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Two Blogs in One: A Good Hack Gone Bad

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Two Blogs in One

On Tuesday Open Comment Nights while the comments are flying at one or more per second, Joe says Successful-Blog has a time warp. Come and see for yourself. He seems to be onto something. Yesterday I thought Is there a space warp too? It sure felt that way.

The problem started Thursday night — folks could see their own comments, but couldn’t see mine. Had I fallen out of my blog into a black hole? No, a server move met my way of finding unique problems to solve.

Not everyone could say they had two, two, two blogs in one.

Thank you, Jeremy for telling me what was going on. I didn’t know you were moving house, yet you stopped to find out, so I would know.

Thank you, HART for the screen shot of what you saw — it helped solve the problem with fewer words.

What I Saw What You Saw that HART Sent

A Good Hack Gone Bad

The smartest technology architect from b5media, who had plenty to do, Aaron Brazell saw that I was still on the old server blog. He found a forgotten hack in my computer. It was made months back to fix an issue I hardly remember.

Helpful hacks can be problems waiting to happen. This was a case of a good hack gone bad.

We deleted that hack. Suddenly, I was back on the blog inside your computer.
Thank you, thank you, Aaron. I so appreciate every minute you spent.

Gosh it’s great to be back. Yeah I know, most folks say I’m lost in space anyway. So what’s new?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

PS. Please don’t ask why I never thought to check one of the other 8 million computers in our house. I was lost in space. I didn’t know where I was.

Of course, when I finally told my husband what was up, that was the first thing he did. Go figure.

How to Get More Done by Managing Your Energy

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We all aspire to be Dicky Fox from Jerry Maguire.

I’ll bet he doesn’t even drink coffee.

The reality is that, for most of us, our energy ebbs and flows throughout the day. We aren’t going 100 mph all day long.

Around 3pm, trying to get something accomplished is like pushing a cooked noodle uphill.

So what if we leaned into our energy flow to take advantage of the Dicky Fox time, while accommodating our natural low-energy time?

Here are some tips for working with your own natural energy flow, rather than fighting against it.

You’ll get more done, I promise:

  • ZONE OUT: Figure out what time of day is your “zone” and load high value tasks within it. For a few days, take active note of your routine and how energetic/productive you feel at different times of day. Note when you’re in “flow state.” Then try to schedule difficult or challenging tasks during that time (whether it’s first thing in the morning or late night).
  • OWN IT: Stop beating yourself up for cruising Instagram; give yourself a break to do that, then return to work. You might be spending more time unproductively being guilty than if you just took a moment to goof off.
  • SLEEP RHYTHMS: Do you need a power nap? Lots of famous go-getters included a brief nap in their routine (Churchill, Benjamin Franklin). Are you getting enough quality sleep in general? Your body needs that restoration time, so don’t skimp.
  • TLC: Don’t try to “push through” injuries or sickness. Take time off for recovery instead of doing half-baked work while ill. People who force themselves to keep going aren’t going to win a medal; they’re just going to infect the rest of us with that virus.
  • FUEL YOURSELF: Watch your snacks. Grab a handful of almonds or some apples/peanut butter instead of a Snickers or another cup of joe. The sugar or caffeine high will give you an artificial burst of energy, but then the crash will come.
  • CHANGE IT UP: When you start to feel your energy flagging, change scenery and/or your state of mind. Stand up at your desk, walk down the stairs, or use a technique to change your entire state of mind.
  • PERSONALIZE: Don’t use others’ schedules, follow your own body’s queues. Not everyone can do 4am crunches, and not everyone is jamming uninterrupted at Midnight. Listen to yourself, and set a schedule that is optimized for you.
  • MOVE: Exercise doesn’t sap energy, it creates it. Be a body in motion, and create your own energy source. Elevated endorphins can last a few hours after intense exercise!

Interested in reading more about how to manage your energy? Check out “The Power of Full Engagement,” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, which contains a step by step approach to increasing performance and productivity, or this HBR article co-authored by Tony Schwartz.

How do you keep yourself energized and manage your priorities? Please share your own tips!

 

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 It Wrong or Different?

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Do you know the difference between wrong and different?

When I first became an editorial manager, it took me a while to realize how subjective editing can be. The fact is if I ask 15 editors to revise an essay, I’ll get back 15 versions, each uniquely worded by the person who did the work.

Allowing that no mistakes were made, not one of the revised versions would be exactly as any other. Possibly even more important, not one of those revisions would be exactly I would do it. The choices made by other editors weren’t wrong. They simply were different from how I would do it.

It can be disconcerting when we ask for help or delegate work and what we get is something other than we expected, a different solution than ours would have been. But, if we’re willing to stop for a moment and consider the new approach on its own merit, we’re likely to find that what separates the two is how we were taught to do it or what we personally prefer.

Old recordings in our head tend to tell us that being different is wrong. We search for the answer our teacher wants us to parrot. We’re supposed dress like, and act like, our peer group. Don’t buy it!

What makes each of us valuable is the difference we bring to the table. When someone brings you something different than you expect, do all you can to understand the new solution. You might just find that the new solution solves the problem in a more interesting way. If new solution doesn’t suit your intended purpose, still do all you can to express respect for the new solution before you set it aside. Leaving room for other solutions opens the door to learning those new tricks old dogs aren’t supposed to be able to learn

.… And when you have a different solution, don’t seek disruption, but find a low-stress opportunity to ask about trying it. Bring your idea gently, but please bring your difference. We need it.

Be irresistible,

Liz

Put Your Mind to It

The next time someone brings you a solution that’s different from what you expected, try to catch yourself before you show them the right way to do it. Instead, ask that person why they chose to do the task as they did. You might find the thinking behind their method is stronger than the thinking behind the way you do it.

More from Liz . . . about Wrong and Different:

The Difference Between Wrong and Different

The Minute I’m Sure I’m Right, I’m Most Certainly Wrong

Make your blog worth bingeing like House of Cards

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My husband and I recently finished an epic binge of Breaking Bad (yes, I miss Jessy already). Next we’ve queued up House of Cards’ most recent season for the next binge marathon.

Now that quality shows are available in an instant, on any screen you choose, we can soak in three or four years worth of episodes over a few weeks.

No more waiting for the cliff-hanger resolution, no more slow reveal of the “will they or won’t they.”

When you binge, you are marinating in the characters, settings, and stories in a very intense way, and it increases your sense of closeness to the characters and the show.

Wouldn’t it be cool if your blog was like that? Maybe your bounce rate would be 10% instead of 75%.

Here are some ideas that will make your blog worth bingeing

Make it easy to binge

Give your readers easy cues for entering and browsing your site, like “start here if you’re new” pages, or boxes that highlight your most popular posts.

Put it all out there at once

Think about creating a blog series, and tease it in advance. Release the whole series at one time instead of one post per week. I know that I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve the night before a new season of Orange is the New Black arrives on Netflix.

Open a new window for links

This is a simple but often-overlooked technique. When someone clicks a link or image on your site, make it pop open a new tab or window. You don’t want people to be leaving your site and letting the screen door shut behind them. You want them to briefly check out the additional information and then resume the binge.

Include a call to action at end of content

What do you want your reader to do? Why does your blog exist? Make sure that you are telling them often. Give them a homework assignment, put a link to your latest book, or ask for comments/shares, but don’t just leave them hanging.

Promote, promote, promote

The House of Cards ads and promos were ubiquitous before the last season appeared. Teaser videos, interviews, and traditional ads were part of the PR blitz. When is the last time you thought about the way your promote your blog? Could you do an interview with a fellow blogger in your industry? Try a Facebook ad?

Surprise & delight to encourage word of mouth/sharing

Remember that time the major character was tossed in front of a speeding Metro train? You don’t have to go to that extreme, but your blog should include moments of surprise that make readers want to talk about it.

Make it easy to share

I can’t count the number of times I find a great blog, get very enthusiastic about a particular post, and can’t find the social sharing buttons (or even a subscribe button, sometimes). Once you’ve got me excited, don’t leave me hanging. Show me the buttons! (Apologies to Jerry Maguire.)

Tap into emotions

Emotion is the most direct way into someone’s world. Your blog should share (judiciously) personal tidbits that give your readers insight and attachment to your point of view. When Frank Underwood speaks directly to the camera, breaking the “fourth wall,” it brings us directly into the show.

Now I’ve confessed to some of the shows I’m bingeing. What is in your queue right now? Share your binge-worthiest shows and/or blogs with the rest of us!

If you have tips about how to make your blog worth bingeing, please share those too.

 

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

 

 

Unleash your inner social PR superhero – Q&A with Shonali Burke

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I’m so pleased this week to interview one of my personal superheroes, Shonali Burke.

She’s a “social PR” strategist who was named to PRWeek’s first “top 40 Under 40” list, the first list of 25 Women That Rock Social Media; and who founded and continues to curate the popular #measurePR hashtag and Twitter chat. She’s the owner of Shonali Burke Consulting, Inc.

Shonali is going to be offering a free mini-training to share some of her secret sauce, so I thought it would be great to have her answer some teaser questions here at Successful Blog. We could all use some help with PR, right?

 

How do you define “social PR”?

The classic definition of PR is the discipline that “builds and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between and organization and its publics” – that’s the *real* P in PR, not the imposter, “publicity.” Now, for decades publicity was the best way to get attention, and that awareness was the springboard for inquiries, additional marketing, sales, etc.

But if you’re actually going to build relationships with your “publics” – your audiences – you’re going to have to find ways to consistently engage with them. Social technologies allow you to do that in a way we never could before; it’s remarkable. I mean, just last week my website went down, and I was able to get BlueHost’s attention more quickly on Twitter than through their live chat!

So “social PR” harnesses the power of social technologies and platforms to help organizations build these relationships with their publics. This translates into a lot of online community-building, which is hard work (as you know), but the results can be incredible. Because if you can motivate your communities to start telling your story for you, isn’t that far more believable than you harping on it yourself?

What are some key mistakes that people make when trying to do social PR on their own?

First, I think a lot of companies (large and small) don’t realize they can’t just create social media accounts and blast information out at people. A press release will do that just fine. So there’s a lack of understanding of what it takes to have a regular conversation online. I find that a bit strange because they’re just fine talking to you offline!

Second, not actually listening to what people are saying, either about them, or their competitors, or their space. If you don’t do that, I don’t see how you can set a benchmark and ultimately gauge the success or failure of your campaigns and work.

Third, they’ll silo the various areas of communication as if they’re stocking their granaries for the winter. Social PR is by its very nature fluid and integrated (as business communications should be). While you must absolutely have some structure, you also need flexibility, because the mediums you’re working in are changing all the time.

 At what point does a small business owner need to call in a pro for PR?

The minute she can afford it. Truly, though I know you probably think I’m biased. But honestly – I’m wearing my own small business owner hat as I say this.

Unless you run a PR shop of some sort, your business is not PR. Your business is selling widgets, or distributing refrigerators, or knitting shark blankets, or selling online community software. Even if you have a knack for communications, and many many business owners do, ultimately any time you’re *not* spending on activities that grow your business is money you’re throwing down the drain.

Unless you’re exceptionally handy, you wouldn’t try to learn how to install a new roof on your home just so you could replace it in 30 years. So why would you not hire a PR pro to do what they do well, so that you can focus on what you do well?

How do you best leverage community to help spread the word about your product or service?

I heard a three-word mantra a long time ago that I often use: Educate, Cultivate, Motivate. This is how organizations *should* approach it; but most of the time they instead jump straight to Sell. That just doesn’t work.

You have to spend time becoming a part of a community, listening, engaging, curating, sharing. Do for everyone else before you ask them to do for you. Then, when you have enough community “change” in your bank, you can make your ask – but not before.

What’s your favorite social listening tool that won’t break the bank?

Talkwalker Alerts. I would have said Google Alerts, but they’re pretty unreliable these days, which is disappointing. 

What sparked you to create this course?

The best part of my job is when I’m able to help clients, students, people who attend my workshops, see what a joy social PR is. When that light goes off in their eye, that’s what makes my heart sing.

I got tired of seeing so many, many smart folk flounder when it comes to smart social PR strategy & implementation; not because they’re not smart, but because they don’t have the right coach to guide them.

I’m ultimately a teacher at heart. So I figured taking this online was the best way to share my joy with as many people as possible, and give back to an industry that has given so very much to me.

Thank you so much for chatting with me, Shonali!

Click here to sign up for Shonali’s free mini training course, The Social PR Launchpad: Unleash Your Inner Social PR Superhero.

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

 

Freelance Writing – Guide to Inspiration

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Freelance inspiration

By Jessy Troy

 

I have spent several years in the wonderful, strange world of freelance writing. While it is a blessing in many ways, it can also have a downside. Mainly trying to maintain inspiration and motivation when writing for such a large number of publications. From magazines to newspapers to webmasters, there are so many projects that can sap your time and energy.

Because the topics are always the same, and they are almost always on subjects you have to come up with, it can be difficult to get that spark of artistic genius that leads to a successful, interesting article.

While common sense would dictate that taking a hiatus to clear the mind would be the way to go, such as with novelists, that isn’t an option for the freelance writer. This is the job and if you don’t do it you don’t get paid.

But all is not lost, whatever despair you may feel. Keep this list of ways to keep your creative juices flowing, to look at whenever you find yourself stuck.

Freelance Writing, a Guide to Getting Inspired

  • Get away from your computer and do something relaxing, such as go for a walk, get a cup of coffee or take a long shower or bath.
  • Move on to something else for a while and go back once you feel more clearheaded.
  • Ask someone’s opinion. This can be anonymously on the web, or from someone that you know personally. Just make sure all direct quotes are properly credited.
  • Find sources on a topic. You should obviously never copy these sources, but using them for ideas can be a great way to bump start the brain.
  • Go back to old ideas. Remember that article you were thinking of writing three months ago that ended up as a hastily written sticky note pressed to the side of a filing cabinet? It might be time to get on it.
  • Check out some local places and see if anything strikes you as interesting. Maybe speak to a local business owner about the latest news, or ask around about any interesting developments in your area.
  • Get a community calendar or join a website with a local community focus. This will often show you upcoming benchmarks in time for your city, state or county. Take some time to research an upcoming anniversary such as when your area was founded, and write something interesting and educational to commemorate it.
  • Check out sites that host press releases, especially those about trending topics.
  • Use real time search engines to see what people are speaking about right now, to see if there is anything interesting you could look into.
  • Use your own life. For example, I am a writer and I frequently struggle with trying to come up with ideas for articles when I have been writing all week. I am now writing an article to discuss that, and to give other writers the benefit of my brainstorm on the subject.
  • Write an article based on a numbered list. For example: Five Ways to Get That Summer Look in November.
  • Ask for help: There is a free community for people to brainstorm together!
  • Go out for a night on the town with no set plan of what you are going to do, in an area you don’t know. Ditch the car so you can walk around and learn about new restaurants, movie theaters, galleries, cafes, etc.
  • Find a client or publication that is looking for a specific topic to be researched and written about.
  • Get writing! You will be amazed at what can come from a stream of consciousness.

How do you keep yourself elevated and inspired? Please share your tips!

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