving from one crumb to the next.
2. You get overwhelmed by the amount of tasks to be done. Losing sight of priorities and limitations, you shut down, or do the easy/fun/random task rather than being focused and thoughtful.
3. You tackle the urgent rather than the important. Eating only when you are starving leads to peaks and valleys in energy, and creates a domino effect of bad habits.
4. You do what everyone else needs you to do. Not paying attention to your own needs and desires leads to resentment, depression, and lifelessness.
5. You rebel against obligation. Some addiction or distraction pulls you away from responsibility and you play the proverbial round of golf while the mortgage is 60 days overdue. The internal cry of “F*** this!” is a sign that some combination of risks 1,2,3, and 4 are demanding your attention.
The reason David Allen’s Getting Things Done system has become so popular is that we all get overwhelmed, lose focus, and find less satisfaction in the “raking leaves syndrome” of working than we want. Also, the concept of Getting Things Done is meant to be applied to your whole life, not just your job or business. It’s a great feeling when we are moving towards goals, personally and professionally, and on a daily basis enjoying the sense that “I was productive. I was focused. I did what I wanted to do. I did what I needed to do. And I am moving towards accomplishing what is important to me.”
The psychological basis of GTD is simply that we spend too much of our time with too much information in our head. The key is to get it out of our head, and onto paper (or software). Leo Babauta provides a great introduction here. The checklist by itself fails to recognize that many tasks must be done to complete a project (“Buy vacation condo” and “Send email to Dad” are not comparable). Ideas become projects that then are broken down into tasks. Then, the tasks must be prioritized and put in context – What can be done at home? On errands? At the office?
For me, GTD was a godsend. I juggle fatherhood, multiple clients, creative projects, websites, relationships, social events, and domestic activities. “Getting it all out” in order to get it done forces me to reevaluate what I’m doing, and lets me occasionally experience the bliss of flow.
So, after some research and conversations with other GTD believers, I can recommend the following software on their respective platforms.
Mac: OmniFocus is the favorite premium offering with lots of slick features, but for the money (donationware), the best is iGTD. “It works how I think,” said one user.
PC: Avoid the Outlook plug-ins, as they tend to make email the primary focus rather than an additional feature. Nozbe is built for individuals and organizations, and also works with Evernote. Nozbe also has an iPhone and iPad app. For installed software, Wieldy is nice and simple. I tried it, and found it useful, but I’m too dependent on my mobile device, and I prefer the cloud over a local program.
Android: ActionComplete gets the nod. The coolest feature is that it can be location-enabled. reminding you of tasks based on your geographical coordinates (You are close to the dry cleaners!)
Summing Up â Is it worth it?
Enterprise Value: 3/5 â GTD does not resonate with everyone, therefore it’s hard to implement for large organizations. Look at Nozbe. Also, Backpack is a good enterprise tool and GTD-friendly.
Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 â Focus. How many entrepreneurs do you know who need focus?
Personal Value: 5/5 â Getting your life in order + making dreams a reality!
Let me know what you think!
Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.
