Successful Blog

Great Idea? What’s Your Strategy for Visibility?

by

Go Out and Tell People ????

It’s so exciting to have a great idea, a great project, a great new job! How can we share the exciting things we’re doing without constantly talking about about ourselves? No thoughtful person wants to risk turning to “that guy”? No one who’s met “that guy” wants to do business with him.

It helps a lot if we don’t go hunting an audience.

When I figured out that asking folks what they’re doing and how they might help me do better at what I’m doing, talking about my work got easier, more fun, and more meaningful.

What’s your strategy for making your great ideas visible?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

Toeing the Line

by

kathyrnj_button1

“If you are asked to toe the line the you are expected to conform to the rules of the situation.” from James Briggs

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

We all have certain roles and responsibilities we are committed to upholding. Some of these commitments are made by choice, others we as a result of that choice. (Ex: you chose to marry someone: choice; you have a relationship with their family as well: acquistion).

528447370_1ffc43878c_m Some of these choices mean supressing certain aspects of our personalities. Some choices we make definitely require us to toe the line and I’m okay with that.

When we have a blog we have responsibilities to ourselves to be true in our writing but then we start to find an audience and often that audience comes with expectations. Those expectations can be seen in the comments and in the reactions to certain content. It does seem tempting to just stick with what’s been working.

“Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken.”

But I wonder if we all toe the line a little too much.

Do you blog like you’re expected to in a “certain situation”, maybe according to what your readers expect? Do you write according to how you have always written? Do you write about the same things you have always written about?

When I meet someone offline that I read regularly online I’m always surprised by something about them. A crazy way they dress, an interest they have never expressed through their blog or an amazing sense of humor that I didn’t pick up in their writing.

I’d like to think I can write about all the things I am interested in and not hold anything back . I’d like to provide content a little outside the box from time to time. Something to get people thinking and hopefully provide some value. This could work as an advantage by attracting new readers and that’s always good! New conversation and opinions are always worthwhile.

The disadvantage may come from throwing off some of your regular readers and making them feel a little alienated. Hopefully we can think of ourselves as accepting and patient enough with those we read to allow them room to change, grow and try new things.

I’d like to think I’m adventurous enough. Are you?

from Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

photo darkmatter

Attracting Knowledge Workers to Real-Life Communities

by

Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware, writing at The Future of Work
, ask:

What can you do to help your community become a net attractor of knowledge worker talent?

We have synthesized our ideas and Gardner’s into a few simple questions you can use in community development workshops. Please bear in mind that this list is research in progress and doesn’t yet exist as a formal diagnostic instrument; but we believe it gives us a good basis for working with serious community leaders to start the conversation.

1. Do the people in our community share a similar purpose for living here?
2. Is our community highly diverse in its cultural and ethnic makeup? Do we practice an openness that allows all of us to question all of our assumptions?
3. Is teamwork among our community members very important and valued?
4. Are people in our community recognized publicly for their contributions?
5. Does everyone in our community communicate well with each other?
6. Does our community have a distinct and unique identity? Is there local pride in what we do and represent?
7. Is our community connected economically and politically with others in our region? Do we play an active leadership role in developing the region politically, economically, and environmentally?
8. Do we welcome new members to our community, even when they come from different backgrounds and have different lifestyles?
9. Do we believe in the “equal rights” of all our residents to transportation, education, clean air, and public spaces?
10. How easily does our community resolve conflicts among our members?
11. Do our residents invest time and energy to develop the community? To improve our schools? To ensure a sustainable environment?
12. Do we have adequate resources in our community to help it thrive?
13. Are we constantly seeking to “push the envelope” and striving to become a better, more interesting place?
14. Do we support and encourage innovation in both our public and our commercial enterprises?

That’s it. Short and sweet. The world changes, and your community changes or dies. Give this quick-check diagnostic a try. Go out into your community and ask people these simple questions (and ask yourself, too). You may be surprised at the answers—or you may decide to rent a moving van the next day.

Read the whole thing, and participate in the discussion here.

How Do You Let Folks Know What You Do Without Pitching Them?

by

Tools Need a Purpose

Got a hammer, looking for nails to use it?

Got a Twitter account, don’t do that.

Social media tools work so much more effectively when we decide a few things before we use them.

What to Do Before You Twitter

Know what business you’re in and know your ideal online customer.

If you’ve not done that in the last six months, the definition you’re using probably isn’t the best one. The generational nature of the online culture means that our base of customers is always shifting, growing, learning.

Draw a picture. Make a prototype of the customer you’ve just identified. What do you offer that makes that customer’s life faster, easier, or more meaningful?

Now that you think you know that. Go find people who meet that description and ask them what they care about … and listen.

Go back and revise your offer to meet what they care about not what you thought they did. Then keep listening — build relationships and get to know your potential customers better. When you talk about what you do, talk the way you tell friends what’s going on in your life.

You don’t pitch your friends do you?

The folks you meet will say when they need you. When you hear them talk about a way you might help, just say, “By the way, that’s what I do.”

When we’re authentically listening, we can hear who actually needs our help.

How do you let folks know what you do without pitching them? I bet you have some secret ways of doing that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

The Mic Is On: We're Talking Online and Offline Cultures

by

It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

It’s Not a Another Life …

When go to another country, when we talk on the telephone, we don’t say that we’re not in real life. But somehow we’ve started thinking that because we’re using our minds to connect online, we’re not in the real world. It’s a different culture with different rules that’s all.

  • How does trust work differently in different cultures?
  • How is coming online like going to another country?
  • How do you figure out who’s good and who is not in different cultures?
  • What makes relationships faster online?
  • What makes relationships misfire in person, on the phone, and on the Internet?
1045178_strange_world

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring example links.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: sxc.hu
Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

How Do You Keep Negative Comments from Turning You Around?

by

Sometimes It’s Semantics …

Who hasn’t had the joyous experience of a negative comment? We overhear them around the corner, confront them in conversation, and find them written boldly on our blogs. It helps to remember that they’re often more about the person talking … what that person heard, misheard, or never listened to from the start.

It helps a lot if we don’t make such things about ourselves.

A friend asked me once how I handled negative comments on my blog. My first sentence was, “Well I’m a saloonkeeper’s daughter and I used to teach first grade …” I had no idea how that sounded until she laughed out loud.

How do you keep negative words from turning you around?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!