I had a different post all written and scheduled for today. But then my girl Virginia Nussey had to go getting all “controversial” over at the Bruce Clay blog. So plans changed. Blame her. Also blame the brownies I had for breakfast. And the ones I had for dinner.
I’m so ashamed.
Over at Bruce Clay, Inc, Virginia talks about a blogging tenet that she’s never particularly agreed with. One that says that bloggers are to Be Controversial in order to get links, garner attention and attract the almighty blog comment. Virginia calmly states that she’s not so comfortable with that. She thinks bloggers should consider opposing viewpoints but be cautious of taking extremes and should be responsible with their words. She makes a lot of great points.
Personally, I think “controversial” is just the wrong word and end goal. The right one is “polarizing”.
David Spinks caught me on Twitter Friday morning and asked a question that was hard to answer on less than four hours of sleep and within the confines of 140 characters. Thanks to Twitter Search, you can watch me awkwardly try. However, the question he asked was an important one. And my inability to appropriately answer it haunted me all weekend (GET IT?).
David asked for my thoughts on treating all customers equally – basically ARE all customers equal or are some customers “more important” or “more vital” than others? He was piggybacking off a conversation he started earlier.. I thought maybe we could continue it.
What I told him is this: Your customers AREN’T equal and believing they are takes money out of your pocket. More attention should be focused on those that “matter” and less should be focused on those people who simply matter “less”.
It’s time for one of the biggest and baddest search events of the year – PubCon Las Vegas! Oh yes, baby. I suggest you start hydrating and stocking up on sleep now, because there won’t be any once you arrive.
PubCon Las Vegas is a favorite among a lot of folks in the industry. Yes, everyone loves a reason to hit Vegas, but PubCon is known for pulling all the elusive industry veterans out of their caves and throwing them up on stage for public consumption. That means not only are the panels chock filled with information, but the knowledge transfer you get at night while everyone is enjoying their adult beverages, well…it’s priceless.
Today, we are very proud (and excited!) to let you in on a little secret. To be honest, it’s one that our clients have been privy to for a while. Her name is Dawn Wentzell (@saffyre9) and she’s the new new Senior Account Manager for Outspoken Media.
Everyone please welcome Dawn. Dawn kicks ass.
Though her title says Senior Account Manager, we’re a shop of four. That means titles don’t get you out of what needs to be done. So, just like the rest of us, Dawn will be doing a little bit of everything as we continue to grow and take over the world. Dawn’s our first official hire, so we wanted someone who could quickly help us out with client work and assist with a wide variety of SEO and project management duties. Lucky for us, Dawn was both qualified and crazy enough to accept a position working with Outspoken (yey!). Unlucky for me, Dawn resides in Canada so I still don’t have someone to bring me coffee (drat!). We’re working on that for the next employee.
Abby Johnson from WebProNews scored a great video interview with Bloggess Jenny Lawson during BlogWorldExpo a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t watched it, you should. Not because Jenny is adorable and hilarious (though she is), but because she shares her secret for dealing with haters, trolls, and those absolutely set on trying to ruin her day. And it’s Friday. You could probably use a double dose of awesome.
Here’s the video:
Jenny’s secret is to choose to find the humor and to laugh. Because, as she so eloquently puts it, if you can’t find a way to appreciate the people who love you AND those who love to hate you, you’re missing out. It’s a lesson I’ve continually learned, accepted, and epitomized over the past year. I now find people who hate me HILARIOUS and I’ve come to find that the critics are often wrong. You’d be surprised what that does.
The Internet gives you license to be and do whatever the hell you want. You’re given that free of charge at sign up. What you have to bring, however, is the strength to be it.
Jenny could probably waste a lot of time apologizing for offending those who prefer stereotypes. She could probably bite her tongue and be less clever and less who she is. She could probably be softer and not quite as ‘outspoken’. But then she’d probably suck. She wouldn’t be delivering keynotes that induce giggle tears or working on a new book. Instead, she’s chosen to say, “screw the haters” and to find the humor when people take time out of their obviously not-so-busy schedules to fling misspelled insults at her. You always have a choice – to take it in and let it affect your business or to laugh it out.
Laugh.
Sure, it’s not always easy, but the haters were never your audience. They’re not who you’re after. Do not let them affect or alter how you’re talking to that audience. That’s who you focus on, no matter what. Success happens when you stop caring about the peanut gallery and bleed every ounce of what you have on making things better for your audience. Everything else is your comic relief. It’s not your fault they’re too sensitive for the Internet. The best way to deal with unprovoked criticism and haters is to say, “thanks”, giggle, and to realize they don’t matter. They never did. Opt out.
I used to subscribe to a lot of email newsletters. I’m forever curious and I like being informed. Problem is I never actually read most of them. They didn’t do anything for me. They’re weren’t useful, they didn’t engage me, they didn’t offer any great value, and, frankly, the content wasn’t that impressive. Don’t send me a giant image about your 20 percent off sale or lump 50 movie times together. THAT’S NOT SEXY!
Of course, I never unsubscribed from any of these newsletters. That takes effort and would be rude. Instead, I’d just delete them as they rolled into my inbox and silently take note of how annoying the company was. Yes, Big Brand, I kept seeing your name appear in my email and I ignored you. And sometimes, I even resented you. Just a bit, though. Then I changed jobs and work emails. Muahaha! [read the full post…]
Listen, it doesn’t matter if your company plans on getting actively involved in social media or if you’re just gonna sit on the sidelines. It doesn’t matter whether you have employees specifically tasked with engaging and listening or if you prefer to stick your head in the sand. It doesn’t matter if you love social media or whether you choose to ban it from the office entirely. You still need to train your employees and staff on how to use it responsibly.
Because if you don’t teach them, someone else will. And you may not like what they’re instilling in your offspring. It’s time for you to sit down with employees and have “the talk”, social media style. It’s natural. There’s no need to be embarrassed.
The holidays are coming! And do you know what that means?
It means you’re about to spend the next two months stressing over what to get your little one. You’re going to take that trip down memory lane to recall what you wanted at that special age. You’re going to get up early in the morning and get elbow-happy knocking down other parents in the toy aisle of Kmart. And then, when you’ve finally secured the perfect gift, exactly what you wanted at age three/five/ten, you will watch in horror as your child tosses it aside and spends the rest of the day playing inside the cardboard box it came in. It happens every year.
And worse, it happens every day in business when business owners convince themselves that they know best. When they’re so sure that they’re the ones best to solve customers’ problems, that they know better what people want, and when they dumbly think that their customers will use their products how they were designed instead of how they want.
Blog comments are one of life’s greatest simple pleasures. Nothing beats the rush I get watching my inbox fill up after I published a new post. I’m sure nonbloggers find satisfaction from other things like “human contact” and “socializing” and “beer”, but we don’t need any of that! Just engaged readers. Blog comments aren’t all about ego, though (I swear). They’re an important health indicator for your blog. It shows that you’ve found an audience, that you’re connecting with people, and that your readers like what you’re putting out.
But what happens if you’re not seeing that health indicator? And instead, your blog is mute? Here are seven reasons your blog isn’t receiving comments and how you can fix it.
I giggled when I read TechCrunch this morning. I just couldn’t help it. Here’s why.
There are A LOT of businesses trying to elbow their way into social media right now. We get people contacting us every day asking for social media and ORM strategies to help put out the fires that ignite around them. They think that creating a Twitter account or being active on Facebook will help them “listen” and “engage”. And it will. But listening alone won’t do anything to fix the core issue. And the issue is often that their product simply sucks. That’s what they need to fix.
I had a different post all written and scheduled for today. But then my girl Virginia Nussey had to go getting all “controversial” over at the Bruce Clay blog. So plans changed. Blame her. Also blame the brownies I had for breakfast. And the ones I had for dinner.
It’s time for one of the biggest and baddest search events of the year – 
I used to subscribe to a lot of email newsletters. I’m forever curious and I like being informed. Problem is I never actually read most of them. They didn’t do anything for me. They’re weren’t useful, they didn’t engage me, they didn’t offer any great value, and, frankly, the content wasn’t that impressive. Don’t send me a giant image about your 20 percent off sale or lump 50 movie times together. THAT’S NOT SEXY!
Listen, it doesn’t matter if your company plans on getting actively involved in social media or if you’re just gonna sit on the sidelines. It doesn’t matter whether you have employees specifically tasked with engaging and listening or if you prefer to stick your head in the sand. It doesn’t matter if you love social media or whether you choose to ban it from the office entirely. You still need to train your employees and staff on how to use it responsibly.
The holidays are coming! And do you know what that means?
I giggled when I read TechCrunch this morning. I just couldn’t help it. Here’s why.
You Haz No Blog Comments? Here’s the Fix!
by Lisa Barone on 10/23/2009 · 31 comments | Blogging
But what happens if you’re not seeing that health indicator? And instead, your blog is mute? Here are seven reasons your blog isn’t receiving comments and how you can fix it.
[read the full post…]
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