Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 08-01-08

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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

Ensight.org writes about what it takes to make things work in a changing world.
So, in light of the industry difficulties we’ve seen in the last month, and particularly this week, I thought it’d be good to add some perspective (at least from my experience) to a few disparate conversations happening around the blogoworld.

Social Media Explorer writes about the value of time.
While some of the best communications ideas in the world were created in that hyperventilation chamber of death that is client deadlines, the one thing lacking in most approaches to market is the appropriate amount of time to ensure the program, campaign or effort is done right, or at least well.

Technosailor writes about how habits of social media can get in the way.
Unemployment hit an all time high last quarter as more and as more and more people hit the streets looking for meaningful employment, bad habits are accompanying them.

Jeff Pulver writes about the business and social value of sharing what’s on your mind.
Do you ever find yourself having a conversation with someone and all you end up saying are words which in effect say you are agreeing with them? Even if inside you really don’t? This used to happen to me often and I didn’t know why.

Build a Solo Practice, LLC writes about the psychology of work and happiness.
This very interesting article from the Psychology Today blog confirms that the quality of our work, more than our interpersonal relationships, determines our happiness . . .

Pistachio Consulting Inc. writes about the social in the software.
This simple, ordinary sharing of joys and concerns is one of the tremendous human strengths of Twitter and microsharing in general. Both can inspire, especially when the concerns are outside ourselves . . .

Related ala carte selections include

Adversity University writes about social energy surges.
So there I was, at home, with absolutely nothing to do (by choice) and feeling no energy whatsoever. I was thinking to myself, “GASP, a motivational speaker and life coach whose normally vibrant energy flatlined this weekend?!?! MY GOD HOW COULD THIS BE??”

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

Stopping Time

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No Crowds of People, No Streams of Words

Glasses-in-the-tree_by_Liz_Strauss

Early in the morning on Twitter yesterday, I wished I could stop time for an hour. Marc Pitman asked if I did, how I would know the hour was done. We didn’t explore the conversation much further. Networking with social media takes time.

Two hours later, I met up with Melissa Pierce and her camera woman, Sarah. We walked over to Belmont Harbor together. We were out to do an interview for Melissa’s movie, “Life in Perpetual Beta.” The walk to the scouted location took longer than we’d projected. We were still 100 yards away, when already we were discussing the time would need to leave.

I stood by a tree and talked to Melissa while Sarah worked on setting up the camera in the right spot. I took off my glasses and placed then in a nook that seemed carved out of the tree just for that. Unfortunately the sun hadn’t waited our delay in arriving. We decided that the location had to be rethought. We ended up some 30 yards closer to the water, facing the opposite direction to meet the sunlight at that time of day.

The delays and the extra time might have compressed our dispositions as they might have compressed our time line. But out by the harbor we were drowning in a luxury of space — beautiful views of trees, city, and sky . . . and so much green, green grass with no crowds of people and no relentless streams of words.

As I look back it seemed we had all of the time in the world.

Walking back from the location, a guy on a bike turned a corner and almost hurt himself and us . . . He wasn’t really nice.

I guess we knew then that time wasn’t stopped any longer.
But it sure had been fine when it was.

This weekend, I’m going to stop time again.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Attracting the Offline Customer: Why Do You Promote Your Blog Offline?

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by Scott McIntyre

Scott McIntyre — The Avid Blog Reader Without a Blog

Last week, I suggested a few practical methods and communication channels that you might use to promote your blog offline. I was pleased to read in your comments that many of you are trying these technques to achieve great results for your online businesses.

As a number of you are already finding, promotional activities such as talking to local organizations, advertising in offline media, and the use of Press Releases and branded goods can effectively contribute to getting your message in front of the offline customer.

But why would you consider doing this in the first place?

Today, I would like to explore several reasons why it can be of great benefit to build an awareness of your blog in the offline marketplace.

Building Awareness of Your Blog Offline: What are the Benefits?

There are two direct benefits that can be realized by extending the reach of your blog beyond the blogosphere: 1) to enhance your own personal reputation within your niche industry and 2) to increase the visibility of your blog’s brand to the wider offline community.

Both of these positive benefits can be achieved through promoting your blog offline.

Brand Building Through Offline Promotion

  • Building your personal brand

    It can be a highly profitable business aim to develop a strong name for yourself offline within your specific industry sector.

    Having a presence online provides a valuable launchpad from which to gain publicity for yourself offline. It is an effective means of making a respected name for yourself amongst your peers, and to seize the opportunities that exist from tapping into the offline customer base.

    I can guess that not all of your competitors have a blog or website yet. If you do, then you are already ahead of them when it comes to attracting your target audience. You have somewhere to bring them back to in order to win them over to your products or services.

    To build your personal brand offline, it is necessary to get people talking about you in a manner which is in line with your business strategy. Ideally, you want to be seen as the ‘go to’ person in your niche.

    By offering first-class advice and by providing useful information and resources to the offline audience, they are likely to view you as the authority figure within your industry. When you achieve this position, you are well placed to leverage it to capture their attention and interest in your blog.

    Personal branding through offline promotion, however, may not be right for every blogger. You may have opted to write under a pseudonym or else prefer to maintain a degree of anonymity.

    There are many reasons why this is a valid approach. If this applies to you, it would be great to hear your views in the comments section.

  • Building your blog brand

    You can work on developing your own personal brand offline safe in the knowledge that you have a quality blog waiting ‘back home’.

    A quality blog can mean many things. Valuable content is crucial, as is having a good design, ease of use and accessibility. All of these factors contribute to whether your efforts to build a brand for your blog offline will be a success.

    If you can foster a sense of trust and respect for your blog’s offering through your offline promotional activities, it will lead to customers being willing to use your products or services.

    Blogs provide a tremendous opportunity to interact with your audience. A blog can help to create mutually beneficial relationships between you and your customers. Satisfied customers indulge in positive word-of-mouth recommendations, and this inevitably leads to a buzz about your business offline.

    A blog which does not aim to be a quality offering will likely not impress or enhance its reputation with these potential customers.

    When offline personal reputation building is combined with that of developing your blog’s brand, the benefits can be immense for your online business as a whole. The skill is to effectively engage in promotional activities which achieve each separate goal while, at the same time, are supportive of each other’s aims.

Next week, I will be considering some of the ways in which you can use the increasingly popular social media and social networking sites as valuable channels to engage with the offline customer.

If you’re a blogger, leave a comment to let me know of your experiences in promoting both yourself and your blog offline. What results have you achieved? If you’re a blogger who isn’t yet engaged in offline promotion, what questions do you have regarding how to go about it?

If you’re a non-blogger, tell them what they can do to attract your interest in both them and their blog.

–Scott McIntyre

Related
Week 1: Connecting with the Offline Customer: A Non-Blogger’s Perspective
Week 2: Targeting the Offline Customer: Do You Blog for Non-Bloggers?
Week 3: Reaching the Offline Customer: Do You Promote Your Blog Offline?

Social Networking: Online Tridimensional Conversation

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Focus and Consistency

My days are spent talking and writing about how conversations work to build relationships. I look for similaries and differences between conversations online and offline, so that folks I work with can communicate more effectively. When we talk an analogy I often use is the Star Trek Tridimensional chessboard. It’s the multi-level nature of online talk that’s so powerful and easy to overlook.

Online Tridimensional Conversation

In an office in the offline world, the only audience is limited, visible, and apparent — much like only one level on the 3-d chess set. Online, we might direct our words to a small group, but the potential audience crosses to people who who only watch, people who have keyword alerts, and people who check in at other points in time. Our words go much further.

A whole Internet of people over a whole future could eavesdrop. What’s the impact of that? Here are three ways to focus your Online Tridimensional Conversation so that your relationship building is successful.

  • Think about the one idea or image you want folks to have of you. What’s the focus of your online brand? Make sure that’s the center of your profiles on social networking sites.
  • Review your recent comments and entries at blogs you visit and your Twitter, FriendFeed, Plurk, and other accounts as if you’re looking at someone you don’t know. Do your answers support the brand you’re building? Not every word needs to push your brand, but none should discount it.
  • Link to people who value what you do. Does your network reflect both your counterparts and your clients?

To test what I mean, try this. List three people whose work you know. Consider what each person is about. Then visit their Twitter profile page. Look down the conversational stream. Does it show what you thought it would? Is the difference good? Imagine if the profile page was all you knew of each person.

It’s the multi-dimensional nature of online communication that makes apps like Twitter so powerful. Be authentic, interested, and interesting, but also look to be consistent. If everywhere I look, I see the same you. My picture of you will form more quickly and be far more clear. When someone asks if I know anyone who does what you do, you’re likely to get a referral.

Are you making the most of your conversation? Do you know more ways to do so?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Image: ebay auction item 280251227011
Learn more about online conversation.

When Is Less More?

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How Much Do We Need?

On a nearby street, tall landmark homes provide shelter to single families. It’s hard not to notice the elegance and stature.

Orange-lilies-by-the-tree_by_Liz_Strauss

Freshly painted iron fences and swept brick driveways speak to the care that is taken.

Landscapers tend to lawns and flowers. Not a blade of grass on the block is taller than the rest. Not a unwanted shade of green shows anywhere. House after house stands picture perfect.

The Japanese garden four houses down makes me stop to stare.

Out by the street near where the cars park is a tiny patch of flowers. Orange lilies grow under an old oak tree. They don’t get the same care. They don’t seem to need it.

Do you think less is more?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Talking Decisions and Self-Promotion with JenChicago

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You Just Watch

Friday morning, I met Jen Knoedl for an interview. We walked to a quiet part of Millenium Park. We talked about blogging, building a career that works, being a leader on your path . . . productivity, decisions, and SOBCon.

She’s left her corporate job to go for her dream — to be a talk show host Jen Chicago. Will she make it? She asks the best questions and edits like a fox. You just watch!!

UPDATE: JEN just posted it to the NBC 5 Street Team Blog Go See!

Here’s a bit she’s put together on decisions.

and another on Self-Promotion

No doubt.

Wow!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!