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Thoughts and things I care to shareWelcome back, Joanna Young
A special note to a blogging friend in Scotland this morning. Joanna Young, the Confident Writing coach, has been offline for a bit during a move to a new place. Everyone on Twitter has missed Joanna’s wit and wisdom these last couple weeks and certainly welcome her back from her Twitter holiday.
For those bloggers getting started and looking for tips, ideas, inspiration and more related to writing, I really recommend checking out Joanna’s blog. Many great folks from Twitter also participate in the comments and the many writing projects that Joanna leads up. It makes for quite a bit of fun!
Welcome back Joanna, we’re glad to see you back on the Blog and on Twitter – hope the move went well!
Guest Post at Fresh Focus
Hi all! I just wanted to let you know that I got a chance to guest blog over at the Fresh Focus blog. Kris Rowlands let me talk about Weekend Web Work today, so head on over and check it out.
Thanks for the chance to guest post on your site.
The Authoritative Voice
Do you blog with an authoritative or a more passive voice? By “authoritativeâ€, I mean an expert, someone with experience. I don’t know about other bloggers, but I seem to get wrapped around the axle when it comes to authoritative voice in blogging. Maybe I’m not even on point in this post – you tell me. When a post starts drifting from my intent, it usually starts sounding “wishy-washy†and doesn’t draw conclusions as I’d like.
Depending on what you’re focus or intent is for your blog, it’s important to keep your tone consistent. If you are an authority on a topic, a knowledgeable or an experienced professional, it’s important to find the right voice to present your ideas to support your brand. Writing with too authoritative a tone without having the expertise to back it up won’t bring a positive vibe to your brand.
Because I want to share experiences, ideas, and such, I often stop writing a post when I feel like I’ve lost that authoritative voice. Usually, it’s also about the point where I’ve lost direction on what I’m trying to say. I know this happens to others as much as it happens to me, but I find it really disruptive and end up closing the work and walking away for a few hours.
Being authoritative is a double-edged sword though. As easily as you can communicate your expertise, you can also annoy or alienate some folks too. There’s a balancing act to it, one that nearly every blogger works to maintain. At least if their trying to be a contributing resource to the social web and not just blog about their family photos and latest vacation.
So how do you stack up? Are you able to present your ideas as an expert without being a know-it-all? How about me? Which way does my writing usually end up?
What’s in your social web?
With all the talk of “social†in the web today, I started getting really tired of the references to social networking or social media and so on. After all, isn’t networking social by its very nature? What I eventually came to recognize though is that all these tools online are just another means to extend and empower us in life. Whether for our personal or professional lives, the way we’ve adapted these tools and technologies is the important part. I’ve come to call these tools and the use of them the “social web†as it’s a culmination of the technologies and how we use them.
So past all the great site and service ideas, there is actual real-life functionality. That’s what we’re looking for in most of this, simply some way to connect easier, or communicate faster, or share ideas with more information and context. Through our use of these web 2.0 technologies we like to lump together and call “social media†or “social networks†there is something more important to each of us: how we use it.
My question, then, is how do you use the social web? Is it for work? Is it for play? Is it to connect with friends & relatives? Is it to build your brand? Do you use it to speak for yourself or your company? What’s in your social web?
Photo credit: ecstaticist
Do You Fear The Spotlight?
What’s keeping you from taking the next step? Something more than simply being noticed I hope! If you’ve got ideas, or something to say or to share, you need to do something about it. Do you blog? Do you podcast or video blog? Are you on a social network? How are you making yourself heard on in this brave new world online?
The biggest thing for those sitting on the fence is simply to make the decision that they want more opportunity than they may have now in their lives. One way to do that is to start participating online. That can take many forms, from simply joining a social network, or building your own personally branded blog and going to town on creating content.
Whatever you choose, you can’t go wrong if you’re interested in building your brand. Don’t wait, don’t second guess yourself. You are too valuable to the world not to share your knowledge and play your part. Now is the time.
Photo credit: JeremyHall
Your Personal Network
We talk a lot about social networks and social networking these days, but it’s really nothing new. Only the tools are. People have been networking with peers for decades, much longer actually, but we’ve only really called it networking for a generation or so.
While tools like social networks, micro-blogging, or podcasting utilities, and the Internet itself bring powerful new (and fun) ways to network, it still relies on people. Without people, these tools are simply high-tech toys with little purpose.
Anyway, what I’m talking about here is your personal network of peers and associates in your industry or genre. The people that you interact with, compete with, and explore opportunities with. Your personal network is an important part of your career. I didn’t fully realize this until I left a cozy but uninspiring position a couple years ago. It wasn’t until spending a bit of time out participating, networking, and interacting with folks in and out of my field that I discovered how important a personal network is.
Interestingly, my personal network is grown from my mix of social media exploration and personal branding work. Through both interests, I’ve grown a network of friends and associates that I can share ideas with, send questions to, be a support network for peers, recommend people, help solve problems, and much more.
So, I strongly recommend paying attention to your network. The people you associate with professionally and socially have a lot to offer to you in both your personal and professional life. Not only does a person need to grow that network, but to maintain it as well. After all, as in most things, it’s the quality of the network, not the ultimate size that yields the greatest results and rewards.
Also, being a helpful resource to your network, not just a consumer of it, will bring more value to you than you can imagine. As you participate in your network – your friends and associates – make sure to help them find what they’re looking for. Help them with jobs, choosing the right iPod, finding the right hotel for vacation, answering those social network questions, or whatever else comes along. Be the resource that your network needs and your network will be there for you.
Photo credit: luc legay
Social Media Happy Hour – Northfield, MN
Yep, we’re starting to see more and more variations on social media meetups. This is a great thing for SMBers that can’t make it to a regular SMB because of work, distance, or other commitments.
Ruth Sylte has put together what looks to be a great meetup in Northfield, MN at The Contented Cow on August 24th. You can find more info here.
If you’re looking for another way to network with your fellow SMBers, this is a good one. So check it out and share the info with your social media friends.
Thanks for organizing this Ruth!
Social Media Breakfast – Twin Cities 6
Social Media in real life
SMB-TC6 is coming together quickly and seems to have a theme: social media in real life! We’ve got many great things happening that really show how social media is changing everything we do. From writing books, to our political process, social media is transforming social interaction, bringing more interactivity and a voice to more people.
I didn’t plan on this, but as the event materialized, we ended up with a theme of sorts: social media in real life. The agenda is full of it – we’re writing a chapter of a book, we’re learning of new tools by their creators, we’re talking with citizen journalists at the kickoff of a major political conference… all these things are part of the lives of our community. We get to share these things, and make them even better. At least, that’s my thoughts as we finish pulling this together.
We have a very special event at this SMB: live-writing a chapter of Pioneer Press Journalist Julio Ojeda-Zapata’s new book Twitter Means Business – How microblogging can help or hurt your company. How will this work? We’ll be using Twitter of course! The project kicks off on Monday August 18th, 2008 and runs through Friday, August 22nd at SMB-TC6! More details on this from Julio (@jojeda) shortly!
Also, we have a new sponsor this month: MarketWire (thank them for the bacon ;).
Ok, on to the details:
Location: Best Buy HQ in Richfield, MN (map link)
Date: August 22nd, 2008
RSVP on Upcoming*: SMB-TwinCities 6
- Julio Ojeda-Zapata (@jojeda on Twitter) will talk about his upcoming book Twitter Means Business – How microblogging can help or hurt your company
- Participate in live-writing a chapter to Julio’s new book on Twitter, we’ll wrap that up live at SMB-TC6! Read more here!
- Live remote update from Noah Kunin (@noahkunin on Twitter) of TheUptake.org from the first day of the DNC in Denver, CO. Noah will be demonstrating how social media, specifically mobile video, is being used for citizen journalism.
- Phil Wilson (@Philson on Twitter) talks about ComicTwit
- Bring your conversation topics and share your knowledge of Social Media
- Complimentary continental breakfast (I’m working on the bacon!)
- Celebrate a half a year of SMBs in Minneapolis/St. Paul
- Watch remotely via our new video channel on Mogulus: www.mogulus.com/smbmsp. Have a webcam – let us know and we will try some remote Q&A too!
- As always, additional agenda item suggestions are welcomed!
New video feed on Mogulus:
* Due to requirements at Best Buy, we do require an RSVP prior to the event. Remember, the event is no cost!
Sponsored by:
So, what do I do when I don’t blog?
Glad you asked! I don’t know, guess it’s a lot of things. Work is one of them, and my current contract certainly eats up the business hours. Sure, the real job takes up the majority of the time in my day and week, but I’ve found more. I’m spending more time doing the things I forgot I liked to do.
And that is a key component to recharging and taking next steps I suppose. There’s lots of opportunities for people that they never seem to recognize for what they are. Until a couple years ago, I spent most of my career doing just that – not recognizing opportunity after opportunity waltzing past without my realizing it.
So far, this year has been amazing on so many fronts, that I’ve found more opportunities offline because of online efforts. These chances to do new things, combined with more time spent with my family have meant that I spend less time writing and posting on my blog here. That doesn’t mean that I’ve abandoned it by any stretch, but it does mean that I’ve not spent much time developing content and sharing ideas or new things.
I just wanted to take a minute when I seem to have a few extra and simply say “Hi!” to all the folks I don’t get a chance to chat with very often of late. I’ll be around the ‘net working on a number of different things, but hope to get a chance to sit over virtual coffee and catch up with many of you soon.
Giving It Away
Part of what made the early and current social media crowd important to me, has been the willingness for folks to “give it awayâ€. By that I mean all the ideas, tools, and techniques that are used and talked about on the social web. This post itself is inspired by the very concept of sharing and giving ideas away as the title comes from Chris Brogan’s 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write. During one trip nearly a year ago, he gave away 100 topic ideas, offering them up for folks to expand on.
That is an example of what I mean. One guy has time on his hands and wants to share his ideas, knowing that he may not have time to write about some of the posts he’s thought of. There’s more though. The bulk of social media to date is based on giving away something. Whether it’s ideas, or stories, or comedy, or podcasts, or how-to’s, or videos, the interest in sharing in this new media venue is what makes it all so exciting. Sure, it’s going to change – you can already see that happening – but it’s the folks who’ve started it, and those that follow the same ethos that make it exciting.
As this medium evolves as a method to connect and interact with clients and customers, it will become more commercialized and controlled. At least, there will always be attempts to control it. We believe at this point that most attempts to control the social web will fail – we’ll have to wait and see if that turns out to be true.
Mostly, I enjoy the idea that through all the years, through all the social and political change, through the technological changes, that we still value social interaction as much as our grandparents. It’s the satisfaction that through the years, the desire to share tips and things we’ve learned with folks doesn’t change. That people are quite happy to share and “give it awayâ€.
Photo credit: mdezemery
Thank you to Chris Brogan for giving away some good blog topics. Occasionally dip into those 100 ideas to see what I can come up with.
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
I think it’s safe to say that @GovEvers should stop blocking audits in Wisconsin and open the books…
“Only AMERICAN citizens should vote.”
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
Wrong. Democrats are solely responsible for hours-long airport lines.
They voted to defund TSA three times and won’t even entertain a conversation about reopening it. Why?
They’re using it as leverage to stop enforcing immigration laws.