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SOB Business Cafe 01-09-09

January 9, 2009 by Liz

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

Delightful Work has a clear take on achieving prosperity.
Many have experienced the emptiness of wealth without purpose. Others have experienced authenticity without prosperity. Fewer have experienced both financial abundance and authenticity, simultaneously.

Be Authentic and Grow Rich

Blogging Without A Blog has a clear take on community building.
People innately desire to belong. It makes us feel safe, secure and wanted. The sense of belonging gives us the courage to speak up and share our thoughts and feelings.

Attract Readers – Make Your Blog A Safe Haven

The Harte of Marketing has a clear take on terminology and customer strategy.
The issue at hand, as I see it, is that a lot of people are adding Social Media Marketing as part of their service offerings, but they haven’t spent a day doing the marketing part and because of that they struggle with implementing social media as part of an overall marketing strategy.

Is social media the same as marketing?

ELITEBLOGGER has a clear take on getting traffic.
One of the easiest and best ways to get new traffic to your blog, is to write a guest post for another blog.

A Couple Of Guest Posts, It Works

Harding & Company has a clear take on innovation.
. . . hunger spoils our judgment. Eager to avoid a financial crisis, professionals sometimes overreach, taking on business they shouldn’t.

Rainmaking Problem # 7: Innovation or Overreach

Related ala carte selections include

Think Simple Now has a clear take on what’s attractive.
Just imagine the things we would accomplish if we had the belief that we could do absolutely anything, especially if we could maintain a level of self-esteem that no circumstance could shake. What would you be doing?

The Art of Building Self-Esteem

Gas Pedal is sponsoring a social media event.
Executives from 8 Fortune 150 companies are going to share insights, stories, and case studies on how they do corporate blogging and social media.

BlogWell: How Big Companies Use Social Media

Thank you to everyone who bought my eBook! and Thanks to everyone who’s registered for SOBCon09!!

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

Story Telling: Building Community for Post-Secondary Students

January 8, 2009 by Guest Author

As the Holidays drew to a close and people geared up to go back to work and class, I started thinking about classes, (I could have stayed in school forever – loved it!) and how I wish I had of been blogging when I was in university. Turns out there are lots of students out there not just connecting up on Facebook, but blogging, and for different reasons. I don’t have actual numbers but I talked with some post-secondary students to find out just what blogging and being part of that community means to them.

Teresa Wu blogs with a clear love of writing. She agrees with my suggestion that it does help with academic writing in that she learned to think very clearly about what she wants to say and how it will be perceived. Interestingly enough she said, “It gives me a community to bounce stuff off of, whether that’s just… pictures of my new brother’s new puppy or sharing the ways in which I promoted my humor blog.“Again, the value of community.

Writing with a purpose in mind and great enthusiasm is David Spinks. “The purpose of my blog is not only to share my thoughts and ideas on social media in hopes that people will find my writing to be valuable and communicate back, but also to complement my professional career, and establish myself in the field.” He knows what kind of community he wants to build and is doing it! His love of what he’s doing is contagious – you want to be a part of his community.

Blogging builds community. We see and hear that here, on Successful & Outstanding Bloggers. We’ve heard about it from others, and we know it ourselves to be true. We read, share our thoughts, ideas, expertise and good “finds”. We talk about ourselves. We write comments on blogs we read and share our opinions, ask questions and provoke debate. We link out, link up and search for links. We join in, build and grow. Our strategies may vary. Some choose to build community to market for public relations, or as corporate communications. Others may blog for the love of writing, to engage, share and help out. It’s all the same, really: to build a community. Just the intent may differ.

You are part of a blogging community. Thank you for welcoming me here to this one. Please share something that’s happening in your community.

Kathryn aka @northernchick

Photo credit: forever digital

People Unfollow Me on Twitter and Sometimes I Know Why They Do

January 7, 2009 by Liz

I’m Coming Clean Now

It’s a trick of the numbers — more coming than going out. Most people don’t know. I’ve managed to keep it quiet, but folks are going to find out. Google has my gmail notifications. Twitter could have my data somewhere on file — can’t count on a fail. Someone like that reporter who found out that Dan Lyons was the fake Steve Jobs could break the story. So I might as well come clean now.

People unfollow me on Twitter.

[Excuse for a minute while regain my demeanor.]

People unfollow me. I glad you know. It happens every day and sometimes I know why they do.

Some didn’t want to follow me from the start. They just wanted me to follow them. Every day someone unfollow me as soon as I follow back.
Some unfollow me because I don’t talk about what’s interesting to them. That’s got to be it because I look what they talk about and nothing say matches their Twitter stream.
Some unfollow me because I talk too much. I found that out from a good friend who said, “Love you, babe, but my stream is too small, and you overpower it.”
One unfollowed me because she didn’t like who I was talking to. She told me she did.
Another unfollowed me because he misunderstood a comment I left on his blog. Somehow whatever I said to explain it just made the situation worse.
Some unfollow because Twitter lost the connection. We usually figure that out.

I don’t “get” all the reasons people have for why they follow and unfollow folks. I suspect that some are as irrational as the reasons we buy things, sell things, and marry the people we do. Contrary to urban legend I don’t know anyone who’s died of “unfollow embarrassment.” For me, the conversation gets better the more I know who I’m talking to.

Got any ideas about why people unfollow the people they do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Image source: sxc.hu
Work with Liz!!

Get your best voice in the conversation. and Register NOW for SOBCon09!!

An Interview with Grant Griffiths

January 6, 2009 by SOBCon Authors

Blogger and sobcon talk radio show | Grant Griffiths – Professional Blogger

Who is Grant Griffiths

In February of 2005 my first blog was born. This blog was used to market and promote my family law practice. Soon blogging became my only form of written advertising because of its reach and effectiveness. What I also discovered is blogging is one of the most powerful marketing tools available for the small business home business and professional service firm. In fact I am so sold on the effectiveness of blogging it is the reason I am cofounder of G2WebMedia.

I also now publish this blog and another blog who’s focus is on providing information to those who work from a home office called Home Office Warrior.

Prior to starting my first blog much time was spent researching what the heck blogging really was. There were a few blogs out there about blogging. Many of them focused on monetizing a blog with ads and payforlinks. My idea was different How to use a blog to promote professional service firms.

Why I started Blog for Profit

The primary reason I started Blog for Profit was to teach you how to use your blog as an attraction tool to generate profit. How By having it would serve as a powerful promotion and marketing tool for your business or firm. That’s why you won’t see us normally suggest ways to put ads or “text link ads” on your blog. Our focus remains on blogging as a communication tool which you can use to build a relationship with your target audience turn them into regular readers and then into lifelong consumers of your goods or services.

BlogTalkRadio is the leading social radio network with thousands of shows from around the world.