Successful Blog

Thanks to Week 170 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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fithacks
Got A Hero?

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

BlogWell 2 Chicago: Some Big Companies Do Connect

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Experience Is The Best Teacher

If we hang too long in the wrong corners of the social web, we might form the impression that all big companies are evil or inept. The ones I met yesterday were anything but.

Great companies — big and small — have always cared about customers.

Yesterday, I had the experience of BlogWell 2 Chicago: How Big Companies Use Social Media, a 1/2 day seminar, offered by blogcouncil and gaspedal. The event was under the care of gas pedal CEO, bestselling author and Word of Mouth Maven, Andy Sernovitz.

I attended on a press pass, and I’m delighted that I went. The seminar wasn’t what I expected. I was surprised by familiar “blogger passion and camaraderie” of the event. Possibly that open atmosphere could be the strongest proof that these companies are set on getting social media “right.”

Blogwell is framed around 8 major brand case studies presented as two tracks of four. All are taped on video so that participants can see the case studies they don’t attend. The companies presenting were:

  • The Home Depot
  • Mayo Clinic
  • H&R Block
  • Sharpie
  • US Coast Guard
  • Allstate
  • Molson
  • Procter & Gamble

The sold out room was filled with big companies, consultants, and members of the press talking every possible minute about how social media might fit their business and how businesses might find ways to help people connect. [Check the sidebar to see the Videos from BlogWell 1]

The compelling thread that seemed to run through every story was that despite the size of the company or the brand — from Sharpie to Procter & Gamble — the social web initiative was something that started with a passion for the space and a willingness to learn. I attended four sessions and the messages seemed resoundingly clear … Listen before you act. Start where you are. Move in manageable ways. Know where you’re going. It’s a lot of work. The end game is helping people connect.

The open conversation and communication about moving from the known to the unknown toward the community in ways the community responded to was natural and filled with the positive learning culture all successful thinkers value.

The break conversation was equally refreshing, friendly, and informative. I enjoyed the interactions I had every point of the way. BlogWell was simple, elegant and totally delivered on it’s promise. Don’t hesitate to attend.

These huge brands are tackling the same social media problems we are — we’re building answers from the outside in and from the inside out. I left with the hopeful thought that the digital divide might be closing sooner than I thought.

Thank you, Andy. I hope have that experience again.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOB Business Cafe 01-23-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Logic + Emotion is picturing how it should be.
Effective communication is everyone’s job—whether you are trying to sell in a concept or convince a client….

Levite Chronicles is a quick study.
For the past eight years, almost every month I’ve walked into a board meeting carrying a sheet with numbers on it. The numbers reflect the previous month’s income and expense.

Altitude Branding isn’t betting the farm.
We’ve a bit of this mindset that venturing into social media is an all-or-nothing proposition, or at least we have a tendency to sound that way sometimes. As if you must step forward, but never back.

social media explorer is moving the web.
According to Engadget, some studies are predicting 100% mobile phone penetration in the United States within 4 years; at present, it’s estimated at around 84%. Some research indicates that as of 2008, as much as 3-10% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices.

Related ala carte selections include

And at Middle Zone Musings

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

How Do You Give Back a Conversation to Someone Who's Checked Out?

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Thoughtful – Huh?

Ever patiently listened while another person talked? Ever planned a mental vacation while someone, so completely wrapped up in expressing the details of a thought, didn’t notice you had checked out?

Yeah, I’ve been in there, too.

But yesterday, at least once, I was the one who forgot that I was supposed to let someone else talk. I wandered through my head while I lost the chance to hear another person’s thoughts. He was miles away before I realized he was gone. By that time, the conversation had gone woefully, off course. I wish that guy would have found a way to turn me “off.”

He was generous when I apologized, but by then, he was done. Hope he, at least, had found a mental vacation spot more intriguing than the subject I’d been endlessly exploring without him.

How do you give back a conversation to someone who’s checked out?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Storytelling Hits Home

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“The way to make a movie is to understand that you’re speaking to one person at a time, in the dark.”        

As bloggers we write to tell stories as a way of sharing information in a personal engaging way. A filmmaker takes the same approach and looks for feedback to gauge the response of viewers. We see the fruit of our efforts as individuals respond to our work and, in doing so, allow us to to become part of their community.

This week,I was struck by how powerful the failure of a community can be on an individual. My most recent film project, (Yes, I’m a multi-tasker!) is a documentary about a teenage drug addict. I have built a relationship with my subject and she has let me into her life, her family and, I like to think, into her heart. We have an understanding and although, she relates to me through a lens, figuratively and literally, she trusts me. Recently, we met to shoot some footage. We spent a day together hanging out, talking about her life, her plans and how she was doing. She seemed okay.

The next night I received a call late in the evening. She was sobbing and explained she had been arrested for a robbery. She needed money for drugs and was desperate. She was sorry she let me down and was scared. When I hung up the phone all I could think about how was her community had let her down. She had been in trouble with the law before and had just been released from a facility – no follow-up, no counseling, just released. Her community let her down. When the “fruit” hit the fan, she called me, her filmmaker, her storyteller, not the people I might list on her bio. 

I think this is a very striking example of what happens in the online community, we tell a quick story, we watch for a response, and we may even respond to a few comments. I’m working to let the people know in my community when they make “that call”, I’m on the other end of the phone – are you?

Kathryn aka northernchick

How Might a Promise Like that Change a Life?

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What if you took yourself seriously?
What if for just one week you

  • . . . saw your strengths and not your weaknesses?
  • . . . did the work on your projects to your highest standards?
  • . . . gave yourself the respect you’d give to the holiest, most whole person
    you might meet?

What if you made a promise, swore to keep it, and only told it to yourself?

Would you take an extreme challenge to treat yourself as the best you — not the one you take for granted. Have you done so already?

How might a promise like that change a life?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!