Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 06-04-10

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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

WorkLifeNation
But there is swelling support to help you achieve what social media expert Chris Brogan calls “escape velocity.” “The ability to leave a situation that isn’t helpful or desired.” It’s the path less traveled where you’ve got your feet planted in the financial security of a steady job, while igniting the journey toward doing work that you’re passionate about.

Chris Brogan
Yesterday, my blog was not my job, so I didn’t write one. Today? I have two speeches over the next few days. That was my job first, and then this post.

America’s Best Business Practices
I have written many articles on this blog about the huge benefits of using social media in marketing. So please don’t mistake this article as some type of put-down for social media. It is not. I believe that social media has leveled the playing field to some degree between big business and small business. Nonetheless, as with many great things, it can sometimes go wrong.

Shamable
Web traffic for the sake of traffic is meaningless. This is why I don’t advocate always targeting a “top blogger” in any vertical. It makes zero sense to chase big numbers, just as shotgun marketing did — just ask our friend, the banner ad.

Operation Safe
I have been looking at a few blog posts that share what kind of tweets someone should make, and wondering what the right balance for a non-profit like us should be. I won’t claim any magic formula but this is what is working for us.

JR’s Internet Marketing Strategies
Overall, dofollow is obviously the best type of backlink because it passes link juice from one site to another and counts the anchor text for keyword relevance, but, do not discount the nofollow completely!

Related ala carte selections include

Oatmeal.com
via @ChrisGuillebeau

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

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

Cool Tool Review: Highrise

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Todd Hoskins Reviews Tools for Business

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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.

Cool Tool Review: Highrise
A Review by Todd Hoskins

Liz reminds us, “Relationships are everyone’s business, and every business is relationships.”

How are you keeping track of your business relationships? This is the purpose of CRM – Customer Relationship Management. CRM is a broad category of software, encompassing anything from fancy address books to sales forecasting and client invoicing. But essentially, CRM is understanding who are the people and companies important to your company. Sidenote: I hate the “M” in the acronym. What customer (or anyone for that matter) wants their relationship managed?

Nonetheless, the people you and your employees know are one of the single most valuable assets to your company. It is essential to develop a database of contact information. It’s a bonus if you also can encourage your employees to include correspondence records and organize their to-do’s in one central place. This way, if one of your employees leaves the company, you can instantly see where they left off and what needs to be done.

Two months ago we looked at Rapportive, a very simple social CRM tool. Rapportive is great for giving you context to who you are corresponding with, and where to find them online. But it currently only offers individual accounts. For businesses, you need something more.

I recommend Highrise. Highrise, developed by the trailblazing software renegades at 37signals is just enough without being too much. If you’ve read this column before you know I appreciate simplicity in design and usability. Highrise shines here.

There are a handful of add-ons that can make Highrise into Salesforce.com lite. The basic product allows you to easily enter names, companies, tags, contact info, social network locations, and notes. You can assign tasks to yourself or others. You can also set levels of permissions so your junior associate doesn’t have your board member’s cell phone.

The pricing is relatively cheap, starting at $25 per month. (Also, a 30-day trial is free regardless of company size). We are all waiting for a customized Android and Blackberry app. iPhone app is available.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 2/5 – more options for business integration with Salesforce.com or Sugar CRM for SaaS. Or maybe your stuck with Oracle.

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – must-have. The hard part is getting your employees to use it consistently.

Personal Value: 0/5 – an online address book or an old fashioned Rolodex is good enough

Follow The Leaders and Be Your Own

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By Terez Howard

A blogger is not just a blogger, not just a writer. Sure, the basic nuts and bolts of blogging includes stringing words together to make an entertaining, informative blend of copy. A truly great blogger also is a follower.

What? A follower? That’s what I said. And you thought that a major part of blogging was uniqueness. You’re not incorrect. That one-of-a-kind feel is necessary. You see, top bloggers make it to the top because they learn from other top bloggers.

It’s starting to make sense, huh? We bloggers learning the ropes (I include myself) can benefit greatly from regularly checking out what the bloggers who know their way around the web have to say.

But who are these great leaders?

I have my favorites, which I will share. But first, let me say that this will be different for everyone, depending on your niche, style and goals. In addition, there are business professionals that you might discover that have nothing to do with your specific niche, style or goals. You just like what they say and see the benefit from their words of wisdom. Let’s examine each of these.

1. Niche. What is your niche? If you are a fashion blogger, you should read well-established fashion blogs. Emulate what they do, while making your blog your blog. Do not be a copy cat.

I haven’t yet found a blogger who exactly does what I do. If you know any bloggers for businesses that willingly share their knowledge, please let me know.

2. Style. If you are looking to improve your writing skills, visit a blog that helps you become a more prolific writer. I believe a multitude of these blogs exist. If you’re like me, you don’t have the time to follow everyone; so find the person who blogs in a way that makes sense to you.

As for style, my absolute favorite blogger is Jennifer Mattern. I found her blog allfreelancewriting.com about six months ago, and I’ve been following her advice on writing and building a business, tailoring it to make it work for me. If you follow what she says, you will not fail.

3. Goals. What goals do you hope to achieve with blogging? If you want to make money selling your own product, you should visit blogs that tell you how to do this.

Hint: Look for ones that offer tons of free advice and don’t reek of sales copy. These are the bloggers that will truly have a desire to help you.

One of my goals is to make a modest living by blogging. I look to Chris Brogan on chrisbrogan.com to help me see how I can get my name out there. I notice that he primarily focuses on helping people. While I want to make money (I’m being honest!), I sincerely want to help people. I refuse to use fraudulence for material gain.

4. I like it. I ran across successful-blog.com when I was looking for leaders. I enjoyed what Liz Strauss had to say and how she got her point across. She’s the businesswoman who makes you think and motivates you to do something. I’m very grateful for the time she has taken with me.

You have your leaders. Now what?

Now you be you. Be unique. Take what leading bloggers say, apply it to your blog and make it your own. This isn’t a mindless game of follow the leader. The blogger does a dance, and you attempt to imitate the routine precisely. No. You dance to the beat of your own drum.

Who are some of your favorite bloggers and why?

 

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Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!

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

Social Media Book List: Happy About the Career Alphabet & Socialnomics

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors and writers by managing their online promotion. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!). I am here to offer a weekly post about one book author I am working with and one book I have put on my reading list. This week I will be highlighting ‘Happy about the Career Alphabet’. and ‘Socialnomics’ by Eric Qualman. The books will cover topics such as social media (Facebook and Twitter), organization, career building, networking, writing, self development and inspiration.

Happy About the Career Alphabet-An A-Z Primer for Job Seekers of All Ages *800+ Fast & Easy Tweet-Style Tips*

career-alphabetmid

Sucher’s newest book allows those searching for the next phase in their professional life to be filled with integrity and class, whether you are a recent college graduate or looking to transition your career to a new industry.
‘Happy About the Career Alphabet’ provides a quick read in a streamlined format giving those new to the professional world to even those seasoned executives with over eight hundred tips on such topics as resume writing, interviewing, job search and personal branding inspired by Sucher’s twenty five years of career coaching, consulting and counseling.

About the Author:
Billie Sucher is a nationally-known career transition expert, outplacement consultant, professional résumé writer, speaker, author, poet, and prolific blogger for Career Hub. For over two decades, she has provided professional career management services to organizations and individuals (entry-level to executive-level) throughout the country, doing so with an unwavering commitment to and passion for:

* Career Consulting, Counseling & Coaching
* Professional & Executive Résumé Writing
* Company-sponsored Outplacement & Career Transition Programs (Group/Individual)
* Personal Branding for Competitive Advantage
* Interview Coaching to Win the Offer
* Public Speaking & Seminars on Career Topics

Sucher holds a Master’s degree in Counseling from Drake University and numerous industry certifications including International Job and Career Transition Coach, Career Management Alliance Credentialed Career Manager Distinction and William Bridge’s Transition Management Certification. Her résumé/cover letter work is featured in twenty-eight national best-selling books. Earlier this year, Billie was named one of the 150+ Experts on Twitter ALL Job Seekers MUST Follow and one of the 50 Personal Branding Consultants Worth Working With.

You can purchase a copy of ‘Happy about the Career Alphabet’ online at ThinkAha books or at Amazon.

This blog post is part of a virtual book tour done by Key Business Partners and I have received a complimentary copy of ‘Happy about the Career Alphabet’ by the author.

Socialnomics

Now I would like to highlight a book on my “review” reading list–Socialnomics.

Here is some great information that Eric shared on Amazon about the book:

A fascinating, research-based look at the impact of social media on businesses and consumers around the world, and what’s in store for the future

Social Media. You’ve heard the term, even if you don’t use the tools. But just how big has social media become? Social media has officially surpassed pornography as the top activity on the Internet. People would rather give up their e-mail than their social network. It is so powerful that it is causing a macro shift in the way we live and conduct business. Socialnomics charts this shift from the forefront.

Brands can now be strengthened or destroyed by the use of social media. Online networking sites are being used as giant, free focus groups. Advertising is less effective at influencing consumers than the opinions of their peers. If you aren’t using social media in your business strategy, you are already behind your competition.

About Eric:
Erik Qualman is Global Vice President of Online Marketing for EF Education, the world’s largest private educator. Over his fifteen-year career, Qualman has also helped grow the online marketing and e-business functions of Cadillac, AT&T, Yahoo, EarthLink, and Travelzoo. He is a columnist for the Web site Search Engine Watch and SES Magazine. He has been featured on various national radio, television, and Internet outlets.
*courtesy of Amazon

You can purchase a copy of ‘Socialnomics’ on Amazon or in Liz’s Amazon Store.

I truly hope you will check out these books and please comment and let me know your thoughts on them.

Five Critical Pitfalls that Can Disable Any Social Media Team

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A Team Needs Power to Work

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As you consider and hire the people for your social media team, think through the responsibilities you’ll be handing over. Because if you don’t hand over responsibility, accountability and the corresponding power, you’ll be be setting the team up for failure.

Now, if that’s your purpose – to ensure failure. You can do that by first setting aside any leadership skills you’ve learned and tapping into your own insecurity. Get closer to your fear of change and cling tight to what used to work. Repeat after me

If this social media thing works, I might have to change how I do things or worse they might take my job.

If you read that without a smile, then maybe it’s time to click away, because this is really is about how to make your life easier by building a powerful social media team who will take work and worries off your desk.

Yes, the worries too … because if you can avoid these five critical pitfalls they’ll on your team and be making the same great choices you would make in the social media situations they face.

  • Pitfall 1: Change your team’s priorities randomly and often. Make each day a moving target. As soon as they start to look good at one thing, place your focus on a different aspect of the job.
  • Pitfall 2: Don’t allow them time to develop a realistic social strategy. Ask for a schedule that will have them up and using every tool you can name before they have enough time to learn it’s nuances and relational value. Just pull out a calendar. Then hold them to dates they can’t control.
  • Pitfall 3: Develop a plan for resources and budget, but don’t share it. That way they’ll have to ask permission for every paperclip they need to use. They won’t be able to have a viable idea, let alone respond to someone on social site.
  • Pitfall 4: Focus heavily on a quality and communication standard that requires every word to be vetted by 14 approval stages before it can go live. Remove all sense of trust in the people you hire. Train them to fear failure, mistakes, and problems. Then complain about the lack of response to customers.
  • Pitfall 5: Constantly point to misbehavior of customers that have spoken out against other companies. Live by a defensive motto of us versus the “users.” Never allow or invite customers to offer input or reach out to build relationships with the people who buy or use your company’s products.

The pleasures of the pitfalls are that they will keep a team “on their toes” and so busy trying to make something happen, they won’t have a chance to do something that will build anything.

On the other hand, if you want a peak-performing social media team let them onto the field.

  • Hire people who love serving people and give them clear goals and priorities.
  • Choose the people who love the company’s mission and let them build a practical strategy to achieve it. Give them time to move slowly onto the social web as they know the tools.
  • Give them the resources — people and tools — they need to perform well.
  • Train them how mature online relationships work and trust them to ask when things get critical or need legal counsel.
  • Encourage them to advocate for customers and ways for customers to build relationships with the company and each other.

The pleasures of opening the door to peak performance is a team that grows, keeps learning, and turns customers into fiercely loyal fans.

What are the pitfalls of social media management you’ve discovered? What do you see that leads a team to peak performance?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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A Dozen $100,000 Brand Ideas for Celebrating Our Heroes Through Social Media

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poppy

I’ve been reading about the history of Memorial Day, before it became about blow-out sales and backyard bar-b-ques.

And the words I’ve found take me back to when my mom still called it “Decoration Day.” She’d buy a paper poppy from the man at the VFW to put in the button hole of my coat. Then she’d take me with her to put flowers on the graves of those we love who lay sleeping while we could still stand, reflect, kneel to say, “thank you.”

Memorial Day is about gratitude, reconciliation, and honoring heroes who paid the ultimate price. They gave and we got.

Rebranding Memorial Day

In his series for Fast Company, Steve McCallion says:

So far we’ve explored how Memorial Day lost its meaning, but how can we get it back? How can we remember Memorial Day in a way that is authentic and relevant today? In this era of instant gratification, can we come together as a nation to recognize the sacrifices that have been made for our freedoms?

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Click through on the image for his marvelous ideas on how to rebrand to remind us what Memorial Day means.

A Dozen $100,000 Brand Ideas for Celebrating Our Heroes Through Social Media

Social media is about honoring our heroes and connecting people, isn’t it? If anyone knows how to do that we do … big companies, little companies, individuals don’t need to do much to put the celebrating and gratitude back into remembering those who sacrificed for our freedom.

Here are a few ideas …

  1. Apple might sell a limited yellow version of the iPhone — or simply choose any yellow iPod product — to donate a portion of sales to hire a social media team to help the White House Commission on Remembrance or The Memorial Day Foundation get their message out next year.
  2. 3M might build a Post-it Note Quote Community by inviting friends and families to publish quotes of their fallen heroes.

    My son would always smile and say, “There’s lots of apple pies, but I’ve only got one mother.”

  3. Berskshire Hathaway might find a volunteer team of social media mavens among their thousands of employees. If that team put out a penny-match challenge, I bet they could pitch a penny campaign that would travel across Twitter and fire through Facebook. Perhaps the collected money go toward health insurance or college scholarships for children of fallen soldiers.
  4. Johnson & Johnson already has communities of nurses and caregivers. They could send out a call via their site, Twitter, and Facebook. They could connect with nurses and caregivers who have shared the final hours with fallen soldiers. Imagine the wealth of history in those stories. If they partnered with the VFW or the Military Channel, that content could make an incredible interview series.
  5. Kodak or Polaroid could build a YouTube channel or a flickr collection for customers and employees to retell the stories of fallen soldiers. With the help of Scholastic, they package them as primary source materials with lesson plans for teachers to share with kids studying history. Teachers could upload comments, videos, and new ideas to add to the community.
  6. Kraft Foods or ConAgra could build the recipe book of heroes. How hard would be to use social media to ask the families of fallen soldiers to share the favorite recipes of loved ones who served our country? Imagine if the Food Channel cooked each recipe and shared the videos on YouTube?
  7. Hallmark Cards or American Greetings could invite the families of fallen soldiers to share cards they received from our heroes and tell the stories behind the cards. Suppose they tweeted a new free Hero ECard for a year?
  8. Starbucks or Panera Bread might print the pictures and a simple memorial statement on the cups that hold their coffee and tea. Folks could Tweet and Facebook their nominations.
  9. Lands End or L.L.Bean could offer a yellow ribbon discount to honor fallen soldiers. Instead of a promo code they might ask for 140 characters in tribute to our heroes. The promo codes could forward to Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook.
  10. Sony Music or Universal might put together a collection of songs for heroes by celebrity artists and donate the proceeds to HireHeroes. The songs could be on blip.fm and tweeted. We could DJ a Friday night hero Twitter party.
  11. Netflix could partner with the major studios to sponsor a $1 day of movies and documentaries about our heroes. Ambassadors from families could help chose the appropriate titles and be featured as recommending them. MailOurMilitary.com and milblogging.com might help promote a cause like this one. Netflix might challenge corporations and foundations to add matching funds to support grants to families of fallen heroes.
  12. Southwest Airlines, Marriott, and CNN might partner to offer veterans incredible deals to gather together in D.C. on Memorial Day 2011 to share the stories of fallen heroes.

What would the companies and brands get? They’d get the respect and loyalty of employees and customers who honor our heroes. People remember generosity that connects them to authentic, relevant meaning.

Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure. – Abraham Lincoln

Isn’t that also true of our businesses?

I know you probably see a thousand ways to expand on each of these ideas — ways that each could be tweaked or twisted to fit another business. Take ’em and use ’em. I’d love to hear how you might re-invent an idea or what new ideas came to mind while you were reading.

How will you remember our heroes?

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

I’m a proud affiliate of

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