Successful Blog

SOB Business Cafe 05-23-08

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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

Freelance Folder answers the question of how to get more repeat business.
What if there was a way for you to increase customer satisfaction, get more repeat business, and multiply new business from referrals?

Brain Based Business has a question about using our heads.
You could say … successful people deliberately refocus their brains for better shots at success. Does that describe you?

Telling It Like It Is asked a question of behavior — Have I seen this on Twitter?
If you think that bullying is only a problem for school-aged kids, think about the people in your life or business office who ridicule others because of their physical size, racial prejudice, social status (or the lack therein) etc, and you will likely be able to come up with a few people you know that are bullies.

Might I remind you to “be nice.”

Sun Coach Blog took on a question of dramatic proportion.
Their lives are about survival and so it’s natural that they react so quickly and dramatically. but what about humans? Beyond our physical safety instincts, do we need to create drama in our lives?

The Viral Garden answers the question of how to release a hit concert tour.
In a few weeks, many of the top artists in the country will begin their big summer concert tours. So now’s the perfect time to talk about your social media strategy for promoting your artist’s big summer concert tour. What? You say you don’t have one?

SuccessCREEations took on a challenging question.
The reason the question isn’t easily answered is that blogs are simply tools. It would be like asking “What is a hammer’s competition?”

Related ala carte selections include

Untwisted Vortex might make you question an assumption.
Text messaging by cell phone, not by computer (most of the time), promotes illiteracy and can even result in death. You may be thinking to yourself that I’m completely full of shiitake or some other colorful metaphors, but I don’t have to prove I’m right.

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

UK Trip 3: The London Tour and the London College of Communication

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Meeting Henry VIII and the Dean of the College

On our return to London Thursday, we took a bus tour through the city. I’m not much of a tourist, but with my son along, asking questions I managed to take in some history. George the 2nd (or was it the 3rd?) died on the toilet. The area down by Westminster Abbey is by far the most beautiful.

We saw the movie, “The Other Boleyn Girl” in Leicester Square later that night.

On Friday I took the tube down to Elephant and Castle to meet with Sue Pandit, the Dean of the London College of Communication. (Diane Keaton will play her in the movie.) She explained that their history as the London College of Printing was still thriving the print shop that still offers students one-color, two-color, and four-color presses as well as digital printing to produce magazines as well as surface printing, such as fashion design.

As Sue and I talked about the social web, I mentioned that conversations and relationships are happening underneath the surface of the Internet. She mentioned that, like so many, she tended to read the blogs of people in her industry, but only the blog posts not the comments that followed. I could see her become intrigued with what she might be missing.

Later in our discussion, Sue invited Chris Linford, a senior professor and lecturer to join us. When he walked in he mentioned that he knew my blog. During our conversation, Chris said that each semester his first job is getting students over fear of html. Most of the students at the college who blog use WordPress 2.3. When I asked about WordPress 2.5, Chris said, “Our IT guys won’t let us use anything in Beta.” He also said they use Wimba.

Meeting Henry

Liz Strauss and HenryVIII

It just wouldn’t be right to visit London and not take my son to Madame Tussauds House of Wax. We went Friday afternoon. It’s there I met Henry.

A third university and picture with a king. (Do you think he’ll call?) Not a bad day.

The question of the day was: What place do you think print will have in future communications?

How would you answer that one?

More to come about UK universities. [Check back for my answer yesterday’s question from at Oxford. now.]

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Social Networking and a Small Town Business – Why Bother?

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I asked my friend — heck, she’s like family — Becky McCray, if she was interested in writing a guest post on Successful-Blog. My motives were clear and simple. I think she’s brilliant at everything small business. She wondered what topic might interest. I tossed her an idea and at the same time, our mutual friend Chris Brogan tossed her a similar idea. Being the brilliant thinker she is, Becky devised an artful plan that involves three connected blog posts — one here, one on Chris’ Blog and one on her own.

That’s a plan I can support fully! So without taking further time, I present the first of the Becky McCray master Trilogy.

Social Networking and a Small Town Business – Why Bother? by Guest Writer Becky McCray

Small town business is an interesting challenge. You either target people in your local area and hope that’s enough, or you reach outside for customers and work to get enough attention.

If you’re targeting outside your local area, there is no question. Social networking is a top way to reach beyond your geographic boundaries. If you’re looking for local people as customers, you might be tempted to think that social networking is not going to work for you. WRONG! More of your potential customers are online than you realize. More importantly, marketing is only one reason for using social networking tools. I can think of four other big reasons to invest the time and effort.

To expand your horizons/perspective
The world is an unbelievable place, and technology finally makes it possible to connect with the people in it from almost anywhere. People have different perspectives, based on their life in a big city, in another country, or just in a different industry. If you don’t participate in the online world, you’re not going to get to meet these people who could help you cross-pollinate some new thinking.

To connect with vendors and other partners
Buy local campaigns notwithstanding, social networking means expanding your choice of service providers and partners far beyond your local people. Professionals and service providers of all kinds, and from all over, are active in social networks. If you stay out of social networks, you’ll never build those relationships, so you’ll have to rely only on the local accountant, web designer, and printer for all your needs, even if they aren’t all that great.

To learn
Face it; you don’t know everything. But you can find people who know about what you are needing to learn right now. When you are building friendships on Twitter, you probably don’t ever think about the fact that @susanreynolds is a jewelry artist, or that @mikeg1 knows about home schooling. But if you aren’t reaching out, you’ll never have the chance to ask, “Who here can help me with writing a magazine query letter?” (That would be @sheilas!)

To feel connected
My favorite reason for social networking from my small town: feeling connected. Being online can’t replicate the feeling of an in-person conference like SXSW or SOBCon, but it helps. Bunches. It’s like the best of a water cooler at a company of terrific people you picked to interact with, to bounce ideas off of, or just to catch up with. If you are staying out of social networking, you are missing the number one reason to do anything: the people.

What are your reasons?
These four reasons are just a beginning point. What other reasons do you have for investing your time in social media? This question is open to everyone, whether you are from a small town or a big city. But if you are from a small town, shout about it in your comment!

Sounds great, but how do I do it?
Need some starter moves to help you get online and building relationships? I’ll be presenting some Social Media Starter Moves for Small Town Small Businesses at ChrisBrogan.com tomorrow.

Becky McCray writes about small town small businesses at Small Biz Survival.

Thanks, Becky!
You really are a master.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 20

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Get Closer to You

This is a series of questions, I don’t know how many. They are the ones I ask when I help folks get closer to their personal identity.

What would the person who knows you the best tell us about you that we might not see on our own?

I’ll answer first to get things started.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Branding: 5 Ways to Help You Find Out Who You Are

Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 19
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 18
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 17
Questions to Get Closer to Your Brand: Question 1
You’ll find the entire series of Questions to Get Closer to you on the Successful Series page.

More Wildly Sticky, Successful and Outstanding Blogs on Blogging

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A SERIES
The day before I left for the UK, I posted a challenge that you might add to a list of Wildly Sticky, Successful and Outstanding Blogs on Blogging that I had started. Some folks missed that last prepositional phrase “on blogging” and offered great blogs on other topics. Those don’t really belong on this list, so please don’t feel offended that I didn’t include them.

Here is the list I promised to compile, starting with the original ten I offered.

  1. Bloggers Blog
  2. chrisg.com
  3. ProBlogger
  4. SEObook
  5. Lorelle on WordPress
  6. Freshblog
  7. dosh dosh
  8. Copyblogger
  9. Daily Blog Tips
  10. seomoz
  11. The Blog Herald
  12. Wayne Liew Dot Com
  13. Blogsessive
  14. Network Blogging Tips
  15. Chris Brogan
  16. Blog for Profit
  17. Internet Duct Tape
  18. Performancing
  19. Lost Art of Blogging
  20. Quick Online Tips

That’s the list that we made together.

If you missed it, read the entire introduction to The Ultimate Guide to a Wildly Sticky, Successful and Outstanding Blog.
More is coming.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to know what’s wildly sticky? Work with Liz!!

UK Trip 2: Meeting JP Rangaswami, Out to Oxford, and a Question from the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies

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Publishing and Business Make Sense Together

When the meeting at Cass Business School at City U had wrapped up, we collected our stuff and headed over to the British Telecom Building to meet with JP Rangaswami. I’ve been a fan of his blog, “Confused of Calcutta,” for close to a year now. He’s a thoughtful, intelligent man, well worth reading.

The hour we spent with JP was a high point of our trip. It’s hard not to be both impressed and honored when a busy man — one who’s about to a board transatlantic flight AND is in the throes of video recording corporate results — takes a relaxed hour for an American lady and her son.

We talked about blogging, culture, finance, and the Cluetrain manifesto. JP explained negotiation — relationship, conversation, then transaction — that is the Indian way of striking a deal. His face was delight and energy as he described it. I laughed with him as if we were involved in a friendly game of strategy.

When our conversation ended, JP not only showed us back to the street-level entry, he walked us outside to give directions to the Goldman Sachs building so that my son could the London office of his company. A mom could never have dreamed up a more elegant human role model for a son. I hope my son saw as much in JP as I did. The generosity of that hour is unforgettable. Thank you, JP.

As we parted, my son went in search of Goldman Sachs. I met up with Richard, a publishing friend, who would take us to Oxford.

Out to Oxford

We followed Richard through the tube to the train to Perrivale where we found his car and drove to Oxford. (There’s a reason folks call trips around the UK “journeys.”) He installed in a favorite English pub called Ball and Bat in a lovely room named after a cricket player. We had dinner with Richard’s wife in their thatched roof cottage in a village not far away. Later that night, we sat in the pub on the edges of a going away party for the manager, using the first real wifi. Each time someone heard I was from Chicago, I heard the name Al Capone.

The next morning found me with Richard at Brookes College of Oxford University. The first meeting was with Angus Phillips, the Director of The Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies. The Center is located in a brand new campus much changed since last I’d been there. Angus has a new book out in June, Inside Book Publishing. Angus, Richard, and I talked about the Oxford Publishing program. Then Richard and I moved off to a lunch meeting with the publishing staff. Lunch was a discussion with most of the academic staff and my friend, Richard, a visiting lecturer at the Centre.

We talked about social media and blogging — how the Internet is being used for business and community building, how communities form, how people are linked through content and context, the use of microblogging, cultural shifts that occur online, how writing changes from print to online, and online marketing and business models. Some thought the opportunity to turn blogs into books was where they should be looking. . . .

Oxford offers an MBA in Publishing and three publishing seminars for the business and publishing undergrad and graduate students each year. I was invited to speak and give a seminar next semester. We’re discussing the content now.

The question of the day was: How do you find time to blog and do other work too?

How would you answer that one?

More to come about UK universities. [Check back for my answer yesterday’s question from City U now.]

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!