Archive - September, 2006

LAWpportunities in Iowa

By on September 30, 2006 in Blog Coach with 0 Comments

A sign of great leadership is when a leader makes themselves obsolete (…)

The past few weeks, we’ve been working on a few projects for two Iowa Attorneys. Brett Trout and Rush Nigut are collaborating on LAWpportunites, a joint effort that will allow them to coach fellow legal professionals on the nuances of blogging, RSS feeds, podcasting and other media tools to enhance their practice.

In November, they will be hosting YBlawg 2006 – The Nuts and Bolts of Lawyer Blogging. They’ve each experienced success directly because of their blogging, and it’s great to see their willingness to share their knowledge.

Young Professionals – Time to Teach the Old Folks How

By on September 30, 2006 in Brain Stew with 4 Comments

An active member of the Des Moines Young Professionals Connection asked me if I knew of other YP groups using feeds and blogs. I hadn’t really looked into it, but I was confident that I could put together dozens of items for him.

Interesting timing since the YPC here just redesigned their site without RSS feeds.

My plan was to find all the YP feeds, then put them into FeedBlendr so they could use as desired. We did something similar on the IABC/Iowa site, first using FeedBlendr, then FeedBurner’s BuzzBoost to publish the feeds.

We hit a snag. Most every YP site is still using PDFs, Web 1.0 calendar tools, and hosting photos on their own server.

So here, in one short paragraph, are the YP groups I found using feeds or blogs:

With all that the Savannah EconDev is doing with feeds, not much forward movement with the YP group. I did find a great listing of YP groups at YP Commons

A challenge to all Young Professional groups out there. You should be on the cutting edge. True, mentors can teach you some things about business. But you can teach them some things too! Enough with the (cob)web sites (Yucch to my hometown of Monterey, CA).

Here’s a pop quiz: What do these sites have in common?

YP Iowa
YP Ames
YP Dubuque

Each of them are Iowa Young Professionals (cob)web sites. But that’s not the answer. None of them will know that I linked to them – or what I just said about them. They aren’t using the right tools to do business in today’s marketplace. If I’m wrong, slap me in the comments section.

If I missed out on finding your YP efforts (why isn’t it findable?), please let me know.

Ode to Blogtipping, Part Do

By on September 30, 2006 in Blogging with 9 Comments

From Ode to Easton, the Blogtipping Man!

Generous links are spread
At a dizzying pace
With Easton summing it up
From his Blogtipping Place

“Thanks Ian, Thanks Duncan,
And usually Wendy times three,
Kudos to Noel, and to Rick,
Joe Hauckes and Chris Cree.

Way to go Horenfeldt and Bailey
Sarmiento and Hartsock
Stelzner, Lee, Mesritz…
These bloggers rock!”

So how do you Blogtip?
Each month the number grows.
Visit my blog-buddy Phil,
To find out how it goes…

Ode to Blogtipping elsewhere
- Ann Michael
- Phil Gerbyshak
- Liz Strauss

There are several reasons to value Blogtipping Day (1st day each month):

As part of the audience, you share feedback with the author.

  1. As the author, you find out what your audience likes/would like.
  2. As fellow blogtippers, we can be introduced to different blog methods.
  3. By looking at other blogs and blogtippings, we can learn from each other.
  4. It’s a great way to introduce your audience to other blogs.
  5. It’s a great way to introduce your site to other bloggers.

Hard to decide on just one blog? Do more than one.

Turning Customer Loyalty to Customer Royalty

By on September 28, 2006 in Brain Stew with 3 Comments

149688248_cbe86dd021There was a time when "Customer Satisfaction is Our Goal" might fly. Now, it better be the norm – not the goal. On your worst day, you better be hitting "customer satisfaction" or you’ll lose customers. In fact, simply satisfying customers may not be enough to keep them.

How do you reward Customer Loyalty? How do you turn Customer Loyalty into Customer Royalty?

ConverStations will be hosting the Carnivale of Customer Service on Monday, Oct. 1. The theme will be Customer Royalty. If you’re interested in taking part, write a Customer Royalty post on your site, then email me by Monday, 12:00 pm PT. We’ll point to your post from here.

If you have a Customer Royalty story, we’d love to hear about it.

  • What company makes you feel like royalty as a customer?
  • What do you do to make your most loyal customers feel like royalty?
  • Are some companies missing out on the royalty factor?

Previous Carnivale of Customer Service stops:
- CustomersAreAlways (September 11)
- Custserv (September 25)

Interested in hosting the Carnivale? We can roll the red carpet your way next time.

Photo at Flickr by Kaotiqua

Putting Your Toes in the Water

By on September 26, 2006 in Blog Coach, Blogging, Conversations with 3 Comments

Toes_1Ready to launch a blog for your company? Have you Put your Ear to the Blogosphere? Next step – Put Your Toes in the Water.

Dancers rehearse, ballplayers take batting practice, and business leaders practice their porch pitch (shorter than an elevator ride). I think those new to blogging should follow suit.

Before I begin a coaching agreement with a prospect, I will usually counsel the potential blogger to set up a TypePad Pro account and use the free 30-day trial to build up some blogging muscles. You can keep the blog out of the public eye while you’re practicing.

This does a few things for you – and one for your blog coach:

  1. Write About Anything – Just Write. You don’t have to worry about hitting a home run during practice. This is to create the habit of posting often.
  2. Get Your Timing Down. Bring a kitchen timer if you need one, but whittle your writing down to 20-30 minutes.
  3. Develop Questions and Ideas. During the practice, you’ll develop some great questions – and great ideas. Ideas for Categories, Themes, and other Purpose Driven Blogging answers.

And the one thing you’ll do for your blog coach:

  1. Prove You’re Serious. I ask prospects to do this to save them money, save me time, and save us both the headache of an experiment gone bad. At the end of the 30-day trial, if you haven’t practiced – you don’t play. Cancel the account, keep your credit card in your pocket.

So why TypePad and not Blogger? Why TypePad Pro and not Basic? Again, it’s to prove you’re serious. The things a business can do on TypePad Pro are greater than the alternatives.

Who knows, you may not even need a coach. If that’s the case – I’ll cheer you on from the stands. Now – go get your feet wet.

Photo at Flickr by massdistraction

Quotes n Notes: Hard Work

By on September 25, 2006 in Quotes n Notes with 0 Comments

Qoutenote_3_2 "Most people won’t do the hard work it takes to make success easy." - Jeffrey Gitomer

At Developing Talent, Douglas Eby reminds us that "…creative breakthroughs take years of hard work" but also that if we wait for inspiration, "…we may never start working on what we might someday create."

Bravo!  Look, I’m all for working smarter than harder, but the "hard" I’m thinking about isn’t the perspiring type. It’s the mundane, the dull, the chores. Isn’t that what’s "hard" to you too?  I mean, if we enjoyed it – it wouldn’t be hard.

In some ways, I could say the following quote turned it around for me: "Do what you want to do least – first." Get it out of the way. You’ll find success faster and easier if you do.

Putting Your Ear to the Blogosphere

By on September 25, 2006 in Blog Coach, Conversations, RSS Feeds with 5 Comments

Ready to launch a blog for your company? What’s the first step? Listening. Before you start to publish a blog, put your ear to the blogosphere.

If you believe, as I do, that blogging is a conversational tool – it’s important that you practice listening first. Before you begin publishing, I encourage you to get familiar with a few other tools.

- A Feed Aggregator: I prefer GreatNews, a stand-alone tool which allows me to read content offline. MAC users seem to prefer NetNewsWire as their stand-alone of choice. For Linux, people I trust rave about Liferea. If you prefer a web-based tool, Bloglines or NewsGator work well.

- Technorati: Sign up for a free Technorati account. You don’t need a blog to do this, and when you do start publishing, you can quickly claim your blog. There are three types of searches in Technorati: Word Search, Tag Search and Blog Search.

- Google Blog Search: I use the Google BlogSearch mostly for searching on specific URLs, such as client sites. You can easily subscribe to the feed from the mid-left side of the screen.

- Topix: For news, Topix.net provides a mix of mainstream and social – and you can subscribe to the search results.

Using these three tools are important for a few reasons:

Related:
- Say Hello to my Little Friend
- Is Your Blog Radar Up?
- Synchronize Your Communications
- Business Blog Toolbox: Listening
- How Do I Find a Blog About…?
- A Single Feed Creates a Lifetime of Loyalty

Carnivale of Customer Service: Let’s Own This Together

By on September 24, 2006 in Brain Stew with 2 Comments

The Carnivale of Customer Service is being hosted by Meikah at Custserv -The New Competitive Edge this week. The theme is Providing Impossible or Exceptional Service.

People hear me talk up giving the customer a "sense of ownership" quite a bit. But the customer service folks should also take a "sense of ownership" – ownership in the customer’s want or problem.

Too many times, the counter (or desk, phone, computer, what-EVER) becomes a dividing line separating two sides about to do battle.

  • Eliminate this barrier.
  • Move to the customer’s side of the counter.
  • Become an assistant buyer (problem-solver).

Next time you’re faced with an impossible customer service situation, sing this:

Let’s Own This Together (as in "Let’s Stay Together")

I’m, I’m so in love with you
Together, we’ll see this thing thru
You’re important to me
‘Cause you make our brand have real value
And I want to plant a smile on you.

How, oh tell me, how can I make your day
So you’ll turn to others and say
"Did you see what they did for mee-eeee!"
Let me, be the one who provides you a "Wow!"
Together, we’ll have produced a Purple Cow.

Let’s, let’s own this together
Co-owners whether, whether,
My day is good or bad, happy or sad.

How do you become an Exceptional Service Provider?

Why I’m Attending BBS ’06: Tracking Feeds

By on September 23, 2006 in RSS Feeds with 1 Comment

The Blog Business Summit in Seattle is just around the corner and I’m looking forward to it. One discussion I’ll be sure to attend is Tris Hussey’s feed metrics session. This is important! Every web (under)developer I talk with about measuring traffic within a feed does four things before giving their answer:

  1. Jiggles head around to try to shake the cobwebs out
  2. Looks deep into my eyes to see if I’m joking
  3. Takes a stab at an answer, dropping names like AWStats or WebTrends
  4. Examines my eyelids to see if there’s any wool that can be pulled down

One of the reasons I’m a big fan of FeedBurner TotalStats is how they measure reach and clickthroughs – from within the feed aggregator. As more people become aware of feed aggregators, they way we measure readership will change – is changing.

Tris is looking for some feed data to use in his experiment. I’ll be sending mine over. You?

I have a keen interest in this subject, and my thoughts are part of Ted Demopoulos’ new book, What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting

Are You Reading What You Already Agree With?

By on September 21, 2006 in Conversations with 6 Comments

While in the bookstore yesterday to buy Who Are You People (<– to the blog), the bookseller shared some great insight:

"Nobody buys a book unless they already agree with it."

Interesting, explain.

"I’ve never sold an Ann Coulter book to an Al Franken fan."

Hmm. Do we do the same with blogs?  I don’t always agree with Wayne or Brian, but I rarely miss a post. I’m not in the same business as Sean or Katherine, but I try to read them often.

While my gut says the bookseller is right, I believe its healthy to view different perspectives. Even if you don’t agree with the message of the blog, maybe you can emulate the methods of the blogger.

Interesting conversation considering the title of the book I bought. Do you only read things you already agree with?

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