ConverStations

Social Media Artists on the Rise at Panera West

One of the core beliefs I have about Social Media is that it gives everyone the potential of an equal voice or platform.

It's no longer necessary to have an agent or publisher or gallery to get a foothold (though if you're good, those will become necessary to continue climbing). One of the ways to get a foothold is by using Social Media to connect, collaborate, and communicate what's working and what's not online. We'll have free Wi-Fi and who knows…maybe a workshop breaks out.

Starting on March 23rd, and on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, Panera Bread at 4150 Westown Pkwy, West Des Moines, IA (map) will host Artists on the Rise - Social Media for Creatives from 6-8pm.

Painters, Foodies, Poets, Singers, Landscapers, Writers, Musicians, Jewelers, Crafters, Design … bring your community and creative spirits.

As with Central Iowa Bloggers (aka #CIB), this is a wholly and total community thing.  I'll be there to help build connections and conversations, and may even lead a few discussions on some cool tools that creatives and hobbyists might find valuable.

I hope to see you there.

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3 C's of Business Balance: Since Chalk on a Rock

Conversational community has been built around content since the days of drawing images on the walls of caves and hills of sand. And we will always have a conversation going on around and about the content we produce and consume.

Content and Community.  And Commerce. What, all those drawings were just a hobby?  Even if it started out that way, if there was value in what was being said -- the community would praise and pay for the continuation of the output.

But what now? What's the natural progression for someone who has been creating and producing in this age of conversational media and consumer generated content?  In many cases, the commerce part - or lack of it - can keep us off balance in the exchange.

The three-legged bar stool of balance in this generation (and maybe all the previous ones, too) is the three C's of Content, Commerce, and Community  Take one away, and your business won't be stable.

• Content + Community (but no Commerce) = You might have lots of fans and eyeballs, but you won't be able to sustain it without an income.
• Community + Commerce (but no Content) = You'll probably experience a "flash-in-the-pan" growth spurt, but without content (or a product or service), you'll not last.
• Commerce + Content (but no Community) = You'll do fine…if you are your own customer.  But with nobody talking to you or more importantly, about you -- you'll soon be alone.

Does your business plan have balance?  Check the legs on those C's.

Image provided by courtesy of Jodi Krzyzak at VIVE Foundation

Related:

• Content that Works - The Series
• The 3 C's of Social Media
• The Three C's are Still Working
• Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)

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Happy Birthday ConverStations: Bring on the 5th

It's funny. When a person has been alive for four full years, we say they are "four" for the following 365 days. Yet when a business is alive for four full years, we celebrate their 5th year in business for the next year. Either way, today, this blog site enters it's 5th year of conversation.

Together we've seen many changes on site and off site. Relationships have been amplified (and some silenced). Tools and toys have come out rapid-fire, but talk has always preceded tech

To help mark that event, I thought I'd repost the five most important posts -- not the most popular, or the most sarcastic, or the prettiest -- but the five most important posts within these pages.  Hope they help. Here's to five more years (thanks for being a major part of whatever success the site/message/conversation has had):

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Blog Posting: Give 'em Eye Rest

We're scanners. Our eyes move fast and furious trying to capture all we can in a short amount of time.  Just as the best road trips have rest stops along the way, the best blog posts have eye rests along the way.

Give your audience one (or more) eye rest stops in your blog posts.

• Images - I always encourage placing the image to the right. Why?  We read left-to-right. Unless the image IS the story, let it be an eye rest. It will enhance - and maybe even compel more readership.
• Bold Text - As scanners, we're flying through text. Especially with longer paragraphs, publish a money quote in bold text.
• Hyperlinks - Hyperlinks are valuable to everyone involved, and the value for your reader is twofold: 1) They can dig deeper into the subject and 2) the change in text is an eye rest
• Lists - Short bullet or numbered lists are always good for an eye rest.

Which article are you more likely to read and remember?

This one:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Pellentesque molestie neque nec ante. Pellentesque dui ipsum, porttitor vel, placerat sollicitudin, venenatis ut, dui. Praesent erat arcu, molestie sit amet, interdum in, nonummy pulvinar, nibh. Mauris imperdiet condimentum nisi. Donec eu turpis non leo nonummy sollicitudin. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Integer justo lorem, sodales sed, mollis at, gravida viverra, diam. Donec nibh leo, scelerisque sed, cursus et, venenatis scelerisque, erat.

Or this one:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Pellentesque molestie neque nec ante. Pellentesque dui ipsum, my money is on the second one, venenatis ut, dui. Praesent erat arcu, molestie sit amet, interdum in, nonummy pulvinar, nibh.

• Mauris imperdiet condimentum nisi.
• Donec eu turpis non leo nonummy sollicitudin.
• Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia

Curae; Integer justo lorem, sodales sed, mollis at, gravida viverra, diam. Donec nibh leo, scelerisque sed, cursus et, venenatis scelerisque, erat.

Give your readers an eye rest. They're more likely to remember what you wrote - and therefore spread your words.

Photo on Flickr by imadoofus123

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Purpose Driven Blogging

Before we begin blogging, I ask each person/company I work with to answer six questions:

• What are three main goals for your business?
• What are three business objectives for your blog?
• Who is your audience? (Prospects, Current Clients, Colleagues, Internal)
• Are you targeting a national or regional audience?
• How do you want your audience to respond?
• How much time are you willing to devote to the conversation?

These questions have given pause to some business leaders - and that's a good thing.  Tonight, I'm going to start giving the following two posts as handouts (after I get permission from the authors):

1. Kami Huyse provides The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Blogging. Great Purpose Statement, Kami!
2. Martin Gordon elaborates on Steve Rubel's 4 P's of Blog Marketing - and here's why the elaboration works. I still run into old school marketers who are looking at the traditional 4 P's. Combining Steve's outline and Martin's elaboration, there may be less of a battle.

If you're trying to convince your company to being blogging, grab these posts.

One other note: Both Kami and Martin included a comment of mine within their posts. That's how I found them. That said, this isn't just a reciprocal posting - their items are keepers.

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Mingle With Your Audience

In Get Out From Behind the Counter, we talked about eliminating barriers from our customers in an offline setting.

As business bloggers, it may be more of "Get Down Off the Pedestal", remembering to get out into the audience once in awhile. Off the stage, into the audience.

In a recent workshop, while I was in front of the group, the mood was a bit...tense (Technology Blinders?). We came to the point of building a quick blog site. I went into the audience so we were all looking from the same view. What happened?

The mood quickly changed.  We were all on equal ground.  Just as it should be.

So get out from behind the counter, get off the pedestal, mingle with your readers. They won't bite.

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A Blog Posting Mantra

When I was coaching baseball, our hitters memorized this mantra for a great swing:

"Front Foot Closed, Back Foot Pivot, Back Shoulder Turns, Head At Contact."

Here's the checklist (mantra?) I offer for a great posting practice

1. Write Post First - Sometimes we humans can get on a rabbit trail. By writing the post first, you don't handcuff yourself to a certain title.
2. Then Title Post - By doing writing your headline after the post, you'll have a better headline and it will match the content of the post.
3. Pick a Category - You may decide to add a new category after the first two steps.
4. At Least One Link Out - This practice extends the conversation. If you can't find a blog, find something relevant. I also suggest to link within your sites, but don't be a dead-end.
5. Image Above the Fold - Understand that many are reading from feed aggregators. If an image helps tell the story, make sure the reader doesn't have to scroll to see it - they may not scroll.
6. Tag Your Post - I prefer Technorati. You may prefer something else. In any case, make sure you use tags. Think find-ability and link-ability.The easier you are to find, the better your chances of people linking back.
7. And Ping 'Em - Use Pingoat or Pingomatic to let blog search engines know you've updated your site.

(Note: These last two steps are now automatic with most blogging software)

This list doesn't talk about length, voice, subject matter or ethics - and it's not meant to do that. This is a checklist that can be used to make sure you touch all the bases. From a mechanics of posting perspective, what else is on your checklist?

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Search Once and Subscribe

Your Name, Your Company, Your Keywords and Phrases, Your web or blog URL, Your Competition, Your Industry, Your Clients, Your Prospects.

Next time you search - Search Once and Subscribe. Why?

1) Saves time. How many times have you repeated a search this month, this week, or even today? Most search engines allow you to subscribe to the RSS feed (what is RSS?)of a search string. Search once, subscribe, get notified of changes. Search Once and Subscribe

2) Instant Knowledge. Know when something good or bad is said about you or your company. Know when someone links to your web site. Know when a news item is published about you, your competitor or your industry. Search Once and Subscribe

3) Show You Care. Repeat the same steps for your best clients or prospects currently in the sales cycle. If something comes up that interests them, you can forward it and prove that you care for them. Use these tools as a news clipping service. Search Once and Subscribe.

4) It's Free. For now.

You can either do this as you go or invest an hour and get it done. Get in the habit of Search Once and Subscribe.

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And in case you're wondering, the post that started this journey on February 16, 2006:

Blogs are Conversation Stations

Welcome to Converstations, a new blog site focusing on how-to's and what-for's of companies using blogware to communicate with their customers.

I also publish used to write the Copywriting Watch Blog, and the focus there has been on blogs lately. I'd like to separate the subjects of copywriting and blogging. I believe that while copywriting, marketing, and PR are all changing - due in part to the blogosphere - they aren't dead, just changing.

One of the first questions prospective copywriting clients ask me is how they can improve their search engine results. Publishing a blog is a great way to do that - though that's not the only reason to blog. Nor is the text-based blog the only way to deliver your company's message. Podcasting is another popular form of getting your message out there.

I believe that cob...err...stale...err...static web sites still have their place, but blogs offer much more effective forms of communication - which is the very reason for a web site, right?.

Here are the distinct differences:

1. Frequently Updated Content
2. Permalinks (or archives)
3. Reader Comments
4. Syndicated Content (or RSS Feeds)

Search Engines are attracted to blogs. Internet users are attracted to blogs. Your customers will be too.

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There are others that will stand the test of time, and I should update the Top Posts page sometime soon. Lots of changes are still in the making and about to be shared. Stay tuned. I'm hoping that the 5th of ConverStations is the best year yet.  Thanks for reading and riding along the rails:-)

That's My Take. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

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.

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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

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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.

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Your Baby Blog Might Make Baby Messes

 Revisiting (adapted from original post on 12/18/06):
Congratulations, It's a Blog

So you have a new blog (or other social media play) for you, your company or your school. Congratulations.

Treat it with care and love - because it might make a mess before it gets its legs. Be patient.

When a baby drools, burps, potties or makes other messes, we don't throw them in a corner and forget about it. The young child will probably cry, moan, learn to lie, go off to school and lose their new jacket - do we trade it in for a new model? 

They can keep  us awake at night, altering our daily schedule just a bit:-)  Do we throw the baby in a closet and ignore it?

You're newborn blog won't be perfect either. Might need to be okay with crap for a bit. You might need to alter your schedule too.  Be Patient. Be passionate in your work, be inviting to your audience, be patient with your efforts. Watch it grow.

You'll be proud of the results if you endure.

Photo on Flickr by Rebecca and Bernhard

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Write a Book in 2010 - Using Your Blog

Is 2010 the year you finally write that book?

I hope so. And I'd suggest you write your book on your blog (or start a new one and make it public).

A few reasons you'll want to write it on the blog:

1. Don't get stuck at the start: I know lots of folks who get stuck on page one. They have 17 fantastic introductions or Chapter 1s. You won't get stuck. Make your outline or content headings categories on your blog.  Try to write a 200-300 word post daily (just spill), filling each category 4-6 times each month. At the end of the year, even if you miss a day or 50, you'll have a 200-page book by the end of the year.
2. Your audience is building up as you go: You'll be able to get feedback as you go. And by watching your stats, you'll see which areas you need to address.
3. Yes - Give it away: Nobody's going to click through 200 blog posts in a sitting (and if they do, they earned to see it free). If it's good, they'll want to buy the book.
4. A page is but a pebble: I can almost hear ya now, "What - me write a book?" Let's not cross the mountain in one giant step, but rather a pebble at a time. But we'll call them posts (which later become pages). 
5. Be Findable: And even if you don't end up with the book, you'll be more findable based on your page-depth and consistent writing. Oh - and you'll probably become a much better writer.

One day - one post - one page at a time. Possible?

I dunno. Let's find out. And hey...Why not?

P.S. This post is 297 words, including this postscript.

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Brunch n Brains: Some (Kinda) ROI in Social Media

From Socialnomics

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Brunch n Brains with Chris Cree TV

I don't subscribe to many video channels or newsletters, but Chris Cree is one I try not to miss.  In this short video, he offers 7 easy tips for small business bloggers to keep their content fresh. Well worth the 4-minutes:

Chris consistently proves himself as a learner and one who easily transfers what he learns and believes - in a simple way - to others.

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