ConverStations

Whistle Stops - 02/29/08

Some sites I've Stumbled Upon, Twittered about or found Delicious this week:

• Obsolete Skills via twitter by @willrich45: Love this encyclopedia of no-longer-necessary skills! Remember the rotary phone?  Wonder when keyboarding will become obsolete?
• TweetVolume: similar to Google Trends, but for Twitter. Interesting tool to use -- are the Tweeple (people) talking about your business or product?
• Social Media for Open Education by Ewan McIntosh: If you consider yourself to be a lifelong learner/critical thinker (business incl.) watch this video
• Why Do We Keep Giving Away the Milk? by Drew McLellan, et al @ MarketingProfs: Why the "et al"?  50 comments and counting, this piece touched a nerve. Who's going to buy the cow if you keep giving away the milk?
• Who You Gonna Call for a Summer Internship? by Toby Bloomberg: Overview and Interview of startup YouIntern, which seems -- at the surface -- a bit like RateMyProfessors
• 50 Timeless Blogging Tips at Sueblimely: Get great blogging advice from folks like Mark Twain, Thoreau and Cicero. Really!

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MyBlogLog Goes Live Streaming with Profile Pages

If you've ever wondered where some of your community gets/saves all that info they collect, maybe you can now follow along with MyBlogLog profile pages.

As I was updating my own profile this morning, I noticed a lot of new features, then my Techmeme Twitter follow alerted me to Marshall's article on Read/Write Web (which covers the update more so than I will here).

Cutting to the quick, I'd recommend updating your profile to grab the services you're involved with (I chose StumbleUpon, Delicious, LinkedIn, Shelfari, Technorati, Twitter) and MyBlogLog will stream updates onto your profile page.

Better yet, you can subscribe to the feeds of those in your community. Here's Ben Yoskovitz' new MyBlogLog profile page (and his feed).

I'm just starting to poke around this, but I already like it.

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Back to School - As a Social Mediatician

For the past 2.5 years, I've been working with business people in using social media tools so they might

• engage with their customers;
• amplify their relationships;
• augment and enhance their business.

Last summer, I met Educational Consultant Angela Maiers, an infectious sort on a quest for knowledge, wielding a creative spirit. We launched her blog site and it continues to extend her voice beyond her workshops.

In the past six months, I've had the privilege to accompany, and on occasion co-instruct, with Angela during her workshops.

We both recognize the need for these tools to be placed properly in the hands of students. Going forward, in addition to the work I do with Converstations, I'll be working with Angela as we teach and train schools and educators in using social media tools within and outside of the classroom walls.

As Social Mediatician, my work with businesses will continue, but by also working with Angela at Maiers Educational Services, we'll be able to disrupt some stale conversation and pave the way for new conversation and co-creation.

I believe schools should be training students in using these tools that will be (and are already) a part of life. Not banning the tools, but teaching how to use the tools. Ten years ago, schools weren't teaching email. But look at us now.

Ten years from now, we have no idea (we don't!) how important the use of certain tools will be in the workplace. Tools such as:

• Blogs and Wikis
• RSS, OPML or microformats
• Facebook or LinkedIn
• Twitter or Pownce
• et cetera

Already, there are some enthusiastic folks making a global differences with their work in this field, including Will Richardson, Ewan McIntosh, David Warlick, Wesley Fryer, Clay Burell, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and others. Hopefully, we can plant some such seeds in our journeys.

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Chat Live with Google Talk ChatBack on Your Site

Life Rocks 2.0 shares a bit on adding a Google Talk chatback badge directly on your site.

Before I put this widget permanently on my sidebar, I think I'll just post about it here.

My initial reaction is, "Great, now I can talk with everyone." But right behind it is, "Ut-oh, how will I be able to talk with everyone."

When I was a Community Manager at AOL, it seemed that I always had at least 10 IMs going at one time -- and I got more work done when I shut down IMs.  We'll see what happens.

You can get your own Google Talk chatback badge with a simple copy & paste of some code.

Update: There are FAQs in the Google Talk Help area. Of course, you'll need GTalk to put this on your site, but your readers will not.

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Typepad Blogs: Create a Table of Contents Page

A few folks have asked me to create a Table of Contents page for their Typepad blog site. Of course, I'm no plumber -- so I asked the Typepad crew for help. As usual, they came through with flying colors (Thanks Zalary)!

I was able to create a TOC page for my site in a breeze: ConverStations Table of Contents and placed it in the top navigation. Here's how:

With Advanced Templates,

• Copy the Main Index Template code into a new index template (I called it toc.html, but contents.html or something similar is good). 
• Replace the midsection, usually the line of code reading
  <$MTInclude module ="entry-list"$>,
  with this:

<ul><MTArchiveList archive_type="Category"> <li class="module-list-item"><a href="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$></a> <ul><MTEntries lastn="15"> <li><a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a></li> </MTEntries></ul> </li> </MTArchiveList></ul>

Save, and then Publish.  I've also quickly completed this task for business associate Angela Maiers' Table of Contents, and I'm about to implement elsewhere. It adds a quick form of navigation for readers.

Let me know if you need a hand or place your Table of Contents page in a comment.

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Response-O-Matic: Free Forms for Your Blog

I've used several tools on Typepad blogs to create contact forms, including FormLogix and WebFormDesigner. In each case, the tools were either feature-rich (heavy and cumbersome) or didn't give enough control over design.

Then I found Response-O-Matic. Likkety-split easy. I created a form that went live on a site in under 15 minutes.

Here are a few examples from the Response-O-Matic site. 

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Put Power Into Your Presentations

Scott Elias offers up a great SlideShare presentation on...presentations. Scott's teaching style comes across smooth here - and both teachers and business folks would do well to implement his tips:

| View | Upload your own

Reading in a feed? You can watch Taking Your Slide Deck to the Next Level too. For further studies, make sure to check out Presentation Zen (on the blog or in book form)

Tip of the bill to Angela Maiers for sharing.

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Don't Blow Your Wad in One Post

Your blog is not a pulpit.  Yes, we all get on a soapbox now and again, but one thing I often tell new business bloggers is to consider their conversation ongoing.

In addition to the One Post - One Point mantra, it helps both author and audience in multiple ways:

• Search results. If I were specializing in Real Estate Foreclosures, I wouldn't want to write a 2,500 word post on the subject and be done with it. Rather, I'd pepper several shorter posts on the subject and build page depth.
• Readability. Shorter posts are easier to read, especially if you're generous with Eye Rests. Think about your moments in a coffee line. Sometimes your posts (and readers) will be better served that short.
• Storytelling. This may be most important. By finding different ways to use metaphors, similes and real-life stories  to talk about your subject - you'll strike a chord with various audiences. Create a Metaphorsauras (just made it up:-)) - a thesaurus of metaphors - that you can use in your blog posts.

Try it on for size. Keep your posts shorter, but multiply them in depth. Want to write a thesis? Put it in a white-paper.

Photo on Flickr by tabhastal

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Spring Training: All-Stars in the Conversphere

With blizzard warnings and white-out conditions in Iowa, and ballplayers reporting to Spring Training this week, I thought it might be fun to name a team of all-stars of the conversphere (h/t to Tony Clark for coining that term). This is my A-team (must reads)

Catcher: Robin McMaster & Ellen Weber  - A lefty-right platoon here.  Not bats or throws left righty.  But lefty-righty brains.  These two are always talking about brain-based stuff.

1st Base: Steve Rubel - A master at handling all the incoming news, hacks and tidbits.

2nd Base: Drew McLellan - Versatile. A team-builder and player, always giving his all. A co-creator of both Age of Conversation and Blogger Social.

Shortstop: Scott Ginsberg - Another core up-the-middle blogger, especially now with the NametagTV

3rd Base: Jeremiah Owyang - Handles the hot corner (and topics) with aplomb. Often on the move, connects as well offline as he does online.

Right Field: Leo Babauta - The rookie on my team (list). Informative and balanced reading.

Center Field: David Armano - The anchor on my list.  Used to be my MVT (Most Valuable Twitterer), but has been replaced there by @jowyang

Left Field: Paul Williams - Dig the design and content. When I need an idea, I steal / modify / adapt / whuddevah from this site.

Pitcher: Joanna Young - Delivers from many different sites, including Joyful Jubilant Learning, The Calm Space and BusinessBlogAngel. Also all over the commentesphere.

Bullpen: MarketingProfs Daily Fix. A team of versatile and savvy and witty marketing bloggers. Every bullpen needs this kind of depth in their pen.

Bench: Copyblogger - This used to be a Brian Clark only project, but now a cadre of copywriters and wordsmiths contribute

Manager: The Slackers

Mascot: The Purple Cow man himself.

Money Man: Fred Wilson - Golden touch and a great ear for music.

Traveling Secretary: Bill Geist - If there is ever a CVB for the blogosphere - this guy should run it.

As a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates (yes, they still play ball), maybe I can convince ownership to put these folks on the field.

Photo on Flickr by ian_ransley

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Whistle Stops - 02/15/08

Some sites I've Stumbled Upon, Twittered about or found Delicious this week:

• Disruptive Technology or Industry Savior? by Greg Verdino. Greg is in the habit of asking great questions. I've been saying for two years, "mobile" - but I dunno if we're there yet.  Great comments!
• Trenches and Ponds by Chris Brogan. How's that shiny new Web 2.0 thing you're working on?  Is it really that new or shiny? Chris offers a great checklist to make sure what you're working on is worth the work.
• Say Goodbye to Traditional Resumes by Dan Schawbel. This would've been my answer to Greg's question above last year...Dan says "hello" to Virtual Resumes.  HR folks already know. Some job-hunters do too.  How about you?
• 52-point Blog Improvement Checklist by Easton Ellsworth. A thorough self-assessment tool with opportunities to get updates from a business blog bigwig.
• Keyword Nortonmeter by getupdated (H/T to Matthew Griffin) A search tool to help you understand the relationship between phrases, audiences and the sites a search pulls up.
• YouthTwitter with a H/T to Will Richardson. A school-based, twitter-like microblogging tool.

Lotsa great stuff this week!

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