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Is This the Best Blog Post Ever?

By Mike Sansone on August 8, 2010 in Blog Coach, Books, Quotes n Notes with 0 Comments

If it is, it can be found in a book – one of my favorites: Exploiting Chaos:

Act Now

As a creative person, you were no doubt thinking of many ideas reading this book. What will you do with those ideas?

A young man once approached J.P. Morgan with a proposition: "Sir, I hold in my hand a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly sell to you for $25,000."*

Always curious, J.P. Morgan replied, "I do not know what is in the envelope, however, if you show me and I like it, I give you my word as a gentlemen that I will pay you what you ask."

The man agreed, handing J.P. Morgan the envelope.

When J.P. examined the note, he reached for his checkbook and paid the man the agreed upon sum of $25,000. In one of his presentations, Tom Peters revealed the advice that was on the piece of paper:

Every morning, write a list of things that need to be done that day.

Do them.

If you want to Exploit Chaos, the time to act is always now.

You can find this "post" towards the end of Exploiting Chaos (check out the sample preview of the book (pdf)).

Allow me to say a few things about why I'm putting this up for you to read:

Notice Item #1: "…to be done that day." It doesn't say everything you have to do to get to zero-to-do-list.
I've already shared that this book gives great examples of "writing for the web" reader with Supercharged headlines (you can read about them on page 250); short, pithy paragraphs; eye rests galore; take-away quote at the bottom.
You should be reading RSS feeds and jotting down your ideas (and act upon them)
Because of the speed of change in our world today, it's imperative you become a Trend Hunter in your field (and the fringe!)
The folks behind this "textbook" are looking for new team members, including some Social Mediaticians (I am soooo tempted to throw my name in the ring)

So as you approach Monday morning, just list the things to be done that day, hmm? And if Sunday isn't quite over for you yet, go grab a copy of Exploiting Chaos:
(<–affiliate link)

*The story appears in Slide #288 of Tom Peters Re-Imagine deck and page 262 of the book Exploiting Chaos

Revisiting: Blog Like a Farmer

By Mike Sansone on August 2, 2010 in Blog Coach with 0 Comments

Originally Posted May 2006:

I've always had great respect for farmers.
They live life with a do-whatever-it-takes attitude. More than most,
they understand the Law of the Harvest and the dangers of taking
shortcuts.

Blog Like a Farmer. In workshops and working with new bloggers, I often use this along with an acronym.

For instance, at the start of your blogging season, you may need to
modify your schedule. But as you build your blogging muscles (faster
writing, scanning feeds, discerning signal vs. noise by the headlines),
that time will become gradually decrease.

Farmers are some of the best neighbors a person can have. They share knowledge and collaboration freely.
Blogging is no different. Watch how others blog. Comment on their
posts. Be quick to share praise for those that have helped you along
the way. Don't blog alone.

Patience is a key. I recently worked with one
business leader who had great ideas for a blog. He's a great story
teller. A niche topic. We practiced a few posts, launched the site. He
hasn't written a word since. He's waiting for a response to his initial
post before he writes anything. Says he'll write more posts when people
start coming to his site. Isn't that putting the reaping before the sowing?

Here are some key abilities a blogger needs to Blog Like a Farmer

Find-ability: Use social tools such Slideshare, Twitter, Flickr, and del.icio.us to make your site findable.
Adapt-ability:
Track your traffic – both your site AND your RSS feed – and adapt to what
your audience reads and clicks. Don't box yourself in to tight. Change
is growth.
Response-ability:
Comment on other sites, send 'thank you' emails to other bloggers for
their work, always respond to comments left on your blog.
Market-ability:
Get great at writing headlines. The best way to do that is by writing
headlines (and posts). Submit your work to Carnivals, or start your own.
Sustain-ability: Don't start something you aren't willing to see through to completion. Patience, young blogger. The reaping comes after the sowing.

What are your strongest abilities as a blogger?

Photo on Flickr by Graela

Reflections and Reviews of Julys Gone By

By Mike Sansone on July 31, 2010 in Blog Coach with 0 Comments

At the turn of the calendar, let's revisit some posts from this and past Julys:

July 2010

July Past

Brunch n Brains: The Art of Listening (TED video) – July 2009
YouTube Blocked? Try Zamzar or KeepVid – July 2008
Google as a Librarian – July 2008
The Future of Education: Send the Lecture Home – July 2008
Apply SCAMPER to Your Blogging – July 2007
Blog Posting: Give Readers an Eye Rest – July 2007 (I'm beggin' ya!)
Speak to the Back of the Church (Global Voices!) – July 2007
Search Once and Subscribe: Use Personal Pronouns – July 2007
Handling Negative Comments: Do You Have a Volunteer Fire Department? – July 2007
Synchronizing Communication – July 2007
Perceptions of Bloggers: A Visual – July 2006
Do You Know Your Feed Response Rate? - July 2006
The Immutable Law of Business Blogging – July 2006
Quotes n Notes: Perseverance – July 2006
Why Not? – July 2006

That's the best of the July bunch:-) Bring on the "dog days" of August

Your RSS Feed is Part of Your Display Merchandising

By Mike Sansone on July 30, 2010 in Blog Coach, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

Image via Wikipedia

The design of your site looks great (or maybe that mock-up is looking great). Glad you're on top of it. But do you subscribe to your own RSS feed?

It's also part of your display merchandising — and you should be subscribing to it. You should be reading your feed (your inventory) along with all the others:

Does your headline slow down your scroll (or "next" clicks)?
Is there content above the fold that grabs you — or is there only ads above the click?
Is your name listed as author – or does "admin" write your site?
That image that took you way too long to find, is it above the scroll bar – and does it add to the story?

If you don't subscribe to any feeds (and you should), we have a whole 'nuther problem. And another post.

But today, subscribe to your own blog and see what your readers see. It's Display Merchandising 101.

IDLFO Show: Repurposing, SCAMPERing, & Creative Commons

By Mike Sansone on July 30, 2010 in Blog Coach with 0 Comments

Last week, we kicked off the move of the I Dunno, Let's Find Out show to Friday nights (11pm CST). We had a great conversation with Jade Handy and videos by Gary Vaynerchuk and Adora Svitak.

This week, we're going to talk about repurposing your message – maybe even reinventing old content in a new way. We'll look at how Disney does it, Michael Jackson did it, and how you can do it too. We'll take a look at SCAMPERing as a tool to get your creative juices flowing. We'll also find out how Creative Commons licensing works to your benefit as both creator and re-creator

Just tune in on your browser to WorldwideAmplified.com tonight at 11pm CST.

Don’t Let Your Proficiency Become Your Deficiency

By Mike Sansone on July 29, 2010 in Blog Coach, Conversations, Education, Marketing with 0 Comments

When I played baseball as a kid, my coach used to tell me to hit the curveball the "other way." Great advice coach. I would ask how to do that, and he said "easy – just drive the ball to right field."

He had become so adept at doing it himself, he didn't explain the nuances of knob of bat-to-ball, positioning of hands, timing, etc to a 14-year-old who just started seeing curveballs for the first time (we didn't throw breaking stuff as youths back then).

In our own teaching (or selling, coaching, parenting, whatever), we sometimes fall short in transference due to our own expertise or experience in a subject. We forget what it was like to be in the beginner's mindset.

Simplify, dissect, and share what you know – not in a cocky expert voice to show your veteran status, but with the beginner in mind.

Don't let your proficiency become your deficiency in your conversations.

Since When Did Social Media Become a Pass/Fail Test?

By Mike Sansone on July 27, 2010 in Blog Coach, Conversations, Social Media with 0 Comments

The long, hot days of summer…and it's not yet August.

There's been lots of kerfuffle going about in some sections of the conversphere this season. I've witnessed some banter and gone swimming in some of it a bit myself.

If conversational relationships are an exchange of ideas, shouldn't we consider talking (writing?) like we may right and listening (reading?) like we might be wrong (say yes).

Recently, our friend Troy Rutter picked a fence with "social media gurus" in the Des Moines area, asking out loud some questions that surely:

Rankled some egos
Ignited a conversation offline and online
Brought awareness to limitations and boundaries (at least perceived)
Has Troy wondering if he made a mistake

Troy has followed up his initial volley with a few reasons he applauds Des Moines' social media play, nnot necessarily an apology – and I'm not so sure an apology is necessary.

Our friend Andrew B. Clark offered a rebuttal to Troy, and move the conversation ahead with some good points of his own — and encourages the conversation to continue.

This "Social Media 'guru' surplus" talk is much like the "brain drain" conversation that happens here in Iowa.

This type of conversation is happening everywhere else too!

I don't think there is a social media "guru" surplus — in Iowa or anywhere (same goes for "brain drain").

I think too much attention may be going to who's the big fish in the small pond. The reality may be there is only one (global) pond — or maybe there is no pond.

There are a lot of businesses not yet utilizing some of these tools, and most who are have no strategy. There are niches in tools and niches in industries. There are plenty of opportunities for collaboration and cooperation and even reconciliation.

While the conversation Troy ignited may have wrinkles and wrankles – let's all learn from it and exchange ideas.

Photo on Flickr by Kevin Steele

I don't think Social Media is a pass/fail test.

If I Were a Laundromat: A Social Media Perhapstory

By Mike Sansone on July 19, 2010 in Blog Coach, Marketing with 0 Comments

If I were a laundromat, here are some of the ways I'd consider using social media to enhance my business:

As always, I'd first consider what my purpose and success measurement is, so that I can practice accordingly.

Let's talk about that for just a second. I'm a laundromat. What the heck would laundry service do with social media? Well, I'd want two things:

To be more findable in local and hyperlocal searches.
To get more customers coming in for my "fluff n fold" drop-off services.

Blog: I would build the business website using a blogging platform for my content and membership management. Most of the social/emerging media play will be video and possibly location-based services such as Foursquare, but with blogging helping build page depth in a central location – the blog becomes an agent for success in goal #1 above.

YouTube: Here's where most of my energy would exist. I'd have lessons on folding clothes, ironing, packing for travel, how-to get stains out, and an occasional testimonial from customers.

Location Based Services (Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, etc.): I'd start out giving everyone a discount for check-ins & drop-offs, and occasionally give the "mayor" a free "load." I'd probably offer first-time check-ins something as well. Get them used to checking in.

Twitter/Facebook: Two different tools and I'd use them differently – but probably not too often. I'd use twitter to share resourceful (Clean, Green and LifeHack type of stuff) and Facebook as more a community chit-chat type of conversation.

Entertainment: I might try to create Pandora stations, and allow a rotation of check-ins (see the LBS above) to pick the music or maybe Hulu or Netflix running all day.

Also, comment on other laundry service or dry cleaning sites (talking about their content, not yours) and link out generously to content relevant pages elsewhere.

What else should we do? If you were a laundromat, that is…

Photo on Flickr by ricky.montalvo