Successful Blog

What Do You Do When You Feel The Heat?

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By Lindsey Tolino

We’re experiencing record-breaking heat in Raleigh this week. I like it warm, but triple digits is just too hot.

I get so irritated in the heat. Do you get like that? I bet many of us do.

Heat stresses my body. When I feel hot, I’m more likely to be short with people, cut them off and be impatient. Sometimes, things other than heat stress me out and I become just as irritated.

When we’re under stress, whether it be from heat or a mountain of bills, it seems that we’re more likely to snap at people and be task-oriented rather than people-oriented. This can be a dangerous place to live.

If we don’t force ourselves to slow down when we’re under stress, we’re more likely to burn bridges with the most important asset in our lives – people.

When we are stressed, we often need to do the opposite of what we want to do. For example, when we’re under financial pressure, we may want to put our heads down, get to work and do as we’ve always done to get our businesses back on their feet. But if we deny the stress and force ourselves to stop, look around and engage with others, we may discover a solution to our financial issues.

It’s essential that we listen to our “guts” in business. But when we’re experiencing stress, we may not be able to hear our guts over the loud hum of stress running in our brains. Furthermore, we know that stress keeps us from being creative. But when things aren’t going well, that’s when it’s most important to be creative.

The most valuable practice that’s helped me handle stress is similar to the CDC’s recommendations for dealing with extreme heat – first, get to a “cooler” spot. Then I can stop and breathe.

Once I relax, I’m able to think through the situation more clearly. I can question how much the heat/stress is affecting my current decisions. Is the stress driving my decisions or is solid reasoning? What could we do differently here?

When we feel the heat, we need to step back and find a cooler spot. Not only for the sake of our businesses, but also for those around us. When we’re stressed, it’s vital that we get to a cooler spot, so we don’t hurt anyone in the heat of the moment.

Though it’s only June, it won’t stay this hot forever. When it gets cooler, I don’t want us to regret any of the decisions we made in the heat.

Author’s Bio: Lindsey Tolino comes alongside artisans, craftsman and people monetizing their passions to help them craft healthy businesses. She shares her heart at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Make Your Blog Stand Out from the Crowd

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By Mickie Kennedy

There are a ton of resources and websites all devoted to the same thing: helping bloggers make their content stand out from the crowd (you’re on one right now — one of the best, as a matter of fact). The end result, however, will all depend on how much work you are willing to put into building a community and making them aware of what you are doing.

Jenny Lawson, the mind behind The Bloggess, is a perfect example of a blogger who promotes her content, her books, and herself without seeming to promote her content, her books, or herself.

This is because she has built a loyal community that follows her posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, read her books, and eagerly await her next Pin. She is genuine and kind to all of her fans no matter how long she has been signing books or answering yet another fan email.

She also readily admits her failings, like her sometimes-losing battles with depression, which only encourages her fans to root for her all the more.

This is something all bloggers need to do in order to achieve maximum success for their work. They need to reach out and start building a community of people interested in work similar to what they are doing. As part of this, bloggers should:

1. Start a webstore

If you haven’t already started expanding your site, consider yet another lesson from Jenny Lawson: add a shop. Have any catchphrases? A cool logo? Put it on a shirt or a mug and capitalize. Not only will this throw some spare change your way, but when a fan goes out of their way to buy something from you, you know you’ve got a fan for life.

2. Social Media

Join groups on Facebook, start tweeting, or build a Google+ network in order to start talking with fellow writers and potential readers. If you blog in a niche, you may also find that certain fan forums or other, lesser-known social media platforms work best for you.

3. Email Marketing

Encourage fans to opt-in to your email marketing campaigns. Give them a reason to opt-in, such as exclusive content, giveaways, or discounts to your webstore.

4. Guest Blog

Once you are up and running, look into guest blog opportunities and then share a good story with another group of readers.

5. Speak

Never pass up an opportunity to speak at conferences, to local groups, or at workshops.

Remember that with all of these publicity options, you want to treat your readers, fans, and followers like you would a friend. Would you spam a friend? Not likely. Keep the message genuine to inspire more people to want to follow you.

Any other tips to help bloggers? Let us know in the comments!

Author’s Bio: Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, offers free ebooks and white papers for anyone looking to take their PR game to a new level.

What you need to know about the FTC disclosure guidelines

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“Just like my Facebook page for a chance to win a Visa gift card.”

“Review my software application and I’ll give you a year of free service.”

“Tweet out ‘Product xyz is awesome’ for amazing prizes.”

Each of those is a no-no under the FTC’s expanded guidelines about disclosure.

As a brand, if you are soliciting endorsements, reviews, or other social media promotion from someone, you are responsible for making them aware of the disclosure rules. That means reminding them that promotional Tweets must have #ad or #sponsored or some other language that lets the reader know the Tweet was solicited. And no, the FTC doesn’t care that you only have 140 characters.

As a writer/reviewer, you need to be careful about telling your readers that you received something in exchange for any written review or endorsement. The disclosure needs to be clear, prominent, and honest. You cannot say you liked something if you never actually tried it. (One would think that doesn’t even need to be said, but hey.)

This doesn’t mean that brands can’t offer free samples, or send out books for review, or run contests. It means the brand has to find a way to tell the audience (in whatever format available) that there was an exchange.

The value of the item in question is also important. There’s a difference between a KitKat candy bar sample you got at the Mall, and the free use of a new car for a month.

If you are using an agency or another 3rd party to run your social media campaigns, you are still the one responsible for compliance. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on the disclosure instructions being passed on to your audience by the agency or contractor.

There’s a lot of buzz around activating employees on social media as well. The guidelines make it clear that having your employer listed in your profile isn’t enough to establish disclosure. If you are an employee endorsing or promoting the product your company makes, you need to note your relationship within the context of the promotional post or review. Employers must also make it clear to employees that disclosure is required.

If these guidelines affect your role as a marketer or business owner, I strongly recommend that you go read the entire document. The rules have been in place for a while now, but the example scenarios and questions that were recently added make it even more clear that we all need to be paying attention.

In summary: honesty is always the best policy.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

 

Is Your Office as Productive as It Should Be?

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There are a number of ways to improve your office productivity this year and beyond.

Take an objective look at your office operations to see if you or your team are guilty of any of these time wasters.

Dissecting a Problem to Death

In any group of people, there are the talkers and there are the doers.

If you’re not careful, the talkers will suck the life out of the doers until the problem has been discussed, dissected, considered, disseminated and dried up. At some point, you need to have a course of action, and the first step is to stop talking about it.

Sometimes any action is better than no action at all.

If your team is unsure what to do to solve a problem, pick one proposed solution and implement it. Eventually, you’ll land on a solution that works, and in the meantime, you’ll all learn what doesn’t work.

Over-referencing

Some office managers love to create cross-referencing systems.

They’ll have employees keep a binder or Excel sheet of data, check off work that’s done on the project in five places, and create summary project binders for “dashboard” views.

If you have an office manager like that, he or she will have created a team of paper-pushers just for you. People will be so busy making check marks and flipping through binder tabs that no real work will actually get done.

Of course a checks-and-balance system makes sense. But invest in a software system designed to do all the backend heavy lifting for you.

Online dashboards can be customized for your business where your staff has only to enter data once and it can be viewed in a variety of different ways by team members both local and on the road.

Meeting Madness

Meeting madness is when you and your staff attend so many meetings there’s nary a minute left in the work day to actually get to any of the work that was delegated during the meeting. If your 8-hour days are spent more in the meeting room than at your desk, you may be a victim of meeting madness.

It doesn’t take a 45-minute meeting to announce that you have a new client and discuss their needs.

Instead, use email, memos and company newsletters to get any information across that doesn’t actually require feedback from employees. If you’re just announcing something, or giving out general instructions to a team, skip the meeting.

As the following article looks at, here are 6 ways to take your office productivity into the next generation:

File Disorganization

Remember the old days when your office used filing cabinets and if an employee removed a file they had to leave a sign-out sheet in its place? Of course, everyone forgot to leave the sigh-out sheet at least once, leaving the next person wondering where in the office the file was.

File disorganization still happens today.

Even if your company is on a network, misnamed and misplaced electronic files on the “system” make it difficult for staff members to get work done.

Move on up to the cloud.

With a third-party cloud-based system, multiple employees can work on the same file at the same time.

Everyone can have their own log in and username authentication, and employees won’t be stepping on each other’s virtual toes.

These are easy changes to implement in any office to enhance productivity.

About the Author: Kate Supino writes extensively about best business practices.

5 Sites that Boost My Creativity Each Time

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By Jessy Troy

No matter what field you are in, there is no doubt that creativity and inspiration play an important part in helping you finalize a project or two.

This may be especially true for writers and those in the Arts who rely heavily on sparks of aha! moments to get their creative juices flowing and create something extraordinary.

Yet surprisingly, we have heard many stories about how they often get their inspiration for their masterpiece from a totally different field. A fashion designer can get ideas from a marvelous piece of art and an architect may base his latest innovative design on a great photo of nature.

This proves that inspiration is out there just waiting to be seen or experienced. Thanks to the Internet, we can now have access to such sources with a click of the mouse.

Here are some of those awesome websites worthy of a look should you be suffering from a writer’s block.

1. Book Of Joe

 

This website gives you your daily dose of interesting news and the latest innovations in almost any field you can think of. From fascinating statistics to delightful photographs, you can spend the whole day reading each and every article.Be amused by the lamest invention or be bewildered by amateur video clips. If it’s trending, you’ll surely find it inside the Book of Joe.Bookmark: Book of Joe

2. Web Urbanist

 

Web Urbanist is another website that you can surf through and not notice that an hour has passed. The features are categorized into Art, Architecture, Gallery, Urban, Tech and even Graffiti. This is useful should you like to get your spark of creativity from a certain field only, or see what’s up everywhere.The titles of the articles are well worded, so you can readily click to read more on those that are relevant to you or those you find interesting. The writing is concise and topics are unique.Bookmark: Web Urbanist

3. Print Me Poster

 

One of the biggest collections of photos that can be turned into posters. Or you can upload your own image and create a poster too!I love browsing the site and I often buy new posters to match my current mood. The site adds something fresh to my interior which always boosts my creativity.Bookmark: Print Me Poster

4. Moodstream

 

Moodstream is a delightful website that plays music and images according to your well, mood. You can choose from a list of emotions including stabilize, simplify, intensify or excite to get the mash up you need.So if you are among those people who prefer this visual and audio compulsion, then Moodstream is the site to visit. You can always opt to customize your mood with the settings if you want to be more precise. Doubles as a meditation!Bookmark: Moodstream

5. 99 Percent

 

Inspired by Thomas Edison’s saying that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, this site offers interesting articles on how to best help yourself and provides tools on coping with the usual life challenges including facing your critics.The topics are varied and range from technology and writing to graphic design. The site also focuses on works related to collaboration and self-marketing. It’s also great for budding entrepreneurs who require that extra push toward creativity and effective business planning. You can follow them on twitter or sign up for the newsletter for their latest inspirational piece.Bookmark: 99 Percent

I am sure you have lots of other great free sources of inspiration to share!

Author’s Bio: Jessy Troy is a creative writer and editor at Social Media Sun. She Tweets as @JessyTroy.

5 Tips for Creating an Unforgettable Name for your Product or Company

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By Mark Skoultchi

In the US alone, 543,000 businesses start up each month. Whether those businesses are large corporations or just one guy selling T-shirts online, they all need a name. Most large companies can afford to hire a professional naming agency, but what about the little guys?

Have no fear!

We believe that everyone, big or small, deserves to have a great name. Let these naming tips serve as a jumping off point for creating a great brand name. And after you feel good about your strategy, you can dive even deeper with our naming guide and other naming resources.

1. Stare at your palm and ask, Who are we?

The first step to any successful naming project is to convene with the key stakeholders of your brand, which could be a product, company, or service. Really think about what makes your brand tick.

What makes you unique? Are you the practical jokers, like Playstation? The sages, like Google? The outlaws, like Xbox?

These are examples of a brand’’s archetype, which, when defined, can help you choose how you will communicate your brand to your audience. This will be the foundation upon which your name will grow.

2. Look up from your palm, and stare down the competition

Explore the competitive landscape to see what sorts of names are out there. Often you will notice that there are identifiable trends.

There are literally hundreds of cloud computing companies whose names include Cloud in some way, like Cloud One, Cloud Web, Cloud Bus, etc. While most brand stakeholders gravitate towards names that sound familiar, this leads them to just regurgitating what’s already out there!

Be brave and go against the grain. Choose a metaphorical name to stand out from a cloud of descriptive names or coined name in a land of real-word names. A great name makes you-you, and not you-them.

3. Now look at who’’s standing with you

You should always think about your customers before embarking on your naming project and remember that there are many customers that you don’t have yet. What language do they speak? What do they enjoy? Who do they love? Your name can address some of these questions.

Clif Bar is a great name for the outdoorsy consumers who buy organic, whereas PowerBar appeals to the consumers who want pure, invigorating energy. Whatever name you choose, make it resonate with your audience.

4. Look over your portfolio or get ready to have one

Brand architecture refers to the way that one company’s products or services are named in relation to each other. Even if you’re naming your first product or service, make sure that you choose a name that can be built upon if needed. Or, if what you’re naming will be part of a line of products that already has a naming protocol, do not stray from it.

Take Lexus’’s alphanumeric car names as an example. The IS, ES, GS, and LS sedans all follow the same naming pattern. Brand architecture allows your customers to easily identify and compare what you have to offer.

5. Now stand up, and take a look outside

Consider in which contexts will you use this name. Are you naming an App for which there is a strict character limit? Will your name be traveling to foreign language speakers where it may encounter unanticipated negative associations?

The name Cosm sounds pretty hip to us English speakers, but in German it sounds very close to kotzen, which means “to vomit”.

Will your customers be spreading your name via word of mouth? If so, it should be pretty intuitive to spell. Also, If you’’re planning on registering a domain for your new name, ensure that it makes sense when spelled out in lowercase letters.

Would you believe that penisland.com used to be an island-themed pen store? Lastly, don’’t get too hung up on getting an exact domain name because these days, you probably won’’t without pretty deep pockets. It’s really not a big deal to add a modifier to your domain name (we did it ourselves).

Ponder these five tips and do the soul searching before you start naming. We promise it will help you arrive at a robust list of names that communicate who you are as a brand. Naming is a long process, but it’s time worth spending because your name is the first thing that your customers will see. It is a vehicle that can drive your customer to images, emotions, and memories. And with some work, you can steer them right where you want.

Author’s Bio: Mark Skoultchi is Principal, Project Lead, and Head of East Coast Operations at Catchword. He is a veteran naming professional with 20 years experience counseling clients in every aspect of product and company name development. As head of Catchword’’s East Coast operations he’s managed projects for Volkswagen, Weight Watchers, McDonald’s, Time Warner Cable, Xerox and many other multinational companies.