Archive - December, 2006

Happy Blogtipping Eve

By on December 31, 2006 in Blogging with 1 Comment

Blogtipping_4 Just a reminder that tomorrow is BlogTipping Day (the 1st of each month). What’s BlogTipping? Quite simple, and everyone benefits. Here’s how:

  • Pick a blog,
  • Share three positives about the blog,
  • Offer one tip to improve the blog,
  • Tag it with Blogtipping,

Many reasons to dig this idea:

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

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

Previous Blogtippings:
December | November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April

Habits to Better Blogging in ’07 – Have Fun

By on December 31, 2006 in Blog Coach with 2 Comments

Over these last few days of 2006, let’s cover a few ways to lift your blogging efforts to a new level in 2007.

Have Fun

That’s right. Yes, I know we’re talking about business blogging, but if blogging is a conversation (and I believe it is) then let’s have some fun.

Seriously, if every business meeting or conversation you have is without a smile or enjoyment, how long do you think you’ll have an audience? Would you stick around a stale conversation?

Here’s a quick prediction for 2007. A company blog will not win the Pulitzer Prize. Phew – that too the pressure off, hmm?

Habit 5 for Better Business Blogging in ’07: Have Fun

These aren’t the only good habits: Posting Daily; Generous Linking; Use of Video or Audio…there are probably several. What are you going to do to raise your level of blogging ion 2007?

Previously:
- Habit # 1: Recognize and Record
- Habit # 2: Trading Cards
- Habit # 3: Listen
- Habit # 4: Make More Comments

Provoke Yourself with Questions

By on December 31, 2006 in Quotes n Notes with 4 Comments

Rajesh Setty is offering a great series of Quoughts -Questions That Provoke Thought

Questions are not only conversation starters, they can be the impetus that raises our game, our awareness, our success to another level.

There are some brilliant hearts and minds providing these quick reads. I’m honored and humbled to be among them (#13).

My favorites thus far:

What question is the driving force behind your 2007?

Also check out Raj’s The Power of Questions lens on Squidoo

Habits to Better Blogging ’07 – Make More Comments

By on December 30, 2006 in Blog Coach with 9 Comments

Over these last few days of 2006, let’s cover a few ways to lift your blogging efforts to a new level in 2007.

Comments

One of my goals in the coming year is to make more comments on other sites, especially on new blogs or those that deserve more attention. Several reasons why this is a great habit:

  • Encourages the blog author. Think about how you feel when you get a comment. Same thing.
  • Builds relationships and community. Few people like to be first on the dance floor. Those who dance more often, become better dancers.
  • Improve your comment skills. Many business people are scared of comments on their own site. They shouldn’t be. And by commenting more elsewhere, they’ll get better at responding to comments on their own site.
  • Greater awareness. If your comment adds value, you will find other visitors clicking through to see your work

I still think it’s better to write longer comments as posts on your blog.

Habit 4 for Better Business Blogging in ’07: Make More Comments

Previously:
- Habit # 1: Recognize and Record
- Habit # 2: Trading Cards
- Habit # 3: Listening

Lend Me Your Ears – Discovery in Conversation

By on December 29, 2006 in Conversations with 0 Comments

Are email exchanges conversation? For that matter, are blogs?

The first question is one that Susan Bird asks at Bird’s Eye View. Comments and follow-up posts ensued. Hey, we’ve got a conversation going on here.

If we enter into this (or any) conversation looking for discovery, we’re better equipped to find value. In fact, Susan points that out in the first post: "Conversations are true exchanges in which both parties are, in at least some small way, transformed."

If one party in a conversation falls short of transformation, I would think it’s most often the listener.

Again, if it’s important to them (the deliverer of the message), it should be important to me (the receiver of the message) – but important on their terms.  Lend me your ears.

By listening with intent on finding discovery, lend a selfless ear. Sometimes the speaker grows more than the listener.

Sometimes, we don’t know what we know – until we articulate it.

In Susan’s posts, we witness discovery and growth as if we’re sitting across the table from each other. Better yet, my friend Brett Rogers connected with Susan when he commented on one of Susan’s posts. Brett then connected us via email. New friendships are part of the discovery.

There is opportunity for discovery in every conversation. If you’re looking for it, it will find you.

Looking at the Z-List from a Different Lens

By on December 29, 2006 in Blogging with 3 Comments

My business partner, Sandy Renshaw, has WOWd us with a totally different view of the Z-List. Fun, creative, lots of work.  But she served it up and people are eating it up.

Zlist

As Mack says at the Daily Fix today "Satisfy your community’s needs directly, and they will satisfy your needs indirectly. "

Great work on this Sandy. I don’t know who’s having more fun with it – you or the community you serve. Isn’t it great that either way?

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

By on December 29, 2006 in Blogging with 2 Comments

Everything.

If it’s important to you, it’s important to me. At your level of importance, not mine. This is important.

Gavin

Updates on Noel | Take Action | Who is Gavin?

Habits to Better Blogging in ’07 – Listening

By on December 28, 2006 in Blog Coach with 3 Comments

Over these last few days of 2006, let’s cover a few ways to lift your blogging efforts to a new level in 2007.

Listening

Most of the business bloggers I know read and point to other business blogs. Makes sense, since most of us will subscribe to things we already agree with – it’s in our nature.

But do we listen to other conversations that could be important to our business? Do we use Google Blog Search to subscribe to phrases we might hear our customers or prospects use daily?

- If I’m in animal care, I might subscribe to a key phrase that my customers might say, such as, "my dog is sick" or "my horse has developed"  and comment on those sites. Doesn’t matter what area they live in. Lend a helping hand and develop a solid relationship.

- If I provide a service such as human resources consulting, I’m subscribing to the Indeed feed for Human Resources Manager or Director, contacting the company looking for help. They’ve already said publicly they have a need. Even if I don’t get business this time, now they know about my blog.

- If I manufacture or distribute (pick a widget), I’m subscribing to YouTube to see how people are using these widgets. Gain ideas, share them on my blog, comment on YouTube.

Habit 3 for Better Business Blogging in ’07: Listen. Then engage.

Well, we finally turned on the computer…and still haven’t written a blog post. Sometimes better blogging has little to do with writing a post.

Previously:
- Habit # 1: Recognize and Record
- Habit # 2: Trading Cards

Blogarithmics: Using BlogJuice as a Comparison Tool

By on December 28, 2006 in Blogging, Marketing, RSS Feeds with 2 Comments

Kevin Hillstrom at Mine That Data has penned a numbers-crunching piece in Fully Understanding the Traffic Your Site Truly Generates.

Using BlogJuice as a measuring stick, Kevin notices trends, strengths and potential weaknesses in areas of loyalty through RSS subscriptions, popularity, and visits to the actual site.

The important part – the money quote, if you will:

"…you will have to find ways to measure the effectiveness of your website activities in ways that traditional analytics tools are currently incapable of doing. You will have to measure those who consume information via RSS feeds."

Kevin nails it with that line, which is why I always suggest using FeedBurners Total Stats PRO, especially with their still-coming-soon rollout of BlogBeat-like measurement.

BlogJuice is a decent comparison tool when using publicly available data. Still, there’s more to track.

For instance, Bloglines only represents 10% of total subscribers on this site. And while tracking subscribers is important, don’t forget to analyze reach or click-through of feed readers who don’t visit the site.

I’m still working on the Blogarithmics project for 2007, looking for a way to internally measure the path of improvement for customers we serve. Hope to have a working model in a couple of weeks so you folks can find the holes.

Aside: Kevin also has a great article at DMNews on Four Reasons Why Your Company Should Blog Next Year.

Habits for Better Blogging in ’07 – Trading Cards

By on December 27, 2006 in Blog Coach with 9 Comments

Over these last few days of 2006, let’s cover a few ways to lift your blogging efforts to a new level in 2007.

Trading Cards

Card_1Everyone gets a business card. Everyone. I carry them loosely in my shirt pocket so I can quickly offer one to everyone I meet. Then I hold my hand out. If they don’t give me a card back, they owe me a dollar.

Print your blog address on your card. We’re coming out with new cards in 2007. One side is the information for our company, the other side has the blog address and logo.

Before you excuse this as a lame habit (or one that doesn’t fit blogging), one that we should already practice (wanna bet I tally over $200 next year because people don’t carry business cards?), let’s think about it.

If blogs are, in part, about extending your voice and network of customers and collaborators…don’t business cards do the same offline?

Be generous with your cards, giving them to:

  • Customers (One person told me he already has nine. I asked why he was being stingy with them)
  • Prospects
  • People who aren’t prospects but might know of someone who needs your card
  • Students (be a mentor and show them a good habit)

Write a note on your card (an offline, mini-blog post?) before you hand it over.

Habit 2 for Better Business Blogging in ’07: Trading Cards

When you offer your business card to someone, you’ve let them know they are important to you. And though we still haven’t turned on the computer, handing your card out is similar to leaving a comment on someone’s blog.

Related Elsewhere:
- How Can I Help You? at Thoughts and Philosophies
- Networking is an Acquired Skill at Duct Tape Marketing

Previously:
– Habit # 1: Recognize and Record

Page 1 of 612345»...Last »