EvoBloggito

If My Reader Could Contain Only 10 Feeds

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 25, 2009; Category: Blogging, Business, Communication, Design/Development, Marketing, Search/SEO; Tags: Blogging, Communication, Education, RSS Feeds; No Comments

I have a lot of blogs and news sources in my reader. So many I can’t possibly read them all every day and stil get any work done. But there are relatively few I consider indispensable, and on the face of it, they don’t seem to have a lot in common. Subject-matter-wise, they’re all over the board. There is a common thread, however; or maybe a couple of threads. Each of the following does at least one of two things on a consistent basis:

1. challenges me to think about something in a new way
2. offers usable information that I can incorporate into what I’m doing

Now that I think of it, those [apparently] rare ingredients comprise a recipe for blogging success. I know my own posts can’t boast of either more than occasionally, and perhaps it’s the consistency that’s the real trick with the recipe. Each of these are very successful blogs with lots of readers, so they’re obviously doing something right.

My most valued feeds, in alphabetical order:

Chris Brogan – The guy is practically synonymous with social media in general, and blogging in particular. He preaches the word on social media as a marketing strategy to the faithful, the backsliders, and the non-believers. And he knows what he’s talking about. A must-read for people involved even peripherally with online or social media marketing.

CSS-Tricks – One of the few web dev blogs that consistently presents useful and interesting information. Chris Coyier puts out nuts-and-bolts stuff, like explanations of absolute and relative positioning, centering a navigation bar, etc. But he also offers code snippets, downloads, and a forum. Worth a daily visit.

Duct Tape Marketing – John Jantsch offers practical and pragmatic advice for small businesses. He’s packaged his approach in a book, webinars, and a 14-lesson training program. I have bought and read the book, and recommend it highly for small business owners. His blog posts prod and educate. His website is full of links and resources. If you own a small business, you should be reading this blog.

Fuel Your Creativity – For me, FYC is more about inspiration than anything else—a site that feeds the designer part of my soul.

Hubspot – Hubspot is working to bring measurability to social media marketing. Their blog is a major training resource for business people trying to figure out how to benefit from "attraction" marketing, as opposed to "interruption" marketing. They sell a service that helps measure the effectiveness of online marketing efforts, but they’re not pushy about it. And they offer free webinars and a lot of great how-to-market-online information.

Seth’s Blog – Seth Godin does blogging all wrong. He doesn’t allow comments on his posts, his blog is hosted on Typepad rather than on a webhosting platform he controls, and he apparently spent no more than a couple of minutes customizing his blog’s appearance. But Seth is a marketing guru’s guru and an iconoclast’s iconoclast. He can succeed by doing things differently because he’s Seth Godin. He delights in flipping concepts on their heads. He turns kvetching into a useful exercise in logic. And often, he asks some interesting questions. His posts and observations are usually short, often simple, and almost always thought-provoking (consider that a warning).

ThemeGrade – ThemeGrade fills an important need in the world of WordPress blogs: it reviews and rates WordPress themes on code and SEO compliance based on standardized testing. Before ThemeGrade, it was up to you to figure out if it was a good idea to install and spend time modifying that cool theme you loved the look of. TG ranks themes with gold (currently about 3% of submitted themes), silver (13%), bronze (31%), or no rating (currently 53% of submitted themes). We’re proud to say our Evo4 CMS WordPress theme was rated silver.

WNYC’s Radio Lab – Maybe the most interesting audio on the Internet. Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich have fun exploring interesting ideas and we get to go along for the ride. The audio programs get posted about every other week, so this isn’t a daily listen. The podcasts are 15-60 minutes each, and every one is more than worth the time.

WP Beginner – There are several "How-to" WordPress sites, and a lot of them are good, but WP Beginner is my favorite, because it usually serves up something I need or have wondered about. And though it’s suitable for beginners as its name suggests, there is plenty of advanced information there also, simply and straightforwardly presented.

Zen Habits – I’m a regular reader of Buddhist and zen materials. Being mindful and present, appreciating simplicity: these are things that are difficult to bring into our working lives. But that’s what Leo Babauta’s blog is about, and I appreciate its quiet, gentle, and practical advice about working, living, and balance.

So that’s my list of indispensable feeds. I hope there’s something on it that helps you. If not, well, we don’t have a complaint department, but feel free to tell me what should have been included on the list. And Merry Christmas.

The Surest (and most common) Way for Companies to Shackle Their Social Media Efforts

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 18, 2009; Category: Blogging, Business, Communication, Marketing; Tags: Business, Communication, social media; No Comments

More and more companies seem to be getting the message: social media (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) presents great opportunities for making connections with their customers and would-be customers. And yet, many of them get it wrong, mostly because they fail to grasp that social media is not just another variation on broadcast media.

There is a scene in Cool Hand Luke, in which the warden (Strother Martin) says to Paul Newman’s character, Luke: "You ain’t gonna need no third set [of shackles], ’cause you’re gonna get your mind right. And I mean RIGHT." That’s what needs to happen with corporate marketing managers and small business owners before they venture into social media: they need to get their minds right.

Here’s an all-too-common scenario:

1. Marketing executive, experienced in managing marketing campaigns, ad campaigns, and PR campaigns, decides to "get into social media."
2. She has her ad agency create a blog and set up a Facebook fanpage. She gets her PR group to develop some social media-flavored promotional and marketing messages.
3. She assigns some junior staffers to create social media content using the messages: blog posts, Facebook updates, tweets, etc. All of this content has the hollow, promotional, not-fully-human, fingernails-on-chalkboard sound of corporate messages delivered out of context.
4. After several unfruitful months trying to make her messages "go viral," the marketing executive believes there is no ROI for social media. She tried it, and it doesn’t work. And she’s right. Her old-school, promotional, broadcast media approach to social media is guaranteed to fail. Every. Single. Time.

What marketing people and business owners need to understand is that creating an effective social media presence is like joining a conversation. Conversations happen between people who listen and respond to one another; they are not a series of carefully polished and self-interested messages. These kinds of conversations, based on listening and responding, generally lead to relationships, because we all value someone who listens to us.

Think of it this way:

How would you react if you were in a conversation with another person about how to barbecue spare ribs, and someone walked up to butt into the conversation with "I know you’re interested in spare ribs! This week only, I’m offering customers 20% off on all spare ribs, limit 5 lbs. per customer, offer void in combination with all other promotions." If you’re like most of us, you’d ignore that person in the hope that he would go away. If he persisted in pressing his own interests without making an honest attempt to form a relationship with you, eventually you’d probably excuse yourself. If you’re more direct, you might let him know that he’s interrupting a private conversation in which he is not welcome.

On the other hand, what if he walked up and hovered near you and the person you were talking with, listening intently for a few minutes before asking, "Excuse me, but how do you make sure your ribs stay juicy? Mine are often dry."? Most people would welcome him into the conversation, and within a relatively short period of time, would welcome any information of value that he brought to it (assuming he continued to listen and respond appropriately in your conversation).

You gotta get your mind right. And I mean RIGHT. Then start blogging and setting up Facebook fanpages.

An Invitation to All New Mexico Business and Professional Bloggers

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 16, 2009; Category: Blogging, Business; Tags: Blogging for Business, LinkedIn, Networking; 2 Comments

I did something out of character a couple of days ago. I started a LinkedIn group: New Mexico Bloggers. For the most part, I’m not a group kind of guy (at least not in an active sort of way), but I want to encourage business and professional blogging in New Mexico, and this is one way of doing it. Ideally, such a group could provide both support and connections for New Mexico bloggers.

A lot of what happens with the group depends on me getting the ball rolling. So I have some work to do. LinkedIn is not quite the platform I had hoped it would be (a lot of spammers and blatant self-promoters), but it’s possible to have meaningful group interaction in a self-policing group.

The group will be platform-agnostic. We really don’t care whether your blog is on WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Drupal, or any other platform. All bloggers have certain things in common, from the "blank screen" to strategic issues about how to grow your audience and how to utilize your blog to reach business and professional goals.

And then of course, there is the issue of blogging in New Mexico, a state that’s often behind the curve in technology and related trends. While I don’t see blogging as primarily a technological activity (the technology aspect is relatively trivial), most of the people I’ve talked to who don’t blog cite technology as one of the barriers for them ("I’m just not a computer person!"). To me that’s like refusing to drive to a restaurant because you’re "not a car person," but that’s another blog post.

So this is an invitation to all business and professional bloggers: meet me (and hopefully a lot of other New Mexico bloggers) on LinkedIn for discussions and other forms of group therapy. I’d like to create some in-person meetups as well, if the interest level supports them.

Blogging for Non-profit and Educational Organizations

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 6, 2009; Category: Blogging, Business, Communication, Marketing; Tags: Blogging, CMS, Education, Non-profit; 2 Comments

The other day I was aked, “Is blogging useful for non-profit or educational organizations?” My mom would be pleased to know I stifled my first thought about bears and what they do in the woods, and instead responded with something a bit more professional. Something along the lines of, “Uh, yeah, sure.” Brilliant. Thankfully, I have a blog and I’m not afraid to use it to say what I should have said:

Blogging for business is about reaching and connecting with prospective customers or clients. For non-profits, it’s about reaching and connecting with prospective donors or supporters. For educational organizations, it’s a bit of both. Bottom line, it’s about connecting with people who care about what you do and bringing them into your community, where they can participate and become part of “the solution.”

Non-profit organizations must assemble their communities

But more specifically, how does a blog help a non-profit organization? A blog can help raise the profile of a giving campaign, by posting about the beneficiaries of the organization. Also, if the organization has a blog-based website (e.g., WordPress as a CMS), it’s a fairly simple matter to create a landing page for a particular campaign—to which people come from an email or direct mail solicitation—that’s focused on moving people through the giving process.

Apart from a giving campaign, however, most non-profit organizations are issues based. They came into existence in response to a need their founders saw as going unfilled or inadequately addressed: homelessness, mental health issues, poverty, domestic violence, environmental issues, etc. People (at least some people) care about these issues, and some of them care enough to become part of a community they see as offering at least partial solutions, and in making donations to support the organization offering and implementing those solutions.

Because the motive is not “profit”, which has negative connotations for some folks, blogging has the potential to be far more effective in helping to build communities surrounding non-profits involved with compelling issues than for most businesses.

Communities are the key to solving educational issues

Educational organizations are generally non-profit as well (but not always). If we’re talking about public schools, they face many challenges which directly impact the quality of life in the communities they serve. Most of these challenges, such as high dropout rates, teen pregnancies, violence, etc., are really community issues that are acutely manifested in the schools and require community and parental involvement to address effectively.

It baffles me, frankly, why public school administrators and teachers have not jumped into blogging and other forms of social media in a big way as a means of creating the kinds of connections and community that could help resolve some of the issues. I believe it mostly has to do with inertia and not looking hard enough for solutions to problems with which we have attained a certain comfort level, but that’s another post.

I believe blogging and other community-building opportunities have great potential to start moving public education back on a more productive and effective path.

Do you know of any non-profit/educational blogs?

If you have any examples of educational organizations or non-profits that are using blogs and social media effectively, please share them here.

Fear of Blogging, and the Opportunity it Creates for People Who Aren’t Like Most People

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Oct 20, 2009; Category: Blogging, Business, Search/SEO, Zeitgeist; Tags: Blogging for Business, Change, Zeitgeist; One Comment

According to Seth Godin, there are two reasons people don’t buy (or do) things:

1. They don’t know about it.

2. They’re afraid of it.

If you don’t know about blogging and the substantial benefits it can bring to your business, that’s at least partly my fault. My business, and my mission, is to help businesses understand how and why to use blogging and blog platforms to grow their business. I’ll work harder at that: I promise.

The Psychology of Fear

I can detail all the advantages, show you examples of other businesses that have made blogging pay off, explain how much less money you will spend for the same or better results than you’re getting with your newspaper and radio ads, even plead with you (if I suddenly misplace my dignity); everything short of promising success. But at some point, you have to find the courage to do something different from what you’ve been doing, and different from what most people have been doing.

As the economy changed from orange alert (mild fear and wariness) to red alert (duck-and-cover NOW!), I had imagined that small and medium-sized business owners would be actively looking for something that would give them an edge. But I read an article (now long-misplaced) that suggested that the psychology of an economic downturn for most people is to hunker down and either do whatever they were already doing (but harder, with desperation), or to stop doing even what they were doing, while waiting for economic winds to blow more favorably. I can testify from the difficulty I’ve had convincing some businesses that blogging is at least part of the answer to their marketing dilemma in a down economy that this is the case.

Fear, apparently, is exaggerated in economic difficulties, and most people are even less likely to try something new, even if it holds the potential to overcome or mitigate the problem that’s the cause of their fear.

Now for the Opportunity

Here’s the good news for you if you’re even a little bit courageous: while your competitors are hunkered down waiting for the sun to warm their backsides again, you can get a jump on them. I’ve never talked to a business blogger who didn’t tell me they wished they’d started sooner. While you can’t start sooner than you start, you can start sooner than your competitors. Like most people, your competitors will wait until almost everyone is already on the bandwagon. By the time they’re figuring out "Step 1," you can be doing business with their ex-customers. Yup, it’s the law of the jungle. Survival of the fittest.

If I can help you with the issues you will face as you boldly go where few have gone before, please let me know. I can almost guarantee, those issues all have reasonably simple, easy-to-implement solutions.