Successful Blog

What If the Social Web Froze Over and No One Came?

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cooltext443860173_ive-been-thinking about communities and harbors online and off.

I like watching the harbor out our window change. A recent snowfall covered it. The foggy diffused sunlight softens it, and tricks my eyes into thinking the whole world has gone black and white. A faint shimmer on the icy snow calls back to last spring when sailors filled it with life.

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I suppose few sailors who keep their boats in the harbor ever have a chance to see the harbor this quiet way. I wonder how it might change their experience next spring if they were looking at the lonely, frozen-over beauty I see out my window today.

The harbor is a community. I watch it as the boats come to take their places each season. I see the people with so much and so little in common take their places and have conversations. I see other people sail and watch without saying much of anything.

Can’t help but wonder what a sailor or two might do if when they returned next spring to find the harbor somehow was forever frozen over and empty.

Then this morning I read this morning that Yahoo! Will Kill MyBlogLog Next Month.

What if the social web froze over and no one came? Would you read and blog anyway? Would you just visit your harbors offline?

Liz's Signature

Thanks to Week 218 SOBs

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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.

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adam-bean
the-champion-of-choice
collateral-damage
freshbump
she-conomy

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

Thoughtful Wish, Feelingful Gift, Words Are Powerful Things

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Every Christmas my mom would bake the most wonderful cookies and fudge for weeks. Starting in October, she spent hours wrapping a roomful of the most beautiful gifts — some for kids I hardly knew. She hand wrote and addressed hundreds of personal Christmas cards. And it took her nearly a week to decorate the most sparkling, beautifully lighted tree.

Christmas was my mother’s holiday. She delighted in giving Christmas to everyone in so many ways. For days before and after, people dropped by to be part of the way she made the holiday about sharing. For those who couldn’t come to our house, she made deliveries.

Every cookie, every bow, every card, every tinsel on the tree was a thoughtful and feelingful gift for us all.

Today, I sit with my hands on these keys and realize what I can offer has to be wrapped up in words. So I offer these words to you.

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May your life be sweet. Here’s a wish that every cookie or sugary treat will remind you of the sweetness in you that I see. Here’s a hope that you bring it out. Share it. Carry it on your sleeve.

May your time be beautiful. Here’s a wish that every gift you receive will remind you of a beautiful moment that you value. Here’s a hope that you capture that memory. Picture it. Write it. Tell it to someone who would know what it means.

May your relationships sparkle with joy. Here’s a wish that every star will remind you of someone who has been a light in your life. Here’s hope that you fill your heart, your mind, and your future with constellations of people who shine.

May you always know my gratitude. Here’s a wish that I can tell you that in person soon.

That’s my thoughtful wish and feelingful gift in words to you.
Only words, but then again, my mom would say, “Words are powerful things.”

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

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Stories and Ideas for Your Blog that You Won't Find on Twitter

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Gather Our Stories

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Once upon a time when we were young our parents and teacher told us stories to pass on information. Long ago the oral history of nations was shared the same way.

Many of us blog for our businesses. Blogging allows us to share our expertise and our knowledge base. We could spread our wisdom all day on Twitter. Twitter can give us a podium on which to stand and deliver our message to the world. Blogs can do that too. We’re best if we don’t go there. Podiums make lecturers.

We might like to learn, but few folks like to be taught.

Great teachers share stories, and in that way, pass on what they’ve experienced. They follow the writers’ rule of “show don’t tell,” pointing out examples that bring home ideas and lessons that are meaningful in ways that principles alone could never illuminate.

I want to know how you know what you know so that I can be sure what you’re learned will work for me.

It’s my experience that telling stories lets people find their way into a situation or an idea without a wall of information between. Stories entertain without being intimidating or intrusive. We can see how to apply good story without feeling that we’re being judge for what we may have done wrong.

While you spend your holidays, tell stories. Even more listen to them. Find great stories and ideas to bring back.

  • Listen for the wisdom.
  • Listen for the ideas to share.
  • Listen so that you can blog the shareable stories.

You’ll have something to blog, that will never you’ll never find on Twitter. Stories that move and compel us to action are longer and more moving than will fit in 140 characters. You’ll find them in real life not on Twitter.

Why do you blog when you could just Twitter?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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If You Want to Get People to Love What You Do …

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Andy Sernovitz is always insightful on Word of Mouth Marketing.

There is no force on Earth that talks more than a teenager in love. … sounds like an executive with a new iPhone.

Love breaks the barrier between money and marketing. When you have great Word of Mouth, you don’t need to pay people to talk about you. Thrilling people with great service and satisfaction changes the way that people see us … people start talking about us because we are awesome. We build an army of fans who stick around even after the economy as improves.

In that way,

Marketing is what you do not what you say.

Before we get great word of mouth, we have to give people something to love.

If you want to get people to love what you do …

  • Talk to everyone you can about what you offer.
  • Ask them what parts make their lives easier, more fun, more meaningful.
  • Ask over and over what they don’t love, what gets in the way.
  • Add more of what make their lives easier, more fun, more meaningful.
  • Remove all you can of what gets in the way.
  • Ask the same people whether the new offer shows that you heard them … ask over and over until the ones that matter can only smile and agree.
  • Celebrate and honor their help when you share the new version of what offer.

Word of mouth is love not money. Love means we talk to each other. Love means we listen to make each other’s life better too.

What better word of mouth is there than someone in love?

What products and services do you love enough to talk about?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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Influence: He Leaves People Feeling Proud to Know Him …

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This is Carly Simon, No Secrets
, in 1972.

His friends are more than fond of Robin
He doesn’t need to compliment them
And always as he leaves he leaves them
Feeling proud just to know him … — His Friends Are More Than Fond of Robin

Those few lines made me want to meet the guy the song was about. That description has influenced me for more than 30 years.

When I say I’m proud to know you, it unpacks to many things:

  • I respect your values.
  • I trust that you hold people around you safe.
  • I see your competence, credibility, and generosity.
  • I recognize your integrity.
  • I want to share you with my friends.
  • You make it easy to be my better self when I am with you.

Proud to know you, for me, means outstanding, shareable, and easy. Robin had the best Word of Mouth in the 70s. No wonder the lyrics also said

He’s talked about before he gets there …

We talk about what we like.

Who do know that’s talked about like that?

What makes you proud to know someone?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of