ConverStations

Pick a Post of Poetry

Over the years here on this site,
I've occasion 2 post a thought in rhyme
A different way to present a message,
tho hoping for smiles each time.

So here as we begin our journey anew
Thought we'd look and reflect what's behind
Maybe get a bit inspired by the old
Or possibly new jazz we'll find.

Reading with Ears Wide Open (posted 9/19/2009)

Let not your eyes wander,
Put your mind at ease
Lend your full attention
Just listen for a bit, pretty please?

In the marketplace of old,
Conversations all about
and the only hogs allowed
had short, smelly snouts.

No soapboxes to climb upon
if you tried that, you talked alone
An equitable level of engagement
Would set the proper tone

Seek first to understand
A habit amongst the great
Likewise in the blogosphere
Eyes & Ears wide open an important trait

So with patience, fully listen
Go ahead, take your time
Premature response formulation
in some communities is a crime.

Energy + Urgency = Passion (posted on 5/5/09)

Some people are loud in their passion,
Some are passionately meek
Their eyes tell the story
The fire in their belly is what I seek

I teach people to use these tools
that allow their voice to reach ears all around
and enhance the engagement and connections
and here is what I've found.

Give me the one that believes so much
in what it is they have set out to do or be
In those their voice will be embraced
As far as ears can hear and eyes can see

Give me those that believe there are others
who want to accomplish a thing or two
to change things for better around and about
they'll find a community that sticks like glue

Are you one of these world changers?
There's always room for one more
One who believes in others first
their ideas will always soar

Do you have the energy?
Is Urgency one of your senses?
These together create a passionate pace
Find that - and you'll hurdle all fences.

Love is Only a Smile Away (posted 01/16/09)

The loving look of a smile
With a still moment of pause
To show the passerby
They're important to your cause.

Whether young or old,
Citizen senior or Gen Next
Doesn't matter their race or religion
Nor does it matter profession or sex.

To take but a moment
With all the muscles in your face
And let that person know
You're glad to find them in this place.

There are no coincidences
Only the illusion of chance
And the loving look of a true smile
Will make even the coldest heart dance.

So if it's on your blog or your phone
At Panera or on a tweet
Take a moment and smile a real smile
To all who cross your path - online or in the street.

Photo on Flickr by cmaccubbin

The Battles Hymn of the Blogger (posted 08/09/06)

If your blogging becomes a chore,
Something you dread to do.
Be slow to blame the blog
Because maybe it's just you.

This doesn't happen to everyone
But maybe you're battling Blogger's Block
Stop trying to strike gold with each post
or you'll find yourself losing to the clock.

Maybe you fear nobody's reading your stuff,
They're there - if not today in the morrow
Write as if you'll always touch someone
Stop wallowing in self-sorrow.

The best way to Manage Your Writing
Is pen to paper, finger to keys
Once you get a rhythm
You'll find yourself posting with ease

If your blogging becomes a chore,
Something you dread to do.
Be slow to blame the blog
Because maybe it's just you.

This doesn't happen to everyone
But maybe you're battling Blogger's Block
Stop trying to strike gold with each post
or you'll find yourself losing to the clock.

Maybe you fear nobody's reading your stuff,
They're there - if not today in the morrow
Write as if you'll always touch someone
Stop wallowing in self-sorrow.

The best way to Manage Your Writing
Is pen to paper, finger to keys
Once you get a rhythm
You'll find yourself posting with ease

Central Iowa Blogger First Friday: Bring Your Announcements #CIB

Just a friendly reminder of the calendar turn - it's 1st Friday of the month tomorrow. We'll be gathering at Panera U (map to 6740 University Ave, WDM) around the 8am-10am time.

Great networking, storytelling, ideations, and a fantastic example of the blogosphere come to life.  A few announcements sure to be made this week too.

Hope to see you there.

FollowCentral Iowa Bloggers (#CIB or Derek's CIB list on Twitter)

Revisiting and Reflecting on January Posts Past

Sometimes a reflection on the archives is a great rekindler of thought, or a chance to update your thinking (if you're always learning, that is). Here's a visitation of past posts from the calendar we just flipped over:

January 2010

• Dry Writing? Beware of Too Much Touch: "Too Much Touch" is quickly becoming a mantra that works for my students.
• Leave Some (S)talk for Others: And be comfortable with the vacancy and ambiguity.
• Is the Definition of Conversation Obsolete: Conversation as a Behavior.

January 2009

• Social Media's Swinging Door: Don't Let the Door Knock You on Your Apathy: You're in or out, just don't stand in the middle.
• You Can Turn any Statement Into a Question ... Can't You? A real kick-starter to conversations ... isn't it?
• Can I Read You Like a Book? - or at least your blog site?
• Love is Only a Smile Away:  One of my favorite poem-posts

January 2008

• The Four Resources Model for Social Media: Still use this graphic a bunch - and remember the law of simultaneity (love that word!)
• One Post, One Point - The Worksheet: A great organizer of thoughts, especially for the new or burnt out blogger.

January 2007

• Would Rocky Balboa Blog Like He Talks? Can you imagine him doing any different? "Pardon me, my darling Adrian. I want to let you know how much I think well of you, vis a vi, my love fills up my ..." Nah - He'd blog it, "Yo, Adriaaan!!"
• Building Readership by Building Relationships: $$ quote - "there is not so much difference between the online world and the offline world as folks think. Introduce yourself."
• Thin Slicing - Blink from a Blog Coach: We live in a quick-attention span generation (not so much "short," but quick)
• Honey, I'm on Food Overload: And one reason we need to thin-slice is because of our overload of infosumption.
• Change Your View: Sometimes you gotta look at things a bit differently

January 2006 

• ConverStations was just a thought in my head at this point. We launched this site in mid-February of 2006.

Exploiting Chaos as Example Blog Posts (Great Content too!)

For the past few months, I've suggested the book Exploiting Chaos so much, people are telling me I'm repeating myself.

It's not just the content I'm evangelizing (and it's fantastic), it's the style and design -- a great example of a blog writing (web writing?) practice. Let's look:

Emotional Headline; short paragraphs; eye-resting use of font changes and bullet points; bottom line take-away; great image. Nice!  If it had a hyperlink, it would be a perfect post -- but hyperlinks in books aren't really here yet. 

You can download a sample of Exploiting Chaos in PDF format to go a bit deeper, or just buy the book.I know I'd suggest it (at least twice)

 

Other places and faces behind the book:

TrendHunter site
Trendhunter Facebook
Trendhunter TV
Trendhunter on Twitter
Jeremy Gutsche's Twitter

A "Mine" Attitude Will Keep You Underground

"Mine"

That attitude has sunk many business ideas in recent years.  Maybe it worked in times past -- but then again, maybe it didn't. These days, a "mine" attitude will slow you down and keep you underground.

A collaborative spirit, sharing ideas and building on the collective smarts make us all better.  One might say "iron sharpens iron" or "together we're smarter" - and every one can find profit in some way by doing so.

Look, once you put your ideas out there on a blog post or Twitter, it's time-stamped (yours).  But it's also shared with a ton of folks who believe - live and work by - a Creative Commons mentality (ours). What would Michael Jordan have won if he didn't learn to share the ball?

I'm not suggesting you give away the farm, and all your recipe secrets, but you'll get more if you give more.

As we move forward, I sense a larger danger in a "mine" attitude - alienation. Rather than looking brilliant, you may come across as selfish.

IDLFO Project: Sharing What You Read with Widgets

Have you ever noticed how the attention of new visitors to your home or office is drawn to your bookshelf display? The titles and subjects provide a quick conversation piece, but also shows commonality -- possibly even discovery.

Likewise, sharing what you read online can be a great sticking point in building community with new visitors to your blog. It also keeps your reading organize (knowing folks are looking in).

Two widgets I've put into play on my new I Dunno, Let's Find Out site are a Slideshare favorites and a Google Reader Shared Items list. I will probably do likewise soon with my Flickr favorites and a VodPod widget

Scott McLeod recently offered up what he shares on Google Reader, broken down by category, and boy did I had a field day subscribing to many sites I hadn't known about.

So, here are four reasons to use these widgets (or even your own FriendFeed widget to show all you read-write-publish):

• Build community through commonality
• Be a resource to your visitors by sharing
• Keep Found things Found
• It's easy to do

So, what's in your bookshelf?

Other IDLFO Project Posts:
 - Listen and Learn
 - What's My New Site About?

Photo on Flicker by myself

Social Media Self-Assessment with Grader and HubSpot

We keep score. In our bank accounts. On the golf course.  And we should keep score in our social media efforts.

Even though many aspects of social media efforts -- maybe the most important ones -- are not tangible, a scoring system like those offered on Grader.com are good to use on occasion to see how you might improve your playing field.

From the folks at HubSpot Marketing, the Grader tools can help you find areas of improvement and tech tweaks you can make to your site(s):

• Website Grader: Works for both blogs or (cob)web sites. Shows areas of improvement for meta data such as keywords, domain information, inbound links, and Google-ish stuff.
• Twitter Grader: Shows your conversational impact, measuring the follow/following ratio, number of retweets, and consistency of updates. If I could modify one measurement, I'd figure a way to analyze how many replies to or retweet of others to show engagement impact.
• Also available: Facebook Grader, Press Release Grader, and a Blog Grader

The HubSpot team also has a great Inbound Marketing blog, a weekly video show (Friday afternoons) and a fun YouTube channel to which you should subscribe.

I already can hear some of the arguments like, "I don't keep score."  Un-huh.  How's your bowling game?

Photo on Flickr by tray

Answers from Archives I Email the Most

How often do we get an email or phone call with the words "I have a quick question..." in the message? Thought so. 

I've often said that blogging can synchronize our communication time. One of the ways is to use past posts to answer such questions. Here are the answers from the archives I email most often:

• What's one thing I can do to improve my blog?  Give Them Eye Rests
• Why should I link out? Blog Posting Mantra #4 - One Link Out
• How do I find blogs to link to? Discovery Along the Blogging Path
• How do I put YouTube video (or Slideshare) in my post: How to Embed a Video
• How long should my posts be? Less is More in Writing Blog Posts
• What if no one reads my new blog? Can You See the Destination?
• How much time should I spend on blogging? Social Media Success Plan: 6 Hours Daily for 6 Week

If you don't have an archive of answers built up for you to send out, start answering the questions you get with a blog post -- and then you'll have those archives. Next time you read or hear, "I have a quick question," you'll be ready with a quick answer.

Stamped Out? Enough of That!

I'm loving Seth Godin's new book, Linchpin -- and you will too. Though I've just started reading it, the pages are turning fast. Others are already talking about it all-a-Twitter.

In one part of the book, Seth talks about how our society, today's business and educational status quo, is used to stamping out voices rather than letting the creative idea-flow flow.

Don't let that happen to your organization.  As my pal, Angela Maiers says, Together We're Smarter. As it has always been, really.

In this fantastic time of voices shared, ideas built, and contagious creativity opening new possibilities - don't stifle those around you. Rather, build them up and encourage their voices.  Even if they are wrong at the start, their sharing will make their voices stronger - better - more profitable for all.

Some say that Seth's books are all alike, just the title and keywords change.  Not so with Linchpin. Get it as soon as it comes out -- employ the ideas with and for those around you. 

And put the ideas to work in your own life.

For me?  Back to the book(s)

How Many Clicks and Scrolls is Too Many for You?

Think about when you read stuff on your computer. Especially the Internet. What's too long?

Copywriters (especially the great ones) will tell you clicks and scrolls will follow great content. Maybe. Or not. Want to write with the reader in mind? I'll give you a hint here: The three-letter answer starts with a "Y":-)

If you want go gauge how long is too long, think of yourself. What's too long for you as a reader?  One click through? Less? How about scrolls.  Three?

It's amazing how many readers we'd attract if we'd just learn to stop typing for a bit.

Related:

 - Leave Some (S)talk for the Others
 - Short Shots
 - Think About it: Less is More in a Blog Post

IDLFO Project: Listen and Learn

One of the reasons I launched my new learning blog site, I Dunno Lets Find Out, in a public way and so early in the buildout stage was so we can watch and learn (together) about the cultivating of that conversation ... over here on this site.

Posts spotlighting the building of I Dunno Lets Find Out will start of with IDLFOProject (on Twitter, the hashtag #IDLFO).  

Today's goals for the new site and its author is simple: Listen and Learn. It will allow us to get a pulse of the conversation and the community and then engage later. Listen, Learn, Respond.

Two things on the todday's to-do list:

1. Subscribe to the RSS feeds (and thereby creating an initial blogroll) of sites whose content is in a similar pattern of conversation.
2. Subscribe to the RSS feeds of search queries that would make for great conversation or content starters.

Knowing that at this stage, our blog, in a normal case, is still in a private state (two weeks of practice, remember?), our first step of public engagement is with our eyes and ears.

So today, find like-minded blogs and subscribe search results of key phrases.

What's My New Site About? I Dunno, Let's Find Out

When I woke up yesterday, I didn't have the domain name, the categories, the RSS feed, or the blogware. It was simply an idea - a blog about 21st century learning (not just the school kind - the lifelong kind).

For months I've been saying in various places: I Dunno. Let's Find Out. Why Not?

So yesterday, I launched from scratch, a site by the same name:  IDunnoLetsFindOut.com

Here's a video explaining, in part, how the two sites will work together:

I wanted to accomplish three things with the new site prior to launch:

1. Pick the categories
2. Get the RSS Feed up
3. Write the first post
4. Tweet about it (Renda beat me to the punch!)

Here's the thing: I started with nothing but the idea and plan. As with most business owners, my day was filled with (mostly) pleasant surprises, meetings, phone calls, admin duties and a few fantastic twists and turns.  An hour in the early morning and maybe 90 minutes this evening - and I had what would suffice for soft launch.

And we're going to chronicle the improvements on this blog as we go.

Don't give me excuses you don't have time. I didn't have either. Will it work? Can it be sustained? Will anyone care?

I Dunno. Let's Find Out. And hey....why not?